Varjo Aero sounds promising

It looks like this user didn’t try the new update that mostly fixes the distortion issues. Before the update I would have agreed with his assessment that you’re looking into a world clearly but don’t feel like you’re in the world, but now after the update it feels like you’re in the world like other headsets. I don’t think it’s just because of FOV, I often feel more in the world with smaller FOV devices than larger ones like Pimax.

He also said that he didn’t experience distortion in the first place. Whether any particular user experiences it is dependent on the geometry of their eyes and face and how the headset sits on their head. I think the update adds dynamic distortion correction which compensates for those differences. That should mean that a (much) wider percentage of users won’t experience distortion. But this likely has little to no effect for users that were already not having that problem.

That’s a curious thing to say. I mean, I guess if all else being equal you prefer smaller FOV, then the Aero is for you.

I doubt many people feel that way though. I can understand preferring the tradeoff of clarity over FOV. But straight up preferring small FOV… I don’t get that.

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Reincarnation some of us may have been horses pulling buggies. :thinking::crazy_face:

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I was referring to the linked review, not the guy on here who said he didn’t notice distortion. I do think that even if you didn’t consciously notice it, it might subconsciously have made the world not feel like you were in it as he was saying.

Also, I wasn’t saying I prefer lower fov headsets. All else being equal, I would of course prefer higher fov, but all is not equal… so often the headsets such as the g2 and varjo that make me feel more in the world because of clarity and other aspects happen to be less fov than a headset like the 8k x which I feel less in the world because of the way the lenses and binocular overlap coincide with my low ipd

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Let’s put it like this: As a kid, I once “took a ride” in a 180° cinema at at an amusement park - it was showing a first person film of a roller coaster ride. That screen wrapped around me farther than the 8kX does today, did that make me feel like I was “in” the film? -No, not in the slightest.

My p8k/5k devices have tended to give me the same sort of sensation as that park experience. Unlike it, they are stereo vision, and with game cameras that match the positions of my eyes in the HMD, as well as track my head movement, but the imagery is none the less “off”, for me, in some ways that they may not be with some other headsets, regardless of the FOV afforded by either.

I was referring to the linked review, too. There’s more than a few people who have said that they didn’t have problems with distortion on the Aero. Which makes sense. It’s the same on the 8KX. Distortion is one of the issues people experience when the optical geometry isn’t working for them as intended. People who fall into the range that the optical geometry was designed for won’t experience it.

Okay. So the 8KX’s optical geometry doesn’t work correctly for you (which I’ve often heard for low IPD), but the Aero’s does. That’s a solid reason to prefer the Aero.

I think this kind of effect is one of the things that clouds making comparisons between VR headsets. Each of them has a range of variability in eyes and face shapes that they can handle properly which represents only a subset of humans. There will be cases where a particular person falls into that supported subset for one VR headset but not for another one. Naturally in that case, they’re going to prefer the VR headset that works properly for them. Whereas the other one can’t even be a contender.

I look for signs of that kind of thing when I’m reading reviews. Useful comparisons between VR headsets only happen when both headsets work properly for the reviewer. That’s one of the reasons I found this particular review interesting. I think both VR headsets do work properly for him, so its a fair review.

I think the subset of humans for which the optical geometry of the 8KX works correctly is relatively smaller than other VR headsets. And that is largely because of the technical difficulties in wide FOV (which speaks to your experiences with small FOV headsets working better for you). I think this is a substantial part of why reviews on the 8KX can be so sharply varied between being total garbage or being the best VR headset on the market. It arguably is the best consumer VR headset on the market if it works properly for you.

Substantially improving the range of eyes and face shapes that are supported properly by the optical geometry seems to be a major goal of the upcoming 12K. If Pimax can pull that off, I think it stands to increase their market share considerably. As well as eliminate a lot of their negative reviews.

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Lol that review has been copy & pasta into the SteamVR sub reddit by someone with a 1 week old user account.

Wonder who did that?

Also, check out the reddit user u/mrLimX, 98% of his few month old account has been pro pimax, I smell a rat :grinning:

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This isn’t the first time brand new accounts have done something like this.

I really think Pimax has no shame in trying to pretend there are some new accounts praising their stuff or are not related to them and trying to drum up some ‘interest’. The user Infhype was particularly bad about it.

If it was just one case I could say maybe it’s not them, but this is way more than a one off.

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That’s an unsubstantiated accusation which is nothing but pure speculation. Unless you have some form of actual proof that it’s the Pimax company behind these posts? It seems like you’re just assuming it would have to be.

There are any number of other possible scenarios behind these reddit posts. A single socially awkward Pimax fanboy could be making all of these accounts. Or it could people trolling or even trying to discredit Pimax. It could be some guy just looking for attention. There are lots of people who post to reddit, and not all of them have all of their screws.

As to the idea of the Pimax company being behind it, that’s pretty unlikely. Not because it would be immoral, but because it would be ineffective. These posts on reddit are going to get noticed and called out. As is the case here. It would frequently backfire and make Pimax look bad. I’ve worked for several companies, and marketing departments typically are pretty shameless as you suggest. It’s the nature of their work. But they’re not idiots. They’ve got much better ways to spend their time and effort on promoting their products than making bad fake posts on Reddit.

Well, while I’m not saying it’s 100% them, there have been accounts like Infhype on reddit, who post pretty much nothing but Pimax things and their promotions, often in not the best English, and at least one announced something Pimax did almost right after before I saw anyone else know about it anywhere else, believe it was the iRacing and Pimax sponsorship of one of their events where they sold some bundle discounts on racing gear. That one in particular stands out really bad for that reason and gives some strong indication of Pimax being behind that account, or at least somebody who’s got close ties, they even used a promo banner image before it went up on their website and was officially announced, if I remembr right. I’d be far more charitable and less suspicious if that didn’t happen, but that’s already precedent to me.

Then there were other accounts which posted largely Pimax only stuff or reposted/stole several other posts that I have seen by other people, sometimes even stealing the same post, and poor English is generally common among them. And most of them started posting pro Pimax things almost as soon as they were made, or reposting a bunch of reviews and videos about it. It’s not exclusively Pimax things, but it’s at least a common enough trend that it feels unusual and suspicious. Such as

anythingbutluve

ichibin_hungrig

Particular_Viewer

In addition to the case which has just been pointed out. This was just from a quick search of some I remembered off the top of my head. I recall seeing one or two more which felt kind of suspicious, but I can’t find them at the moment.

Thirdly, Pimax has also done some stuff like offering some form of compensation for reviews on Amazon, which is against their seller ToS. They’re not the first or last company to do this, but this doesn’t look the greatest and Pimax is also a Chinese company. In China it’s not at all unusual for reviews to be bought or faked, even moreso than most places, and Pimax has butted into some cultural differences before, especially when it has come to customer service. They’ve been several controversies about fake reviews and Chinese sellers/products in various places, Amazon at one point even removed something like 50,000 sellers for it.

I at least believe there’s enough there that it’s at least questionable and I’ve seen some Chinese companies do this before. Hell, I’ve seen some American companies act exactly like this on places such as 4chan, saw the internal leaked documents from one video game developer, telling people to basically act like this. Unfortunately, the exact names escape me right now as I’m not the best at remembering specific names.

It’s not dead on confirmation that Pimax is doing it, except for Infhype I very much believe that’s somebody from Pimax or close to them because of the iRacing thing, and could be one person trying to make them look bad, or just coincidence. But, I don’t think it’s nothing but groundless speculation.

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So… does that mean the posters who gasp and gush over other brands are shills for those companies?
Haters gotta hate I guess.

Yeah what I’ve seen from Pimax before, I’d be surprised if not even 1 of those suspicious accounts belongs to Pimax employees. There’s quite a bit of history in that area.

Anyway, to me the Varjo is not perfect at all, BUT it’s really the first headset that 100% solved the mura and SDE problems. Finally you’re really there, nothing between the viewer and the virtual world. And that with great comfort and zero eyestrain. For me the Varjo therefore is VR 1.0 and everything else is a beta version of VR :slight_smile: Sure, still a lot can be improved and hopefully we’ll have even better headsets soon. But for now, I can’t imagine going back to any other headset. And people in this thread with all kinds of conclusions about the Varjo who haven’t even tried the headset, well, what can I say …

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It is more common than people would think. Though companies that have extensive experience either take time to build promoter accounts or use promoter services that build accounts for promoting.

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This while I have not tried the Varjo can see this statement being true. And it should be for the exuberant price tag. I would be curious to see if the reported distortions would be a bother to me or not. Though I suspect my adaptability would make it a non issue. But the price on the other hand with the added cost of reduced FoV would likely keep me from wanting to be an owner(more cost factor imho).


Pimax has been known in the past to have multiple accounts for varying purposes and often old habits are hard to break. Though it is usually easy to identify in most cases. Often freshly created and/or have pattern to post styles.

Typically though bot like accounts don’t hold much weight as often they lack substance. Ie Pros with Cons.

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why cant we reach conclusions even without trying it?you seemed to reach the same conclusions on the arpara 5k thread without even trying it,when i saw that professional spanish review i canceled my aero order and the 3 4 month delivery time aint helping with it by the time you even get it it might be obsolete,aint no way next gen “1.0” vr is 80 vertical fov smallest ever measured on a vr headset or 70 degree smallest stereo overlap again tiniest ever recorded so much less 3d across the view,there is nothing between you and the world but black edges and chromatic aberration for the small price of 2400 euro for pretty much just 35ppd.

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No, why would it? I don’t understand your post :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

You’re not just getting 35 ppd, you’re getting zero god rays due to aspherical lenses, you’re getting vibrant colours, you’re getting working eye tracking with auto ipd, you’re getting top notch comfort, you’re getting a sweetspot that is 80% of the image.

Honestly, when you have that much sweetspot the low vertical fov doesn’t bother you. I’ve seen some users report CA but not everyone does, i don’t see it. The no audio issue, it’s such a non issue. I just have earbuds plugged into the audio jack. Job done.

It’s not a perfect headset but the display and comfort are VR 1.0. Just you wait till you see your favourite games at 35 ppd in the 12K, you’ll be wowed.

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Id be getting the smallest vertical fov,small horizontal fov,smallest stereo overlap,manny people report distortions on such small fov wich i find unacceptable for the price EVEN after the last update,severe CA is mentioned i think by most people on discord and the review above and just like you dont report much of it,neither i notice much glare on my 8kx again i dont wanna trade CA over a bit of glare,i dont care about
sweet spot if the vertical fov is tiny,i dont want to replace bluriness with black borders,eye tracking is pretty much useless now by the time i will be able to use it in most games every headset will have it,let alone auto ipd for a single user,for 2400 euro i expect much more,i dont wanna have to do these trade offs with
an 8kx wich is unreasonable considering its 2 damn years old and half the price,even having second toughts about it shouldnt occur,if my games will look great at 35ppd on the 12k qled its because im not trading off other things for it,to me after im not seeing any sde wich i dont even on the 8kx the fov is the most important thing but thats subjective because im more into shooters than simming.

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I really wish you could try an Aero! You’d see what the fuss is about. But I don’t think you’d buy 1 due to the lower fov, i know you’re an fov nut! I adore clarity that’s why the Aero works for me. The 12K will have both :ok_hand:. I won’t be buying 1 though unless they’re on Amazon and i’m seeing largely positive & genuine (lol) customer reviews.

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i understand but im just too big of a fov whore,cant justify it for that money and trust me i tried to bestware customer service refunded my money twice lol.

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