For those of you waiting for the Optimalverse to become a real thing, you might be pleased to hear that there is already some Virtual Reality for My Little Pony. PonyVRville is a standalone Ponyville simulator that has plug-n-play support for the Oculus Rift. I personally do not have a Rift, but I do have a cell phone (Android or Apple), a View-Master, and This guide to making a VR HMD.

Since the demo video was pre-rendered for Oculus viewing, watching it through my View-Master showed me that those funky ovals on the video are corrected through the lens used in 3D viewers (this includes the Google Cardboard, but I wouldn't want to buy something that is going to fall apart within a year – See Guide). The effect was shockingly good 3D. There were borders on the outside of the video but the center was completely open. Even when I used just my eyes to look left and right, there was no feeling of tunnel vision as I thought there was going to be. Others have said it's like looking through a diving mask, and yeah, it's that clear.

In addition to this, Second Life which seems to have a large pony community including pony avatars, landscapes, and buildings similar to what would be found in Equestria, now has Oculus support which may be hackable to mesh with generic HMDs (I haven't yet worked with this, sorry).

All of the software I have mentioned is free to use. Some of the phone apps, turn off after a certain amount of time on the free versions (about 10 minutes), but can be restarted without any problem. Items within Second Life can cost real money however, free basic pony avatars are usually available in these pony hangouts.

Having got my View-Master on clearance (presumably because they are building a new hands-free model), this is a rare experience for me to play around with VR for $10, but even at full price or buying a phone mount specifically for this type of VR, anyone with a phone can have good, soul soothing pony goodness for less than $30 and some elbow grease.

EDIT: I didn't think about this when I was writing the post, but you don't need to buy any headmount for your phone if you want to test the software and make sure everything works first.

I haven't done anything with Perception, but it is a program that forces other programs to render the two stereoscopic ovals needed for the current standard of VR. This could be applied to Legends of Equestria when it is online again, but if a person didn't want to deal with using another program, there is a button in the PC-side program to simply double the images, giving no VR, but headtracking to whatever game a person is using. To be honest, I know this isn't ideal, because LoE is designed to be used primarily in 3rd person not 1st person, but maybe with enough push...

Specifics and details

PonyVRville, may require the download of a C++ package and a few DLLs. Just search for whatever it tells you is missing. If you need to download a standalone DLL, put it into the same directory as the PonyVRville.exe. If you already have a generic HMD set up, you can put PonyVR into stereoscopic mode by creating a shortcut to the executable, right clicking the shortcut, entering properties, and changing the Target command (PonyVRville.exe) to

“(Directory)\PonyVRville.exe" -emulatestereo

Remember not to remove anything from the command, just add the argument, then run the game from shortcut. (You will not need to use Perception for any part of PonyVRville)

Creating a Generic Virtual Reality Head Mounted Display

You don't have to be a wizard to get a NotCulus Rippoff working, but it's more than just plug-n-play. Getting mine setup without any detailed instructions was an ordeal that I am calling “The Oculus Bitch”, so I'd like to impart some of my discoveries to help others get up to snuff.

For starters, no guide that I have found stated this, but all of the program/app pairings require DirectX 11.2 or better. By the way, all phone based VR programs are screen sharing programs and programs that use the phone's accelerometer for headtracking, in fact, the cheapest sets of these options will require two programs running on the PC.

The above guide did not mention iPhone options, but if you search for “Trinus” then a few options will pop up. KinoVR is one of them, and though it does not say this, it can stream video through the USB connection if the wifi on the phone is turned off. If this doesn't work at first, update your iTunes.

When possible, a wired connection to your phone/tablet is preferred because of the lowered latency (lag). View-Masters do not have a hole in them that would allow a USB connection through, but there is a venting area in the lower right corner that can be drilled out (actually you want to drill right above that, you'll see what I mean). If you do this, line the hole with electrical tape to prevent damage to the cord. When pressed completely to the head, a View-Master may appear to dip the screen down, to fix this, fold a piece of paper and place it in the bottom phone holding area. The folded paper should not be anymore than five millimeters tall.

If you want to be quick and dirty about strapping any of the VR headgear to your head, a cloth double-loop frame belt is your best option, but a completely plastic headgear such as the View-Master, may need a sheet of foam rubber (fabric stores or the crafting section of major stores) on the front to keep a firm grip on the belt. If you want to go for something more elegant, you can use J.B.Weld to affix strap mounts on either side of the HMD and a third one on top for a three strap variant. If you do this, make sure you can remove your straps from the HMD for cleaning. I would explain how to make the straps, but that's getting into a whole other skill set.

Would you believe I haven't done anything else with my View-Master besides this? Just a little while ago, I tried watching other YouTube videos demonstrating Oculus games with the side-by-side ovals. I became ill because the Interpupillary distance (IPD) was too close together; I was literally having to cross my eyes to see the video, and this, even for a short time, has made me sick. IPD is the distance between the center pupils on the person viewing VR. The PC-side software used in phone/pc VR can adjust the distance of the center of the two images.

This setting happen to be perfect for me on default, but it may not be for you, so when you are setting up your VR, please take a moment to ensure your IPD is correct. The IPD will be set correctly when, while wearing your HMD, you can close your eyes for a few moments and upon opening them while looking straight ahead, see one in focus image.

Far out ... going to be trying that once life calms down a bit (it's been completely ca-ca for the past month). The DIY doesn't look too hard, and if it does get me, I'll pick up the viewmaster in April. Honestly, my biggest worry with this is about my phone ... it's getting a bit long in the tooth, and is running hot and slow, and I have too much crap on it as it is.

Thanks for sharing this.

Noice clop potential m8, i wonder how long it is before that is a thing.
Humanity, cause we have out priories straight.

5087429 I find it a little odd that you should say that considering your profile says you don't even read clop, but a comical reference to ponies using adult VR was made in a NSFW flash game a year or two ago when the Oculus Rift was still only available in its SD developer's kit. Even then, it was pretty clear that VR was going to be used to fulfill every applicable fantasy. To keep this thread work safe, I can't give any links, but VR adult entertainment for humans already exists and has recently turned teledildonics from a fantasy into a reality.

I haven't witnessed these for pony avatars specifically, but the adult areas of Second Life have long featured interactive animations that allow two or more avatars to go at it. Chances are, pony versions of these animations are common now. Using these animations in SL with its Oculus settings is technically the clop you mentioned, however, the options of movement within these animations are predefined as are most things in the world of VR.

When envisioning VR, most people think of full body tracking, and this immediately brings to mind visions of accurately being able to interact with objects in virtual space through realistic touch. That level of realism is still a few years off, but it is also what makes ponies ideal for VR avatars: pony hooves, being one point of contact, not six (fingers, thumb, and palm), is far easier to predict in physics engines. Because ponies do not often use their hooves in the way humans use their hands, the range of user intended motion is brought to a manageable level.

PonyVRville, is not designed for FBT, but this makes it more convincing and easier to work with. Watching objects being moved by magic that the player controls is far more mentally accepted than moving objects with digital hands and having them act any less than realistic. There is another level of realism that the designer didn't explicitly intend, but I think it is even more convincing than FBT. If the player is using PonyVRville with a VR omni directional treadmill, then the player can place their controller on the support ring in such a way so that they can also lean forward on it slightly which will help create the illusion that the player is a pony supporting their weight with all four limbs.

I have a good feeling with the way ponies have invaded sandbox environments like SL and MineCraft, that we will be seeing more standalone or even open multi-player pony based virtual experiences of many genres in the near future.

5089103 it was more of joke than anything, i knew that some people would be draw to this type of thing instantly.

5084799 My apologies for over-enthusiasm: my Windows computer is old and I made a few presumptions about how the VR would work on updated systems. I would now like to set the record straight:

The Apple app Gagagu VR Streamer, cannot give VR support without DirectX 11.2 or better, because the ability to send more than one “screen” (as in the stereoscopic pair) is linked to DirectX. I no longer recommend this app and instead recommend KinoVR for iPhone users.

Also, I will correct this above but the shortcut made for PonyVRville will only work if the Target is set as:

”(Directory)\PonyVRville.exe” -emulatestereo

The only difference here is that the base command is in quotes and the argument is placed after the quotes.

I also found that the box frame style belt used for the Google Cardboard instructions did not hold as well as a double-loop frame belt (which are generally wider and thus more comfortable) because in order to lock the box frame, the belt has to slacken where as the double-loop locks as soon as it is tight and is easily tightened by pulling on it.