Fantastic news, this is such a plus for Varjo, correct me if i’m wrong but this will be the 1st AAA sim that the Aero uses gaze tracked foveated rendering in. Well done to you and your team of devs and testers 
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Thank you! I’ve been trying to find any references to VR apps that did foveated rendering… and I came up empty. All I see is some Unity or Unreal demos. But AFAICT, this is the first AAA title yes!!
Also, I’ll post some more about this separately, but I really want to say how OpenXR made it sooooo easy. We’re not using Varjo’s fancy foveated support (which could perhaps given even better results, but require much tighter game engine integration). Instead, we are using the generic eye-tracking support in OpenXR. Once we had FFR implemented, it took less than 500 lines of code and a couple of afternoons to go from Fixed FR → FR. We’re using a G2 for development, and we use a VR controller to simulate the eye tracker input. Switching from a VR controller in input to the real eye tracker is a 2-line change. Then it did take a lot of back and forth with @NumberNumber481 to get it adjusted and calibrated right.
DEVELOPERS! If you’re currently making a VR title, and you’re still using legacy APIs such as OpenVR - WAKE UP! OpenXR is the way to go. Yes, we added eye tracking to our app, in less than 2 days of eng/work. Without even owning a capable device. WAKE UP! OpenXR is the future!
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Is the turnaround time to get one of these headsets really 1/4 of a year?
If you need testers please let me know. Really excited about this feature.
OMG I/we love you, guys!
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It took me from early December to mid February.
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Just to make sure I understand. This FR is a software solution, correct? Or does it require buying hardware add-ons for the varjo?
Amazing news, congrats to the team. 2 questions:
- should we expect more perf than with FFR ?
- is it compatible with both steamvr runtime and varjo runtime ?
I feel somewhat qualified to answer this.
1.) Don’t expect major performance gains above and beyond FFR. I find that I am able to bring the FR rings in a little tighter without being visually disturbing as they are only ever in your periphery, but even if I push it to the point of being too much, I am only able to gain maybe 1-2FPS above my normal FFR settings.
The biggest benefit is that at a given FR resolution/ring size configuration, it is far more visually appealing vs Fixed.
2.) @mbucchia will need to fully answer this one, but I can say that it does not currently work with the steam runtime. I assume in the alpha build that the code is only presenting the options in the menu or activating the feature if it it sees the Varjo runtime is in use. But, I don’t know if that is because it can’t work, or if its just how it is currently implemented.
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I don’t think it will work with the SteamVR runtime, this needs access to the specific eye tracking feature of the OpenXR, which I highly doubt SteamVR implements.
It’s built into the Aero.
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By the way, is the openxr toolkit activated on your PC ? just want to make sure my ctd does not come from this tool. Thanks !
Yes it is activated and i rarely get ctd’s.
Just wanted to say thank you for your amazing OpenXR Toolkit! I actually cancelled my Varjo Aero order ( and later had mixed feelings about it lol- had instant regret and relief at not plonking down $2k and extra $ for a base station). But with the G2 and your toolkit, Im really enjoying the amazing clarity and glad i saved the money!
Im just hoping we eventually get a Varjo model with wider FOV and inside out tracking, in which case im going to buy.
Until then, THANK YOU for the OpenXR toolkit!
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This is absolutely incredible news! Huge Kudos to you guys working on and bringing this to fruition here soon. I am really looking forward to this feature with my Aero and MSFS 2020. It will be really nice to see the full capability of the Aero being used in MSFS 2020.
Hi guys. Got a Varjo Aero/Nvidia 3070/32 Gb RAM combination that I mainly use to fly MSFS 2020. Problem is, after a few minutes into the flight Varjo Base software spikes up its GPU usage well above 50%, and FPS rate drops dramatically into MSFS. Only solution, and not always efficient as such, is to restart Varjo Base software midgame. Any of you going through the same issue? Also I use OpenXR Toolkit, but deactivating it makes no difference. I tried Process Lasso to no avail either. Thanks in advance!
Yes I’ve experienced that as well.
For those of you still waiting for your headsets on order or considering ordering, an official update from Varjo on the current shipping delay issues:
Quick update from en earlier post I made about some dead pixels and a replacement headset.
I received my new headset yesterday and am very happy to say all is looking good so far.
There had been a delay to shipping due to the lock downs China / Hong Kong had in place, the initial shipping from Hong Kong was on the 9th.
Just waiting on some postage details for sending back the original unit.
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I’m waiting on rma for dead pixel, how long did u wait between reporting the problem to support and receiving your replacement? Btw happy for u its resolved.