Twwhitey

Interesting that does look great! Is that “look down” pass through an option in the Base software? (ie you can toggle that one and off)? Anyhow once you’re able to get it to play nice with DCS I’d definitely start playing around with the XR marker functionality to see if I could mark out a cockpit shaped mask for the upfront cockpit displays… that’s the VR flight sim holy grail LOL thanks for posting your experience

That’s DEFINITELY promising to hear about the pass through functionality…. some real early reviews I saw online downplayed the image pass through image quality in the headset which was a concern but it would make sense that this was still a little early to make final opinions (with drivers and Base software still likely in a state of dev) A few months ago I watched some the Varjo developer videos on Youtube demonstrating how to setup custom masks in XR using their ‘Varjo Lab Tools” where you can create markers and tags in your XR environment to frame out where you want the VR image vs. where the pass through imagery should be displayed… using Chroma Key is another option (which I haven’t fully absorbed yet)… anyhow this was for the XR-3 but it looks like in your screenshots (#5) of the Varjo Base software Chromo Key and “Marker” setup is something you can toy with in Varjo Base once you figure out how to get DCS / Varjo to play nice with pass through tech…cool stuff I’ve been waiting for this headset to be released for non-business (retail users) so I’ll be eagerly subscribing to this thread to hear how it’s going, keep those of us who are interested posted on your progress!

Def looking forward to hearing your experience with this headset. I’m intrigued by the possibilities of the AR/pass through functionality and the build out/use of cockpit systems like the Winwing FA-18 MIP. Certainly expect that there’d be some compatibility and other issues to sort out in the short term

Good stuff thanks for the update. Much like yourself I’ll be very happy to be rid of WMR!

Indeed great review thanks for taking the time to post. I’m likely days away from placing an order myself so this just further reinforces my decision to go with the Aero. curious - have you read up on and/or tried the “Vertical Synchronization - Enabled - Fixed 45” option in Varjo Base? I’ve read on the forums here that it seemingly has a performance boost similar to running VR headsets at lower MHz (Ala the 60 MHz option on the G2 or the 72MHz option on the Crystal). I recently made the switch to 60MHz on the G2 - 60 fps is way easier to maintain than 90fps so I’m hopeful this “locked 45 fps” results in similar headroom to crank up some details yet avoid needing to use motion smoothing and the DLSS/DLAA options (and the artifacts/smearing those options introduce). Would be interested to hear your take if you try it… anyhow good stuff thanks for posting…

Same situation and setup for me as well… I’ve had the G2 since it was released and feel like I’m ready for an upgrade. Was intrigued by the Bigscreen option initially but based on all commentary sounds like Dynamic Foveated Rendering is a perf game changer so eye tracking in a next headset is a must. Leaning hard in the direction of the Aero despite the fact is I really despise the wiring a few base stations bring to the office/VR setup but it is what it is. I do have to admit it just seems like the Aero is a premium device that has by now had a few years now of real refinement in the Varjo Base software which is huge plus. I’d LOVE to go with the Pimax Crystal with the inside-out tracking (no base stations) but the whole battery thing, the clunky/bulky form factor and the Pimax reputation put me off… im also intrigued by the Somnium device and follow the news there but sounds like we’re months off from a release and you’ll likely have to deal with months of software & system refinement for such a new offering (not too mention it also require base stations so I’m not sure what the big upside would be in waiting). I will say I recently sucked it up and made the switch to the 60Mhz refresh rate in the G2 which wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought - I have zero issues with it at this point and maintaining 60fps with a 13900k/4090 (with no DLSS and no motion smoothing) is WAY easier so I’ve actually been able to crank up some options visually and render resolution which has honestly breathed some life back into the G2 for me…. But the 50% off Aero does beckon..

I'll give that try... that said my goal is to avoid needing motion reprojection (to eliminate the "ghosting") as well as now DLSS/TAA/DLAA (due to the "smearing"). Looks like I can get solid, unwavering 60fps, at 100%-105% OXR render resolution, MSAA 2x (to mitigate the "shimmering") over even the most densely packed cities on the Syria map. I run what I think are pretty spartan settings (NO shadows, NO cockpit illumination, MED textures, ultra clouds, high water, etc.) and still haven't been been able to do in the past until dropping the headset refresh rate to 60mhz but so far I love it.... I am curious if, now in the 2.9 world, there are any shaders or more specifically "haze reduction" mods out there that still work? I do find the brighter parts of the screens have a barely noticeable strobing effect at 60mhz which I think could be mitigated with a nice mod application but not sure if the "Kegetys" stuff I was using before is even an option now. Anyhow.. trade offs trade offs trade offs... shimmering vs. stuttering vs. ghosting vs. strobing vs. smearing... pick your poison... EDIT: Regarding the "haze" reduction I found the "sunglasses" setting in the OXRTK... the "Lite" setting works great at dulling the haze... very cool

Interesting on the quad views thing I’ll give that a try. Just yesterday I did an hours worth of tinkering using the OXRTK FFR and saw minor improvement but also some wonkiness with motion reprojection kicking in all the time (in scenarios when it definitely wasn’t required) so I abandoned it. I’ll give it a go one thing I did try (which I thought I might have seen you were a proponent in the past) was setting the G2 refresh rate to 60mhz. It wasn’t nearly the flickering mess I was expecting and maintaining 60fps - even after jacking up the render resolution to 100% - isn’t an issue on the 13900k/4090 config… might stick with that option going forward but that’s probably another personal preference thing too…

>> I'm seeing anywhere from 60 fps to 80 fps with really solid visuals. I see a lot of people talking about performance like this - doesn’t 60-80 fps introduce noticeable stuttering on the G2 when you are getting anything less than 90fps? (assuming you’ve set the refresh rate of the headset to 90mhz and have motion reproduction turned off)? My experience has always been if I fly low level/fast over a densely packed area (Beirut/Damascus on the Syria map for instance) if the frame rate drops to ANYTHING below 90fps and the experience starts to stutter until the scene lightens up. so my understanding was that you need to adjust settings in order to maintain 90fps AND/OR enable motion smoothing/reprojection to cover those “lows”. Or.. just live with occasional stuttering. Am I missing something?

Got it thank you!

Interesting @dburne I’ve never tried this myself. Mind if I ask how/where you “set” your frame rate to 45 fps? I did a quick DCS forum search and some mention doing it nVidia settings, some mention a setting in autoexec.cfg and I thought I recalled there might be a way to do it in the OpenXR toolkit. Or is this a Varjo Base setting?

At the risk of being one of those "early" commenters post update I can tell you I'm already 100% impressed with the update. 4090/13900K/HP G2 user here and I can say that DLSS has had a major positive impact for me. Let me explain - I use the F-16/Syria/Free Flight as my stress test and once in ship make a beeline to fly right over Beirut ~500AGL.... previously once you get over Beirut using MSAA 2x would be a slide show (using OpenXR 75% render resolution) - motion smoothing would smooth it out but was 100% required to do so as there was no way to maintain 90fps. Just now running that same mission, same test with DLSS set to quality or balanced I'm able to keep it 90fps and that's bumping the RR up to 85%... pretty amazing and the shimmering? all but gone as far as I can tell.. massive improvement there. High Textures, Ultra clouds, etc. Pretty awesome and I'll admit I've been an unhappy customer with the last year of updates (including Multithreading which seemingly ran WORSE for me) as they've done literally nothing to improve performance to me... this is an OBVIOUS improvement. Initial reaction? is DLSS perfect? no, I notice a slight about of ghosting/blurring around fast moving objects or stationary objects you're screaming past but not nearly as bad as "bad" motion smoothing... noticeable but barely so. I'm pretty ecstatic as that particular stress test has been unbeatable for me... DLSS is for real I think. Note that I appears it only works with OpenXR though (not sure if that's written anywhere)... firing up the single-threaded version with SteamVR/OpenVR all the AA and Upscaling options except for MSAA are greyed out... so it appears that SteamVR/OpenVR is now dead dead for us hold outs... still this makes the multi-threaded exe and OpenXR absolutely usable and much much improved for me.. hope it is for the rest of the population... if so ED has a winner here

Indeed... good find... some intriguing settings in the mix... where's the video discussing these at this point!

Ok great thanks gents - I was hoping a pair of controllers wasn’t a required expense that would largely sit unused in a box in the closet… cheers

Follow up questions for you owners out there…are hand controllers required? Not necessarily for in-game/cockpit use but I’ve found that sometimes I’m forced to fire up a G2 controller when I’m stuck in a WMR or SteamVR menu… it’s rare but happens. Do you guys all have controllers? I’m cool dropping 2x$149 for two 2.0 base stations but throwing Index controllers on top of that we’re getting back into the $2k all-in range which initially put me off the Aero. are controllers required for anything even if not planned for use in games? I don’t have any plan to play room scale or non-seated sims….

Right on - noted… I was planning on getting 2 just to be safe… this thread has certainly reinforced that direction… thanks

Thanks @dburne . I have to admit I’ve paid particular attention to your commentary and experience with the Aero as I think your simming/VR goals are seemingly similar to mine so I appreciate your input. It appears that on top of the enhanced technology the Aero introduces (above and beyond that of the G2) the new DFR functionality is a real game changer so with the 50% cost reduction and the lack luster competition I’m inclined to make the jump at this point… thanks again

Add me to the list of current G2 owners toying with the Aero upgrade now that they are 50% cheaper. Question for you long time Aero owners… how many base stations do you really need? Is it really 2? I’m not a huge fan of the additional wires and buzzing they bring into play but I ask because I don’t have a great room setup for multiple base stations. I have a shelf at my immediate 11 o’clock (if I’m seated at my desk aka “sim pit”) and another shelf at my 6-7 o’clock behind me so I’m a little worried about tracking if I’m looking to my 3-4-5 o’clock. Should that be something of a concern on my end in your opinion?

This is exciting to hear… my 13900K system which was built largely for and only really used for DCS has been demonstrating this exact behavior without fail in MT since day 1. I submitted DCS logs, etc. way back but this issue never seemed to gain any traction so I’ve pretty much given up on MT… will be very interested to hear what the SME team member has to say… if you need another volunteer for logs etc let me know… thank you @BIGNEWY

Sure thing. So I ran (3) scenarios using the Syria, F-16 Free Flight Instant Action mission and included the logs for each below. Scenario 1: Multithread exe; no processor affinity settings (see dcs_MT_Ecores_Syria_F16_FF.log); you'll see the issue with most of the E-cores seemingly getting the bulk of use Scenario 2: Multithread exe; processor affinity set using Process Lasso (see dcs_MT_PCores_Only_Syria_F16_FF.log); so in this scenario I used Process Lasso to assign just the P-Cores (CPU #0-#15) to DCS.exe and you'll see at least the preferred cores are in use... I'm still not convinced doing this means that MT is working as it should though. Scenario 3: SINGLEthread exe; no processor affinity settings (see dcs_ST_Syria_F16_FF.log); no big takeaways here except looking at the frametimes between MT (left) and ST (right) the MT frametimes come with a lot of spikes that get worse as you approach dense areas of the map (i.e. Beirut)... not sure what's the cause of that... Multithread frametimes Singlethread frametimes Not sure what to takeaway from all this other than the multithreaded release after 2 patches has been a bit of a letdown for this VR user. The hope was the multithreading would allow for flying over dense areas like Beirut or Damascus without having to rely on motion smoothing/reprojection and in my experience I see zero difference between ST and MT in that respect (and this with an i9-13900K/4090/64GB/HP G2 system with what I think are relatively conservative DCS graphics settings in a free flight mission). Settings below for reference... dcs_MT_Ecores_Syria_F16_FF.log dcs_MT_PCores_Only_Syria_F16_FF.log dcs_ST_Syria_F16_FF.log

I have the same experience on my i9-13900K (in VR using OpenXR and a HP Reverb G2, Win10). As you’ve stated “still” is my experience as well… This was an issue with the initial MT release and appears unchanged in this release.

Interesting… that’s my identical setup as well.

Just adding my dcs.log and dxdiag into the mix as well (see attached) Ran this using the DCS MT executable Syria F-16 Free Flight using OpenXR on a HP Reverb G2 with NONE of my usual background stuff running (Voiceattack/VCP, Simshaker/SSA, ProcessLasso). I'd be really curious to know what the CPU utilization table (p-cores/e-cores usage) looks like when it's working properly... Edit: Note I'm also experiencing the issue where the ST dcs.exe runs OpenVR>>SteamVR (which is my preference and how I've been running it for years) but the MT dcs.exe seemingly only runs OpenXR... (wouldn't mind a fix for that too) DxDiag.txt dcs.log

yep thanks! ... ironically enough I was scrolling through my start menu and saw HW monitor in the list.. I don't recall installing that it might come with one of the benchmark apps I installed previously... HWMonitor got me what I needed... All that said, I can confirm I'm seeing the wonky (all) E-core/(1) massively overloaded P-core issue on my i9-13900K.. this was taken 30 seconds into the F-16 Instant Action Free Flight in Syria. 181% P-core(0) usage!

Out of curiousity... what tool are you using to show this utilization above?