The Beyond is the upcoming hmd I'm most obsessed with, not just he size but also really want something wiht a minimalist strap. I have headrests in my cockpits and my newest one I'm working on is for F1 and sailplane flying with the seat from a PlayseatF1 rig and really need something that doesn't have a bunch of **** back there. Plus for flying gliders you really keep your head on a swivel so you're not only using the headrest to rest your head, it is constantly rolling around on it. Just sitting looking straight ahead feels awful in it with my Index let alone actually moving my head lol.
I'm not gonna preorder but it already had my full attention even before the fov bump and on paper I'm running out of reasons to hate. It's so ironic too, cause I was really dismissive of it initially based on how much Bigscreen the app annoys me since after all this time and all the stupid things they've added to it they have yet to anchor playback audio to the god damn screen. As a home theater owner/enthusiast it makes me want to punch a kitten trying to watch anything that way.. It's so stupid and shortsighted not to pick that low hanging fruit that makes all the difference between feeling like you are actually in a home theater vs watching a movie on an airplane with headphones. It's so dumb that I couldn't imagine anyone at the company would have the wherewithal to make a good hmd with all the nuance that goes into this tech but here we are
They are the first to release a completely next generation headset. Every reviewer who has tried the BSB out has had a serious WOW reaction.
I think Virtual Reality Oasis put it best.
“This is what I imagined VR would look like in, say, five years from now. But it's in my hands, here today.”
And it looks like microOLED pancakes are going to be the real deal for ultra wide FOV. They have real 140 and 240 degree FOV demo hardware out now that's already sorted. This is with ZERO Chromatic Aberration, no distortion issues and dark blacks and vibrant colors. They don't need to work on getting lenses to work with them, or figure out distortion profiles, they are working now.
So while the BSB is not the end all be all. It is ushering in headsets that will be the end all be all headsets we do really want. It is a taste of what's coming. As I said, if I get one I don't expect to use it for more than 6-9 months.
But importantly, it won't be like putting on a helmet, and for those of us who like room scale games, it will be a great experience. Even VR Flight Sim Guy has said that he would hate to play any room scale game with the Crystal because of it's weight and size.
And while the Aero is very comfortable, even at it's weight in room scale games it can be distracting. It's enough weight when whipping your head around, that I'm sure the BSB will be night and day better experience.
So like I said, I consider aspheric lenses a dead end at this point and remembering that sim racers make up a small percentage of all VR users, having a light weight small headset that is extremely comfortable in room scale games means that large heavier headsets are all dead at this point. There simply is not enough market for them to exist.
