Download @risa2000 hmdq tool it collects requested rendered FoV values.
If you compare claimed FOV between the various manufacturers, the deltas between their claims are roughly equal to the deltas between their actual measured FOVs. That is, as long as youâre comparing claim to claim and actual measurement to actual measurement, youâll get the right idea about how the various VR headsets compare to each other.
âŚexcept for the Aero. If you go by claims, the Aero has FOV right around the Vive Pro 2 and Index, when in reality the Aero has the smallest FOV on the consumer market.
When you say all of the other companies also âexaggerateâ their FOV claims, thatâs not precisely true. Theyâre just measuring it in a different way than how users are measuring it. The way companies are measuring it is misleading, but it is still technically true. At least, it can be argued to that effect.
But how is Varjo calculating the Aeroâs FOV? Has Varjo come up with a new way to calculate FOV which is even more misleading? Or are the numbers just made up (a true exaggeration)?
I talked with someone a couple of nights ago on VRChat who had purchased the Aero and was waiting for it to arrive. That person believed they would be receiving a headset with about the same FOV as the Valve Index. Whether or not that person returns it over that, they still made a purchasing decision under false pretext.
I agree with you that the vast majority of owners probably donât buy the Aero for its FOV. Theyâll have dug enough to know the real situation before spending $2000. But my point is that they shouldnât have to. And not all of them will.
If the FOV claims on Varjoâs website are false, even if nobody fell for it, they would still be false.
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Right. Thatâs where the 97.43 degree HFOV value I mentioned in my post came from.
Varjoâs advertized FOV: 115 horizontal and 135 diagonal.
hmdq reported FOV: 97.43 horizontal and 111.8 diagonal.
Per the HMD geometry database at HMD Geometry Database | Collected geometry data from some commercially available VR headsets.
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This is where hmd manufacturers know there actual FoV vs the marketed claimed FoV. So for me I donât buy the there measuring it differently as you cannot see what is not rendered. Now I will admit they maybe going by what the Lenses are capable but not there engineered product produces.
Even Pimax fudges there actual hFoV as 170 horizontal knowing it only renders 160.25. 
All these companies need to choose honest legit FoV rendered values vs false marketing bling.
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The new firmware update is awesome for the varjo aero . It almost removes the geometric distortions
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I tested it, but I found it doesnât remove the distortion entirely. Itâs still there, over the entire picture, and it defeats the immersion.
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Mrtv vid about the recent distorsion fix update:
I didnât notice any difference after the fix but I perceived hardly any distorsion in the 1st place so iâm probably not in a position to judge.
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I thought this rather thorough user review on Reddit was interesting. It furthers my impression that the Aero is a very narrowly focused VR headset which very strongly appeals to a specific subset of customers but isnât very appealing to the more general audience even without consideration of the high price tag.
âTLDR: Aero clarity better, everything else basically worse. Sidestep/step backwards. Probably not the bridge to the Pimax 12K QLED Reality headset you might be looking for.â
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It looks like this user didnât try the new update that mostly fixes the distortion issues. Before the update I would have agreed with his assessment that youâre looking into a world clearly but donât feel like youâre in the world, but now after the update it feels like youâre in the world like other headsets. I donât think itâs 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 didnât 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 wonât experience distortion. But this likely has little to no effect for users that were already not having that problem.
Thatâs 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 donât get that.
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Reincarnation some of us may have been horses pulling buggies. 
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I was referring to the linked review, not the guy on here who said he didnât notice distortion. I do think that even if you didnât consciously notice it, it might subconsciously have made the world not feel like you were in it as he was saying.
Also, I wasnât 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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Letâs put it like this: As a kid, I once âtook a rideâ 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 âinâ 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 âoffâ, 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. Thereâs more than a few people who have said that they didnât have problems with distortion on the Aero. Which makes sense. Itâs the same on the 8KX. Distortion is one of the issues people experience when the optical geometry isnât working for them as intended. People who fall into the range that the optical geometry was designed for wonât experience it.
Okay. So the 8KXâs optical geometry doesnât work correctly for you (which Iâve often heard for low IPD), but the Aeroâs does. Thatâs 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, theyâre going to prefer the VR headset that works properly for them. Whereas the other one canât even be a contender.
I look for signs of that kind of thing when Iâm reading reviews. Useful comparisons between VR headsets only happen when both headsets work properly for the reviewer. Thatâs 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 
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This isnât 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 âinterestâ. The user Infhype was particularly bad about it.
If it was just one case I could say maybe itâs not them, but this is way more than a one off.
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Thatâs an unsubstantiated accusation which is nothing but pure speculation. Unless you have some form of actual proof that itâs the Pimax company behind these posts? It seems like youâre 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, thatâs 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. Iâve worked for several companies, and marketing departments typically are pretty shameless as you suggest. Itâs the nature of their work. But theyâre not idiots. Theyâve got much better ways to spend their time and effort on promoting their products than making bad fake posts on Reddit.
Well, while Iâm not saying itâs 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 whoâs 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. Iâd be far more charitable and less suspicious if that didnât happen, but thatâs 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. Itâs not exclusively Pimax things, but itâs at least a common enough trend that it feels unusual and suspicious. Such as
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 canât 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. Theyâre not the first or last company to do this, but this doesnât look the greatest and Pimax is also a Chinese company. In China itâs 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. Theyâve 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 thereâs enough there that itâs at least questionable and Iâve seen some Chinese companies do this before. Hell, Iâve 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 Iâm not the best at remembering specific names.
Itâs not dead on confirmation that Pimax is doing it, except for Infhype I very much believe thatâs 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 donât think itâs 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 Iâve seen from Pimax before, Iâd be surprised if not even 1 of those suspicious accounts belongs to Pimax employees. Thereâs quite a bit of history in that area.
Anyway, to me the Varjo is not perfect at all, BUT itâs really the first headset that 100% solved the mura and SDE problems. Finally youâre 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 
Sure, still a lot can be improved and hopefully weâll have even better headsets soon. But for now, I canât imagine going back to any other headset. And people in this thread with all kinds of conclusions about the Varjo who havenât even tried the headset, well, what can I say âŚ
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