I'm going to make some comments about my impressions of Bigscreen Beyond as a company which has in some ways surprised me. It took someone making a comment about how open they have been for me to think about that a bit.
First, that echo's my experience from day one. They say shipping starts 3rd qtr and when I asked for specifics, they actually gave them to me. When they expected the first headset to ship and where I was in that line and an expected ship date range for my headset.
They have openly answered questions about light levels, FOV, persistence etc..
A few interesting tidbits I've picked up include that the vertical FOV is not symmetric. It is off center so it is where you look the most so you won't need to move your head as much.
Some people notice persistence more than others. For people who aren't sensitive to it, the light levels can be turned up to about 130% to brighten up the screens. For people who see some persistence, they can lower the brightness to about 80%. It seems the users are in general agreement that once you have a complete seal around your eyes that you will adapt to the light levels where ever they are set. One person has even used it at 0% brightness. The main thing people noticed at different light levels was first putting it on and then taking it off, but once sealed, people's eyes adapted to whatever light level they were set to and the experience was very good.
Light levels vary from 73-83nits depending on a few factors, but your eyes adjust within a few minutes and once again the complete light seal makes a huge difference in how well your eyes can adapt. The biggest issue I could see would be if you were repeatedly taking your headset off and back on. I could see that adjusting between light levels might get tiring. I've never had that issue with my other headsets, but I do have dimmable lighting in my room scale area, so I might just dim the lights a bit.
Each eye has its own cooling to prevent fogging. One tester mentioned that the only time he got fog was after coming right out of the shower with a wet face and he said the fog was gone in about 30 seconds.
Edit: Focal length is about 1m.
Key BSB people are fielding questions on their discord server as well as their testers who can give first hand experience of what works for them and they have different preferences.
I think offering a tear down video of your own product also fits into BSB being very open about everything. It really exudes the idea of "nothing to hide here". To date, I've not heard them be defensive about anything. They seem very forthcoming.
I very much like the attitudes and the people I've communicated with so far. I don't feel like anyone is trying to stretch the truth about anything. It makes it easier for me to actually feel good supporting a company and purchasing their product.
I won't be able to say anything about the experience until mine arrives, but I have a gut feeling that word of mouth on this headset is going to go viral and that they may have trouble keeping up with demand. Key emphasis on "gut feeling". I won't know for sure until it gets here. I have to temper that with the fact that pricing in the US is better than it is in other countries and not everyone already has light houses and Index controllers.
In addition to the 3D printable model, they also have full CAD drawing available for download. which is interesting to look at.
I'm also impressed by the number of light house sensors they are using
By my count the BSB has
22 sensors compared to
10 on the Aero.
