Varjo VR-1 Enterprise Headset Launching. $6000 for clarity as good as a 4K Monitor

[DarthBuzzard]

https://www.roadtovr.com/varjo-vr-1-retina-fixed-foveated-display-launch-release-date-price/

Of course, no one is getting this as a consumer. But it's a nice look at how things are going to be in the future. I've read a few reports now, someone even described it as realer than real life, which is a bit weird, but must have been surreal for them and is supposedly like trying VR for the first time again.

You have a very small area of high resolution with the microdisplay used in the center of the headset, so this isn't 4K clarity everywhere you can see, but is still a very impressive accomplishment this early on.

 

[Deleted member 15428]

How's the software and user experience? Is it easy to setup and use?

 

[MrKlaw]

Krejlooc when is your preorder coming in? ;)

 

[Heid]

How's the software and user experience? Is it easy to setup and use?

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At that price its hardly for casual consumers, so it could require a horse in a treadmill and VR focused industries would roll with it.

 

[Budi]

Best in the biz! My friend got to try this out, he works in healthcare (psychiatry). It was some surgeon simulator (no, not that one!). He was really impressed. The nerve entrapment surgery was done with some kind of pen, which gave haptic feedback when turning the scalpel in the simulation.

 

[gnilres]

OASIS 2020 confirmed?

 

[luoapp]

So, it seems like for a "real reality", that's 60 pixels per degree * 90 degree, you need about 5.4k x 5.4k resolution per eye. Wonder why they (or anyone else) won't just go out and make one. I mean, there are 4k (3840 x 2160 ) phones on sale right now.

 

[DarthBuzzard]

So, it seems like for a "real reality", that's 60 pixels per degree * 90 degree, you need about 5.4k x 5.4k resolution per eye. Wonder why they (or anyone else) won't just go out and make one. I mean, there are 4k (3840 x 2160 ) phones on sale right now.

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Generally you want custom displays for VR. But Google and LG have manufactured 4800 x 3840 per eye displays already, and several others have achieved similar results. This is likely within the realm of what we'll see in true 2nd gen headsets in the next few years.

However, PPD is affected by the field of view. We need to get to 270 degrees from the current ~100 of most headsets. This would mean no black edges anywhere, even if you slant your eyes as far to the left or right as you can, though ~200 is enough to ensure no black edges without eye slants.

Problem is, 270 degrees demands 16000 x 16000 per eye resolution to achieve 60 PPD. So that would be a good 10 years off. Driving that many pixels is really no big deal with foveated rendering; the issue is manufacturing it.

2nd gen headsets are going to have a really big increase in field of view, which means the clarity will not leap straight to 50-60 PPD, but rather to around 30 PPD, which is near the realm of 1080p monitor clarity.

 

[cakefoo]

I'm confused. I read about Varjo's tech before, where it was claimed that the focus screen would move to follow your eyes. But this article seems to imply the focus screen is stuck in the center.

 

[luoapp]

I'm confused. I read about Varjo's tech before, where it was claimed that the focus screen would move to follow your eyes. But this article seems to imply the focus screen is stuck in the center.

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Yea, their current fixed focal point design makes eye-trcking kinda pointless.

 

[cakefoo]

I found an article that clarifies it's a fixed display, and that the moving version is slated to release later. THAT is going to be the future.

For the headset's initial launch the company has decided against hardware foveation (moving the focus display to keep it at the center of the gaze). R&D on that front continues (we covered several of the company's potential approaches here), but early access partners using the headset said they would rather have the fixed-focus display headset in their hands sooner rather than wait longer for a hardware foveated version, Mäkinen told me.

 

[Neuromancer]

Pretty rad. I'm looking forward to significantly better image quality in VR. Soon, people are going to look back at where we are now as the Atari days of VR.

 

[1-D_FE]

Best in the biz! My friend got to try this out, he works in healthcare (psychiatry). It was some surgeon simulator (no, not that one!). He was really impressed. The nerve entrapment surgery was done with some kind of pen, which gave haptic feedback when turning the scalpel in the simulation.

Click to shrink...

That's really cool.

And also the reason it's so hilarious when people talk about VR being a failure and a fad. They just don't get it and are blind to the big picture. VR/AR truly is the next platform (regardless of how long the rollout takes).

 

[DarthBuzzard]

That's really cool.

And also the reason it's so hilarious when people talk about VR being a failure and a fad. They just don't get it and are blind to the big picture. VR/AR truly is the next platform (regardless of how long the rollout takes).

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Yup. XR, or VR/AR together is inevitable as the most transformational technology in human history, well up until that point anyway.

 

[DarthBuzzard]

I found an article that clarifies it's a fixed display, and that the moving version is slated to release later. THAT is going to be the future.

For the headset's initial launch the company has decided against hardware foveation (moving the focus display to keep it at the center of the gaze). R&D on that front continues (we covered several of the company's potential approaches here), but early access partners using the headset said they would rather have the fixed-focus display headset in their hands sooner rather than wait longer for a hardware foveated version, Mäkinen told me.

Click to shrink...

Oculus also patented the same idea. Though given Oculus are aiming for consumers, they will probably just leave it as research material as that adds mechanical complexity which is at odds against their goal for sunglasses VR.

 

[Kthulhu]

Design reminds me a lot of the Rift.

 

[Budi]

Translator's note: Varjo means Shadow.

 

[Jessie]

God I can't wait for 4K Minecraft in each eye.

 

[MrKlaw]

Generally you want custom displays for VR. But Google and LG have manufactured 4800 x 3840 per eye displays already, and several others have achieved similar results. This is likely within the realm of what we'll see in true 2nd gen headsets in the next few years.

However, PPD is affected by the field of view. We need to get to 270 degrees from the current ~100 of most headsets. This would mean no black edges anywhere, even if you slant your eyes as far to the left or right as you can, though ~200 is enough to ensure no black edges without eye slants.

Problem is, 270 degrees demands 16000 x 16000 per eye resolution to achieve 60 PPD. So that would be a good 10 years off. Driving that many pixels is really no big deal with foveated rendering; the issue is manufacturing it.

2nd gen headsets are going to have a really big increase in field of view, which means the clarity will not leap straight to 50-60 PPD, but rather to around 30 PPD, which is near the realm of 1080p monitor clarity.

Click to shrink...

270 degrees might be useful for peripheral fill but I don't think you need high detail at that fov.

Don't know what the math is like but eg it might be enough to have 4kx4k per eye for around 90 degree fov, using foveated rendering and eye tracking to keep the performance requirements down, and then a lower resolution panel filling in the rest mainly for peripheral vision

 

[collige]

our understanding is that the focus display operates at 60Hz with the context display at 90Hz.

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I don't like the sound of this. Everything else seems great though, outside of the price.

 

[Prevolition]

Wouldn't hardware foveation be more expensive and difficult than just focusing r&d on "soft" foveation + the eye tracking they already have?

That's really cool.

And also the reason it's so hilarious when people talk about VR being a failure and a fad. They just don't get it and are blind to the big picture. VR/AR truly is the next platform (regardless of how long the rollout takes).

Click to shrink...

Right - we'll all eventually be watching even 2D content on AR/VR/MR hardware. In the future televisions will be phased out and replaced by augmented holography and seamless headsets/eyewear.

 

[DarthBuzzard]

270 degrees might be useful for peripheral fill but I don't think you need high detail at that fov.

Don't know what the math is like but eg it might be enough to have 4kx4k per eye for around 90 degree fov, using foveated rendering and eye tracking to keep the performance requirements down, and then a lower resolution panel filling in the rest mainly for peripheral vision

Click to shrink...

We need to get to at least 200 though. People won't be perfectly satisfied if they can still see edges when looking forward.

 

[Deleted member 984]

Is this the headset that Tested did a video in a while back?

 

[MrKlaw]

We need to get to at least 200 though. People won't be perfectly satisfied if they can still see edges when looking forward.

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Oh sure - I just don't think you need detail across 200. I'm sure the research is already out there but you aren't likely to be actively looking at the edges of a 200 degree fov so that area could be much lower res

Imagine this headsets concept but with a much larger central high res area and a lower res label behind it for filling the peripheral vision

 

[minimalism]

Anything that helps remove the distortion at the edges of the lenses. That's my biggest hangup with VR. I rarely move my head to look around since my natural response is just to move my eyes around to look at things.