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Mobile phones with gyroscopes and magnetometer? Asking for a VR friend
Thirith
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm looking for a list of Android mobile phones, ideally cheap ones, that have a gyroscope - which seems pretty standard - and a magnetometer. It's the latter feature that I'm finding quite difficult to get good info on.
The reason why I'm looking for cheap phones with these features is this: there's a software for VR called Natural Locomotion that allows you to walk in games by walking in place. It can work with handswing, but this means that it can be difficult to move and do stuff with your hands at the same time. Over the last year or so, however, they've added the option to use sensors on your feet/legs. There's a variety of sensors that can work - Switch joycons, PS3 Move wands etc. - but most of them work best if used together with an Android mobile phone that features a gyroscope and a magnetometer. I'm now hoping to look into cheap second-hand Android phones that have the necessary features and little else, but I didn't really find much useful information on the matter. The best I found was lists of top, and therefore also more expensive, phones that would work.
The reason why I'm looking for cheap phones with these features is this: there's a software for VR called Natural Locomotion that allows you to walk in games by walking in place. It can work with handswing, but this means that it can be difficult to move and do stuff with your hands at the same time. Over the last year or so, however, they've added the option to use sensors on your feet/legs. There's a variety of sensors that can work - Switch joycons, PS3 Move wands etc. - but most of them work best if used together with an Android mobile phone that features a gyroscope and a magnetometer. I'm now hoping to look into cheap second-hand Android phones that have the necessary features and little else, but I didn't really find much useful information on the matter. The best I found was lists of top, and therefore also more expensive, phones that would work.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
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Anyway here is a list:
https://binge.co/what-are-the-best-smartphones-with-magnetometer-sensors
Of those mentioned I highly recommend the LG V30. I have a V30+ which is the same only extra memory and dual sim and it is great, it should be affordable as it is a couple of years old now.
but, about 10 years ago, I developed VR-ish software on the earliest generations of iPhones which at that time ONLY had magnetometers, and not gyros.
For the purposes of detecting the users moment in relation to a scene of a video game or any 3D space really, a gyro eclipses a magneto in basically every way possible
magnetometers are slow, and they are easily fooled and distorted by things as innocent as a stiff metal door frame... having lived in this world for a couple of years I struggle to think on why they would ask for a magnetometer, and how that would enhance the experience given the presence of the gyro. the only thing a mag does that a gyro doesn't is a mag has an understanding of a constant "north", where on a gyro, north is arbitrary (any gyro based game will ask you to hold your device still for a little bit so it can create its arbitrary north in the context of the game)
as Blind points out, any phone with a compass app will likely have a magnetometer component. They can be spoofed, but you can tell if it's real or of its spoofed because a real magnetemoter will have drift and wobble... if you make sharp movements you should still see the compass drift slightly as it compensates for the motion.
I can find hard references to real magnemoter components in iphones as recently as iPhone 7, and using the eye test it seems like my 11 Pro has a real one as well.
This leads me to suggest that most mainline Android phones from reputable manufacturers probably have one, but honestly.. unless the game is coded terribly.... as long as it has a gyro you really shouldn't be able to notice
Concerning the magnetometer, that's something that the developers of Natural Locomotion specify, which is not a game itself, it's a program that works in conjunction with VR games. If they say that ideally both a magnetometer and a gyro are needed, I willl tend to take them at their word - though I believe the developers are Spanish, and it does show at times that English isn't their first language.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Seconded.
The V30 (and its variants like the V30+) was secretly the best phone of just over two years ago. You can pry mine from my cold, dead hands.
Steam | XBL
If you have not seen this you may find this interesting:
https://stereophile.com/content/lg-v30-hi-res-smartphone-mqa
Also more on topic I should add that I have been using my V30+ with Googles VR with good results, not the VR system relevant here only it does confirm that the sensors work well. Also maybe relevant it is more solid that one might expect, something I can confirm as by accident I ran mine over with my car(long story), it caused lots of surface cracks on the rear side only everything still works including the two cameras and the finger print sensor all found on the back.
And I think I'd seen that review before. Outperforming $24,000 pieces of kit. But it's also just a damn good phone to boot. It's an unsung masterpiece. I will rue the day I'm eventually forced to upgrade from it, and I hope that day is a long way off.
Steam | XBL