My Varjo Aero Review

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

On 4/18/2022 at 1:31 AM, dburne said:

 

Hmm sounds like I need to check out that desk top view some more. I had a quick look at it initially but that was about all. I just started out without it and got used to doing all my launching from the desktop. Will have a look at it tomorrow.

Thanks for the feedback,

 

Hmm! It's an integral part of SteamVR as well.

 

I have been using the Desktop in VR since 2020, and I can't recommend a PXC-550 II + ModMic-Wireless combination enough. Wireless noise insulating headphones with the best microphone you can get. I haven't needed to switch audio devices for a year with these. ??

 

You should try it, can't believe WIS has only discovered this now.

 

 

And Reverb G2 users should also add the XR-Flashlight (passthrough) to their checklist. This lets you see into the real world while you're in the cockpit, without having to take it off, a round window to reality cast into IL-2 / any other game. Very helpful if you want to grab anything or if wife or kids have entered the room while still maintaining IL-2 as the running environment.

Edited April 26, 2022 by SCG_Fenris_Wolf

[firdimigdi]

8 hours ago, SCG_Fenris_Wolf said:

And Reverb G2 users should also add the XR-Flashlight (passthrough) to their checklist.

 

If that had a normal hotkey to use it would be OK. As it is now you either have to enable voice recognition and say "flashlight on" or fiddle around with controllers; and if you do the latter then it'll show you what the controller is pointing at instead of what is directly in front of you. Oculus has this functionality done much better IMO and with far superior camera image quality even on the Rift S.

[SCG_motoadve]

My headset has been stuck in customs for more than a week now, was this the same for you guys getting the headset in to the USA?

Customs form was filled and sent last week too.

[dburne]

1 hour ago, SCG_motoadve said:

My headset has been stuck in customs for more than a week now, was this the same for you guys getting the headset in to the USA?

Customs form was filled and sent last week too.

 

Mine was two days. After I submitted paperwork some in Customs contacted me and said they were signing off on it and sending it through which they did.

You should either contact someone at Fed EX if that was the carrier and/or Varjo support. They offered to help me on that end if Fed EX did not get it taken care of quickly.

Edited April 27, 2022 by dburne

[Drum]

Interesting, mine was in Hong Kong for a two week delay (Covid), then went to Alaska (4 hour stop), Minnesota (4 hour stop) then into Canada an hour later.  Only nine hours total in the U.S.

[dburne]

Seems Varjo is getting heavily vested in this Meta Verse stuff going on.

https://varjo.com/events/see-varjo-reality-cloud/

 

I sure hope they do not lose focus on the PC-VR gaming enthusiasts that are now buying the Aero's.  Can't imagine anyone paying that kind of money to play in the Meta Verse. But what do I know. It appears they primarily at least are focused on the business consumers for this.

Edited April 28, 2022 by dburne

[dburne]

So there is a somewhat hidden feature in Varjo Base that someone pointed me to on another forum.

In Varjo Base open the Analytics Window and click on the Performance tab. It will open up a small menu on the right, where you can choose Vertical Sync on or off. Select on, and below it you will see an option for 45 fps, or 30 fps, rather than the default of 90 fps.

I chose 45 fps. Now you have to leave the analytics window running for it to remain in effect, I just minimize mine. If you close the window vsync will remain on but it will be at default 90 fps setting. So just minimize it and enjoy the 45 fps frame lock.

 

And now you can fly with your fps locked at 45 fps leaving room for other stuff. I found I could increase my resolution back to default of 100% for my Aero ( was running 80%), and also increase the game graphics as well. I personally have not tried the 30 fps option yet, but I am finding the 45 fps to give me very smooth gameplay and a nice experience. 

 

Just kind of a hidden option there for the Aero, they are more used to dealing with businesses so their GUI is a little lacking on the consumer side, hopefully they will improve that as time moves on. This option should really be easily seen in the Varjo software.

 

Here is a screen shot of my setting I am talking about :

 

 

 

[SCG_motoadve]

On 4/29/2022 at 1:19 PM, dburne said:

So there is a somewhat hidden feature in Varjo Base that someone pointed me to on another forum.

In Varjo Base open the Analytics Window and click on the Performance tab. It will open up a small menu on the right, where you can choose Vertical Sync on or off. Select on, and below it you will see an option for 45 fps, or 30 fps, rather than the default of 90 fps.

I chose 45 fps. Now you have to leave the analytics window running for it to remain in effect, I just minimize mine. If you close the window vsync will remain on but it will be at default 90 fps setting. So just minimize it and enjoy the 45 fps frame lock.

 

And now you can fly with your fps locked at 45 fps leaving room for other stuff. I found I could increase my resolution back to default of 100% for my Aero ( was running 80%), and also increase the game graphics as well. I personally have not tried the 30 fps option yet, but I am finding the 45 fps to give me very smooth gameplay and a nice experience. 

 

Just kind of a hidden option there for the Aero, they are more used to dealing with businesses so their GUI is a little lacking on the consumer side, hopefully they will improve that as time moves on. This option should really be easily seen in the Varjo software.

 

Here is a screen shot of my setting I am talking about :

 

 

 

Just got my Aero today, I am blown away, I did try the 45fps and it works, tried 30 and its horrible, very jerky.

Did you changed to Open XR in Steam VR? That increased fps quite a bit for me.

I am at high resolution quality 27PPD and performance is not bad at all, the clarity is absolutely incredible, you can see so many details now.

[dburne]

1 hour ago, SCG_motoadve said:

Just got my Aero today, I am blown away, I did try the 45fps and it works, tried 30 and its horrible, very jerky.

Did you changed to Open XR in Steam VR? That increased fps quite a bit for me.

I am at high resolution quality 27PPD and performance is not bad at all, the clarity is absolutely incredible, you can see so many details now.

 

Congrats! Yeah it is a very sweet headset for sure! No I have not tried the Open XR Mod in IL-2 as of yet. I had a go with it in DCS and found at least currently I prefer the native Steam VR. I thought I got better image clarity with it and I try to avoid mods for the most part.

Edited May 6, 2022 by dburne

[SCG_motoadve]

Its not a mod, its an option in the Varjo base software, and also Steam VR app.

Looks the same quality wise, but runs much faster FPS when I selected it in Steam VR.

Not placebo, I confirmed by looking at the performance graph, and the increase was substantial, worth a try.

 

Have not tried it in the Varjo base software, I assume both should be selected? Varjo software and Steam VR?

Not sure though, anyone else have experimented with this?

 

 

[dburne]

Varjo Base option is what some are using to run the Open XR Mod for Aero ( namely in DCS). But it is a Mod and bypasses Steam VR by going through Open Composite. A Mod is used to do this as DCS nor IL-2 has native Open XR support.

 

Have not really looked into that much in Steam VR but pretty sure my Steam VR is already set as Open XR runtime, only when I enable Open XR in Varjo Base does it become inactive in Steam VR. I use the Open XR runtime rather than Steam VR in MSFS 2020 as it has native support for Open XR.

I know it all can sound confusing and hope I worded it good enough to not cause more confusion. But my mind is cloudy and I am going to bed lol, hope that helps.

 

 

[dburne]

Thought I should update my review here on the Aero with the latest news.

Mine died today. After just over 5 months of fairly heavy use without a single issue, my Aero has bit the dust. 

I have opened a support ticket just now with Varjo and sent all the diagnostic logs.

 

So my VR progression - Rift CV1, Rift S, Quest, Index, Reverb G2, Vive Pro 2, and now Aero.  Out of all of these, Aero was the most expensive by far. And out of all of these, Aero is the first headset I have ever owned that died on me. 

Understand I have been extremely pleased with my Aero - right up until today. Today I am not feeling so great.

 

So now I will update as I progress through the support ticket with Varjo. Will see how they handle this one.

 

 

 

[WIS-Redcoat]

Yikes, I don’t like hearing that.  Keep us in the loop 

[dburne]

My first response from support:

 

Quote

We are facing some temporary delays in responding to all the inquiries, but we will get back to you as soon as possible.

 

[Dallas88B]

@dburne I recall you posting that you were "Hanging on to the Vive Pro 2 at least for now to have as a backup just in case" so the good news is that you have something to play on until the Aero is fixed.

 

35 minutes ago, dburne said:

We are facing some temporary delays in responding to all the inquiries, but we will get back to you as soon as possible.

 

Aint that annoying?.... But in terms of a sub-optimal response to a request from company for support I can top that. Be Quiet, the manufacturer of PC power supplies : completely ignored the detailed information I emailed and questions I asked and respond with an form letter "copy and paste" reply :

 

For assistance please provide a video of the problem, the product serial number, the invoice or receipt, the purchase date, item name, dealers name. 

 

How one is supposed to provide a video of an intermittent fault, of a PSU installed in an ATX case, that manifests as an clicking and fizzing noise followed by a PSU that will not power on beats me.

 

Hope you do better with Aero.

 

PS: I purchased a replacement power supply (Silverstone 1000W Strider Platinum) from the dealer, sent the dealer the faulty be quiet PSU, dealer confirmed fault and refunded my purchase price in full. The Dealer will handle manufacturer Be Quiet. Great dealer, rubbish manufacturer.

 

 

[dburne]

Arch (Varjo) over on Discord took the bull by the horns, we have already debugged it this morning and he determined it is either in the USB cable or Link Box. Makes sense as headset goes through powering on routine - fans spin up, lenses adjust, just a gray image in headset and only 1 usb connect beep rather than the usual 3.

He is having sent to me a new cable and a new link box from their U.S. support site, it will ship out tomorrow as today is a holiday in U.S,

Woohoo - now that it some excellent customer service. Hopefully I will be back in business here very soon.

 

Going to be hard but reckon I will still hook up Index maybe, not sure I can go even a few days with no VR. Will see, after Aero kind of hard to go back.

 

Edited July 4, 2022 by dburne

[wheeliemonsta]

Hi @dburne

 

Not meaning to hijack the thread, but while you're without your Aero, thought it might be a good time to ask you about the Pointctrl setup you mentioned at the beginning of this thread.

How are you getting on with it? Do you still use it, or have you reverted to mouse control?

Apologies if you posted a separate thread on it as well...

[dburne]

13 minutes ago, wheeliemonsta said:

Hi @dburne

 

Not meaning to hijack the thread, but while you're without your Aero, thought it might be a good time to ask you about the Pointctrl setup you mentioned at the beginning of this thread.

How are you getting on with it? Do you still use it, or have you reverted to mouse control?

Apologies if you posted a separate thread on it as well...

 

Oh goodness yes, absolutely love my Point CTRL setup with DCS. Could not imagine flying it without it now. I said goodbye to my mouse in VR for that sim.

I really have not talked much about it here as well it only applies to DCS and there is lot of info over on their forums about it. Also on Discord. But yeah I so love using Point CTRL now.

[Dallas88B]

38 minutes ago, dburne said:

He is having sent to me a new cable and a new link box from their U.S. support site, it will ship out tomorrow

Wow that is good service indeed! Looking positive now. ?

[wheeliemonsta]

1 hour ago, dburne said:

 

Oh goodness yes, absolutely love my Point CTRL setup with DCS. Could not imagine flying it without it now. I said goodbye to my mouse in VR for that sim.

I really have not talked much about it here as well it only applies to DCS and there is lot of info over on their forums about it. Also on Discord. But yeah I so love using Point CTRL now.

 

Cool. Thanks. I might put in a pre-order. Understand the wait times are pretty considerable though  

It does look like the best way to control sims in VR though (short of a really good VR controller implementation, which none of the current sims have unfortunately)

[dburne]

58 minutes ago, Dallas88B said:

Wow that is good service indeed! Looking positive now. ?

 

Yep I am in a much better mood now than I was when waking up this morning lol. Rather than hooking up Index which admittedly would be hard to stomach after seeing the clarity of the Aero , think I am going to try and just catch up on some movies I have been wanting to watch. If the cable and link box do ship tomorrow from their U.S, support site hopefully I will have very soon. If it gets much longer than a week though all bets are off. Withdrawals would not be pretty lol.

 

 

2 minutes ago, wheeliemonsta said:

 

Cool. Thanks. I might put in a pre-order. Understand the wait times are pretty considerable though  

It does look like the best way to control sims in VR though (short of a really good VR controller implementation, which none of the current sims have unfortunately)

 

Trust me, it is so worth the wait albeit it can be long. Currently around a year but Miles has stated he is making some changes to hopefully shorten that considerably. Get your pre-order in, can always back out anytime prior to getting ready to ship notification along with payment request.

Edited July 4, 2022 by dburne

[paul_leonard]

Miles updates his signature in the DCS forum with the pre-order date he is now working on.   Last I checked a few days ago it was April 15/21 and I pre-ordered on April 21/21.  The product gets great reviews so while he may be picking up his pace, there is no line of sight on how many pre-orders there are between then and now.  Pre-ordering doesn’t cost anything so you should head on over and get in line and then be pleasantly surprised whenever the invoice appears in your inbox.

[dburne]

Well all I heard yesterday from the support center here in the states was an email late in the day saying they had received the request and would work on getting it packed up and sent out as soon as quickly as possible . So did not ship yesterday as I was hoping and not sure when it will ship as they only stated as soon as possible.

 

Chances of me having by end of week are starting to look a bit slim. Maybe they will in fact get it sent out today and I will get lucky. Withdrawals are starting to kick in lol. I guess depends also on what part of the country here they are shipping it from.

Edited July 6, 2022 by dburne

[dburne]

Woohoo, just got an update from the Varjo service center in Arlington VA. They are sending the repair kit out today via Fed EX for overnight delivery so I will have tomorrow! Already have the tracking number. Not too much longer now thank goodness!

Edited July 6, 2022 by dburne

[dburne]

Just a few minutes ago received the Repair Kit from Varjo. As he suspected it was the USB in the Link Box that had failed. He sent me a new Link Box and also a new Cable, tried the Link Box first and sure enough that was it. Back in business baby!!

Big Kudos to Arch at Varjo for jumping on this one and resolving it so quickly!!

Edited July 7, 2022 by dburne

[Freycinet]

small agile companies often out-perform big players when it comes to customer service. Impressed that Varjo fixed it like that and so fast.

[paul_leonard]

A) they’re not stupid and appear to have a great product and vision

B) they’re not stupid and know that dburne is an influencer (because we all respect his opinions) and won’t mess with that

C) We all wish we could own one… and over time given the positive feedback, probably will.

[dburne]

53 minutes ago, paul_leonard said:

A) they’re not stupid and appear to have a great product and vision

B) they’re not stupid and know that dburne is an influencer (because we all respect his opinions) and won’t mess with that

C) We all wish we could own one… and over time given the positive feedback, probably will.

 

I really appreciate those kind words!  But no I have seen Arch over on Discord reach out to help many folks along the way and I was likely just another who posted an issue that he recognized he could probably help with rather than me waiting on support to respond. I do tend to be vocal whether good or bad.  But yeah when I have a great headset like this, like no other really , I do like to spread the word. But if it has issues I will spread the word on that as well.

 

I truly hope mine is a one off or close to a one off and not indicative of a fault with those Link Box USB's. Only time will tell, far as I can tell I am likely the first or pretty close to the first of having this failure. But I do put quite a number of hours in on mine on a weekly basis. I was just so relieved it was not something in the headset itself. In any event - I be back in the game baby!!

 

Thanks,

[dburne]

Varjo Base 3.8 is out on the Release channel today. It supposedly has the new much anticipated Motion Reprojection however the release notes have not been posted yet. Got some doc appts this morning so won't be able to test it till later on in the morning.

[dburne]

Release notes:

 

Varjo Base, release version 3.8

December 21, 2022
This Varjo Base release version only supports XR-3, VR-3, and Varjo Aero. 
Users of VR-1, VR-2, VR-2 Pro, and XR-1 Developer Edition should continue using Varjo Base release 3.7.2. 

This release includes improvements and bug fixes to existing features.

Introduced a new setting named Motion smoothing that improves image quality by predicting and smoothing movement in applications. This setting is released as Beta and it replaces Motion Prediction in earlier releases. Read more about Motion smoothing.
Fixed motion smoothing artefacts when occlusion mask was enabled.
Fixed incorrect motion smoothing behavior when depth buffer was enabled in Microsoft Flight Simulator or in other applications where the depth buffer size did not match the color buffer size.
Known issues when using Enabled (Beta) option:
----> Enabled setting does not have optimized performance yet, and it can drop the application fps significantly when turned on. To improve application performance, you can try adjusting application settings to lower the image quality requirements.
----> Occasional ghosting or micro stuttering when turning head.
----> Visual artefacts and distortions in static user interface contents, for example application menus, may appear, especially if the user interface includes transparent elements.

3
[7:32 AM]
----------
Added new options in Vertical synchronization setting in the Headset tab: Automatic, Enabled – Fixed 45 fps, and Enabled – Fixed 30 fps.
Connected game pads are now displayed with a dedicated icon in the positional tracking status area in Varjo Base. 
Added a new mixed reality camera setting to enable adjusting the sharpness of the mixed reality camera video. (XR-3)
Improved the way the Headset view video recordings are cropped to make them more cinematic.
Added a possibility to include the Varjo logo and device name in screenshots and video recordings.
Reduced memory consumption for marker tracking to help prevent crashes of Varjo Tracking process caused by lack of RAM.
Fixed an issue that caused 3rd party tracking plugins not to load in Varjo Base. The issue only affected plugins built with the Tracking Plugin SDK with 3.7 release.
 (edited)

1
[7:34 AM]
Varjo Reality Cloud:

Added support for uploading and storing Autodesk VRED application files to Reality Cloud.
Added support for starting a single-user session from a VRED file.
Added support for creating a collaborative session using VRED files that have been uploaded to Reality Cloud.
Added support for creating  a Unity or Unreal Engine application session without storing any files to Reality Cloud.
Added  new functionality that allows user to select organization when creating a session if they belong to more than 1 organization.
Improved the error message given when trying to use Reality Cloud with an unsupported version by providing more accurate information about the supported Varjo Base versions.

Developer tools and APIs:

Eye Tracking:
 Exporting eye tracking data in Analytics Window: Added new data item, relativeToUnixEpochTimestamp, that is recorded to the CSV file. The data item records gaze frame timestamps since the Unix Epoch (time-of-day) timestamps.
Added API to convert from Varjo system timestamps to the time-of-day timestamps expressed as Unix Time.
Open XR:
Fixed a compatibility issue with Vive OpenXR API, which caused some of the Varjo OpenXR functionality not working correctly if Vive Console was installed on the same PC.

View the release notes on our website: https://varjo.com/downloads/release-notes/#varjo-base

[SCG_motoadve]

Please report how so you like it.

I wont be able to try this in a month, since will be out of the country.

[dburne]

Just now, SCG_motoadve said:

Please report how so you like it.

I wont be able to try this in a month, since will be out of the country.

 

Will do should get to try it here soon today.

[dburne]

Oh hell no, absolutely kills my performance. Previously I was running 45 fps + with a decent experience, now in the 20's and looks awful.

Definitely beta not quite ready for prime time. Release notes mentioned the performance issue, just worse than I thought it might be.

I would also note I have a specific Hornet mission in DCS I have been using for all my testing the past couple of weeks so I get a good comparison. I am sure performance would be a little better in IL-2 but still probably pretty rough around the edges.

Edited December 21, 2022 by dburne

[SCG_motoadve]

I saw you have an option to lock it at 45 or at 30fps.

Not motion smoothing, but vertical synch

[dburne]

2 minutes ago, SCG_motoadve said:

I saw you have an option to lock it at 45 or at 30fps.

Not motion smoothing, but vertical synch

 

Yeah same as like Oculus does, pretty much locks the framerates if it can maintain them. I tested with mine on automatic.

[Guest]

The price for this in Japan is roughly the same as in the EU and as the Reverb G2 seems to be going out of production (and support), plus the two I bought brand new both had flawed panels (#2 was returned immediately for a refund back in the UK), I'm thinking of buying one of these. Which will probably lead to upgrading from a 3080Ti to a 4090. Gulp. 

Amazon.co.jp: Varjo Aero VR Goggles, HMD Display Resolution 2880 x 2720, Mini LED, LCD (up to 35 PPD) x 2, Automatic IPD, Adjustment, Viewing Angle, 115°, Refresh Rate 90 Hz, Tracking System SteamVR : Computers

Edited January 13, 2023 by Hetzer-JG51

[RAAF492SQNOz_Steve]

53 minutes ago, Hetzer-JG51 said:

The price for this in Japan is roughly the same as in the EU and as the Reverb G2 seems to be going out of production (and support), plus the two I bought brand new both had flawed panels (#2 was returned immediately for a refund back in the UK), I'm thinking of buying one of these. Which will probably lead to upgrading from a 3080Ti to a 4090. Gulp. 

Amazon.co.jp: Varjo Aero VR Goggles, HMD Display Resolution 2880 x 2720, Mini LED, LCD (up to 35 PPD) x 2, Automatic IPD, Adjustment, Viewing Angle, 115°, Refresh Rate 90 Hz, Tracking System SteamVR : Computers

I really have not seen anything that surpasses the Varjo Aero in the latest round of CES announcements.  All have underdevelopment issues or unexpected compromises.
The Megane X with OLED display was of interest to me but with the latest news and Brad quick review I gotta say, Nah!

The Varjo Aero and a RTX 4090 are an extremely impressive combination. I have had my Varjo Aero for 12 months now and it was good with a RTX 3090, the upgrade to RTX 4090 takes it next level IMO.

Here in Australia you can get the Varjo Aero for about 15% off at some resellers so that helps with our high markup over the U.S. price. This type of discount does not appear to be available in other countries based on the responses from other forum members.

I would say 'Go for it'

[dburne]

7 hours ago, RAAF492SQNOz_Steve said:

I really have not seen anything that surpasses the Varjo Aero in the latest round of CES announcements.  All have underdevelopment issues or unexpected compromises.
The Megane X with OLED display was of interest to me but with the latest news and Brad quick review I gotta say, Nah!

The Varjo Aero and a RTX 4090 are an extremely impressive combination. I have had my Varjo Aero for 12 months now and it was good with a RTX 3090, the upgrade to RTX 4090 takes it next level IMO.

 

 

My recetn experience as well.

[Guest]

Good job I re-read this entire thread, it reminded me what put me off the Aero before...no internal tracking. Oh well, the wait for The Next Great One continues.

[RAAF492SQNOz_Steve]

38 minutes ago, Hetzer-JG51 said:

Good job I re-read this entire thread, it reminded me what put me off the Aero before...no internal tracking. Oh well, the wait for The Next Great One continues.

Why is that a showstopper?

I only use the Varjo Aero for flight sims and have only ever needed one lighthouse unit mounted directly behind the computer with a 1 metre elevation from headset when worn.
My previous HP Reverb G2 internal tracking used to go all weird in low light situations and I much prefer using the single lighthouse setup.

I do actually have a second lighthouse unit but have never bothered to take it out of the box. Will keep it as a spare.