VRidge Lets You Play Oculus, Vive Games On Cardboard

Virtual reality might be great and all, but the current generation practically sets up their own walled gardens. You have, for example, somewhat incompatible platforms from Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. That's not to mention the rift (no pun intended) that exists between PC-based VR and mobile. The gap is harder to bridge considering the drastically different requirements for PC and mobile games. Things, however, don't have to be so bleak. Thanks to VRidge from developer Riftcat, you now at least have the chance to get a taste of an Oculus Rift or even an HTC Vive, even if all that you have is a Google Cardboard.

It's not exactly magic. VRidge is actually made of two parts, a server software that runs on a PC and a client app that runs on your smartphone. The server half takes the output of Oculus Rift or HTC Vive games and software to adjust them for smartphone displays, which usually have enough pixels to make the illusion stereoscopic video work. The client on the smartphone connects to a local Wi-Fi connection in order to receive the stream coming from the PC. So yes, VRidge basically streams Rift/Vive video to your smartphone.

By that description alone, it should be evident that it's not exactly a perfect solution. For one, there is no mention of input, and Rift/Vive inputs are wildly different from Cardboard. Quality is also problem, and there have been reports of very low quality graphics, which is most likely dependent on available bandwidth on the local Wi-Fi network. Originally created for the Oculus Rift, VRidge has also gained features to support HTC Vive as well. That said, actual performance for games and apps is a hit or miss thing, so it might not be a wise idea to heavily invest in buying games just yet.

VRidge is still in beta and can definitely be improved, but it will always hit performance issues, and maybe even a few legal ones. Tools like VRidge, and the earlier Revive software for playing Rift games on the HTC Vive, do highlight one of the biggest problems in the budding VR market, next to sky high price tags, of course. Hopefully as VR becomes more common, the disparate worlds also begin to converge into one whole reality.

SOURCE: Riftcat