Varjo Aero

Zeeflyboy said:
So Varjo has a new consumer facing headset, the Aero.

Looks like mini led displays (2880x2720 per eye… 35ppd), aspheric lenses (little to no glare/god rays and better clarity), eye tracking and auto IPD… FoV allegedly 115 degrees.

No built in audio, but does come with earphones. :(

Lighthouse tracking, but if you don’t already have lighthouses and controllers you can add that to the purchase price.

price for just the headset a cool $2000


review from MRTV:



Through the lens comparison with G2 (doesn’t look a whole lot different from this imo so look forward to more reviews because through the lens is after all only part of the story).


I knew it would be pricey, but how ouch. Who here is going to buy one?

Full launch event in a couple of hours from Varjo themselves.

Edit - product page https://aero.varjo.com/product/varjo-aero/
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Wow, the G2 looks better. And the Varjo colors looks like a $50 VR headset. Why did they use such a bad screen?
 
I don’t think there is any doubting it’s a substantial improvement over the G2 in some areas such as clarity - there is far too much consensus for it to be anything but… through the lens can be misleading and only gets you so far, hence all the disclaimers.

Re distortions I’ve seen a lot of claims that your brain adapts and after a few hours use you most likely won’t notice them unless actively looking for it… will be interesting if that holds true for the lucky few that are getting one in this thread.

For me after digesting some reviews and feedback I’m of much the same opinion I was before that it’s going to be a great headset but not worth the upgrade from the G2 for me personally at that price point.

I need a few more boxes ticked before I’ll stump up that sort of cash, so will be waiting to see what this year brings. Personally I either want more (eg micro OLED, varifocal, built in audio, higher fidelity wireless options - be it 6E or wigig2 based, bigger FoV) or better price at the Aero’s feature set.
 
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Vega said:
I've sent the diagnostic data. I also made a video of what I'm seeing through the headset:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgdDZdyge3g.
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hey Vega. Thanks for posting. I'm loving the Aero in a few sims namely IL-2 and DCS. I have the same judder as you and it is most prominent in MSFS when turning my head, although I get it in the VB software too on the desktop and if I play a video too.

Did you get a response from Varjo?
Cheers
 
MrPix said:
hey Vega. Thanks for posting. I'm loving the Aero in a few sims namely IL-2 and DCS. I have the same judder as you and it is most prominent in MSFS when turning my head, although I get it in the VB software too on the desktop and if I play a video too.

Did you get a response from Varjo?
Cheers
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Ya, they basically said they don't know what the problem is and I'm sending the headset back. I cannot deal with that judder.
 
My aero arrived today and 1st impressions are really good, the distorsion i perceive is the outer 10% on the periphery where i dont usually look anyway (it warps slightly). Clarity compared to quest 2/G2/pimax is truly next gen. Setup took 5 mins. Comfort is good. No audio of course but in the hour i used it i was that into just looking at the display i never bothered hooking up my headphones lol.
 
lokiss said:
Any more? Genuinely interested, more so with the performance. The stickler isn't so much the price, it's the 3-4 month wait time and the knowhow it'd only be for ACC.
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Yeah i'm very impressed with it, the display is a noticeable step up in resolution from all my previous hmds (G2/8kx etc). Not just that though, the colours are vibrant and its bright. Performance wise its getting me a bit more fps than the 8kx that came before it. From reading around it gives about the same fps or maybe a little better than a G2 in msfs.

I waited 9 weeks, i pre-ordered from systemactive who told me i'd wait 12-16 weeks. Yeh 2k is a lot for 1 game but if u spend a lot of time in that game then....there's a channel in the varjo gamers discord dedicated to ACC, here's an invite https://discord.gg/GcNgYCSc

Downsides?
Discovered yesterday i have a dead pixel. Varjo support responded to my email within 30 mins, they're swapping my Aero out, but i get to keep my original Aero to use until i receive a replacement. Can't complain.

I don't have ACC but do have AC, in AC the visual step up is not as big as in some games, i thinks its because its a 2013 (?) game with 2013 textures. Automobilista 2 and Project Cars 2 the visual step up is more obvious with them being newer games with higher quality textures, it might be the same with ACC.

It's not 4 times better than a G2 but it is noticeably better display wise. The sweetspot is much larger.

I'd have no hesitation recommending the Aero to someone who really values the display. You get 14 day no quibble refund so if u don't gel with it...
 
Cheers for the discord hook up, i'll idle for a while and monitor the chatter.

You're right about the one game, the thing you do. The only way i would justify the purchase is on the same premise as the graphics card, or the direct drive i keep eying up purely for ACC. I know for a fact the higher you go with a native res the better the unreal engine games look in VR. Many games from simple stuff like Ragnarok and Golf it to the more complex ACC and The Forest are night and day unbelievably much better visually on the G2 compared to the Index, far much more than the numbers suggest in terms of pure resolution. I have zero doubt in my mind that raising the bar up again will carry that ideal forward with the Aero.

But.. here's the thing. Over the last year i've been running ACC maxed at 100% in steamvr on the G2, the only way to achieve it is to lock it down to 45 frames. Visually great, smooth and fast, feels immense, dream land until i hit a wall. Looking for answers after doing seemingly everything right i got wondering if the 45 frames were hurting me for that precious 1/1.5's i was off a lot of the time compared to my peers. Chance bestowed that i was using the Index before deciding i felt like a quick race last week, and the rest being history in finding out that it was a problem at 45. Using the Index does me 90 on the same in game settings but obviously it's a huge leap down visually, the trade off being that one second with a smoother ride in to every corner puts me on a par with a good field.

That's the thing, no doubt the Aero will blow me away, but can it be scaled to still maintain the looks on investment, and run ACC at 90 frames. I find myself in the same boat as a lot of people looking at either buying in to VR for the first time or upgrading to something better, the try before you buy scenario. If it wasn't for the unique set of circumstance id just buy one, but for everything, the wait time and the unknown reveals coming it's difficult to do so.

Thanks for the write up and the link anyway, much appreciated.
 
^ np
Yeh even if the cost isn't a problem its still hard to justify if u have any doubts about anything. Heck I was posting early on ITT about its price and lack of wireless and audio. But for me atleast visual quality is my no.1 priority in a hmd, and thats what u pay for with the aero. Seeing this display has made me more excited about future hmd's.
 
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Just wondering how close the Index 2 etc are going to get to this for pure visuals. Currently using an Index and mainly playing sim racing titles and it has some issues.
 
DanF said:
Just wondering how close the Index 2 etc are going to get to this for pure visuals. Currently using an Index and mainly playing sim racing titles and it has some issues.
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Index looks great if you supersample. Most of the racing sims are also pretty demanding so even at Index resolution you have to drop some of the settings down. Would be nice to have a higher resolution Index 2 with almost no SDE though, as that's always the most noticable effect of the lower resolution.
 
Ravenger said:
Index looks great if you supersample. Most of the racing sims are also pretty demanding so even at Index resolution you have to drop some of the settings down. Would be nice to have a higher resolution Index 2 with almost no SDE though, as that's always the most noticable effect of the lower resolution.
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thing with higher resolution is being able to drive it, you could take a 3090Ti and still not get anywhere near close to maxing out a G2, Vive Pro 2, 8KX or Aero in fact I'm going to suggest even the next-gen AMD 7950XT RDNA 3 won't achieve that

much of that is down to the games themselves of course, DCS is still famously single-threaded, MSFS runs like a retired donkey and Elite Dangerous just can't seem to get to grips with its engine

I've had VR for almost a year now and its been quite amazing on what is possible but also where the gaps still are
 
I've got a 3900x and a 3090FE, and I can't max out the more demanding games in VR, running at 150%ss which is what's needed to get a good image out of the Index.

Generally it's the VR conversions rather than native titles that are the most demanding.
 
Dynamic Foveated Rendering, like what's in the upcoming psvr2 and pimax 12k and is already in the varjo's is supposed to help out a lot with data throughput at high resolutions.
 
tyke_ said:
Dynamic Foveated Rendering, like what's in the upcoming psvr2 and pimax 12k and is already in the varjo's is supposed to help out a lot with data throughput at high resolutions.
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I really hope so, and that's its all handled at the driver layer because you can't rely on PC games developers to do it.
 
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