VR Veteran Studio Behind ‘Bigscreen’ Unveils Skinny & Gentle PC VR Headset ‘Past’

The workforce behind social VR viewing app Bigscreen right this moment unveiled a skinny and light-weight PC VR headset that not solely guarantees a couple of intriguing enthusiast-grade specs, but additionally a custom-made match primarily based on a 3D scan of your face. In brief, it’s an enormous first for the VR veterans, who’re answerable for probably the most beloved VR content material viewing platforms.

Referred to as Bigscreen Past, the $999 headset presents an fascinating set of options that are squarely geared toward PC VR fans: twin OLED microdisplays providing 2,560 × 2,560 per-eye decision, pancake optics, and 6DOF SteamVR monitoring help.

The corporate is billing the tethered PC VR headset because the smallest and lightest of its form, weighing in at simply 127 grams and measuring lower than 1-inch at its thinnest level.

Bigscreen Past begins pre-orders right this moment, priced at $999. Ostensibly, Past is concentrating on PC VR customers who seemingly already within the SteamVR ecosystem however need one thing thinner and lighter than the final technology of headsets, comparable to Valve Index. Notably, the headset doesn’t embrace the requiste SteamVR monitoring base stations or SteamVR-compatible controllers just like the Valve Index controller or HTC Vive wand—you’ll need to buy these individually.

The reasoning: Bigscreen founder and CEO Darshan Shankar says the VR software program studio wished to construct “the VR headset we wished for ourselves.”

“At the moment’s main VR headsets have doubled in weight in comparison with headsets from 2016. We constructed Past as a result of we felt VR was too heavy, cumbersome, and uncomfortable,” Shankar says. “We invented new applied sciences to extend consolation, and developed ultra-high-end elements like OLED microdisplays and pancake optics to extend immersion. To ship the most effective software program expertise for watching films in Bigscreen, we additionally needed to construct the most effective {hardware} with Bigscreen Past.”

Like many forthcoming VR headsets, Past is ready to slim down because of the inclusion of pancake lenses, which Bigscreen says are a three-element optical design composed of glass, plastic polymers, movies, and coatings.

Paired with two OLED microdisplays, every with a decision of two,560 × 2,560 pixels, Past boasts a excessive fill-factor with its 7.2-μm large pixels and RGB stripe subpixels, leading to what the corporate says eliminates the display screen door impact—when the non-illuminated areas between pixels make it appear to be you’re viewing VR content material by way of a display screen door.

Decision alone doesn’t inform the entire story, though for reference Valve Index is 1,440 × 1,600 per-eye, Meta Quest Professional is 1,920 × 1,800 pixels per-eye, and Pico 4 is 2,160 × 2,160 pixels per-eye.

One other one in all Past’s huge enthusiast-grade options is owed to Bigscreen’s capacity to customise the match of the headset to every consumer, which will probably be carried out by doing a one-time scan of the consumer’s face utilizing an iPhone XR or newer Apple cell machine. The devoted Bigscreen scanning app is claimed to measure the form of the consumer’s face and the place of their eyes, which permits the corporate to kind a facial interface a singular to the person and decide interpupillar distance.

The hand-washable facial interface is claimed to present “even weight distribution, zero gentle leakage, and aligns the eyes and optics appropriately.” Moreover, glasses wearers must spring for {custom} prescription lenses that magnetically match into Past, as glasses don’t match contained in the small kind issue.

Though it ships with a smooth strap, customers can even spring for the elective audiostrap. We haven’t confirmed pricing for that but, nevertheless we’ll replace as soon as we do.

Granted, some issues we’d contemplate ‘nex-gen’ are notably lacking from Past, comparable to eye-tracking, face-tracking, optical 6DOF monitoring, and the power to make use of it wirelessly. As the primary VR headset from a long-time VR veteran although, Past does test loads of containers for customers comparable to simulator followers, and anybody searching for a greater long-term VR media viewer.

Bigscreen Past is slate to ship in waves primarily based on area. Preorders, that are absolutely cancellable and refundable up till transport, are set to ship in the US someday in Q3 2023.

Second wave shipments will start in This fall 2023 in Canada and Europe together with the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, and Belgium. A 3rd wave of will come someday in late 2023, together with Japan, Australia, New Zealand. The corporate says Past will probably be out there in additional international locations and areas in 2024.

Take a look at the spec sheet beneath:

Bigscreen Past Specs