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Why can't I use Gear VR while laying down?

TheMarco
Explorer
I'm completely baffled by the fact that the Gear VR cannot be used while laying down. I thought nothing would be nicer than to enjoy VR content, play games, watch Milk VR videos etc. while laying in bed before going to sleep. But alas, it does not work. At best you can watch Netflix in Void theater but that's about the only thing that works when you're not sitting upright.

Whyyyyyy???? Samsung, Oculus, being an engineer I know there's really no technical reason for this to not be possible. I sincerely hope this will be fixed in an update. I'm really disappointed that I can't use my Gear VR in this way, Was this use case deliberately overlooked or is this some kind of huge 'oops!' on Samsung / Oculus' side?
26 REPLIES 26

metros269
Protege
I believe it has to do with the gyroscopic sensors. It knows the orientation of the phone unit and it sees it as looking up. Of couse they can probably add some setting to compensate but there are none as far as I've seen. I try to rest view which works for a bit but goes back to 'normal' when you change videos or apps etc

TheMarco
Explorer
I totally get the technicalities of it. But from an engineering point of view the only thing that would need to happen is change the zero value for what's horizontal by 90 degrees through some user setting or even by detecting automatically. I'm just so surprised that apparently no one thought of the fact that people will want to use this laying on the couch or in bed?!

thealgorithm
Protege
Doesn't the Re-orient option work in the master options menu? Not tried that myself yet actually

STUJAMR
Protege
turn off tracking at least at the app level Most viewers allow this

AnotherCrazyCan
Adventurer
Have to agree with OP here, it's very dissapointing you can't do this. This would be way better at night rather than having to crane your neck at a bad angle to watch your iPad.
Facebook bought Instagram. How exactly did they ruin them?

darkangel6415
Explorer
Yeah I can't watch adult sites sitting up, that is just so weird and wrong call me old fashioned they need to allow usage laying down

RogueSatedan
Honored Guest
This is extremely ridiculous. You should be able to orient how ever you want to in "virtual" reality. Bringing up the settings/ back menu should be possible in any orientation to reorient however you want. Correct me if i am wrong but you are not "recommended" to be in motion while using the gear any ways right? That leaves sitting and laying down... and why would you be forced to be sitting while simply watching tv or a movie all the time? The only thing I can possible think of is that you could fall asleep, but if i do and subsequently waste my battery because the screen stays on that is my own fault. That could also be settled easily with an option in settings to turn the device off after a certain amount of time if activated. How did this never come up during testing?! While I having only just purchased my headset and have only dipped my toes on day two, I hope that this is something Samsung is currently working to correct.

darkangel6415
Explorer
I must say I have fallen asleep watching movies with headset on and had no problems several times

coolaudio
Protege
I agree, the ability to recalibrate the viewing position while lying down or sitting at whatever angle is much needed...please oculus/Samsung make it so...how hard is it to add an option:)