Demonstrating VR is a pain in the @ss but don’t let that deter you

Gwan Yip
Gwan Yip
Aug 8, 2017 · 10 min read

As I mentioned in previous blog posts, I have been fortunate enough to give a lot of people their first VR experience, which I can’t recommend more than enough as first hand evidence of the potential of this medium. Having said that, it can be a pain in the ASS (or ARSE) carrying the equipment, tripping over wires, things overheating or running out of batteries, programs crashing, etc…

Here’s a rundown of each platform and some considerations you should take if you’re planning to demo.


Cardboard VR

Choose a cardboard unit that’s easy to assemble. I remember the first ever cardboard unit I purchased back in 2015 took me more than 15 minutes to assemble. I know that sounds ridiculous but it’s true, and I’m a seasoned IKEA’er!!? Fortunately, there are more user friendly designs nowadays that this is no longer really an issue but not something you want to discover when presenting your VR experience for the first time in front of a potential customer or investor.

You need to accept the level of immersion you’ll get with a Cardboard VR unit and don’t try to push it: Light will get in, the phone is going to slide around in the viewer and there isn’t really a great way to adjust the focus other than getting the user to fiddle with the phone. These considerations should have been taken into account during the design phase when you chose your target platform. Having said that, it’s still the most accessible way to demonstrate a short concept or idea.

Samsung Gear VR

In my opinion, this is still the best mobile VR platform due to the immersion of the headset, accessibility (Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, and S6 Edge+) and content available via the Oculus Store. The only major consideration you need to be aware of is the phone overheating. I’ve personally run into this issue numerous times when developing, demonstrating, and also at a few installations I’ve attended.

As far as I know there isn’t a specific solution to this issue since it’s related to the hardware of the phone, apparently the DayDream phones were built in order to solve this problem (more below), so most of the ways to counter this problem are hacks. From what I understand, as long as you can cool the back of the phone using a fan it will prolong the phone’s ability to operate. This can either be done with placing a fan in front of the user or buying a modified cover with a cooling fan. I’ve never personally used the cooling fan cover but I have tried sitting in front of a fan which definitely prolongs the phone’s use. As ridiculous as this whole paragraph might sound to people, if you plan on demonstrating an experience for longer than 20–30 minutes, irrespective of how many sessions within that time frame, you need to take into consideration the phone overheating. Otherwise you’re going to be sitting around missing your opportunity to demo with your phone in your hands.

The other option is to have multiple phones that are you can rotate between each session but that depends on the VR experience you’re demonstrating. Lastly, remember to charge the phones when you can either during the session, if the experience is seated, or between sessions.

Google Daydream

Unfortunately, these phones (at least the Pixel) suffer from the same overheating issues as Samsung phones even though they were apparently designed to shut down phone features that weren’t critical or related to powering a VR experience in order to reduce overheating and prolong use. I would estimate the phone can run for around 20–30 minutes before overheating and requires the user to remove it from the headset to cool down. Perhaps this might change with software updates or with future Daydream ready phones.

Hopefully the next gen of Daydream phones can deliver

One of the most disappointing aspects of the Daydream is the controller drift. This happens when the controller and the headset pairing starts to ‘drift’ so that the accuracy of the controller in the virtual environment becomes offset. The fix isn’t difficult, the user just needs to reset the camera and controller back to zero, however it’s super frustrating as you slowly start to see the drift and have to physically make adjustments ‘in the real world’ so you end up aiming the controller to the left when you’re trying to select something on the right. What was so disappointing for me was that this controller was supposed to represent a potential standardization of input devices for mobile VR headsets. However due to the inconsistency with the accuracy I don’t think this is something that I would personally target or prioritize as an input device. Having said that, I haven’t tried the new Samsung Gear Controller which looks promising so who knows.

PlayStation VR

Without taking into account the challenges of deploying content to the PlayStation store, the fairly limited amount content, and having to update your PS4 ALL THE TIME… PlayStation VR is fairly straightforward to demo with, apart from all the wires?!! To be fair, it’s comparable to setting up an HTC Vive but you just accept that with the Vive because it provide room scale tracking but for some reason all the PlayStation VR wires just seem excessive. Another way of putting it, I would never transport my PlayStation VR because the thought of having to unplug everything, tie up the wires, find a bag big enough to hold everything and then remember how to set it up again is very off putting.

However, once the PSVR is set up it is very pleasant to use and what’s great is that since the PS4 is already plugged into a TV it’s effortless to showcase the content to a larger audience given that whatever the user is looking at in VR is mirrored on the TV.

Oculus Rift

I would say that this is my preferred High-End VR unit to demo with, as long as the experience isn’t true room scale. The reason being is because of how easy it is to pack up and transport with the beautifully designed box the Rift comes in. I truly love this box, from the initial unpacking ceremony to the countless times I’ve had to speed ‘pack up’ or ‘set up’, it’s a fantastic companion to anyone demonstrating a VR experience.

I forgot how weird stock photography can get…

Moving on from the box… a large part to why the Rift is relatively easy to demo with is because of the limited hardware needed to get a basic VR demo up and running. In the (beautiful) box, there is one sensor, an HMD, a single hand remote controller and an Xbox controller. As long as you’ve run the Rift setup on your laptop prior to your demo and the environment is the same (i.e. the setup was configured to a sitting VR experience and you’re demonstrating a sitting VR experience vs. a standing VR experience), you can just plug everything in and hit play.

The caveat to this is if your demo incorporates touch controllers because that means another sensor and you would most likely need to rerun the Rift setup to redefine your play area. The Rift setup is fairly simple and straightforward but just be aware that it does take about 5–10 minutes to get through.

Lastly, figure out of how many USB sockets your laptop has. I run an Alienware 15 that only has 2 USB sockets so I had to buy a USB hub because you need 3 USB sockets for the two sensors (if you’re using touch controllers) and the HMD. I did discover that you don’t actually need to plug the USB hub into a power socket even though the hub comes with a power adapter. A small detail but not having to worry about finding another power socket to plug something else in is one less thing to worry about.

HTC Vive

The HTC Vive is, in my opinion, the crème de la crème of high-end VR units. But with that power you need to make certain concessions when it comes to demonstrating.

At the moment, the HTC Vive is still the best VR headset on the market

The setup is undeniably tricky the first few times you go through it and if you have the space to set up the Vive and leave it there then do that! You’re also one of the lucky ones who work for a company that has that kind of extra space to dedicate to VR and/or you have an extra room in your house or apartment to turn into your VR room… coming from New York both ideas just seem mythical to me.

We’ve certainly explored some interesting ways to mount the base stations. One of our more creative solutions was when we had very limited space and couldn’t drill into any of the walls of our office. So we ended up buying some heavy duty Command Large Picture Hanging Strips that we stuck to the back of speaker mount brackets which we attached the base stations to. Then we stuck the brackets to top of our walls and then used Gorilla tape to secure the brackets to the wall. This actually worked surprisingly well. We had to tidy up the wires and repaint the wall when it came time to move out of that specific office space because most of the wall/paint came off when we removed the brackets… but it worked! Alternatively, if you have the space and/or need to set up or break down the base stations on a regular basis buy some light stands and tripod mini ball head brackets.

1. Make shift wall mount 2. Standard lighting stand mount

Once the base stations are secure, the actual HTC Vive setup is also fairly straightforward. If you need to rerun the room setup, click on the drop-down in the Steam popup that appears when you play a game (this took me forever to find for some reason). Just keep in mind that you do need a certain amount of space for the lighthouse tracking to work (2m x 1.5m/6.5ft x 5ft). Depending on where your demonstration is, be aware of the space you’re using and make sure that people aren’t walking through it or someone is going to get a Vive controller in the face.

‘Run Room Setup’ is under this drop down

Some of the more subtle challenges about demonstrating the Vive is getting someone in and out of the HMD, plus whatever other accessories you’re incorporating, and also starting the experience itself. Firstly, getting someone into the HMD can be a little uncomfortable with the original head-mount because unlike the Rift and PSVR, where the actual screen portion of the HMD can be extended from the strap, you have to slide the Vive onto someone’s head like a tight baseball cap that’s just not a pleasant experience. Then on top of that you need to place the headphones, that are plugged into a wire coming out of the back of the HMD, on the person whom at which point can’t really hear what you’re saying anymore. From the reviews I have read, the new Deluxe Audio Strap solves most of these problems (other than the person not being able to hear you) for an additional $100. The more accessories you’ve incorporated to the experience obviously adds to the complexity and time that goes to getting someone into an experience.

Secondly, another factor you need to consider is how you actually start the experience. Have you already been inside the HMD and gotten to the right point within the experience whereby all the person needs to do is put the HMD on? Do they need to click a specific button? Can you see what the person is looking at yet via the computer screen e.g. if a person is in the HTC menu this isn’t displayed on the monitor so you’re left asking “What do you see?” a lot. This is a challenge for all platforms however, in my opinion, it’s a little more challenging (and frustrating) with the Vive because of the additional effort it takes to get someone into the HMD.

Obviously all these challenges are solvable, just be aware of them before your demonstration because all of this adds to the amount of time it takes to put one person through a demonstration and if you’re trying to get exposure to your experience you want to get as many people through the experience as possible, so every second counts.


I hope some of these insights have been helpful, I’d love to hear about other people’s experiences demonstrating with different VR platforms. At the end of the day, it can be a pain in the ass but it’s totally worth it!

Gwan Yip

Written by

Gwan Yip

CEO and Co-Founder at Code & Craft

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