Preface
I know that describing the VR headset experience is very, very difficult, because it's like no matter how much you try to blow up Half-Life Alyx for your friend, it's not as good as having him put on a headset and getting headhunted by a crab : )
Gamer's " img_height ="608" img_width="1080" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/4ec0bbad61117c8f.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg">So I'm going to try to avoid memorizing the parameters here. Instead, I'll try to describe the new toy, the Varjo Aero, in as subjective a way as possible.
Gaming enthusiast's" img_height="886" img_width="1200" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/ 0324/500d601763b52565.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg">An unparalleled experience
Varjo (pronounced "wow") has always seemed to be a big deal in China. ") seems to have kept a low profile at home, so not many people know about it. So when I first saw a Varjo headset abroad a few years ago, I was stunned that I was able to read a clear string of text on a virtual screen at a time when mainstream VR headsets were still all about mosaics - a scene so powerful that I remember it vividly to this day. A description of the flight control tower ......
At the time, I was particularly excited to take off my helmet and ask the manufacturer's lanky Schwarzenegger-like sales rep with a face full of amazement: Gosh, how high a resolution are you guys getting!
This is the first time I've seen a computer with a high resolution, and I've seen a computer with a high resolution.
Muscle brother is obviously not the first time to see me this expression, said lightly: This is well, in fact, we are in the middle of the ordinary screen hollowed out a hole, stuffed with a piece of ultra-high-resolution small screen into the small screen, through the small screen you will be able to see close to the "human eye" level of clarity. But around the small screen, the resolution is still relatively normal, so the system burden is actually not as exaggerated as you think. And our helmet also comes with eye tracking, the system will automatically focus the power to the user's gaze point, the other areas of the use of low-resolution rendering. Oh yeah, we also have hand-tracking on this one, so if you want to try it on ......
Ultra-high-resolution + gaze-point rendering + high-precision hand-tracking brought me immense shock and joy at the time. Then heartened, I asked for the price and silently said - bother!
These are my first impressions of Varjo: a feature set and experience that far exceeds that of its contemporaries, at an enterprise price point. It's called - the VR-2 prototype, and its successor model is now out in 3.
Gaming enthusiast's" img_height="834" img_width="1200" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/45a6808a304c861a.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg"& gt;Varjo Aero
At the end of last year, Varjo launched a more affordable model VarjoAero (wow yo Aero), listen to the name to know that this is the main focus of the simulation of the flight market, I know that this helmet is still to see the MFS (Microsoft Flight Simulation) boss Jorg Neumann posted a quote. Neumann posted a quote, the original is as follows:
game enthusiasts" img_height="1063" img_width="1887" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/2cf733da50285128.jpg" src="/a2020/ img/data-img.jpg">This quote is to the effect that the new Varjo Aero helmet enhances the high-end graphics and immersive experience of flight simulation. Our happy pilots can now experience the industry's top-notch visual enjoyment.
As a fan of flight simulation, I thought I'd have to try it out, so I borrowed one from our domestic distributor, Beijing He Yuan Technology, and played with it for a couple of days, and now I can announce my conclusion: it's the one VR headset that I've used more than any other! gt;
Clarity - Human Eye Level Resolution
First up is clarity. Despite being positioned well below the previously mentioned VR series, text is still readable in the Aero. It's a real pleasure to be able to see the gauges in a flight simulation. Also thanks to technological advances, they haven't dug holes in the screen this time around - the overall feel of the picture is a little better that way.
Game Fanatic's" img_height="720" img_width="1080" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/5edaddfd66588449.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg" & gt;The official website's tech specs show that the helmet screen has 2880 x 2720 monocular pixels, with a horizontal viewing angle of 115 , which translates to 35 PPD (Pixels Per Degree | Pixels Per Angle). But that's just the default, and you can actually pull it up to 39PPD in the system menu, which is already a very high parameter, and I can even operate the Windows desktop directly in VR!
The other point of clarity is Fresnel lenses. The advantages and disadvantages of Fresnel lenses are obvious, but in practice, as a user, I experienced more disadvantages, because in reality, it is difficult to keep your eyes on the center of the lens, so all kinds of blurring and ghosting are commonplace, not to mention the concentric circles that float in the field of view.
Instead of using Fresnel lenses, the Aero uses a lens officially called "Biconvex variable resolution aspheric lenses," which seems to translate to "biconvex variable resolution aspheric lenses. It seems to be translated as "biconvex variable resolution aspheric lenses". I'm not sure what this terminology means, but in short, this lens is very sharp and avoids the usual drawbacks of Fresnel lenses.
Game Fanatic's" img_height="720" img_width="1080" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/b449b53ee031624b.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg"& gt;Eye Tracking and Auto Pupil Calibration
When I first hooked up the Aero, I was in the habit of looking for the pupil adjustment knob, but I couldn't find it. I thought forget it, I'll just put it on and see. As a result, something magical happened, two white lines appeared in the field of vision, accompanied by the sizzling sound of the gears, the two lenses actually automatically aligned my eyes, and the field of vision was instantly clearer - tsk, tsk, the sense of ceremony to get it!
gaming enthusiasts" img_height="683" img_width="1080" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/e374d7ce86d0aeb5.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg"& gt;In fact, automatic pupil calibration is just the surface, the real focus is on eye tracking. Eye tracking enables Foveated Rendering, a rendering technique that allocates core arithmetic to the user's viewing area, which is critical for smooth operation, as mentioned in the previous section.
Automatic pupil distance + eye tracking has deeper implications for enterprise applications. For example, a corporate survey may invite dozens of interviewees, each with a different pupil distance, and it's not feasible to calibrate them one by one at the survey site, so a typical value of around 64mm is used in practice. Although this operation can take care of the majority of people, but in fact, the experience of each person is not up to the best state, coupled with the Fresnel lens problem mentioned in the previous article, specific to each user's feelings may bring a small deviation - auto-pupil distance is a perfect solution to this problem.
And eye-tracking technology is even more important in this kind of research - when you know what the user is looking at, you get a heat map; and analyzing these heat maps, you get the results of the research.
gaming enthusiast's" img_height="377" img_width="944" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/7b9808e750ad5937.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg"> ;Fan - an interesting user-friendly detail
An interesting little detail, Aero can hear a faint fan sound after booting up, at first I thought it was to cool down the system. But then I realized it wasn't. The fan actually cools the user down, and is meant to dampen the stifling heat after prolonged use. More interestingly, the fan brings an unexpected benefit in flight simulation: you'll feel the wind blowing vaguely, and with the in-cabin view - it's immersive as hell!
Game Fanatic's" img_height="1053" img_width="1777" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/ec77566109335cb1.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg"& gt;Half-Life Alyx - More Immersive Than Immersive
It's not the first time I've played it, but I have to admit that Alyx blew me away even more than a flight simulation!
Game Fanatic's" img_height="608" img_width="1080" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/2a66d0d683fd2cb4.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg"& gt;Previously I played Alyx with an older model of VR headset, so the resolution wasn't great, and while I marveled at V's brilliant design, the eye-filling mosaics were a constant reminder that there's a screen between you and City 17!
But the Aero's high definition instantly shattered that barrier, and I literally felt like I was there, because I could make out every detail of the city, even the barcodes on the beer bottles! So when I was once again sucked up by the barnacle monster, I felt a fear from the bottom of my heart that I'd never felt before - I shrieked and shot an entire clip of ammo at my head, and broke a glass out of sheer panic, the realistic kind ......
Game Fanatic's" img_height="1080" img_width="1920" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/377a4d6d5cf15a1d.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg"& gt;In terms of performance, both V's optimization and the helmet's point-of-view rendering performed great, achieving a solid 90 fps from start to finish, and I played for close to two hours straight with little to no vertigo, save for the occasional drift caused by blocking the tracking base station.
gaming enthusiast's" img_height="662" img_width="712" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/6f819cc6c7487b6a.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg"> ;For reference, my graphics card is an RTX A6000, with arithmetic roughly equivalent to a desktop-class RTX 3090, but perhaps because of the excessive memory, Alyx instead popped up with an insufficient memory error, which is really black humor.
gaming enthusiasts" img_height="1080" img_width="1920" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/3f006cff26a95734.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg"& gt;Steam VR with Unreal Engine
Aero is based on the SteamVR/OpenVR/OpenXR platforms, so it requires the use of a base station for positioning. Interestingly, though, while the official manual calls for a second-generation base station, I was able to play with the first-generation one I had in hand.
As for Unreal, it's easier to use than I expected, just install a third-party Varjo plugin to turn on point-of-view rendering, and otherwise there's not much difference from a regular helmet.
gaming enthusiast" img_height="200" img_width="746" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/bde479b512d9f9ae.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg"> ; Game Fanatic's" img_height="360" img_width="960" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/497624efa86d28ae.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg">Problems & solutions found so far
After all the pros, it's time to talk about the cons.
The most notable downside is that it's expensive! Of course, as with the Yellow Pro Card, expensive is not its problem, it's mine ......
The second is the head shape.Varjo, being a Finnish company, naturally made the design with the European face shape. But for me, as an Asian, the head shape is a bit too narrow, and my temples often have a feeling of being pinched, which is especially noticeable after wearing glasses. In addition, my nose is not straight enough, and the notch on the bridge of my nose is always leaking ......
Finally, there are some software issues. Varjo has developed its own console software, called Varjo Base, which is powerful, beautiful, and easy to use for end users. But for developers, Varjo Base can be a bit of an inconvenience, as it overrides and hides the Steam VR interface by default, obscuring performance monitoring and parameterization.
Game Fanatic's" img_height="2100" img_width="3840" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/ffdef7e43dd6ae28.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg" & gt;In addition, when you play flight simulation, you may also encounter the following error:
Game Fanatic's" img_height="837" img_width="1374" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/04c1f2177af7aebb.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg">This may be a software compatibility issue, but the fix is simple, go to Steam VR, find Settings - Advanced Settings - Developer, and change the "Current OpenXR runtime" from the default "OpenXR runtime" to "OpenXR runtime". Go to Steam VR, go to Settings - Advanced Settings - Developer, and change "Current OpenXR Runtime" from the default "Varjo OpenXR" to "SteamVR".
Gaming Fanatic's" img_height="942" img_width="1203" data-src="//imgq7.q578.com/ef/0324/50df62e822473f0a.jpg" src="/a2020/img/data-img.jpg"&>To set this up, you need to change the "Current OpenXR runtime" from the default "Varjo OpenXR" to "SteamVR". gt;
so set. Some people online are also saying that this issue could be the pot of Microsoft's recent update, as other headsets have had similar issues. But all in all, Alyx and other VR games don't have a similar error.
Hardware parameters
I'll put the hardware parameters last, like I said at the beginning, they're for reference, not experience.
Resolution: 2880 x 2720 monocular, 35PPD
Eye tracking: Yes
Staring point rendering: Yes
Pupil Distance (IPD): 59-71mm, auto-adjusting
FOV: 115 horizontally, 76 vertically
Color gamut: 99% sRGB, 95% DCI-P3
Refresh rate: 90hz
Weight: 717g
Tracking: Steam VR Generation 2 base station (but tested to work with Generation 1)
Lens: Bi-Convex Variable Resolution Aspherical Lens
Audio: 3.5mm connector
Officially Licensed Products and Services
Some of the images in this article are from the web, and the Wang chapter is from: Dai Xinqi FishersLab