How to play old Cardboard apps on Daydream View

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My Daydream View headset and its controller. The headset can be used to play Cardboard games, though the controller won’t work. (Photo by Maria Korolov.)

Last night, I wanted to try out the  VR Spaceship VR app for Android on my Pixel phone with my Daydream View headset.

Unfortunately, VR Spaceship is an older, Cardboard-compatible app, not a Daydream app, and I kept getting a warning message:

Warning message. (Image by Maria Korolov.)

I got the warning message as soon as I started the app — before I even put the phone into the viewer.

My fix? Clicking on the “Pair Viewer” option and pointing my phone’s camera to one of the QR Codes I have for the Daydream View headset on my QR Codes page.

Once I did that, the game started up and I put the phone into my headset and played it.

For what it’s worth, the game is a simple tour of a spaceship. You move by looking at glowing areas until the movement is activated, then you glide in that direction. So you don’t need a controller for this game, which is nice because the Daydream controller doesn’t work with Cardboard apps, and the Daydream View headset doesn’t have a built-in button.

VR Spaceship game screenshot. The glowing pink cloud is what you would look at in order to move in that direction. (Image by Maria Korolov.)

I was bored with the app almost instantly. In fact, in my opinion, the best part about it was the virtual reality ad that popped up in the middle, which had cool dragons. (The game advertised was War Dragons, which turns out to be a traditional game, not a cool VR game like the ad makes it seem.)

If you want to walk around inside a spaceship, a better app, in my opinion, is Go4d VR SpaceShip, which is also a Cardboard app.

The Go4d VR SpaceShip app has amazing views of the planet below. (Image by Maria Korolov.)

Not only does it have really amazing views of the planet below, as well as a little game element where you try to find objects, but the walking function is really nice and simple — just look down at your feet to start walking, and look down again to stop. The app automatically moves you forward in the direction you are looking.

For some added realism, try playing the add while standing up in the middle of a large empty room, and walking in step with your avatar!

But when I try to play that app, while it loads fine, it switches to the Daydream app whenever I put the phone into the headset.

To fix that, go to your Settings, the “Wireless & networks” section, and turn off NFC mode.

NFC setting screenshot. (Image by Maria Korolov.)

Just remember to turn it back on again when you want to play Daydream apps.

Enjoy!

Maria Korolov
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