Varjo Aero: Opinion

[dburne]

3 hours ago, Flim said:

What are your Nvidia settings?

I'm getting a clear pic... but this thing is not smooth. Distortion is pretty bad as well and this headset might be going back. 

 

Using a 3090 as well...

 

I changed my Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames to 2 instead of the default 1, seemed to help smooth things out some in the stuttering arena. Not really getting much in the way of distortion on my end, at least when flying. See a little in the menus. Did you do the swap top/bottom lens thing with the debug tool?

I also run with both HAGS and Game Mode on , seemed to help a little as well however this is on Windows 11. 

I will also add I am half blind, I do not have one side of my horizontal field of view so that could also affect how I see things I guess. The half I do see though I see fine and it is gorgeous. Another thing I especially love about this headset is the ability to just move my eyes rather than my head over all the instruments and be able to read them. That is pretty sweet.

 

Edited January 30, 2022 by dburne

[_Hoss]

On 1/19/2022 at 8:32 AM, tkcamp said:

Thanks, I have been kicking around the Aero also. Just about to retire wondering if I can afford it? . Although I will have more time to fly

 

I thought that too, I play even less now.

[Supmua]

Been using the Aero as a PC monitor today, played a few hours of co-op Monster Hunter Rise which is a fast action game via Virtual Desktop app, and the experience is actually quite good once I turned off MSAA and software supersampling.  Virtual Desktop has brightness control and around 70% is my sweetspot for regular use.  There is also Bigscreen VR app which is free and even has sharpness, contrast and saturation adjustment but I find performance not as good for action games, it is superior for movie watching though as it has more image control.

[Flim]

We’ll, after a little work… I’ve smoothed out the headset. I had to re-install steam VR and reset the Aero. Running around 50fps consistently now, although still seeing jitter looking left and right, but looking forward is smooth. Currently, I’m still playing with all setting to figure out if butter smooth is even possible, or might need to wait for software updates. One thing for sure, everything is readable… mfds, cdu, looking distance, etc. Can’t beat how clear this thing is… basically a 4k monitor.

[dburne]

I will also tell you guys, the one thing you absolutely give up with this headset is vertical FOV. To get the headset best image clarity means wearing it kind of low on the face. This is great for being able to glance down and see those sharp clear instruments across the whole dash without moving the head one iota, but above your eyes you run out of FOV and must move your head up to see more above you in the sky. So beware of this and take it into account when considering spending this much on the Aero.

It would have been nice if it had a little better vertical FOV, but I guess that is part of the trade off to get that crisp clear awesome image. I have several hours in now in both IL-2 and DCS and have no regrets. But I am more of a how the image looks kind of guy - at least to me it means more than the FOV.

[Flim]

Agree, once it’s dialed in… pretty awesome, even watching YouTube or movies is great.

I would say have 2 base tracker stations though… only have one and definitely need 2 for accurate tracking.

[dburne]

 

And something that reviewer pointed out, if and when any of our flight sims offer support for foveated rendering and eye tracking, the Aero is already ready for it.

Edited January 31, 2022 by dburne

[Supmua]

My favorite accessories for the Aero so far:

-Headstrap with counter balance kit from my Vive Pro 2.  The headset is front heavy just look at its profile, so this helps with comfort significantly, and it makes it so I can wear the Varjo like a helmet without operating the front and back dial when removing or putting the headset back on.

-Linsoul kz zs 10 pro IEM with mic, one of the the best $50 I’ve spent on earbuds which gives sound quality similar to a $200 IEM.  It is not power hungry and works well with the Aero’s audio jack.

-JARMOR face pad replacement, also pulled from my Vive Pro 2 and it fits perfectly.  This helps me secure the headset’s correct position on my face to achieve the sweetspot for maximum clarity.

 

EDIT: the mic doesn’t work right out of the box on the Linsoul, need CTIA to OMTP adapter.

Edited February 1, 2022 by Supmua

[Brainfreeze]

11 hours ago, dburne said:

I will also tell you guys, the one thing you absolutely give up with this headset is vertical FOV. To get the headset best image clarity means wearing it kind of low on the face. This is great for being able to glance down and see those sharp clear instruments across the whole dash without moving the head one iota, but above your eyes you run out of FOV and must move your head up to see more above you in the sky. So beware of this and take it into account when considering spending this much on the Aero.

It would have been nice if it had a little better vertical FOV, but I guess that is part of the trade off to get that crisp clear awesome image. I have several hours in now in both IL-2 and DCS and have no regrets. But I am more of a how the image looks kind of guy - at least to me it means more than the FOV.

Funny I have not noticed any reduced V FOV ... wonder if maybe I hold it higher or just not very sensitive to it.   

Wanted to ask you... how much of your 3090's 24gb memory is DCS using?

[dburne]

3 hours ago, Brainfreeze said:

Funny I have not noticed any reduced V FOV ... wonder if maybe I hold it higher or just not very sensitive to it.   

Wanted to ask you... how much of your 3090's 24gb memory is DCS using?

 

I have no idea really, will see if I can check that out soon - and figure out how to do so lol.

[Brainfreeze]

15 minutes ago, dburne said:

 

I have no idea really, will see if I can check that out soon - and figure out how to do so lol.

FpsVR will tell you how much RAM and VRAM you have and how much is used

[dburne]

2 minutes ago, Brainfreeze said:

FpsVR will tell you how much RAM and VRAM you have and how much is used

Ok thanks, I have it but have never really tried using it.

 

[hannibal]

12 hours ago, Supmua said:

-Linsoul kz zs 10 pro IEM with mic, one of the the best $50 I’ve spent on earbuds which gives sound quality similar to a $200 IEM.  It is not power hungry and works well with the Aero’s audio jack.

-JARMOR face pad replacement, also pulled from my Vive Pro 2 and it fits perfectly.  This helps me secure the headset’s correct position on my face to achieve the sweetspot for maximum clarity.

i also use the Kz zs10... very nice. 

do you have a link to the face pad?

this time around i set visiblity to low instead of medium

it is jarring in multiplayer.

this headset requires beast of CPU GPU

at moment my steamVR video resolution for DCS is 80% steamVR world scale for DCS to 104%, DCS pixel density at 1.0, varjo base at defualt PPD, MSAA at 2x

a bit better, but missing the medium visibility

[Supmua]

3 hours ago, hannibal said:

i also use the Kz zs10... very nice. 

do you have a link to the face pad?

this time around i set visiblity to low instead of medium

it is jarring in multiplayer.

this headset requires beast of CPU GPU

at moment my steamVR video resolution for DCS is 80% steamVR world scale for DCS to 104%, DCS pixel density at 1.0, varjo base at defualt PPD, MSAA at 2x

a bit better, but missing the medium visibility

Just search for JAMOR Vive VR cover on Amazon.  Mine came with thinner and thicker pads (I prefer the thicker one).  Quest 2 custom pads also fit.

[j9murphy]

To get the "value" out of the aero with DCS do you need to have a 3090 and current gen CPU?  Is anyone using a 2080ti and 10th Gen intel CPU successfully?

[hannibal]

5 hours ago, j9murphy said:

To get the "value" out of the aero with DCS do you need to have a 3090 and current gen CPU?  Is anyone using a 2080ti and 10th Gen intel CPU successfully?

im using a 2080ti and 9700k.... its been ok single player.. multiplayer is unpredicable. im still playing around with settings.

[j9murphy]

19 hours ago, hannibal said:

im using a 2080ti and 9700k.... its been ok single player.. multiplayer is unpredicable. im still playing around with settings.

is your 9700k overclocked?  I run 5Ghz on all cores on mine. multiplayer is definitely harder on the CPU.

[hannibal]

2 hours ago, j9murphy said:

is your 9700k overclocked?  I run 5Ghz on all cores on mine. multiplayer is definitely harder on the CPU.

yep. mine o'c to 5ghz

[dburne]

I am now 5 missions into a Hornet campaign off the Super Carrier with the Aero. I have a hard time believing how truly gorgeous this sim is in VR with the Aero. But OMG it is.

[Brainfreeze]

27 minutes ago, dburne said:

I am now 5 missions into a Hornet campaign off the Super Carrier with the Aero. I have a hard time believing how truly gorgeous this sim is in VR with the Aero. But OMG it is.

  but what is that vram usage? 

[dburne]

6 minutes ago, Brainfreeze said:

  but what is that vram usage? 

 

Lol no idea - yet.

[Supmua]

Been messing around with Reshade 5.0 and it's great.  The popular CAS sharpening and Tonemap (Gamma/Exposure) filters have about 2ms negative effect on the frametime, but the Vibrance filter has literally none (on the frametime).  The Aero is already plenty sharp there's no need to increase sharpness, so Vibrance the best bang for the performance/fidelity ratio if used with DCS native gamma adjustment. making everything pop.  I was hoping to be able to use the SMAA filter to replace MSAA but no go, MSAA is still the best option in terms of shimmering reduction.

 

EDIT:  Found my new fav Reshade filter, it's lumasharpen.  This doesn't affect shimmering, and has very small cost to the frametime at 0.5ms.

 

Tips for folks that want to try Reshade 5.0:

-During installation, select DCS.exe from the \bin folder, choose DX 10/11/12 option.

-Reshade VR will only activate from SteamVR control bar, as it uses a different interface/runtime from 2D so bringing up 2D window option with HOME key will not work (it sorta will but no effect in VR).  Bring up SteamVR control bar (pressing system button on the controller) and click on Reshade icon to bring up the control window. 

-You can only pick filters in Performance mode, so click on that and pick the filter(s) you want.

-You can only adjust the filter parameters in non-performance mode, so unclick the performance mode to make adjustment.  Adjustment can only be done via VR controller, mouse input doesn't work.  You can input decimal numbers via pop-up keypad by doubleclicking the trigger button on the input sliders.

 

Recommended Reshade filters:

1. Vibrance.  My current setting is 0.15, this makes the overall image pop a bit but not too much.  Near zero effect on frametime.

2. Lumasharpen.  My current setting is 1.5.  This brings incredible amount of ground and distant detail with next to no effect on shimmering.  0.5ms negative effect on frametime.  

 

My current DCS settings:  this may change as I’m still messing around trying to find a good balance between performance and visual quality

-80% SteamVR per app setting, minimal difference in visuals vs 100% while much more economical in terms of frametime.

-cockpit res 1024, this headset deserves extra detail as it has enough resolving power to show it.

-MSAA 2X, to minimize shimmering and aliasing artifacts.

-high visibility and clouds, this is why we have the Varjo headset.

-medium water, found it to be good enough for me.

-low shadow, more life-like appearance inside the cockpit compare to flat.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Supmua

[Supmua]

Just got notification from FedEx that my replacement Aero is on the way (found a tiny debris embedded in the right lens which results in ~0.8 cm of blurriness in the visual field, only noticeable in bright scenes).  So, I will have access to 2 Aeros briefly which means a chance to do some quick hardware analysis via direct comparison between two different headsets.

[dburne]

1 hour ago, Supmua said:

Just got notification from FedEx that my replacement Aero is on the way (found a tiny debris embedded in the right lens which results in ~0.8 cm of blurriness in the visual field, only noticeable in bright scenes).  So, I will have access to 2 Aeros briefly which means a chance to do some quick hardware analysis via direct comparison between two different headsets.

 

Good deal!

[Supmua]

Apparently my replacement Aero is now waiting for me at home. Somehow they shipped overnight from Arlington, VA.  Wow didn’t expect it until next week, but I’ll take it.  I’m definitely going to inspect the lens very carefully this time.