Thank you for the link and info! I know his videos and as a matter of fact he his also active on the reddit HP reverb sub and there are some good comments there (but not as friendly as here!)
Once thing remains for sure: I get terrible eye strain with the G2 because I have to force as when I’m trying to read something closer, whereas I can play Alyx with the Index for hours and don’t feel any fatigue at all… Optics are really different between the two and the more I think about it the more it makes sense. For example see this comment from the HP guy behind the G2 tech:
kaiserkannon HP Employee 2 days ago
I love high fields of view! But why did we choose not to expand FOV is a great question.
At a basic level there are two ways to increase FOV assuming same technology is being used:
- increase panel and optics size (Index uses big lenses on big panels). This comes with the con of increased weight, size, and cost.
- increase optical power while keeping displays and optics the same size. this comes with the con of lowering optical performance.
At the end of the day we did not feel the tradeoffs were worth the increased FOV, and that with current technology we have found the right balance. In the future when new technology changes the tradeoff equations we will find a new balance.
In other words because the G2 is using smaller panels than the Index (regardless of the FOV question), they have to use optics with a higher power, which I understand as magnifying more and in this case, it might be the reason the facemask is more recessed than the G1 because otherwise it would be too much lens curvature and aberrations. Having said this I still don’t get with the G1 with the same panels didn’t cause me any eye strain but the G2 with the same panel size is causing it to me. Either I really have a G2 I have to RMA, or more likely given the number of people complaining, they changed the optics focal length to be shorter than G1/Index/Others because they’ve chosen a Valve lens which material is producing less artefact and CA but conversely is refracting less as well. I can’t help thinking they’ve cut some corners with this to the point I’m starting to regret having returned my G1 when they’ve announced the G2, even more so that the latest WMR is correcting the G1 CA…