Brisbane, Australia-based group #include today released a new app called ViewR that lets you observe a PC VR session in action from an Android mobile device.

ViewR essentially inserts another camera into the VR game, letting a spectator hold up their Android phone or tablet to watch what’s going on, replete with positional tracking for the non-VR observer. Up to four devices can connect into the space at once.

ViewR is available as a Unity SDK that developers can include in the VR games for free, but individual gamers can also run the ViewR PC installer to add the functionality to an existing game too.

To date, the studio has modded ViewR into Superhot VR, Beat Saber, and Budget Cuts to demonstrate just how powerful the concept is.

You can download ViewR for free today, which includes the PC installer and an app that supports Android 4.4 (KitKat) devices or higher; those devices are capable of calculating positional tracking on their own, although older phones will require the use of a Vive Tracker to play.

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Support for both OSX and iOS is currently on the studio’s road map, and could arrive sometime next year.

The company says that since ViewR is WiFi intensive, a WiFi access point capable of 802.11n or higher is ideal for optimal performance, with as few devices connected as possible.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Xron

    Seems interesting and might we worth to install.

  • VR for the Road

    That’s a surveillance camera…:)
    We’ll be getting spied on in VR.

    • Jistuce

      Virtual USSR.

  • VENOMxVR

    Would this work with Echo VR?

    • Include

      If Echo VR is written in Unity, then yes. We have a guide on installing it on our blog here. If you need help, feel free to ask for help on our discord

  • Dave Graham

    I’ll look foward to trying this when iOS is included, very interesting concept.

  • Regis Souza

    Well, I got to test this!!!

  • Would love to be able to observe from Go/Solo.

  • Cool cool cool

  • Patrick McKee

    I have tested this with my S9 plus and Beatsaber only so far. I own Budgetcuts and SuperHot, have not tested those titles yet. I did have to manually add Budgetcuts, it couldn’t find my install directory on a different drive. It works really well, very cool app.
    I may post some videos later on youtube. Makes me wish I had some higher end Android tablet.
    I also wanna test, sharing my phone screen to a roku into a projector for a big screen viewing area, that would definitely add some latency though. I did have to lower some settings on ran on 980ti machine. I have vives.

  • They should make it so a friend can throw their phone into a daydream VR or something and actually be in the game as a spectator. Or is this already a feature?

  • JustNiz

    I can only imagine this has to have a significant performance impact on the PC’s GPU.