Is VR dead?

[metalnwood]

Another fair review, he touched on the same objective issues that others were having, like the glare, CA like? issues on the edge though he didnt properly describe them. Obvioulsy on a subjective side of things, he found it much more to his liking and noted that he cant really use other headsets for more than about 40 minutes so seems like a good fit for him.

He did think it was bright enough, others thought not (and more others will think it bright enough too), this is a harder one. Infinite contrast is a measure but not the greatest measure and in fact doesnt make a lot of sense here. Infinite because of pure black doesnt give you the same feeling on an oled with 300 nits and one with 70. Is one infinitely more infinite?

Its a good measure if you like to watch scifi, horror vr etc, I dont think its the best for sim racing though.

 

[metalnwood]

This whole thing is a bit bizarre.

On one hand people repeatedly say that 75Hz feels like 90 and 90 feels like something less than 120 because of the ultra fast response time of the micro OLEDs.

But then people seem to have different levels of sensitivity to persistence. Interestingly enough Brad of SadlyitsBradley who has been a big proponent of the BSB is highly sensitive to this and has run the brightness as low as 0.

But then Thrillseeker doesn't appear to notice this at all and has Boosted his brightness to 130.

I'm hearing others dropped the brightness to 80% and that took care of the issue for them.

I've heard repeatedly that because and of the perfect light seal that it still has plenty of brightness at a lower light level.

This is the first generation of something entirely new and is by no means perfect.

They don't have the resources of Meta so the pancake lenses are not the same quality as in the Quest Pro. They don't have the new higher nit displays that the Apple Vision uses, so they are limited to 73-83 nits.

There is no eye tracking, pass through cameras, adjustable IPD.

Everything has been optimized for size and weight.

What it has that no other headset has are:

No light leakage.
Perfect custom fit for each person that centers you perfectly on the displays.
An IPD that won't drift.
Ultra light weight and size.
Absolute blacks
Excellent color.
Very good but not class leading resolution.
A large number of lighthouse sensors (22) twice that of the Aero.

This is not the headset for someone new to VR. It is a specialty enthusiast headset.

What I did find out was that all these years I never had my manual IPD set correctly. I typically set it around 66mm. My high tech Aero with auto IPD set me to 64.5mm. I found out from.my optometrist that my IPD is actually 62mm with 31.5mm + 30.5mm.

The software for the BSB will measure your IPD when it scans your face, but you can override the result if it doesn't match your optometrists values.

It is also something radically different from what we are used to so there will be an adjustment period to the whole concept.

Many people's knee jerk reaction will be to reject something that is very different to what they are used to and that's to be expected.

It won't be for everyone, but I can't wait to get mine.

The concept is fine, I just dont think v1 is for me, i doubt its hard for any of us to wrap our heads around it being small and good. I mean thats great. Its not that I dont want it because I cant grasp the concept, its because its not good enough for me to drop that $ on the first iteration at the moment.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Yeah, so I guess there is just no way that this works well for a sim racer.

His take aways:

1.No SDE which he said bothered him on the Reverb.
2.Plug and play and just worked without any futzing or hiccups
3. Zero light leakage
Experience was absolutely incredible overall

He had never been able to drive in VR for more than 40-45 minutes with other headsets, but went 3 hours without realizing he had been driving that long.

He would make this his go to headset over the Aero and Crystal.

He said he normally wouldn't make an overall recommendation, but would sell all his other headsets to get one of these.

 

[metalnwood]

Yeah, so I guess there is just no way that this works well for a sim racer.

His take aways:

1.No SDE which he said bothered him on the Reverb.
2.Plug and play and just worked without any futzing or hiccups
3. Zero light leakage
Experience was absolutely incredible overall

He had never been able to drive in VR for more than 40-45 minutes with other headsets, but went 3 hours without realizing he had been driving that long.

He would make this his go to headset over the Aero and Crystal.

Your highlighted part just goes to show how subjective this can be, There are definate objective parts that everyone is seeing but comfort, how long you can use VR etc. People do it for hours all the time in all the other headsets.
This shows how this is good for him, you cant always extrapolate the subjective. Hey, it will prob be more comfortable if I dont sweat like a pig inside it but we dont all have issues driving for 30 mins in VR currently.

I think you are being quite cheeky to keep suggesting people are saying it wont be good for various reasons other than it doesnt meet their subjective and preferential requirement.

 

[cnhoff]

He had never been able to drive in VR for more than 40-45 minutes with other headsets, but went 3 hours without realizing he had been driving that long.

I am happy for Will that the BSB solves his personal issue with VR headsets in general, but I can drive 3h any day with my G2 and probably most headsets on the market.

 

[RCHeliguy]

It is what it is and we all have different sensitivities.

I never noticed glare in the Index which is supposed to have a lot more glare than the BSB, so I don't expect that to be an issue "for me". While VR Flight Sim guy noticed this immediately and even though he seemed to adapt to it and stop noticing it after an hour or so he is obviously more sensitive to this than I am.

I also was not suggesting people couldn't drive in other headset for more than 45 minutes. I have personally driven for hours in the Rift CV1, Valve Index and Varjo Aero. But after a while it did become less comfortable for me. More so with the Index and Aero than the Rift. The Rift fit my face very well and I don't remember ever feeling fatigued from it. However it was also lighter. Even though I didn't get on with the G2. It is a pretty light headset and I'm sure that helps.

 

[Metla]

Interesting video from Mr Boosted Media.

I haven't been watching the scene very closely as I consider making bulkier headsets to be the wrong direction to go in, at least they have no interest for me.

Still nothing in the pipeline I have seen that has enough improvements to justify replacing my Reverb G2 (we barely have the hardware to push that along at full tilt) but if I was in the market today the only headset I'd look at would be the Bigscreen Beyond.

 

[metalnwood]

Interesting video from Mr Boosted Media.

I haven't been watching the scene very closely as I consider making bulkier headsets to be the wrong direction to go in, at least they have no interest for me.

Still nothing in the pipeline I have seen that has enough improvements to justify replacing my Reverb G2 (we barely have the hardware to push that along at full tilt) but if I was in the market today the only headset I'd look at would be the Bigscreen Beyond.

Thats another point, if I was using one of my headsets before the G2, I might look at shelling out for the bsb but I use the G2 a lot and I have a lot of fun in the rig every time I get in, its much more in incremental gain than if coming from an old cv1 whichi would put it in the mix.

 

[RCHeliguy]

He not only said that the BSB would be his go to headset,
but that he would not only recommend it,
and would sell all of his other headsets to get one if he needed to.
This speaks volumes.

That is the reaction of the target audience for this headset.

I'm not saying that this is for everyone.
I'm not saying that people haven't been able to drive for hours in other headsets ( I have )
I'm not saying everyone can justify buying one. ( I did ).

Fingers crossed that I have the same "When Harry Met Sally" I'll have what she's having reaction to the BSB when mine arrives.

 

[ltnordb]

I've been into fpv drones for a few years, long enough to see the analog to digital transition. We went from the light and comfortable Fat Shark goggles to the big and bulky and uncomfortable DJI fpv goggles. The big jump in resolution from analog sd (think vhs style video) to digital HD made most people accept the DJI goggles, but on form factor, weight and comfort the Fat Sharks still rule.

The BSB looks very similar and has me intrigued (as a Reverb G2 user currently).

 

[metalnwood]

He not only said that the BSB would be his go to headset,
but that he would not only recommend it,
and would sell all of his other headsets to get one if he needed to.
This speaks volumes.

That is the reaction of the target audience for this headset.

I'm not saying that this is for everyone.
I'm not saying that people haven't been able to drive for hours in other headsets ( I have )
I'm not saying everyone can justify buying one. ( I did ).

Fingers crossed that I have the same "When Harry Met Sally" I'll have what she's having reaction to the BSB when mine arrives.

Dude, you don't have to tell us where you stand! You very conveniently latch on to the subjective you like, forget the rest.

Great you are excited! I look forward for it arriving and then waiting a couple months before you use your rig and tell us about it.

 

[ltnordb]

Will/Boosted Media posted his review on the Sim Racing fb page. Looks like the opinions on the BSB will be all over the place and it can be wise to wait for more reviews to come in.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Will/Boosted Media posted his review on the Sim Racing fb page. Looks like the opinions on the BSB will be all over the place and it can be wise to wait for more reviews to come in.

In a couple months when they start shipping to customers it should become pretty obvious what the general consensus among customers is.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Cons:
- Non adjustable IPD
Pros:
- An IPD that won't drift

 

[blekenbleu]

I never noticed glare in the Index which is supposed to have a lot more glare than the BSB, so I don't expect that to be an issue "for me".

Speculation: micro-OLED higher contrast ratio (absolute blacks) makes glare more apparent.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Speculation: micro-OLED higher contrast ratio (absolute blacks) makes glare more apparent.

I've had my Aero since February and it is not supposed to have glare, so it's possible it will change my baseline for noticing glare. Find out more in September.

 

[RCHeliguy]

The other thing that seems to be forgotten by people complaining about a lack of foveated rendering is that the BSB is very efficient because it doesn't require the overhead of a separate compositor. So when the VR Flight Sim Guy is getting 75 fps solid in MSFS through steamVR without foveated rendering, that's because of lower overhead.

This improved efficiency translates to EVERY title, not just those where mbucchia has taken the time to add support.

 

[gamma123152]

I remember Will's video about the Aero that made me order one. He didn't name ANY of the con's that I experienced with the Aero in the video: zero of them and I had a whole list. He doesn't seem to notice all the flaws that I experienced. I had to return the Aero after his recommendation because of all the flaws.

Marco for example, in the video that I posted yesterday; also made a video of the Aero where he noted the most of the flaws that I experienced too, but he made that video after I purchased the Aero.

For that reason I take Marco's opinion over Wills opinion when it comes to VR. Will is simply not critical when it comes to VR.

 

[metalnwood]

You don't throw in 'I hope BSB send me the final one too' four times and be too critical about it

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I have never seen anything badly reviewed by Boosted Media.
May be Will just a too nice and positive person, because he's definitely NOT making money on his channel, no way.