Varjo today announced Aero; while it’s the company’s most affordable headset yet, its $2,000 price point still limits its to businesses and wealthy enthusiasts. But with stunning clarity its sure going to be a dream headset for VR simmers who aren’t afraid to trade cash for immersion.

Varjo Aero is a pared down version of the company’s high-end enterprise headsets, notably without the ‘bionic display’ which gave the headset retina resolution at the center of the field-of-view. Even without the novel bionic display, Aero still offers stunning clarity (claimed to be 35 PPD) that’s beaten only by the company’s more expensive headsets. You can read up on the Aero’s announcement and release date here; let’s start with the full specs below:

Varjo Aero Specs

Resolution 2,880 x 2,720 (7.8MP) per-eye, mini-LED LCD (2x)
Refresh Rate 90Hz
Lenses Aspheric
Field-of-view (claimed) 134° diagonal, 115° horizontal (at 12mm eye-relief)
Optical Adjustments IPD (automatic motor driven)
IPD Adjustment Range 57–73mm
Connectors USB-C → breakout box (USB-A 3.0, DisplayPort 1.4)
Cable Length 5m
Tracking SteamVR Tracking 1.0 or 2.0 (external beacons)
On-board cameras 2x eye-tracking
Input None included (supports SteamVR controllers)
Audio 3.5mm aux port
Microphone None (supports external mic through aux port)
Pass-through view No
Weight 487g + 230g headstrap with counterweight

Varjo Aero Review

Before we dive in too deep, let’s take a look at where the Varjo Aero fits into the landscape of similar headsets from a price standpoint:

Varjo Aero Vive Pro 2 Reverb G2 Valve Index
Headset Only $2,000 $800 $500
Full Kit $2,580 $1,400 $600 $1,000
* includes MSRP of Index controllers and 2x SteamVR Tracking base stations

To date Varjo’s headsets have been best known for their ‘bionic display’ system, which actually uses two displays per-eye, a large display to cover a wide field-of-view, and a smaller inset display with high pixel density which offers genuine retina resolution (60+ PPD) in the center of the headset’s field-of-view.

Varjo Aero does away with the smaller display and looses its true retina resolution, but even with just its large display it still retains a whopping 35 PPD and leading clarity over all non-Varjo headsets on the market.

Clarity

Photo by Road to VR

It wasn’t long ago that we saw the release of Vive Pro 2 and Reverb G2, with resolutions of 2,448 x 2,448 (6MP) and 2,160 × 2,160 (4.7MP), both of which have pretty impressive clarity.

And though Varjo Aero’s 2,880 x 2,720 (7.8MP) resolution doesn’t seem like that much more, it gets an extra clarity boost thanks to its aspheric lenses which all but eliminate glare and god-rays which are prevalent in other headsets.

With the right content, looking through the lenses of Varjo Aero feels like looking at the world with new eyes. Within minutes of donning the headset, I saw details in Half-Life: Alyx that I couldn’t even see on prior-generation headsets, like the textured tip of a screwdriver.

Captured by Road to VR

The clarity of the Aero is so crisp that it easily reveals content that isn’t up to par; for the first time in Alyx I immediately noticed that the game’s chain-link fences are actually completely flat, largely thanks to the headset’s increased resolving power which enhances stereoscopy (or lack thereof).

This also has an impact on presence—that feeling when your eyes are being tricked into believing that what’s in front of you is actually there. While playing Alyx with Aero, there were several rooms I walked into where I just had to stop and stare… when the lighting was just right, it felt like I was actually standing there in that place. It’s an incredibly powerful feeling that goes beyond mere immersion, and Aero seems to elicit it more easily than any headset I’ve tried before.

Beyond virtually eliminating ghosting and glare, Aero’s lenses also make for an incredibly large sweet-spot which means that most of the image stays sharp even when you rotate your eyes away from the center. This is an absolute relief from most other Fresnel headsets which have tight sweet-spots that make things look blurry even if you move your eyes just a bit.

Being able to read labels, gauges, and dials without zooming or centering your field-of-view is a boon to flight sims| Captured by Road to VR

While Aero has incredible clarity, it’s image isn’t without flaws; there’s two things preventing it from looking like a near-perfect image. The first is chromatic aberration (the separation of colors), which stood out to me right away, even before explicitly analyzing the headset’s image quality.

This is surprising because chromatic aberration is rarely an issue on other VR headsets as it’s easily corrected in software. Varjo is either doing a poor job with their chromatic aberration correction, or there’s something about the lenses that make it a greater challenge than with other headsets. Hopefully the former, which would mean that it could potentially be solved with a future software update.

The other issue with Aero’s image is distortion at the extreme edges of the field-of-view. It’s subtle enough that if you aren’t moving your head you won’t notice it, but as soon as you start moving you’ll notice it due to the sensitivity of peripheral vision to ‘motion’. Other headsets also correct for distortions in software, and with Aero, most of the image is distortion free; given that it’s just on the edges, I’m less hopeful that this could be fixed with a software update.

The distortion doesn’t feel like a deal-breaker, but it’s a bummer that it detracts from what would otherwise be a nearly pristine view.

Overall: Here’s the thing about Aero. It’s clarity and resolving power is beyond the fidelity of most VR content to date. There’s less than a dozen VR titles in existence with the visual chops to really make use of Aero’s fidelity. Upgrading to Aero from any recent generation VR headset isn’t going to mean much if you’re playing Beat SaberVRChat, or most indie VR titles; they simply weren’t authored with the necessary level of detail. But if you’re using a handful of applications where resolving power is crucial (like flight sims), Aero’s visuals will delight.

Field-of-View

Photo by Road to VR

Varjo quotes Aero’s field-of-view at “115° horizontal, 134° diagonal at 12mm eye-relief,” though my personal measurements fell well short of this, even when removing the facepad to get my eyes as close as possible. Here’s how it stacks up to recent headsets:

Personal Measurements – 64mm IPD
(minimum-comfortable eye-relief, no glasses, measured with TestHMD 1.2)

Varjo Aero Vive Pro 2 Reverb G2 Valve Index
Horizontal FOV 84° 102° 82° 106°
Vertical FOV 65° 78° 78° 106°

 

Personal Measurements – 64mm IPD
(absolute minimum eye-relief; facepads removed, no glasses, measured with TestHMD 1.2)

Varjo Aero Vive Pro 2 Reverb G2 Valve Index
Horizontal FOV 102° 116° 98° 108°
Vertical FOV 77° 96° 88° 106°

For such an expensive headset, the lack of eye-relief adjustment to maximize the field-of-view is a shame.

Even though the field-of-view is generally less than these other headsets, the large sweet-spot goes a long way toward making it feel larger than it is.

Similar to Vive Pro 2, the actual shape of the field-of-view doesn’t feel quite as round as some other headsets. Instead it feels slightly cropped vertically, a bit more at the bottom than the top.

IPD & Eye-tracking

Varjo Aero includes the company’s 200Hz eye-tracking solution which is paired with an automatic motor-driven physical IPD adjustment that ranges from 57–73mm.

When you put on the headset you’ll be asked to stare at a white dot at the center of the screen for a few seconds to calibrate both the eye-tracking system and your IPD. If the IPD needs to be adjusted, you’ll hear the headset make a little whirr sound as the lenses slide quickly and easily into position.

You can see a readout of the measurement through the Varjo software (mine was spot on), and you can even manually set the IPD if you’d like, in 0.5mm increments.

The eye-tracking system in Aero can also be used for foveated rendering to increase rendering performance, but it’s only supported in applications that make use of the Varjo SDK (which are few and far between).

With Aero likely to reach a wider audience than the company’s more expensive headsets, it’s possible we’ll start to see more applications adapted to support the Varjo eye-tracking system—the company claims it’s fairly straightforward for developers using Unity or Unreal Engine.

In my limited testing with foveated rendering in Aero, I found it to be effectively invisible; the only time I could notice that it was even active is if the eye-tracking wasn’t calibrated correctly.

Continue on Page 2: Displays, Audio, Tracking & Controllers »

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • XRC

    Great review, and glad you raised visual issues, lack of eye relief and no proper audio solution.

    Seems like a step backwards despite the resolution, especially considering the ridiculous price?

    • Jan Ciger

      It is not – it is not really meant for consumer market. This is more targeting the pro market where their high end uber-expensive headsets are out of the reach/hard to justify for most industrial R&D projects.

      Also, you don’t really have a headset within this class of performance that’s suitable for business use – a step up in visual quality over the Index, widely supported (G2 being a Windows headset is not really something that will work for business, given its non-existing ecosystem and going through Steam is another hassle), eye tracking. Those are all features squarely aimed at business users.

      And once you start talking business, then $2000 price tag or so is not a problem – have you looked how much is Oculus or HTC charging for their much inferior headsets when you buy their “for business” versions?

      • XRC

        Thanks for your informed reply. Perhaps the “Varjo for all” messaging wasn’t appropriate after all..

        • Bob

          Indeed. The phrase “Varjo for all” seems a bit misleading but marketing has got to do what marketing does.

          Personally speaking, and aside from the price, I’m not happy about the lack of eye relief and the field of view. It’s severely disappointing for a VR HMD released in the 2021 (five years on from the CV1 and the HTC Vive) even if the HMD itself is not squarely aimed at consumers. This is the one area where things have generally regressed in the name of sharper visuals and image clarity; at least for more experienced companies like Facebook/Oculus, and Varjo. Except in this case, you don’t get the smaller form factor of the Quest 2 and yet the FOV is essentially smaller. Eye tracking and the automatic IPD adjustment could have been removed in order to reduce this form factor and the weight further. And push down the price a bit more.

          No integrated audio solution is another major deterrent for even wealthy VR enthusiasts. With Valve Index being on the market for over two years now, you’d expect Varjo to follow suit with the floating ear speaker solution. They haven’t.

          So all in all, it appears that Varjo have taken the quickest and easiest route to get into the “consumer” space by essentially removing the bionic display and that really is about it. Despite still being an enterprise/business focused SKU, I feel like they could still have invested a little more time and effort into tailoring this headset to the wider market but instead they’ve essentially recycled and repurposed the VR-3 and slapped the phrase “Varjo for all” to gain maximum publicity. Disappointing.

        • Tabp

          What Varjo seems to be trying to do here is make the RTX 3090 of headsets. The 3090 is also explicitly a consumer product marketed to gamers, but in practice it’s for professionals who don’t need the official workstation lines and rich people who don’t care what it costs.

  • kontis

    I felt deja vu when reading about visual problems of these lenses.

    I remember when Oculus DK1 and DK2 were criticized and many experts were suggesting to mitigate these problems with Fresnels. Surprise, surprise, it’s all about trade-offs and Fresnels also have their advantages.

    • wheeler

      At least we can tell the subset of enthusiasts that are absolutely *outraged* about the use of fresnels (and that are convinced that all of the downsides of aspheric are worthwhile for everyone) to just buy the Aero

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Well, to me fresnel are really crap, they all have the awful godrays which can be very distracting.

      • Thud

        I agree. They’re a solution that introduces more problems than they solve.

    • Jistuce

      Honestly, I’d be okay with distortion and chromatic aberration. Lifetime with thick glasses makes this acceptable, even natural, for me.The artifacts fresnel lenses cause, by contrast, are obvious and distracting(though their size and weight advantage is a significant feature).

      But there’s apparently not much space for glasses in this one anyways, so… no good for me!

      • Charles Bosse

        I just wish they would make one where you could reasonably swap out lenses! I have made do with some after market “covers” but it would be nice if an OEM just offered some flexibility.

  • mellott124

    Nice. Surprised they dropped their high resolution inset display, as that is what makes their HMDs so unique. But that’s still an impressive resolution. I would assume they can fix the chromatic aberration and edge distortion issues. And I’m glad to read they didn’t ruin the resolution of their panels with bad optics like the Vive Pro 2.

    This isn’t a consumer HMD people where hoping for though. People complain of the Focus 3 price. On other Varjo HMDs there’s a yearly service fee. Didn’t see mention of that here.

    • kontis

      Microdisplays are very expensive. I’m more surprised that there are some enthusiasts expecting them to be available in sub $500 headsets. Maybe Facebook if they go even further with subsidizing, but don’t expect it from anyone else.

      • mellott124

        I understand they’re expensive but that’s just because no current major player has picked them up in volume. There have been plenty of past HMDs at the $500 price point with microdisplays. Kopin supplied a lot of those panels. Just not in this current wave of VR. I bought my first VFX1 for $600. I-glasses also come to mind. And plenty of Vuzix headsets. They’ll eventually come around. Question is when and at what resolution.

      • Thud

        True. The microdisplay subsystem was probably the most expensive part of the XR2.

  • wheeler

    Could the pupil swim be reduced with the eyetracking? Or is it a different kind of distortion?

    • Arashi

      yeah but Varjo said they’re not working on such solution. Really a shame since the eye tracker works great on my VR3, so they have everything in place to solve it …

      • Thud

        OpenVr may impliment something *someday*

  • Sam

    looses its true retina

    *loses :P

    • Rise_of_Chaos

      Was disappointed to see this error as well. Maybe time for a mental health evaluation for the road to vr guy.

      • Jesus, it’s a typo. If you think a person should get a mental evaluation for a single typo, maybe the pot is calling the kettle mentally inept.

        • Thats not a typo. Its one of a number of intentional misspellings used by morons on the internet, mostly kids. Using “Loose” instead of “lose”, there are quite a few of them. Mostly used by vermin on the internet as some kind of expression of their own thought, as if they don’t have to spell things right and can use form some type of primitive expression through a failure of the english language. They do it intentionally as a form of rebellion against western civilization. Much like the idea of multiple genders etc, along those lines of idiocy.

  • grindathotte .

    I got to the bit where it mentioned lack of eye relief adjustment, then moved on.

  • TeddyLoo

    I was super stressed out wanting to buy this after MRTV/VR FlightSIM youtube reviews. Thank you RoadtoVR for side-by-side FOV compares. You’ve just saved me $2,000.

    For that amount of money integrated headphones or at least speakers. And yes, vertical FOV is important for immersion as well. I’ll manage to hold off until Valve, HP, or Pimax release their next generation of headsets. I may even have purchased this at $1,000 or below but at $2,000 this has to be a headset that I put on not longing for anything any of the other headsets can give me. Ironically the Facebook post a few days ago with their ‘retina’ screen prototype suggests that those other companies may not be far off as well.

    • Bob

      Considering Pimax’s history with disappointing product announcements and launches, I don’t have high hopes for whatever they intend to announce on the 25th October. Save yourself stress, and expect the worse ;)

      • Rogue Transfer

        Nothing has been confirmed for FRL, apart from a recap of their research to date. Nearly all their prior prototypes(and their tech) failed to make it into a consumer product.

        So, I wouldn’t be looking too foward to what might be another disappointment from Facebook Connect. But, here’s hoping the rumours turn into something that actually does become a product and not just another empty hype for a “next generation” that kept being put off. And something that isn’t just a small improvement over their prior stuff. Though, even some small improvements at the low end, mass market, would be welcome to raise the bar more.

        • Bob

          FRL is responsible for all related XR hardware coming from Facebook. Oculus is simply a brand name for a family of products.

          Not all information is unveiled to the public through the FRL website, and you’d bet that some of the R&D they’ve been working on, for what appears to be a very long time, will be revealed in an actual product at next week’s conference. At least one of their prototypes would have made it to the production line especially if you take into consideration the fact that next year is the heavily rumored announcement and possible launch of Apple’s XR device. Facebook obviously wouldn’t want to fall behind and lose face from the competition so they have the urgency to put out a highly competitive and “bleeding edge” product. This so-called product would potentially be the culmination of some of the work they’ve been grinding on for many years now involving Varifocal lenses, and eye tracking although not everything at once. There’s a very high chance that at least eye tracking will be on the list.

          We’re also heading into 2022 which I personally believe is the year that companies move out of hiding, and begin to integrate technologies coming off hot from the R&D oven with Valve a very likely candidate to launch their next generation VR device.

          So yes, expectations should be tempered but at the same time it’s also not too much to expect be hopeful about things especially after so many years of R&D effort.

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    • Charles Bosse

      I absolutely agree that, compared to the Reverb G2 or Vive Pro 2 this feels like a $1000 headset, and not a $2000 one. I mean, it also sounds like it has better actual optics, which would be nice to see in other headsets, but it’s not an extra $1000 nice.

      I will say that this article almost sold me on the Vive Pro 2, especially knowing it has some integrated signal compression that might make hi-res wireless a reality. I think I’ll wait on the Index 2 (or whatever it gets called) to at least be announced first though.

      • Kevin Brook

        Yikes, the Vive Pro 2 is the worst headset I have ever used. I bought it as a high end upgrade over my Quest 2 but the Quest 2 was actually the better headset. The Vive Pro has a fantastic display, but they have paired it with the worst lenses I’ve ever had the misfortune to look through. Godrays and glare everywhere. There is no real clarity as the binocular overlap is so low the view is on the verge of separating into two. If you move your eyes around the view splits into views, it’s incredibly jarring. Going back to the Quest 2 felt like the upgrade.
        In the end I sent the Vive Pro 2 back and got a Reverb G2, which visually at least, is far superior, despite the lower resolution panel.

        It really shows that displays are o ly half the story, you need good lenses. In theory this should make the Aero much, much, much better than the Vive Pro 2 visually.

        I’m on the fence about buying one. I’m a massive Microsoft Flight Simulator user so I fit the niche audience, but it’s a lot to shell out…

        • Charles Bosse

          That’s good to hear. I think I’ll stick it out with my Index a bit longer.

  • Andrew Jakobs

    it’s the lenses that are what interests me, as I get really fed up with the ugly fresnel lenses and it’s godrays. Hope other manufacturers will use the type of lenses varjo is using. Such lenses on a Quest 2 would be excellent.

  • Thud

    @Ben Lang; Did you measure or notice any improvement in performance when foviated rendering was active?

  • Justin Davis

    “a much more affordable headset like Reverb G2 is going to be a way more sensible option for 99% of individuals that are after maximum clarity.”
    Disagreed. I had it, and it was only clear in a small area in the center. The rest was blurry. I prefer Index.

  • Bradley Gaffney

    Folks, the retina displays were dropped because you then need a gpu that can render 4 2700 displays at 90hz, which isn’t feasible for most gaming rigs. They explained it in the presentation.

    • XRC

      Please correct me if wrong, the retina display didn’t work in SteamVR, but required special applications (enterprise) with Varjo SDK integrated?

    • VRFriend

      These were never retina displays. Only marketing. Retina is 600 mega pixels.

      • guest

        Yeah, and that’s just characterizing cones and rods in digital terms. They are more like analog sensors so the true retina resolution is magnitudes higher!

      • ahdi2000

        This 600MP figure comes from multiplying the fundamental limit of angular resolution of the human eye due to optics over the entire ~120*60 degree field of view. Angular resolution is 1.22*wavelength/pupil diameter, which comes out as ~0.5 – 1 arc minute depending on colour. However, the human retina only has around 6 million cones. The density of cones approximately matches the optical resolution in the centre of the FOV, but at 30 degrees off centre laterally, it is already down to just 5%. Try reading this text while looking just a few cm to the side.

  • Guest

    Wish they would stop using the marketing term retina resolution. Even the little shards that can cut your hands on a chain link fence wires are nowhere near true retina resolution!

  • Ratm

    Thank you for the fov measurements.

  • Anonmon

    “VRChat (…) simply (wasn’t) authored with the necessary level of detail.”
    I’d argue that while the majority of the content in VRChat was optimized for the average current gen HMD, and thus makes the statement correct, there’s a TON of worlds that have absolutely ridiculous levels of detail (For example, a number of “Show off the engine” environments have been portend to VRChat), and plenty of avatars that have absolutely absurd poly counts and texture sizes you definitely would be able to get something out of the increased fidelity of a Aero HMD if all you do is play VRChat. Especially if you’re the type to exclusively hang out with your closest VR buddies who are all running high end hardware and like to go to 300mb+ worlds almost exclusively.
    Granted you have to have a monster of a rig to run it, but that’s clearly a non issue if $2000 is a realistic proposition for a headset.

    • ViRGiN

      Oh yeah, show me these beautiful, complex worlds. Link me a video.
      VR Chat is horribly unoptimized, and custom wordls are ever far worse. And they all look like dogshit.

  • Thanks for this amazing review, Ben! The lens distortions were an issue also with XR-3, so I guess Varjo is having a hard time trying to correct this issue.

    As for the chromatic aberrations, also Pico headsets suffer from it

    • Erilis

      I used to have horrible chromatic aberration on my Samsung odyssey headset, but right before I sold it it got solved with an software update. I have hopes for that

      Everyone kept saying that lens distortion was fixed with the gear vr lens mod with some patch, but I could still see it. I never got used to it, I had to change back. I have yet to hear someone solve this, just a lot of overoptimism, although their eye tracking may be the key

  • MosBen

    Great review, Ben. And unfortunately, it seems like another case of an HMD being hard to recommend as the clear front runner of the pack in the way that the Index was when it was first released (I know, I know, Samsung Odyssey+ fans). I guess I’ll wait to see if Pimax has anything up their sleeve, but I’m not holding my breath.

  • Andrew Jakobs

    Seeing a through the lens comparison of the Varjo Aero, HP G2 and the Valve Index, I must say the HP G2 isn’t that much worse as the Varjo Aero, certainly not the 4x price difference, the only thing I actually like about the Varjo is the auto IPD and the clearlenses.. Where auto IPD would probably add around 300 buck (due to eye tracking which sits around 100 per eye, and the motor for the IPD, which I put a hefty price of 100 on, but in reality it would probably only be a couple of bucks in material) to the HP G2 price and the clearlenses probably around 50 or so.

    • Bob

      In hindsight, all of these announcements from all of these companies have been quite disappointing. It appears that the only player left who has the potential to launch something groundbreaking next year is Valve. But, as we know, they like to take their time. A lot of it. And focus seems to have shifted to the Valve Steam Deck set to launch later this year. So I’m not hopeful about 2022 as I thought I would be which is a shame for VR. A true shame.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Don’t discount Samsung, maybe they also still have something up their sleeve..

        • Bob

          I believe we’ve discussed this before at the beginning of the year which I stated that something must come out from Samsung regarding anything to do with their VR ventures. We have two months left of the year and there have been no leaks, rumors, patents, written articles about any of their VR research and development. Nothing. Nada.
          And I distinctly remember mentioning that if we didn’t hear a single piece of news from Samsung within the entirety of this year, then we could safely assume that they have no further role to play.

          I think it’s very safe to say that the absolute final nail in the coffin for a new Samsung VR HMD will be a complete no-show of any potential product related, even remotely, to VR in early January of next year at CES 2022. They do, however, have an interest in AR, as demonstrated through that “smart” headgear thing shown a few months prior, which leads me to believe that all of their resources and XR funding have instead been funneled to this project. Why? Because of investors.

    • Erilis

      I don’t think we should put too much reliance on through the lens image. I do think for example the jump from 2100 dpi vertical to 2700dpi doesn’t sound that large, but it’s the microLED stuff too. I was kind of amazed that it performed as well or better than reverb in FPS. I think Wmr is lagging behind again. When foviated rendering kicks in, maybe that makes a difference as well. Although reverb omnicept editions foviated rendering didn’t really make a difference. I just don’t know if jumping from reverb with index controllers is worth it for me. I rather get the project cambria I think.

  • Thank you Ben for your detailed review and want to confirm as a VR content developer ( https://1smallstepfor.space ) that trying push the boundary of texture resolution and mesh detail (required either through higher density meshes, displacement texture/parallax occlusion) that you unless you have a GPU capable of rendering at the detail warranted by this HMD and the others mentioned — your framerate suffers. Of course on my VR experiences, high frame rate is not necessary and detail is more important, but there will always be someone who is sensitive to any lag. In any case, good thing GPUs keep pushing the envelope.

    On another note. I am very curious how Apple will handle its supposed 8K resolution with its M1 SOC variant. My guess is you will have foveat system that will use a small area of the display at its native dpi (like the Varjo XR-3) and a grouped pixel arrangement outside of this detailed area to create a lower resolution peripheral. In fact this might be wired directly in the LVDS substreams to to reduce input bandwidth and GPU processing since it appears Apple will be using only two panels, one per eye (I have a source who told me this a couple of years back so things could definitely have changed).

  • Aus2027

    Varjo is a new favourite in VR, alongside HTC VIVE. Europeans are reknowned for creating world class tech. Their follow through on the Varjo with ongoing work into refucing lens distortion ( an important undertaking and one that will likely lead to cumstom profiles) and the amount of care Varjo invest into ensuring the HMD and its application are the absolute best they can be- is something other companies should be paying attention too.

    Those mentioning “audio”, simply use your own headphones. No HMD will ever provide audio on par with quality your will find from dedicated drivers in a high end pair of cans.

    A good solution if you do not want the extra bulk- are the Sony Wireless Bluetooth earpuds- with Active Noise Cancelling- ( also another great product).

    Another good choice is Apple Airpod Max. Weather you like Apple or not, the Airpods Max are brillient!

  • Aus2027

    Hope indie Developers out there are inspired to produce richer content. The PC VR scene is still alive and kicking and hands down the most amazing VR platform in the world

  • Aus2027

    Would be good to see Steam throw out some new content for the Steam VR Home

  • mikemav

    I just got my Aero, super excited but it’s now tempered b/c I ran into a problem. I already run a Valve Index OR Triple screens depending on need. My RTX 3080 has a 4th port (DP) where I connect the Index, and wanted to connect the Aero, leaving the triples also connected for when not using VR. This works perfectly w/ the Index, just launch the title in VR or not and it automatically goes VR or triple screen. When switching to the Aero I get a config error, too many monitors. Apparently according the Discord, the Aero counts as TWO monitors (despite just one DP connector) and since 3080 cards only support up to four monitors total, this will not work w/ triple screens. UGH! I don’t want to reconfig my video connectors and surround/multi-monitor setup every time I switch between VR and triples. Any ideas if this can be resolved or do I need to move on from the Aero?

  • Haack Haack

    Aero 2 needs:
    1. inside out tracking
    2. better QA. I’ve heard horror stories of defective units needing replaced. Not good for a headset this expensive.

  • Haack Haack

    And I should add, an audio solution. Look at that headstrap – would be a hot mess putting a headset on top that doesn’t move around.

    It looks very heavy to me in the front as well ?