Is VR dead?

[Cooknn]

...My understanding is that all VR headsets have a SINGLE focal plane that is a distance of about 5-6' which is a comfortable distance for most people including people who need reading glasses.

The entire display panel should be easy to focus on all the time.

Agreed. The focal point of the Varjo Aero is actually 85cm (33½"). I currently have prescription lenses from VR Optician, but everyone on the Varjo Discord raves about the clarity with the VR Lens Lab lenses so I took the plunge for those too. VR Optician told me they adjust your distance prescription to the HMD focal point. Not sure that math can do that accurately. VR Lens Lab asked my age. Maybe they'll factor in some ADD. The clarity of what I have now is really good. Hoping for fantastic with the new lenses.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Saw another Crystal review dropped in the last couple hours complaining about how things that were not close up looked blurry.

My understanding is that all VR headsets have a SINGLE focal plane that is a distance of about 5-6' which is a comfortable distance for most people including people who need reading glasses.

The entire display panel should be easy to focus on all the time.

I do not see how this could be prescription lense related or none of the screen would be in focus.

Short of the motorized Oculus headset that never was released using eye tracking to adjust what was in focus, this was not something that should even be possible.

I'm continuing to guess that they have a poor aspheric lens design that has a very shallow in focus area or an off center in focus area such that when people's eye's naturally focus on something in the distance, which changes the focal plane their eyes can see, it becomes blurry.

That sounds like focal point of the lenses is wrong as they should focus around infinity.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Agreed. The focal point of the Varjo Aero is actually 85cm (33½"). I currently have prescription lenses from VR Optician, but everyone on the Varjo Discord raves about the clarity with the VR Lens Lab lenses so I took the plunge for those too. VR Optician told me they adjust your distance prescription to the HMD focal point. Not sure that math can do that accurately. VR Lens Lab asked my age. Maybe they'll factor in some ADD. The clarity of what I have now is really good. Hoping for fantastic with the new lenses.

I'm sure the visuals are remarkable. I've seen a number of YouTube videos that strongly mentioned getting prescription inserts for the Aero.

85cm is a pretty close focal plane. Some people who need reading glasses won't be able to use that without adding a cheater lens.

Rift was perfectly clear. My Index is perfectly clear and the G2 was perfectly clear without any help. I assume they are around 5' focal distance.


FYI, focusing to infinity doesn't work. Even when doing night sky photography looking at stars light years away the convergence point requires backing a lens back from infinity to get a crisp image.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Most have around 2m focal distance, works fine for people using reading glasses.
If Pimax moved it closer, it surely could be a problem at least for me.

 

[blekenbleu]

U.S. Congress cut Army's Microsoft HoloLens headset appropriation
after most soldiers testing the hardware were afflicted with
"mission-affecting physical impairments," such as headaches, eyestrain and nausea.
Meanwhile, the Army is subsidizing M$ development of a version 1.2

Army Gets $360 Million IVAS Procurement Cut, $300 Million ENVG-B Increase In Final FY ‘23 Budget - Defense Daily

The final fiscal year 2023 defense spending bill includes a $360 million cut to the Army’s planned buy of its new Integrated Visual Augmentation System

www.defensedaily.com

 

[Mekonrider]

Well a new Pico update dropped including better streaming quality.....or not.

The new 'ultra' preset seemed to do nothing visually. I'm running Virtual Desktop tethered on the 3070 settings and it looks good, fairly sharp. I'm pleased with it. This new Streaming Assistant update has done nothing really that I can see. VD still looks better and seems to be hitting better FPS.

At least Pico are trying I guess.

 

[BrightCandle]

Well a new Pico update dropped including better streaming quality.....or not.

The new 'ultra' preset seemed to do nothing visually. I'm running Virtual Desktop tethered on the 3070 settings and it looks good, fairly sharp. I'm pleased with it. This new Streaming Assistant update has done nothing really that I can see. VD still looks better and seems to be hitting better FPS.

At least Pico are trying I guess.

They are trying with the Pico 4 but its always going to have visual artifacts. Simracing is about the worst case for compression and at most an Nvidia card can encode about 200Mbps and the XR2 in the Pico 4 can decode at least 150Mbps. Both these bitrates can go over wifi 6 in theory. Even then when I compressed in h.265 at 200mbps a simracing footage captured in VR raw I saw the grass bleed together and the distance get messy and blurry. No amount of compression up to the maximum the chip can do is going to solve all the issues and it will add latency.

Pico on the other hand have completely abadonned the neo 3 Link. Its a better headset for simracing since it has a displayport optical cable so its got less latency and unimpacted visuals. The trade off in slower moving games is less obvious but for simracing uncompressed is a lot clearer. The cable can be detached but it has fresnel lenses, pretty good ones with a nice wide sweetspot and clear image for most of the lense. Alas the last real update was just 6 weeks after the release of the headset in April 2022 and then they just left it broken since.

Its a pretty scummy company really I have put them in the same bucket as PiMax. They have stated the goal is standalone VR they don't want to be in the PCVR market at all.

 

[RCHeliguy]

U.S. Congress cut Army's Microsoft HoloLens headset appropriation
after most soldiers testing the hardware were afflicted with
"mission-affecting physical impairments," such as headaches, eyestrain and nausea.
Meanwhile, the Army is subsidizing M$ development of a version 1.2

Army Gets $360 Million IVAS Procurement Cut, $300 Million ENVG-B Increase In Final FY ‘23 Budget - Defense Daily

The final fiscal year 2023 defense spending bill includes a $360 million cut to the Army’s planned buy of its new Integrated Visual Augmentation System

www.defensedaily.com

Wow! The numbers they are talking about, $300M to fast track something that was under rapid development into production. Night vision augmented reality headsets would need to be very durable and extremely easy to use for a very large number of people.

So MS has been getting and will be getting more serious money to develop augmented reality headsets. Meanwhile Varjo is working with the airforce for VR cockpit simulation with pass through of cockpit controls.

So they are coming at things from opposite ends.
1. Layering information and enhanced sensing on top of reality.
2. Showing local cockpit and hands, with a virtual canopy window.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

300M serious for a military contract?
Fighter jet cost more.

 

[blekenbleu]

Fighter jet cost more.

Fighter jet contractors lobby more effectively.

 

[wajdi]

I’m getting a 4-1 error with my G2 reverb….. I know it’s a common error and it’s a shame that they never even tried to resolve this common issues !
I tried every thing but it didn’t help… any help!
It’s a new pc with a 4090/Z790 motherboard.

 

[BrightCandle]

After literally posting about an abanndoned Pico 3 neo link they have gone and released a big update and harmonised the OS with the Pico 4 out of the blue. Its fixed some big bugs I had with the wifi and with problems in hub distortion. Updates are irregular and they don't come with good changelogs and there are still bugs that are approaching a year old from beta which are pretty bad, but they aren't actually PiMax and the issues are slowly getting fixed. Its a rollercoaster but for simracing its hard to find a better standalone headset since that DP cable is amazing for racing compared to wifi.

I don't know what to say about Pico at this point, its been a communications mess and 3 updates since release in nearly a year for a product this buggy is not great but its not actually abandonned however much it looks like it at times.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I’m getting a 4-1 error with my G2 reverb….. I know it’s a common error and it’s a shame that they never even tried to resolve this common issues !
I tried every thing but it didn’t help… any help!
It’s a new pc with a 4090/Z790 motherboard.

Error codes - Enthusiast Guide

Advanced Windows Mixed Reality error code troubleshooting that goes beyond our standard consumer support documentation.

learn.microsoft.com

Also check that ASMedia USB controller has MS drivers not from ASMedia. It's in Device Manager, uninstalling USB Controller from devices and rebooting usually fixed this.

 

[wajdi]

Error codes - Enthusiast Guide

Advanced Windows Mixed Reality error code troubleshooting that goes beyond our standard consumer support documentation.

learn.microsoft.com

Also check that ASMedia USB controller has MS drivers not from ASMedia. It's in Device Manager, uninstalling USB Controller from devices and rebooting usually fixed this.

Hi thanks
I resolved the problem by updating the Bios.

 

[blekenbleu]

Apple indefinitely postpones lightweight AR glasses launch
Mixed-reality headset launch is still expected at Apple's Spring event, for about $3K.
Lower priced follow-on of this MR headset is being prioritized over AR glasses.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Apple indefinitely postpones lightweight AR glasses launch
Mixed-reality headset launch is still expected at Apple's Spring event, for about $3K.
Lower priced follow-on of this MR headset is being prioritized over AR glasses.

What that AppleVR can be used with, iPhone and iPad?

 

[Deleted member 1066209]

Don't forget the Macbook!

 

[blekenbleu]

What that AppleVR can be used with, iPhone and iPad?

My impression is that this device will be "standalone", with
AppleVR running on a chip "more powerful than M1" presumably in/on the headset.
Reliably getting data fast enough to wireless VR googles justifying a $3K ask
wants some amazing compression/decompression,
unless they are more about overlaying AR sprites on live passthru video.

Ming-Chi Kuo says that the Apple VR headset will feature 15 cameras
(sung to the tune of "16 Candles")

 

[blekenbleu]

In February-March, supplier GSEO starts shipping AppleVR headset lens modules

Founded in 1990, Genius Electronic Optical (GSEO) vertically integrates optical design, equipment development, process development and manufacturing to provide full service optical solutions for Mobile lenses, Car Lenses, AI lenses and AR/VR lenses.

 

[RCHeliguy]

"Liemax"

Is that not the simplistest, to the point, says it all descriptor?
I can't claim credit for it, but recently saw it and it felt both perfect and sticky.