MyOpinion

The reason I made the trip is because the latest design includes a new feature absent in the original which made it exceptionally hard for me to fully review. Namely, the new Bigscreen Beyond 2 adds independent adjustment of lens placement directly in front of each eye.

"Independent monocular IPD was made for your eyes Ian," Shankar wrote over email. "It’s not a common need, but we remembered your desire for it."

After criss-crossing the United States to test the new hardware, and after talking to Shankar for a couple hours, I can write the following sentence about Bigscreen Beyond 2:

I've never seen anything like it.

Bigscreen's elegant solution to lens placement involves the use of what they call an IPD Tool for manually adjusting each lens position. Apple's $3500 headset automatically moves each lens into individualized placement in front of each pupil, but Bigscreen's solution is cheaper and lighter.

The lightweight solution in Beyond 2, meanwhile, also makes the headset shareable with others with a quick change that also ensures accidental adjustments don't occur when handling the device, because there's no button or wheel to hit as is present on some other headsets.

And really, this is just cool.

I saw fewer distracting internal reflections and, overall, the area of clarity is huge. Bigscreen claims "total edge-to-edge clarity", and the lenses did seem very clear to the edges. The biggest distraction for me was some kind of tracking jitter I usually associate with SteamVR base stations. This was a pre-production unit I wore, the base stations weren't in the best position and there were plenty of reflective surfaces in the area that could have caused issues. Still, it was a minor distraction during a short demo, and we'll need to see how a shipping headset holds up over many hours of wear to make a review recommendation.

The more important thing to convey is to those of you who are just learning about Bigscreen for the first time. This device is built by genuine VR enthusiasts building VR headsets for people who want to spend hours at incredible places. For those who haven't experienced VR yet, yes, there's a full theater-sized screen inside that tiny headset, and it could have just as easily been Half-Life: Alyx I was playing in there.

Bigscreen says it weighs just 107 grams, down from 127 grams in the first version. With Beyond 2, this company of less than 40 employees puts the critique that VR headsets are heavy in the past. You'd think it was an FPV viewer but, no, this really is a PC-powered VR headset you can share with family and friends.

Beyond 2 is slated to start shipping in April starting at $1019 with an eye-tracking model to follow for $1219. Bigscreen recommends an RTX 2070 or higher graphics card to drive the headset with a PC.

Developed by solo dev ‘KommanderKen’, BattleGroupVR2 is coming to Quest and SteamVR headsets soon, promising to be a “bigger, better sequel” to the single player real-time space strategy game.

Space Owl says BattleGroupVR2 adds a heap of new features, including open-world exploration, missions, mining, trading, and fleet-building.

BattleGroupVR2 is said to include a fully 3D space battlefield, letting you direct your forces, coordinate fleet formations, and execute precise attacks against increasingly difficult AI enemies.

There’s no release window yet, although you can now wishlist the game on the Horizon Store for Quest 2 and above, and on Steam for PC VR headsets.

The Meta-owned developer describes the coming update as "the biggest update we have ever done since the game’s release in 2016". It will see all weapons and equipment upgraded, new weapons introduced, the ability to choose and customize your character model, a remaster of a key map, and the introduction of a new one.

Every single weapon and piece of equipment, will take a "huge visual leap", Downpour says, from guns to drones and even smoke grenades. 13 new weapons will also be added in total, including a pump-action shotgun and revolver with unique hand interactions. And whereas previously everyone on each team looked the same, Onward Update 2.0 will add 20 "operators", including some female options, for players to choose between. Operators can be further customized, so that each player can have a unique look.

The update is also set to bring dozens of quality-of-life and realism improvements, including more realistic bullet drop and scope zeroing.

Onward Update 2.0 is set to launch next Tuesday, March 25, on the Meta Horizon Store for Quest headsets, Meta PC Store for Link & Rift, and Steam for any VR headset supported by SteamVR.

The XR landscape has changed significantly over the last five years with the flourishing of standalone headsets and new entrants like Apple and (soon) Google. Despite all of that, the PC VR platform has continued a slow but steady growth.

So much has happened in VR in last five years that if you had told me back in early 2020, I’m not sure I would have believed you.

After all, you’d have to say that Facebook is no longer called Facebook. And that the company went on to dissolve the ‘Oculus’ brand, which had long been the most recognizable name in the industry for enthusiasts and even outsiders. And you’d have to tell me that despite that, Facebook Meta still managed to turn its standalone Quest headset into the leading VR platform.

Not only that, you’d have to convince me that Apple would dive head-first into the market with its own headset… and it would cost $3,500! Oh and that Google would follow quickly behind with a complete Android XR operating system underpinning a flagship headset made by Samsung.

Not to mention Microsoft discontinuing its Windows MR platform and giving up on HoloLens (ok actually, that one I might have believed).

Despite all of this, the OG VR platform—PC VR—is still kicking, and has in fact continued to grow.

This surely wouldn’t be the case if Valve hadn’t set up SteamVR from the outset as an open platform which any headset maker can opt into. There’s at least 24 different headsets in use on the platform each month, making SteamVR by far the largest and most diverse PC VR ecosystem.

PC VR no doubt also has Meta to thank for its continued growth after all these years and changes to the landscape. The wide availability and low cost of Quest headsets has brought many new people into the VR fold, and some of them wind up using the headset for PC VR too. Meta headsets account for a whopping 70% of monthly-connected headsets on Steam today.

On Meta's Horizon Store you can currently get the Quest versions of major games like Skydance’s Behemoth, Arizona Sunshine Remake, Arizona Sunshine 2, Dungeons of Eternity, Into The Radius, and Red Matter for up to 50% off, as well as the exclusive Assassin's Creed Nexus.

Meanwhile, Valve's Steam is offering significant discounts on major titles only playable in VR on PC, including Half-Life: Alyx 70% off, 60% off Fallout 4 VR, 80% off DiRT Rally 2.0, and 70% off Elite Dangerous, as well as notable savings on the PC VR versions of games like Skyrim VR, Arizona Sunshine 2, and No Man’s Sky.

Meta's sale ends on the midnight between March 23 and March 24, just over one week from now. Valve's sale generally ends at 10am PT on March 23, though the discounts on some specific titles end sooner.

VR enthusiast Brad Lynch and his team of dataminers have found new evidence of a Valve-branded USB wireless dongle in the code of the latest SteamVR update. The Wi-Fi dongle would plug into a USB port on the PC and allow for smooth PC VR streaming without the need for a router or network configuration.

The device is even said to have been given its own vendor and product ID. Lynch sees this as an indication that the product is being finalized internally.

"Wouldn't be surprised if Deckard launched with this bundled in the box instead of a cable," writes Lynch.

It is not known whether it will be possible to use a cable for uncompressed image transmission on the headset as an alternative to the dongle.

Other standalone headsets will likely also work with Valve's USB dongle. Lynch and his team found evidence in the SteamVR code that Valve is working on Steam Link support for Pico headsets, HTC Vive Focus 3, and Vive Focus Vision. Currently, only Quest headsets are supported.

Steam Link is a VR app that was released in 2023, allowing for an easy connection between Meta Quest and SteamVR for PC VR streaming. Valve's USB wireless dongle and Steam Link are expected to be optimized for each other.

This would not be the first time that a VR headset manufacturer has offered a USB dongle for wireless PC VR streaming. In 2022, Meta released the VR Air Bridge wireless dongle for Meta Quest 2 in partnership with D-Link.

It is currently unclear whether Valve Deckard will only work in conjunction with a PC, or if it will also work as a standalone device. According to the latest rumors, the device will be released by the end of 2025 and will cost around $1,200.

A new open beta for VRChat introduces a number of new features for testing, including remote control drones and a desktop selfie camera.

The drone feature is available to test for members of the service's paid subscription program, VRChat+. Controls should be familiar to those who fly these types of remote control aircraft with a floating screen showing views from the drone and a pair of control sticks.

Another feature in active testing now is "selfie expression" for desktop-based VRChat+ subscribers to use with a webcam and basic face tracking. VRChat's head of community Tupper called the feature "surprisingly effective" as it allows people using VRChat without a headset to express themselves in similar ways as if they had a VR headset on with face and eye tracking.

The latest beta also includes a dolly for long steady camera shots moving along a rail with adjustments for zoom, speed, focus and more. This feature is also gated behind the VRChat+ subscription.

Additional features in open testing, and not requiring a subscription, include turning off specific features in an instance like emoji, stickers, sharing pedestals, prints, and drones. VRChat also updated the user interface.

Based on the top-down strategy game Surviving Mars, Surviving Mars: Pioneer tests your grit as you attempt to establish a new civilization among the stars. In the original game, players would control a Martian landscape from a top-down perspective, constructing futuristic domes and guiding eager citizens. Developed by Bolverk Games (Genotype), the VR adaptation gives you a more central and personal role, mining for materials and placing solar panels on the red planet's surface in first person.

Surviving Mars was originally launched in 2018. Here, players took on the role of an overseer tasked with building up a Martian colony from the dust. With a rocket full of resources and sponsorship from an earthly organization, surviving the vastness of space requires balancing human needs like water and air with the fiscal needs of society and your sponsor. This port looks to pull from those basic principles, allowing players to feel like even more of an active participant in their burgeoning cityscape. Surviving Mars: Pioneer is entering early access on PC VR and Quest later this year, and a PlayStation VR2 version will arrive “at a later date.”

Forefront features two gameplay modes for 16v16 matches, dividing each team into squads of four. The factions in the game are said to be a country's military pitted against a private military group called Orpiment Renewable Energy (O.R.E.), hired to protect different mining sites against takeover.

One mode is 'Rush', where you attack two sites and move onto the next two if you successfully destroy them. Dessaux describes this as “very linear and less vehicle focused,” while 'Conquest' goes heavier on vehicles with less focus on walking around and shooting. With gunplay, Dessaux describes Breachers as being “more arcade-like” for better focus on the action by comparison. Forefront features more realistic reloading while also offering an option for automatic reloading, though the latter is “a bit slower than somebody who's really trained into realistically reloading their gun.” The aim is to equal out any potential competitive advantages.

The studio can't commit to PlayStation VR2 release yet, but they are looking at the idea. Dessaux explained that the Breachers PS VR2 port was “quite time-consuming” and faced delays before launching in December 2023. If such a port does happen for Forefront, it'll be post-launch.

Forefront arrives in early access “at the end of 2025” on the Meta Quest platform, SteamVR, and Pico, while a full release window is unconfirmed. Playtest sessions will begin this summer, and more details will be shared nearer then via the studio's official Discord server.

Despite being small, the truck is still rather hefty with a 4,400lb curb weight, regardless of battery option (the larger option uses newer, denser cells to pack more energy in a similar weight). This is still thousands of pounds less than other electric trucks (~6-7k lbs), but (understandably) quite a bit more than the Mini SE (~3,200lbs), and even not far off from the Toyota Tacoma (~4,500lb) to which TELO compares itself. Speaking of that comparison – the TELO truck is a full five feet shorter than the “compact” Toyota Tacoma or four feet shorter than the Maverick, to say nothing of other enormous vehicles in the US. TELO gave us a live demo of what the truck looks like next to both a Mini Cooper SE and a full size RAM 2500 pickup.

And TELO’s $41k base price and 260 miles of range compare favorably to the most popular commercial EV: Ford’s E-Transit, with an 89kWh battery, 159 mile range and $51k base price (which is now the same as the gas version). That’s a much larger vehicle, but for a company that doesn’t need that much space but still wants to do intra-city deliveries, tradesman work, etc., this could be a great option All in all, despite TELO not being all that old of a company (or that large – it only has 11 employees to date, with one cofounder being Forrest North, an early Tesla employee, and the board including Marc Tarpenning, a Tesla founder), it has produced a pretty neat vehicle which seemed pretty well put together – at least for the few minutes we got to ride in it.

According to Korean publication The Elec, Samsung plans to equip its first mixed reality headset, codenamed "Project Moohan," with 1.35-inch micro OLED displays. These panels will feature an impressive 3,800 pixels per inch (PPI) and a resolution of 3,552 x 3,840. The displays use OLEDoS (OLED on Silicon) technology, where micro OLED elements are applied directly to a silicon substrate.

Sony, which also manufactures the displays for Apple's Vision Pro, will produce these panels for Samsung. The pixel density significantly exceeds that of Vision Pro's 1.4-inch OLEDoS displays, which offer 3,391 PPI at 3,660 x 3,200 resolution. Industry sources suggest Samsung is banking on this higher pixel density as a key selling point against Apple's headset, despite launching later.

Samsung's suppliers are scheduled to begin mass-producing components for Project Moohan next month. The Elec anticipates a market launch in the second half of 2025, with initial production targets around 100,000 units.

Previously targeting a March 30, 2025 launch to coincide with the second anniversary of Vertigo 2, developer Zach Tsiakalis-Brown confirmed the delay to UploadVR, and the upcoming DLC now lists 'April 2025' on Steam. Beyond the wider April release window, a specific release date for Into the Aether is currently unconfirmed.

Revealed during the UploadVR Winter Showcase last December, Vertigo 2: Into the Aether is a DLC expansion for our 2023 VR Game of the Year, where Brian fights back against the Void Delegation. This gives you “The Void Grappler” grappling hook that's attachable to most surfaces for free swinging, alongside “The Void Deflector” for deflecting attacks and accumulating energy for counterattacks.

Vertigo 2: Into the Aether arrives this April on SteamVR, and the base game is out now. While Vertigo 2 is also on PlayStation VR2, there's currently no plans for this DLC to reach Sony's headset.