Google’s Cardboard brought virtual reality to the masses, allowing anybody with a decent smartphone to experience basic VR with a kit that cost very little to make, or comfier and more feature-rich Cardboard-compliant headsets. Cardboard wasn’t just a headset, of course – Google constructed an entire software ecosystem around the low-cost VR standard, and many developers jumped on board right from day one. Earlier this year, Daydream VR came along. Promising to help bridge the quality gap between mobile and desktop VR, and even boasting support for popular game engines, Daydream got a lot of people excited, and the first headset for it is garnering good reviews. The only issue, at the moment, is a lack of content. You would think that you could just use any old Cardboard content on the Daydream View, but that assumption would be false; anything that requires you to press the button on the headset is a no go, as Cardboard apps don’t recognize the Daydream View controller.
While you could certainly use your Daydream View headset as a makeshift Cardboard headset and use an off-the-shelf Bluetooth gamepad for interactivity, that’s more than a little disappointing, given the Daydream View’s lofty premise. As it turns out, Google is working on fixing the whole mess. While the full, multi-directional function of the Daydream controller won’t be implemented, Google is working on a fix to allow users to use their Daydream controller for Cardboard interactivity.
The way things are right now, the official Cardboard app will detect your Daydream View, and will attempt to run, but you’ll end up seeing the Daydream app instead. Firing up VR content made for cardboard like games or video apps is a mixed bag, as well. While some stuff is built for Bluetooth gamepads or to be controlled simply by turning your head, a lot of content is made for the Cardboard button. Inevitably, developers will start hopping on the Daydream train in the near future, but for now, those wanting to use their Daydream View with Cardboard content will have to either grab a Bluetooth gamepad for interactivity, break their immersion to touch the screen to navigate, or wait for Google to send out the relevant update.