# Mixing with a VR headset



## Phryq (Oct 21, 2017)

So say you're monitor limited... only a single 15"

What about using your phone and streaming the monitor in "VR mode" to have a gigantic screen in front of you?

In theory, it could actually strain your eyes less, because you can focus them 'far away'.

Any thoughts?


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## Phryq (Oct 21, 2017)

Maybe 10 years from now, DAWs will be entirely virtual, and you'll be able to sit down at a 3d piano (or any instrument) to virtually input notes, then they'll show up magically on a parchment, in your old northern cottage. When you're ready to play, you can walk over to the next room where your ensemble of performers await you.

But for now I'm only wanting to stick my DAW in front of my face.


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## pmcrockett (Oct 21, 2017)

I've had this thought, too, but the screen resolution -- at least on a Vive -- just isn't high enough yet to do the sort of visual detail work you need to do in a DAW. I could see a designed-for-VR DAW environment maybe working on current-gen headsets, but trying to deal with normal desktop apps in VR is currently an unpleasant experience because of the resolution limitations.


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## D Halgren (Oct 21, 2017)




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## Phryq (Oct 22, 2017)

I guess you'd need a 4k or higher phone? Mine has 1440 x 2560.

I guess you'd want at least 1920 x 1080 x 2 (for each eye) to get the same detail of a regular laptop screen?


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## pmcrockett (Oct 22, 2017)

Phryq said:


> I guess you'd need a 4k or higher phone? Mine has 1440 x 2560.
> 
> I guess you'd want at least 1920 x 1080 x 2 (for each eye) to get the same detail of a regular laptop screen?


4K per eye might be high enough to pull it off comfortably. For comparison, a Vive is 1080 x 1200 per eye.

The issue is that any window existing in the virtual space can occupy only a fraction of the total available resolution unless it's so giant that you have to move your head around to see all of it. VR also makes individual pixels stand out more because the screens are right up against your eyes and filling your vision instead of off on a monitor three feet from you. It's maybe more helpful to think of VR resolution as being the resolution of your eyes rather than the resolution of a screen.

EDIT: And I guess another issue is that unlike a regular monitor, nothing on a window in a VR space aligns perfectly with the pixel matrix, so there's distortion and aliasing from that, too.


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Oct 22, 2017)

I've seen this before in some YouTube video but I don't remember where. I remember the resolution of the "monitor" was quite low (maybe fitting 6 lines of text). 

Combine this with something like Waves Nx and you can work in a closet.


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