Guide time! In this tutorial, we teach you how to set up our own DIY Vive-compatible Steam VR controller using Cardboard and Riftycat (free Open Beta, try it!).
An Oculus compatible 1080p headset PLUS Vive-compatible freehand motion controllers for under $50, low latency, and it's compatible with almost every VR platform? No, not exactly, but even in beta it's the best PC-to-Android software we've tested. In the past we've written about Trinus, which was unforgivably laggy. This is a completely different animal. You can build your own FrankenVive, motion controllers in air.
If you bought a new phone within the last year, you should probably give the Riftcat Open Beta a look. They've been updating weekly, and very recently they added hands-free motion controls that work similar to the Vive's motion controllers. I ran out and got the parts immediately and tried it myself. So how is it? Glitchy, it crashes often, very playable, and for the price it's easily the best value in VR right now. Worth getting just to freak out your parents and kids.
So, back to my FrankenVive: A modern HMV solution this is not. This does remind me a lot of DK2, the $350 Oculus dev kit made with off-the-shelf parts. If you already have a newish 1080p capable Android phone, a $10 Google Cardboard setup, and willing to buy an older/used Leap Motion Controller you can emulate the Vive’s motion controllers, gun and thumb triggers and all.
I'll teach you how to set it up, along with photos of some of my laughable attempts to build an affordable VR headset that worked with Freetrack (other headtracking software)