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Razer officially adds Android support to their open Virtual Reality platform OSVR

So far we have had some decent support regarding Virtual Reality and Android devices announced. Initially Oculus Rift announced Android support before Facebook bought them out, that hasn’t changed as far as we know. HTC and Valve are working on the HTC Re Vive VR headset which no doubt will get Android support if it doesn’t have it already. Now Razer has announced that their open Virtual Reality platform, called OSVR, will come with compatibility for Android devices.

Razer has been showing off thhe OSVR platform and headset for a few months now, even having it available to play with at GDC 2015. Back then Android compatibility wasn’t a part of the OSVR, although we did play with it. Now it is official and along with the announce of Android support, Razer has also introduced position tracking as well, something OSVR was also missing until now. Android support means developers will be able to make mobile VR games that will be able to use the OSVR headset.

What is even more interesting with the Android support is that OSVR will have a ‘mobile faceplate’, which will allow users to swap out the main VR display with the mobile faceplate, and then sliding in their Android phone to play mobile VR games using the OSVR headset. This means users will be able to play a normal VR game, then swap out quickly to play a mobile VR title.

Mobile Faceplate allows the use of a wide range of mobile phones with the OSVR optics. This faceplate, coupled with newly-released Android distribution for OSVR lets developers test their OSVR hardware on Android devices. Developers will be able to detach and replace their default HDK faceplate with any of the above depending on their usage preferences. The Wearality lenses can also be used in combination with the other upgrades.

It will be interesting to see how deep this support goes and what comes out of it. Since this is an open-source platform, it is much more accessible in a lot of way. OSVR continues to gain a decent amount of support as well, with other companies like Unity and Unreal Engine also supporting OSVR. The OSVR HDK v1.2 (Hacker Development Kit as it is fully called) has also been approved and will begin shipping out to developers.

Official Website: OSVR Platform

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