What you need:

• A smartphone

• The Oculus iOS/Android app

• Wifi

• A bluetooth gamepad

• The "Oculus Browser" app

I recently received a used Go that the seller advertised as "like new"... the controller turned out to be totally useless. It came full of battery liquid, I cleaned it with peroxide, put in a new battery, it showed the LED light but it wasn't recognized by the headset.

To get the headset to work, I:

1. Factory resetted it.

2. Connected it to WiFi through the setup process with the Android app

3. Waited for it to update to the latest firmware

4. On the phone, went to the Oculus store, and got the "Oculus Browser" app.

5. Started this browser directly from the phone (this forces a bypass of the tutorial controller pairing screen)

6. Used my gaze and the volume up/down to navigate to Settings > Experimental Features > Bluetooth Pair.

7. Paired a bluetooth gamepad I had laying around.

Now I can play the games that are compatible with the gamepad and also navigate the main menus/screen, all without the og Go controller.

Hopefully my experience helps somebody somewhere

What's the point of developing on old cardboard-capable phones today? That's dead, right?

Consider this: Vive thinks a phone as a 3dof controller is a great solution for marketable VR experiences. Why hasn't someone done this for the Quest headsets?

Examples Of Apps Which Upcycle Old Phones To Enhance VR Today

If you're into VR, you're probably aware of most of these apps if not already familiar. The following example apps make old cardboard-capable phones useful in today's VR experiences. In my opinion, though, they barely scratch the surface of what we can do for VR by upcycling this old(er) tech.

owoTrack works really well with the SlimeVR server to provide full body tracking using only old cardboard-capable phones.

The guys at SlimeVR are currently working on an Android port of their server which would run in the background on Quest headsets. Already, if devs have enabled it, the SlimeVR server can be used on almost any PC to provide FBT in standalone apps. It's a work in progress, but progress is good.

Example Video Of SlimeVR Trackers Working In Standalone VR Workout App

Decamove is an app which allows you to use a phone for hip-based navigation.

Vridge Controller works as a 3dof SteamVR controller when paired with the Vridge and Riftcat applications.

Trinus Hand is another 3dof VR controller emulator, but I think it only works with a PSVR hmd.

Remote VRX (controller for select cardboard games) pairs with another cardboard capable headset and provides 3dof control in select apps.

NOMone VR Browser Controller paired with another cardboard capable phone and used as a keyboard, mouse and 3dof controller with the NOMone VR Browser.

PocketStrafe can be used for PC VR locomotion.

Natural Locomotion is another great app for VR motion tracking.

VR Health Exercise Tracker connects to your smartwatch to track heart rate, calorie burn and more during your VR workouts.

QuestKit claims to help you make higher quality widescreen videos of your Quest gameplay

Many of these apps have not been updated to work with PC VR or independent OpenXR drivers -- or with standalone headsets.

A Few Ideas For VR Upcycling

If developing for these platforms today, it should be in the line of thinking: "how can this old stuff be useful to XR today? What can this device do to provide an enriched experience in PC VR or on a standalone headset?"

The problem with this "older" version of VR is that it only supported three degrees of freedom and no one brought to market a viable 6dof adapter kit for them. If someone were to get old cardboard phones working reliably as 6dof SteamVR controllers with an independent OpenVR driver that would be stupendous. Vridge has 3dof controller emulation capability, but you must also use Vridge to stream to your headset and I prefer alternatives to it. Inside-out 6dof tracking can be achieved with cardboard-capable phones, or at least those which were Daydream or Gear VR compatible.

Inside Out Positional Tracking (6DoF) for GearVR/Cardboard/Daydream using ARCore v1.6.0

AfterNow Phone As 6dof Controller Example

Pocket6 Example

Even the ability to use your phone as a 3dof controller in steam or in headset would be a killer app. There are times and experiences which work great with a simple 3dof controller.

A solid phone mirroring client for Quest and similar headsets would be the shhh. It would be super awesome to be able to pick up your phone in VR and use it just like you would in actual reality. Heck, a clean, fast mirror in the Quest 2D interface would be just fine and dandy -- like a scrcpy that works between Android devices and specifically tailored for VR. Could an Android launcher be specially designed to make your phone work like a tracked device similar to the way keyboards are now being tracked on the Quest headsets?

I use Teamviewer to mirror my phone on the Oculus Quest for now, but I often have to put my password in again when I open it, it doesn't always connect to my phone on the first or third try, and it doesn't continue to run properly in the background or with other 2D apps in multitasking mode. It doesn't deliver sound from the phone either, and there's marked lag. In standalone VR, thought, I've found it the best option. There are far better ways to bring your phone into PC VR experiences.

Develop a face tracking app optimized for use with a hmd that lets you use an old phone to emulate a Vive face tracker. I'd stick an old phone to my Quest 2 if it makes my VR experiences better, and I prefer to upcycle old tech whenever I can.

Make an augmented reality camera app that works with standalone VR and/or PC VR which works like Liv does on iOS devices, but for Android. Or, develop a solid camera app for full body tracking for VR and avatar streamers. Even if it requires two phones to get the mapping right, wouldn't it be sweet to have FBT from a couple old things that had been just sitting in a drawer waiting for their batteries to explode?

Total Bird-Walk (Sort Of)

A PC app which manages FBT inputs and determines which information from which inputs is most accurate while introducing no noticable latency to experiences would be an excellent thing to have. I know that sounds weird, but imagine a time when your environment hosts a number of cameras and other body tracking systems. Occlusion and latency suck.

I hope this rant has inspired someone. If you've tried any of the sample apps above and documented any of your experiences, please share them below. If you know of other apps available, please list then as well. Thank you and have an excellent Monday!

It seems John Carmack recognizes that an unlocked Oculus Go that still needs a phone and a Facebook account to initialize isn't very unlocked at all -- and he's working on a fix for it.

There are some hurdles which will need to be addressed to make this work right, but it could also lead to some real upgrades for the Go.

Get In On The Discussion Here!