Actually smidge warmer than yesterday in northern florida, but it’s a dry[er] heat 
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Pulled the trigger. Been two years. Based on reviews it seems to be the best put together kit: HW and software quality; performance reviews say at or better than the G2; plus DFR; I’m gone for a week so, in my mind, it will take a week less to arrive🤔?
Only downside is no mic. G2 audio was convenient but with my big head never allowed the speakers to reach down to my ears.
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I think one upside of the SteamVR base stations is that you don’t need a wire back to the computer - they are pretty much just laser lighthouses that just need a plain power connection, meaning you can put them in all sorts of places without worrying about the return wire. The lase pulse that rotates (both horizontally and vertically) around the room includes a timestamp encoded within it (in the pulses), that then allows the receivers on the headset (and controllers) to get an understanding of what they just saw and then place themselves in a 3D space accurately. Sort of like a mini GPS, but with light you can’t see (which I guess is radio signals, but you get what I mean).
A valid question is ‘How does this work with just one lighthouse?’ and the answer is that the headset and controllers have several sensors on them ‘looking’ in different directions (slightly), so they triangulate using that as the light hits each sensor in turn (very quickly), e.g. the ‘cameras’ on the non-light emitting end make the angles. Here’s a neat mock up of them working - the flash is used to synchronize with other emitters and the receivers.
The drums literally spin with reflectors for the beam…
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990 Euro? Why did I get a used one at all… sigh. Wonder if the seller had an advance warning. Anyway, nobody’s taking away those weeks I had it earlier 
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similarly wondering about @Snowy55 and his recent purchase. although discounted still way over current price.
I was jokingly expecting an announcement from Valve about the Deckard the moment I placed my order, not a further price drop like this only 15 days or so later. It’s great news for those interested in the Aero. I’ve of course sent Varjo a request for a partial refund (haha) but it is what it is. By my quick calcs factoring in VAT etc I’ve missed out on a few hundred quid saving. Not the end of the world as I still have a state of the art headset that gives me very clear images with stable performance of around 75 fps in my main sims (DCS and IL-2). I can now see my squadron’s and enemy aircraft very clearly, like never before. Seeing our tight formation without the shimmering effect I was used to is well worth it. I just received my prescription VROptician lens inserts so comfort and ease of putting the headset on and taking it off is significantly improved as well. Am I a bit miffed to miss this extra saving? Sure I am. I’ve told myself to ‘soak it up princess’ and am getting on with my enjoyment of flight simming. I’m going to set up my Fanatec wheel and get back into simracing as well now that I have such a great piece of kit.
It is an interesting move by Varjo, perhaps a reactive response to market forces, perhaps a precursor to an Aero II announcement, perhaps dumping of stock ahead of withdrawal from the consumer market. I hear they have new military contracts so may feel the need to concentrate on those. All that is just speculation. I was very pleased when Varjo decided to enter the consumer space with the Aero. I am delighted to own one and hope they continue developing the Aero and future versions of it.
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@Snowy55 you could contact Varjo and ask if they have a price guarantee or anything.
Running a discount like that, just before cutting the price in half is…frustrating!
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I have indeed made contact about that so let’s see if and how they respond.
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You won’t want to put the single station too close to you - the whining of the motor can get on your nerves on occasion. Especially in a small room. Mine have got louder over time. Depends how sensitive you are to such things and i have large ear canals and sensitive hearing, so may not affect you as much.
I just put up with it, but would be nice if they were more quiet.
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@Johnny speaks the truth.
I had to put a piece of foam between the mount and the ceiling, to dampen the resonance.
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and it will help with precision of that sensor too
Great info; first I heard mention of this; I have gobs of foamy stuff from my seat shaker setup.
Exploring currently the possibility to take screenshots and videos via OBS from VR directly. For FS2020 I installed OpenXR-Layer-OBSMirror into OBS and configured the OpenXR Mirror Capture and that seems to work. A 5 second test video was successfully recorded so far.
Now onto DCS. Here I use the FOVeated plugin from Mbucchia and hence it renders 4 screens over 2. On the github for the OpenXR-Layer-OBSMirror I see this issue reported, but no activity:
Anyone got an idea what to do about it? E.g. how to adjust the Jabbah OpenXR-Layer-OBSMirror so it works with the FOVeated mbucchia solution?
Seems it works now, I switched to Home · mbucchia/Quad-Views-Foveated Wiki · GitHub and now the OBS OpenXR Layer displays the right eye picture 
Not quite sure I have my Quad Views set up correctly, though.
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With the Pico 5 Pro Max (that should sport 3840x3840 per eye resolution) coming probably only at the end of 2024, I am seriously thinking about getting the Aero as a replacement for my G2.
Now the question to you folks who already have it:
Are you using it with one or two base stations? I understand that it could be used just with one (I plan seated siming only, no room scale or seated gaming) but there are issues when looking behind. While in MSFS I rarely look behind my back, this is not the case in DCS and Il-2.
I appreciate your feedback on this. Would you recommend getting two base stations just in case?
Thanks!
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I used it by mistake last night with one base station, and the unit kind of resetted once when I looked over my left shoulder. The remaining base station is located right forward of me. Could be an unlucky coincident, but I had no resets when using two stations so far. YMMV.
Cheers,
TeTeT
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Thanks.
It looks like additional 250 or so euro down the drain 
Now that I’m setup with this foveated rendering stuff for the Aero and it’s working in DCS, how do I know if it’s of any use for me?
How do I determine if the foveated rendering is improving performance for DCS? Is there any benchmark
that is applicable? Or a mission /trk that benchmarks DCS?
Cheers,
TeTeT
One more thing…
Are you bothered by the relatively small vertical FOV of the Aero?
I would be coming from Reverb G2 and according to available sources, the vertical FOV of the Aero is considerably smaller 
I kind of feel that the one of G2 is already so-so.
Thanks
I use two base stations and recommend getting two if you can.
I’ve had the G2 and the FOV does seem* smaller in the Aero but not considerably smaller. The extra clarity across most of the view more than makes up for it in my opinion. I can just notice a fall off of clarity at the edges if I look hard enough for it. I am blown away by the clarity in the titles I have used it with so far: IL-2 GB, Cliffs of Dover VR beta, DCS and Automobilista 2.
The FOV issue for me is a trade off. I really like the FOV in my Valve Index, which is noticeably better than the G2’s FOV. Which headset am I using? The Aero.
*Edit: to clarify I can’t now compare the FOV of the G2 and Aero. See Troll’s post below. I was going from memory in the above comment re FOV.
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