PortalVR: XR Without a Headset

#1

Post by gfodor » Thu, Oct 02, 2025, 9:47 PM UTC

PortalVR: XR Without a Headset
portalvr.io

Re: PortalVR: XR Without a Headset

#2

Post by leptons » Thu, Oct 02, 2025, 11:29 PM UTC

To me this looks like a solution in search of a problem. And I can't imagine it's fun to hold out a tablet at the end of your arm for very long.

Re: PortalVR: XR Without a Headset

#3

Post by dylan604 » Thu, Oct 02, 2025, 11:45 PM UTC

leptons wrote: post #2

To me this looks like a solution in search of a problem. And I can't imagine it's fun to hold out a tablet at the end of your arm for very long.

YouTube VR and other platforms with VR can be viewed similarly so you don't need to have googles strapped to your face. It's not nearly as immersive, but you can at least look around in the VR environment and see things. Of course there were things like Google Cardboard as well to get over the hump of no goggles available. There's not really a viable AR use case, so I'd imaging things like this will keep popping up

Re: PortalVR: XR Without a Headset

#4

Post by throwaway314155 » Thu, Oct 02, 2025, 11:47 PM UTC

Why would you name a gaming adjacent system “PortalVR”? I doubt you’ll get in trouble for it but you’re going to confuse so many Portal fans (and there are a lot of them).

Re: PortalVR: XR Without a Headset

#5

Post by corysama » Thu, Oct 02, 2025, 11:54 PM UTC

leptons wrote: post #2

To me this looks like a solution in search of a problem. And I can't imagine it's fun to hold out a tablet at the end of your arm for very long.

They spell out the problems on the page:

* If you are a VR dev, popping in and out of a headset dozens of times a day is a pain. * If you are in marketing, getting someone passing by to put on a headset is a challenge. * If you are a player, buying a headset without checking out the content first is risky.

All of this comes down to the fact that VR/XR is awesome if you commit to a full session that makes it worth strapping in. But, has been no middle ground that lets you just stick your nose in the door and check out what's up inside.

I saw a live demo of this at SVVR. You would definitely get gorilla arm if you tried to hold a tablet up high for a long contiguous duration. But, holding it casually, walking around with it down low, and looking through it in spurts is no problem.

Re: PortalVR: XR Without a Headset

#6

Post by gfodor » Thu, Oct 02, 2025, 11:59 PM UTC

throwaway314155 wrote: post #4

Why would you name a gaming adjacent system “PortalVR”? I doubt you’ll get in trouble for it but you’re going to confuse so many Portal fans (and there are a lot of them).

I was going to name it Portal, but I named it PortalVR to minimize confusion.

It’s called PortalVR because there is no better name to describe what it’s like to play VR this way. It is like playing games by looking through a portal you hold in your hand.

Re: PortalVR: XR Without a Headset

#7

Post by gfodor » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 12:01 AM UTC

leptons wrote: post #2

To me this looks like a solution in search of a problem. And I can't imagine it's fun to hold out a tablet at the end of your arm for very long.

I video it and demo it on a tablet since it helps make it clear how it works, but my preferred display device is a Galaxy Fold. Pockets great, and is a nice comfortable size when unfolded.

Re: PortalVR: XR Without a Headset

#8

Post by deadbabe » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 12:18 AM UTC

This would be pretty cool for a Descent clone, since the game is all about 6 degrees of freedom moving your tablet around to fly through a space would feel pretty natural.

Where this fails however is that it doesn’t seem to track the user’s face in order to properly render a parallax effect, so it does not really feel like a true portal.