For what it’s worth, I think (being a happy Steam Deck owner) that Valve will come out with a new VR headset, but it will be basically a stand alone unit - the device itself will allow fast wifi streaming from another PC, but its emphasis will be on stand-alone VR and not sit-down tethered PC sim playing.
Valve love room-scale VR, and this device will be all about that. It will have great lenses and screens and be open for hacking on, but the major downside will be the price will have to include the ‘Steam Deck Neck Lump’, as in the portable PC on the headset actually powering the thing. I know the article stresses a separate unit but I don’t think that will happen. This means we have to spend money on a significant part of the VR unit that we don’t actually want. We all want to run tethered PC sims, not ports for some mobile chipset or proton layer. While it will be possible to install Windows on it, and DCS etc, it is basically another PC you are buying, with all the constraints of weight, power and size to fit on the neck.
I think it will also come with a lot of cameras for inside out tracking and (importantly) AR sort of set-ups where you get high resolution pass-through. Again, this is super neat for VR and absolutely necessary for some golden ticket like app to stimulate the regular consumer VR market (which is the only way VR survives/grows in the next 5 years), but for us simmers it’s basically going to add at least $750 to the price for effectively a heavier and more expensive portable PC unit.
Valve never really got sit-down VR sims and just don’t see it as something they want to do. If we get a reasonably priced VR unit out of it for PC tethered flight sims then it’ll be a happy accident, but we’ll be paying for lots of heavy and expensive parts we don’t really want (from the perspective of a sit-down simmer of course). They might price it at near cost, but unlike Meta, they won’t subsidize the market to try to take it mainstream advertising, it’ll be higher end that the Quest stuff and priced accordingly.
I am a bit wary of that, too - but in the end as long as they don’t make it as heavy and hot as the Index, I’ll be satisfied.
If having to buy the extra hardware and install my sims on it (as long as they don’t all have to be Steam installs) also means higher wireless performance I’d be willing to take a bigger financial hit - as long as it isn’t too big.
Yeah, it’s a weird time in that the VR market is still looking for the magic ‘chasm jumping app’ to take it really mainstream, while actually it might not just exist. Beat Saber helped, but people get bored with things like that, like you said.
Maybe the true mixed reality AR way is what will do it, where people can wear light stand-alone devices and ‘do things’ but have amazing pass-through capabilities to make it less cut off from the real world and other people - as in, rather than have an enormous TV you get a similar ability with some AR device, like the Apple headset is pushing. Big screens that work well in small spaces is a universal thing that people would like, it’s just getting over the weight and cut-off nature of what we have today.
Either that or some sort of collaboration app that is x times better/productive due to being in a mixed reality physical space (sort of likes an undiscovered ‘Excel’ like bonus moment, but for VR). Dunno, and if I did I wouldn’t be sitting here eating chips an dips.
I’ve got high hopes for mixed reality AR. One thing that I really like about the Quest Pro is the virtual Windows desktop, far superior and more usable than anything that I’ve seen elsewhere. My normal sim flow is boot the headset, switch to the virtual Windows desktop, and interface with it as I would without a VR headset on. I can launch axillary apps that I use with DCS, like like @SkateZilla’s launcher and VAICOM, read a PDF of the mission briefing, watch a YouTube tutorial on the DCS module that I’ll be flying, and then launch DCS. Everything that I used to do before putting on the headset. If a kid walks in the room, I can double-tap the headset to get a view of the room and interact with the intruding human. Not quite AR, but a step in that direction.
I mentioned a negative thing about Pico 4 in another thread - the fact that every single time I switch it on there’s some sleazy title in front of me. Within a few seconds it usually gets swapped for a load of different, more mainstream titles, but the intent is obvious.
Steam Previews for VR frequently show explicitly adult titles (often of surprisingly high graphical quality) but you can set your preferences to avoid that.
It would be a little surprising to me if Pico didn’t offer similar control…?
AFAIK the only setting is for mature/18+ content - that seems to include everything and if that’s switched off it may exclude titles such as the Walking Dead etc.
It doesn’t bother me in the normal sense - it just makes me wonder how those sort of titles (and how popular they are - or ByteDance think they are) may affect policy - especially software development policy for the headset.
These videos are quite frustrating, in that he obviously wants to say something more about the glare being too much but is sent a free unit to review and has an affiliate link. It’s amazing how nearly every youtube business in this area manages to avoid the big questions around the headsets, as in, how does it directly compare to the other ones in the market - they never say that outright and it’s weirdly accepted as normal now. These aren’t really reviews, but it is good to see how small and light the wee headset is.
Another thing is that you need to watch all the videos as they aren’t as structured as a review would be. This last one builds on the ones he did of the pre production unit and covers what he thinks are the differences between pre-prod and retail.
It’s basically a Vlog by a guy talking about whatever springs to mind as he flightsims in VR.
I think they all know what they are doing a bit, in that not to review it too deliberately and just do ‘impressions’. It’s sort of the twitch stream vibe where the business is really about being a watchable nice friendly personality online, but really it’s about the income at the end of the day (‘No, the stripper doesn’t really like you’ etc). I don’t fault them for it as it’s a way to earn a living.
Because these vloggers are so dependent on the vendors goodwill on sending review units, and the units are expensive and very niche, then it sort of becomes a three way relationship between the viewer and the producer of the video, even if that isn’t how it is sold. Such is life. Hopefully when more and more people get their units we can see. Being so tiny does make it look pretty interesting for sure.
I feel your pain,I dob’t think He ever said what the FOV actually is?? Only a flash pop up on the screen reading It compares with the Pico 4.I did find The custom face plate and large Sweet Stop somewhat interesting and thought I would share for those interested.
Yes, impressions is all you get. And I kind of understand why because we don’t experience VR in the same way, so it’s hard to tell how you will experience what I’m experiencing.
Take this video as an example.
MY FINAL VERDICT…!
Here he talks about how much glare there is in the Bigscreen beyond and how shocked he was when returning to Aero and Crystal, which has no glare. He later says how shocked he was returning to these headsets, because of their size. It’s always positives and negatives in relation to his experiences and that’s all there is.
And this is what I mean by having to watch all the videos that he publishes. The one about the retail Bigscreen must be seen as a follow-up to this video, and the ones before that. It makes it hard to just drop by for a quick answer. He also changes opinion as he use the headset and that’s also natural, when you do several videos over time, I guess. So, if you subscribe to his channel and watch everything (I did when I got the Aero) you get a pretty good idea what he thinks of the headset. Now you still have no idea if that applies to you. In this video he calls the Aero Super Comfortable, while I nearly returned mine because of how it fit me
So, what’s my final verdict…?
You can watch as many influencer videos you like but unless you find an influencer that thinks and feels the way you do, you’ll be none the wiser.
This is why I bought Quest 2 and Pico 4 from Amazon - very easy test & return if required process. In fact I just have to walk round the corner, literally, with my returns and don’t even need to pack them.
So I will always choose a purchase from them if available and I don’t have to worry so much about the different reviews I’ve seen and read.
