Expert’s Rating
Our Verdict
Is there such a affair as View - Master street cred ? in all likelihood not . But I am a long - fourth dimension View - Master drug user . Well , to be clear , I used a View - Master when I was a shaver . I have n’t been using one the whole clip since . That would be weird .
I have , however , recently become re - acquainted with the original as well as withView - Master ’s current practical realism ( VR)offering .
Last summertime as my parent were packing to move out of the house I grew up in , one of the item my mother found and send to me was my sure-enough View - Master and all its disks . If you never experienced one of these , it was a stereopticon — a 3D viewer — which has hada long and storied chronicle . The brand is now have by the toy society Mattel , which is show it into the VR era .
Indeed , the View - Master Virtual Reality Viewer is the legitimate evolution of its 3D root . It ’s somewhat price — the Apple Store sell it for $ 30 , but it ’s available fromAmazonfor under $ 20 — and , because the viewer is based onGoogle Cardboard , there ’s a diversity of compatible content useable .
At the same prison term , a few things take away from the sport .
A rough start
The View - Master VR take iOS 8 and above and works with the iPhone 5 and up ( although they note apps might not be optimized for the 5 and 5c ) as well as a numeral of Android sound . All the really toilsome lifting is , of class , done by the telephone . The viewer is really just a bearer with a hardening of lenses that well separate the two double the apps present so each eye father one .
The machine is nicely packaged and comes with a abbreviated instruction manual of arms and the Preview Reel , which is on the face of it for unlock preview message . I had a little trouble getting ushered into our young virtual reality futurity early on . The instruction show you should put your phone in with the top “ to the left field . ” That ’s helpful … if you live which way the watcher is hypothecate to be when doing this . The instructions neglected that point . For the record , it ’s with the lever tumbler to your right , even though the image express the front of the viewer .
But , hang on . Before you close down it up , you ’re going to need some apps . View - Master has three of its own — Space , the change of location - relatedDestinations , andNational Geographic Wildlife — that you could download for free . Each features contented to examine out , with additional content you could unlock for $ 15 .
One of the first things the apps do is ask for access to the camera and photos . The reason is so the app can scan the QR codification on the View - Master VR to determine which viewer you have ( some apps from other creators simply require you ) . The teaching also distinguish you to start the app by looking at the Preview Reel through the viewer and doing so in the app overlie a virtual menu of sort onto the Reel . The Preview Reel is Mattel ’s nod to the View - Master ’s roots , but if you turn a loss it you could still reach the preview capacity through the app ’s bill of fare . The other nod is the lever , which is simply a switch that forces a gum elastic nub to wiretap the covert of your phone inside the headset , used to indicate a survival , to move in a certain direction , to discharge in a game , etc .
The experience
Overall the viewer is reasonably well put together . It ’s plastic so it would probably intermit if it fell off a in high spirits table , but it does n’t feel flimsy . I had thought mayhap the lenses and some image trickery within the apps could widen the field of survey , but it is not panoramic ; your view is confine to what ’s in front of you — nothing in your peripheral vision . Turning your head ( and body ) around reveals the full 360 x 360 point practical environment . The images in the View - Master apps film over slenderly when you turn your header , something I did not find true of all the Cardboard subject , other than Google ’s app advisedly blear faces in crew scenes , just like on Street View . That ’s perceivable but does remove you a spot from the “ realness ” part of the virtual reality .
I spent the $ 15 on the Destinations app and unlock a number of extra sets of VR image of ( mostly ) places I ’ve never been . That ’s passably neat , but as someone who spent a fair amount of time in the 1990s looking atQuickTime VRvideos ( such asStar Trek : The Captain ’s Chair ) , I was more or less underwhelmed by the static nature of most of the View - Master depicted object . you could endure in front of the Acropolis , look around and access entropy on it , but there are no hoi polloi mill around about , there ’s no movement of any sort . similarly , Google Cardboard app ’s term of enlistment of Paris around the Eiffel Tower is basically indistinguishable from Street View . The Space and National Geographic apps have some computer - generated ingredient that are in motion , but nothing be .
View - Master Destinations provides VR visits to the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza .
The viewer has a wrist shoulder strap but no head strap , so you have to confine it up to your human face the whole clock time you ’re using it . That did n’t turn out to be much of a job for me because I constitute I could n’t use it for very long without getting revolt . This is n’t the fault of the viewer so much as it has been my personal experience with all VR - type environments going back to the oldStar Toursride . Do n’t necessarily permit this sour you on our practical realness future tense , as it seems to be the luck of the genetical draw and most people do just ticket with it . My understanding is that smartphone - lineament VR may be partly to blame and high-pitched quality headsets alleviate the effect . We ’ll just have to hold back forthe pricesto come down .
My wife , who is far sight , said she found all the pictures to be hazy ( using the viewer with glasses is impractical).The next version , due this fall , will reportedly come with a focal adjustment wheel , as well as a cutout for a earphone cord , something that would ’ve been utilitarian to have in this version .
The marketplace of tawdry ideas
VR is reallyall about the content , and before you reach for a Jackson , you may be take yourself “ Wait , is there a Flappy Bird clone for this matter ? Because I ’m not buying it if there is n’t a Flappy Bird clone . ” Do n’t erode , of coursethere’sa Flappy Bird clone . Even your tally - of - the - John Stuart Mill Android - ground wassailer - electric refrigerator has a Flappy Bird clone . Not only that , there ’s alsoa Cardboard - compatible Crossy Road clone , which has the singular virtue of teaching you why the tangible game has more of a head - down view ( sprain out it ’s unsufferable to see around those trees at street level ) .
Please note that I ’m not recommending these apps , I ’m just secern you they exist and are detached to play . If you desire a game that makes estimable utilisation of the technology , Vanguard Vis also complimentary . The graphics are nice , it ’s challenging enough and , while I found it a bit unmanageable to control and lack in any multifariousness of fun , it ’s the kind of game you might expect a VR system to have .
It ’s a bit dissatisfactory but probably not surprising that the most well - put - together content I found was theSports IllustratedSwimsuit app . The image tone is high-pitched , and unlike many of the other apps , the VR content is all television . The subject matter is alas less educational than some of the other options , but whatSports Illustratedgot right was put things in motion . As the model shows you , yes , she is wearing a skimpy washup suit , and as isde rigueurfor the music genre , the tropic wind bollocks up through the decoration trees to your right and waves crash on the shore behind you . In some illustration they make further use of the medium by putting models or even the crew behind you so there ’s more for you to turn around and expect at . This is the kind of experience I was hop for , even if it require longer to download , use up up more storage blank space on my iPhone , and clear me feel like yet another predictable sprocket in the great cycle of the square male industrial machine ( although I did not pay for the extra content ) .
It ’s in all likelihood poetical justice that eventhatapp was making me nauseous . Still , I trust VR producers learn fromSports Illustrated ’s proficient representative .
( If these options do n’t float your virtual boat , check outthis list of more by Jackie Dove . )
Bottom line
While VR content is presently an extremely mixed bag , the View - Master Virtual Reality Viewer is a becoming enough option if you ’re eager to dip your toe into the pool in which we will all one twenty-four hour period be immersed . The Viewer is a bit approximative around some edges , but it ’s priced to invoke even to budgets more suitable to its ancient 3D forbear .
