Supmua

According to a YouTuber who’s been testing the prototype the FOV is very similar to the Reverb G2. I think the microOLED + pancake lenses combination is what’s limiting the FOV. Personally I think I’m done with the headsets with large form factor, and I still think HMD with OLED screens is the way to go. Unfortunately none of these upcoming headsets check all the boxes, this one being fixed IPD and faceplate. MicroOLED screens aren’t cheap so don’t expect anything similar to Reverb or Quest 2 price-wise. Even the PSVR2 is said to be sold below manufacturering cost, and that is pretty much the best VR deal considering it comes with the controllers that look to be more ergonomic than the Valve Index controllers.

Bigscreen - Bigscreen Beyond (bigscreenvr.com) Another upcoming OLED VR headset from the creator of Bigscreen VR desktop app. SteamVR platform. Specs are very similar to Panasonic with 2560x2560 dual screens (probably using exact same Kopin OLED panel) except this is cheaper. They will provide custom faceplate/cushion based on the 3D scan of your face, including specific IPD support range 58-72mm which means the IPD might not be adjustable--might not be a good thing.

The MeganeX is $1699 while the Somnium VR1 will be “cheaper than the Aero”. I wouldn’t expect the Somnium HMD anytime soon though, it’s a lot easier to show specs and prototype unit but to actually make a completely finished product that is consumer ready in mass quantity is a different ballgame. The MeganeX was supposed to be ready last year, and then it wasn’t. It’s crazy how we are still lacking affordable next gen PCVR headsets after all these years, and it’s not like we don’t have the technology to make it happen. Slap a DP connection on the Pico 4, for example, and it’ll likely become the goto PCVR headset for mass as the resolution is great, pancake optics are much better than fresnel, form factor is modern enough, pricing is great, etc.

Recently got a hold of this one. It's a pretty neat trackpad and mini-keyboard combo. The buttons are fixed and the trackpad press acts as Mouse 4 rather than Mouse click (can be remapped with external mouse programs). There's also a mouse scrollwheel at the bottom of the pad. I bought this to play fps games but found it to work quite well with DCS when place on my left thigh. It is quite light and the build quality is so so but for the price ($50) it's not bad. I find it pretty nifty to have with DCS as my mouse setup is to the right of joystick. With this I can keep my right hand on the stick and use the left hand to operate the trackpad and extra buttons.

I think of SteamVR as a platform, even though it was initially conceived with OpenVR, it now supports various VR runtimes (OpenVR, OpenXR, Oculus). I sometimes saw as high as 23.1 GB with my 4090 (Apache/Marianas), I think the number at least partially depends on your resolution and graphic settings.

I’m not sure they changed much (after the hotfix update). The default DCS output is back to OpenVR runtime which is the same as before. I’d love for OpenXR to be the default runtime so we don’t have to deal with the command line and DCS shortcut, but it is what it is.

I doubt it. You don’t really need quad view for the Aero which only has dual screens especially for gaming purpose. No other games output quad view (on the Aero) like DCS, none.

AR/XR seems to be what large tech companies betting on these days including Meta, Samsung, Apple, Google, etc., and I think that’s the next logical step or evolution for VR headsets. Companies that are just focusing on VR products will be left behind unless they have strong ecosystem with software support and user base (Sony). We might still see future headsets from HP but I think they’re more likely to be AR/XR which I think of as VR HMD with extra functionality.

Works fine with my setup, just flew a 25 min flight in MSFS VR with this mod.

This smells like disconnection issue between headset and PC, but at what level? software vs hardware?. Best leave it to Varjo's tech support. I tested NVIDIA Resizable Bar option. Unfortunately, no change in performance seen with DCS--at least on my rig. But since it increases performance in a lot of non-VR games I'm leaving it on.

OXRTK yes but for other reasons such as post processing, fixed foveated rendering, performance tracking, etc. In general you want to lock to the framerates that are within the multiplication factors of your headset’s frequency (1:2, 1:3, 1:4, etc.). The Varjo Aero is fixed at 90 Hz refresh, so you would want to lock at 45, or 30 for gameplay smoothness if you cannot hit 90.

Nice. I don’t have any twitching or tracking issues with any of the OpenXR routes. I do notice Steam OpenVR stuttering when approaching multiple black smokes at High preset though (F-16 Caucasus free flight). Next test is NVIDIA ReBar to see if there’s tangible performance gain (supposed to speed up texture/shaders/geometry transfers CPU-GPU especially if you have high VRAM). May need to enable it in BIOS (Advanced/PCI Subs/4G on, ReBar on, Boot/CSM off) as well as NV Inspector (choose Battlefield V profile in 0x000FF00BA, 0x000FF00BB, 0x000FF00FF Unknown sections).

If you don't see disconnected message then I'm afraid it might not be the issue. One of the things you could also try is download USBlogview and run that with DCS or just leave it on. This can help diagnose USB peripheral issues. USBLogView - Records the details of any USB device that is plugged or unplugged into your system (nirsoft.net) Also. Observations on Varjo's motion smoothing. It works perfectly only if you look outside the cockpit, even at 30 fps. With this on the ground objects remain sharp and smooth with flyby, however the cockpit suffers from image retention artifacts with headset's movements. If Varjo can fix this we'll be all set.

I've gone through 2 Aeros and both of them have loose USB connection at the headset socket (left compartment) but fixable after cable twist. Have you tried twisting the USB cable 180 degree before plugging it back into the headset to create extra tension? Was there any disconnected message in VB when the problem occurred?

With OXRTK, Fixed foveation works. Eye tracking foveation has some issues with the Aero especially the right eye. Quest Pro currently doesn’t support PCVR eye tracking (only mobile).

A bit of observations with OpenXR Toolkit 1.2.4--with both native Varjo OpenXR and Steam OpenXR. Fixed foveated rendering wide/quality seems to reduce GPU frametime by 0.5ms. This might be great in situations where you need to hit the target fps (90 or 45, etc.) but can't quite get there due to GPU bottleneck. No obvious visual degradation seen, most likely in the very outer edge of FOV. So this might be the reason why you would want to use OXRTK since it will increase GPU performance by a bit. One good example for this use case is F-16 Freeflight Marianas at high preset, this map will crush every GPU out there at High settings in VR. Using FFR allows me to maintain GPU frametime below 22ms hence smooth 45 fps (Vsync locked) when flying over densely populated areas. I'm not sure if sharpening works (NIS/FSR/CAS), don't see obvious changes in ground detail even at max 100%. In comparison with OpenVR/Reshade 5 lumasharpen, the ground detail popped right away when I toggled that on. Frametime numbers obtained are slightly different from fpsVR especially CPU.

That's a strange issue and I have no idea but don't think it's related to the HMD. Have you tried powering on the HMD before the monitor itself? I would check with Samsung monitor forum, Reddit, etc. to see if there are other owners with similar issues.

Yes if you already have basestation and controller from the VP2 then you only need the headset swap. The next thing to do is uninstall all the Vive apps because the old settings might interfere with the Aero.

Mark, it’s a SteamVR platform with external tracking so you need at least one basestation (they recommend V2 but V1 worked fine for me when I had it). You’ll also need a controller or two (either Vive Wand or Valve Index controller) for SteamVR operation. Also, do not buy Basestation or controllers from Varjo. Buy from Steam/Valve, cheaper.

Yes via controller. Unfortunately the Aero doesn’t have SteamVR system button functionality on the headset (can be added though). I did ask for this functionality in the Discord feedback but it’s prob very low on their priority list or they’re just trying to become independent from SteamVR.

Glad to hear it’s working well for you. There’re currently several ways to run DCS VR and it doesn’t hurt to explore them all. I’m sticking with Steam’s OpenXR for now though because Steam Overlay is huge for me for quick access to Web or Chat box while gaming without taking off my headset.

Try fpsVR to track performance too if you have it.

Diff APIs so you might have to double check the rendering res to make sure it’s what you want. I just leave everything at 100%

--force_enable_VR is not needed if you already have VR option on in DCS setting. Mine is always on but it's really up to you.

Yes, you're already using Steam's OpenVR. The only diff is that you'll be using Steam's OpenXR instead. So make the change on Steam so it is the default route for OpenXR intead of Varjo, but also change the DCS.exe command line from --force_steam_VR to --force_OpenXR. I think Steam disables OpenXR Quad view automatically, it does this with OpenVR and this is why we've been using OpenVR via Steam (instead of default Varjo's OpenVR) with force command line. Remember Steam can do both OpenVR and OpenXR, you just have to specify it in the setting.