So I decided to build a HMD utilizing a lens setup and the only suitable device I have for the display is an HTC One X which works well enough for now!
Specifications:
HTC One X:
screen: 1280x720 312 ppi
Hardware:
lenses: One 38mm on top of a 34mm lens
* An internal 3x fresnel lens x2 to maximize screen size for higher FOV *
Binocular adjustment in the back to move the screen closer and further from fresnel lens for quality adjustment.
PC:
Asus g71gx
2.54 ghz P8700 cpu
Nvidia 260m GTX
6 gb ram
Applications:
Perception
Tridef
Splashtop HD
Microsoft Flight simulator X
L4D2
Mirrors edge
Sanctum 2
If you're curious about the lens setup its basically the main focusing element from two pairs of binoculars taped together (around 3.8x magnification) and 2, 3x freznel lenses in front of the phone screen for enlargement.
Pro's:
Cheap... was essentially free .
descent resolution.(when working correctly)
wide screen format with lens setup so everything doesn't look like its portrait mode i'd guess fov to be somewhere around 90-110* horizontal and full vertical fov.
Con's:
Slightly heavy but still comfortable.
Splashtop tends to get pixelated as in some times its better than others and it appears to be creating some block pixeling. As if I view an just a 1280x720 image it looks blocky like the screen shading or antialising is not functioning till i move the mouse then it clears it up.(in game its either on or off)
Lag... it runs around 30fps but in a fast scene you can tell.
Sanctum 2 looks the best and lags the least out of those games and flight sim x has the best Wow that's cool factor, like when you're 15k feet up and turn to look out the window you get a good sense of vertigo. Anyone have any idea why splashtop looks blocky and why its laggy on and off? A little more info on my network is a belkin wireless N router with a modified antenna for higher gain. When I connect with cat5 cable I get 100mb/s connection and when I use the wifi from my pc to connect I get 300mb/s so which is actually better?(can't tell much of a difference with either) *Phone connection speed varies but is usually 65mb/s*
Maybe even a way to display output through usb?
Also I think after I can fix the lag/block pixelation issue I'd like to give tracking a shot (have an HTC EVO 4g or could rig some IR diodes for TrackIR)
