Hi all,

All the new VR products and VR-related conversations are always focused on pixels density. It's always more and more pixels, all about the image clarity etc... This is very valid, I totally agree that the pixel density is the most important thing for image clarity (with good lenses, etc...), ok ok...

But honestly, in these days, what really irritates me is not the lack of resolution. Instead of more pixels, I'd like a wider view. I'm getting really tired of all these VR headset with that stupid 105/115 degrees FOV. I'm using a Pico4 and I really love that headset, it's great. But just like any other headset, it has a limited horizontal FOV and it's becoming more and more disturbing.

Could anybody tell me what are the headsets, current and future, that are actually offering a nice horizontal FOV ? By "nice", I mean at least 140 or more degrees, something that would feel like I'm not wearing the scuba diving mask I had back when I was 6 years-old ? 🙂

 

I quite agree.  The Pimax Crystal Super ultrawide is supposedly capable of 140 degrees.  I tried one, but sent it back as it did not suit my face shape, and I could not get near that figure.  I'll stick with the Quest 3 for now.  There have been a few prototypes with 180 degrees, but I am not sure we will ever see them in production.

The various forums are only talking about the Pimax headsets indeed, but man these are very expensive. There also another headset from an unknown manufacturer that sells over $3.000 !! Why ?

I wish Pico would try to make a headset that "simply offers just a bit wider FOV" without trying to reinvent the wheel nor trying to impact the world gold stock prices...

21 hours ago, Grindathotte said:

but I am not sure we will ever see them in production.

would require immense display resolution, very expensive GPU, complex & heavy optics, usually introduce distortion.

and all this for the price of a Quest 3S 😀

=> currently not feasible for the consumer market.

Edited February 28Feb 28 by turbomax

The limited fov of VR is an easy thing to complain about.  I remember grumbling about it when I was a VR neophyte years ago.  But I now gladly ignore that deficiency, and fully embrace the beauty and joy inside my 5090 enabled virtual cockpit's fully 3D view with it amazing detail everywhere.  Dang, IMO it is miraculous the technical feats that VR HMDs and software have conquered.  Sure, the more fov the better, but I'm not going to pine about it anymore.

Edited February 28Feb 28 by TheFamilyMan

I share that feeling as well of course, however after all these years, I'm starting to feel the lack of progress. Basically, the view I'm having right now in my Pico4 is not that different from what I used to get in my first VR headset 7 years ago (Lenovo Explorer WMR). Sure I got pancake lenses and higher resolution, but technically, I'm not seeing "better".

Typically, the catching the basket of the tanker during aerial refuelling with the Crusader is still pure hell, because the boom is not in my field of view, for example 😛

 

Edited March 1Mar 1 by Daube

2 hours ago, Daube said:

my Pico4 is not that different from what I used to get in my first VR headset

because a 500 $ Pico 4 is not state of the art. rather 2.000 $ Pimax DreamAir, Samsung XR, PlayforDream etc.

I understand what you say, but I want to disagree with the prices of these headsets, which are expensive for nothing. The additional pixels used by wide angle headsets are absolutely not worth the price difference. 

The borders of my both 24'-27' monitors irritate me more haha, and 25º of FOV hahaha, and 80%? people flight in them, yes I know, crazy

More seriously, my opinion, not better or worse, if had to choose between clarity-smoothness vs FOV, clearly the first 100%, I will reduce the FOV in nowadays HMDs for gain smoothness-clarity than the other way around.

Yeah that's a big downside of VR that for some reason people like to glaze over hehe.  On my Reverb g2 its pretty bad.  Thats why I tend to fly at night in VR cause its not as noticeable.

It's like you're looking through a parascope.

Absolutely agree 👍 

All these headsets have about the same fov as the Rift I bought in 2016.

Owned the Rift S and Reverb G2 after that but I gave up because I just wanted to fly and not spend hours and hours configuring and adjusting things.

A wider view headset could pull me back in the VR world 

Since 2022 I'm running three 42 inch monitors which is a luxury in itself but I surely miss the immersion of the headsets every day...

 

Edited March 20Mar 20 by jozeff

Being predominantly a Sim Racer I know all too well the annoyances of VRs persistent low FOV requirements in HMDs, there's never been a collective "we must make it larger" as generally games tailored to VR outside of simulations only require you to look straight ahead. 

I've long since learned to live with it, but still hope to get a headset one day that has a much larger FOV.

It sounds to me that you do complain about something that you are allowing to dominate your experience rather than dealing with it.  It's all in how you approach the problem, if you tell yourself you're not going to enjoy it because of the field of view then that's exactly what will happen.  If however you go in with a positive attitude and accept the limitations of VR and concentrate on the positives you can enjoy it like thousands already do around the world.

The thing is, I'm enjoying VR since 2018 or 2019, something like that. Haven't come back ever to 2D since that. So I know how to enjoy VR. The limitation was ok in the beginning, but after all these years, it's becoming annoying. And in some case, it's starting to be a real handicap: close formation flying, aerial refuelling, even helicopter flying in some cases... The lack of peripheral vision is becoming an issue I am less and less able to ignore.