Virtual reality games are damn cool, and I should know. But it's not the easiest thing to do, especially if you're expecting to spend a lot of money just to try it out. The Meta is the most popular option, still starting at $300, with prices approaching $1,000 for a dedicated PC headset. But one creator has 3D printed a headset with some basic parts for just $150… and he'll show you how to do it, too.
CNCDan on YouTube (noted PCGamer) enjoys dabbling in hobby-style form factors such as FPV drone piloting and racing simulators, which share many of the same features as headsets and head-mounted displays. As it turns out, Aliexpress has a ton of semi-universal parts for these things, including the all-important dual high-resolution displays (one for each eye) that are used in almost all VR headset designs. The lenses, perhaps adapted from an old Google Cardboard design, were easy to find.
The last difficult element was head tracking, which is a complex but already solved problem. CNCDan has implemented an existing open source system called relativity [sic] VR which uses an Arduino board and an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) sensor. A super-simple PCB with just a little bit of soldering connects the two pieces.
The rest of the project involved product development, designing the headset housing and enclosures for the screens, lenses and electronics, focusing on customization options not available in some similar projects. Assembly isn't exactly easy, but Dan's instructions are straightforward and the unit itself has surprisingly few non-standard parts. It's just the main body, two eye boxes and lens covers, an IPD adjustment mechanism (which moves the boxes based on the user's eye position), a front cover, and a bracket for mounting the electronics. A bezel and strap, plenty of inserts and screws, and a few pieces of tape round out the whole thing, with just HDMI for video and USB for power connecting to your gaming PC.
This is an impressive project that demonstrates a lot of amateur engineering skill, not to mention the confidence required to pull it off. Dan says cheap eye displays aren't very good because they don't quite match the 90Hz specs at 1440p, and some particularly large and small people may not be covered by IPD. He published 3D printing files, links to hardware parts, and tutorials on GitHub. so you can try it yourself.
