VR is constantly getting more and more user friendly, and has gone from being an incredibly niche hobby to making its way into people’s homes. With options like the Eye Quest 2 (opens in new tab), VR is now wireless and doesn’t require a computer or previously positioned base stations to use. There are far fewer boundaries to VR than there have been previously, but one has continued to hamper the experience for me.
My eyesight is incredibly poor. Thankfully it’s still fairly rectifiable with glasses, but the lenses are thicker than the ocean – I’m talking seven Cs thick. They don’t play well with VR headsets and are always difficult to wear underneath. Plus they get absolutely ruined with scratches.
The purchasable mods for headsets were always too expensive, and not always available in what I needed. Plus my partner is also spectacled so we’d need at least two different kinds. At that price it was much cheaper for me to just buy the lightest pair of glasses I could find and have them as a designated VR pair. It’s still not a comfortable or elegant solution, which is why I’m so stoked about this great mod spotted by Hackaday.
Fellow glasses wearing VR enthusiasts rejoice, because it turns out modding your Oculus branded VR headset with prescription lenses is far easier than you think. These 3d printable lens adapters by Tanvach are designed to slot right into an Oculus Quest, Quest 2, or Rift S headset.
You can grab the printing files from Thingiverse (opens in new tab) as well as further instructions on how to mod your device. There are two sites listed to buy the lens adapters but at time of writing the prettygood3d (opens in new tab) link isn’t working and Etsy says it’s out of stock (opens in new tab). This is pretty fair given this print is actually from way back in 2019. Still it could be worth checking back a bit later, or finding a 3D printing place if you don’t have access to a printer of your own.
They’re also specially designed to fit these very budget friendly Zenni Round Glasses 550021 lenses (opens in new tab) at $10 USD. Tanvach also recommends getting the anti-reflective coating which will set you back a further $5, and if you’re like me you might also have to fork out extra for the thinner lenses. The site does world-wide shipping aside from a few locations so this isn’t just a hack for those in the US.
If you’re looking for other ways to improve your Oculus experience, it’s worth looking into accessories like the Elite Strap which can really help (opens in new tab). There are also software tools available, like this mod that allows you to boot the Quest straight into SteamVR (opens in new tab).