Varjo Aero and Triple Monitors

First Impressions as well

TL;DR

The Varjo Aero is excellent in clarity and other features, but it is not without problems. This write-up details the hoops I needed to go through to get it to work, somewhat acceptably, in my setup, which includes a triple-monitor.

Expectations

I had had a horror story with Pimax (see here) and even though I have by now sort of tamed it (the 8KX, that is), I was *not* looking forward to a repeat with the Varjo.

It wasn’t quite a repeat, but it was not a bed of roses either. Plus, this is only day 1, and thus who knows what the future holds (both good *and* bad).

Reality

My system consists of an RTX 3090, three 4K monitors, and, before the Aero, had a Pimax 8KX setup and working. Well, mostly working. Details on the rig can be found here, if interested.

I unplugged the 8KX, unboxed the Aero, and followed the instructions to the letter. This included, in rough order:

1. Download and install Varjo Base
2. When it complained, install the latest NVIDIA Driver
3. Then, upgrade the headset’s firmware

Up until that point, it was flawless and smooth. The Varjo app would even give you the link from where to download the things that you were missing and all. However, we now stumble onto the first hurdle…

Pimax, Reverb, etc count as one. Aero counts as two

I didn’t know it at the time, but the Aero device counts as two monitors. All other headsets I know of apparently count as one. This will become relevant in short order.

After starting Varjo Base, for a split second, you see on the monitor the picture that the headset is showing, but almost immediately you get this…

Figuring out what the issue was required a Facebook post, a Discord invite, and wading through months’ worth of posts on Discord. In the end, the problem lies with the fact that NVIDIA cards can support a maximum of four displays. This is irrespective of the number of ports they have (mine, for instance, has 3 HDMI ports and 3 DisplayPorts).

Since I had three TVs connected, and the Aero counts as two, I was one over, and Varjo Base was complaining about it. The recommended solution appears to be “unplug one of your monitors”. The problem with that approach is that it requires physically doing so (i.e. taking out the HDMI cable or the DP cable connector from where it connects to the PC). For somebody that uses both triples and VR and switches between them, this “plug/unplug” solution clearly does not cut it long term.

But, as I wanted to get going, I unplugged one of my monitors, rebooted and such, and finally, I got the Varjo Base software working.

The things they do not tell you in the instructions…

Admittedly I did not go read everything I could in all the forums before installing the Aero. I assumed that following the software’s instructions would be the appropriate route.

If you happen to have had a different VR system before the Aero though, it is not the appropriate route. Instead, what you have to do is completely uninstall your prior VR’s software (in my case, PiTools), uninstall SteamVR completely, reboot, and then re-install the Varjo Base software.

And of course, pray a little, or chant, or whatever you do to summon up good fortune…

Using the thing is also different (at least from Pimax’s)

Assuming you’ve gotten this far, you’d think it’d be all smooth sailing. Well…. it can be if you know what you are doing. And if you were coming from Pimax, you probably don’t know what you are doing. Let me explain…

In my prior world, I would open up PiTools (the equivalent to Varjo Base) which would present the catalog of all the games I had. I would pick a game, PiTools would start SteamVR with the appropriate bindings and then start the game in VR. This was not the only way to start a game, but the way it used to work most of the time.

In Varjo-land, things are a bit different. Varjo Base appears to not have a catalog/menu of games (if it does, kindly clue me in, it’s been only hours of experience for me so far). Thus, what’s a neophyte to do? Well, I decided to start SteamVR and go to its lobby and launch the game from there. SteamVR would refuse to start and claim that it was already running.

And therein lies the first difference. Varjo Base has already started enough of SteamVR under the hood even if no games are running so much so that you cannot run SteamVR standalone. If you wanted to get the SteamVR screen on your monitor then you use Varjo Base to summon some task that requires SteamVR (such as room setup) and that apparently brings it to the foreground or some such thing.

In any case, even with SteamVR running, I was never able to see the SteamVR room/lobby. Not sure what I am doing wrong.

Undeterred, I decided to start the game from Steam itself. You know when you click “play,” it asks “do you want to run the SteamVR version of this thing?” and you click “Yes”?… Well, that.

Still, did not work. After a bit of tweaking, I learned that you had to go to the SteamVR “developer settings” and in there select VarjoXR (or some variation therein) as the OpenVR environment. When I got there, I realized I already had the VarjoXR in there, but it didn’t work. So I did the opposite and selected SteamVR.

Tried it again, and some progress. I would get the game starting on the monitor…and only when the game itself went into 3D mode was I able to see anything in the headset. This was a problem because I was used to the pimax, where the game itself, even when in 2D, would show on the HMD.

I eventually solved this by turning “virtual desktop” ON. I am sure there must be a smarter way of doing this, so please do tell me!

So, when I wanted to play Automobilista, I would see the desktop in the HMD, I would see the game starting and I would be able to more or less control it using the mouse/trackball. Eventually, the game would go into 3D mode and at that point, it’s gorgeous in the Aero (the VrOptician inserts helped I am sure)

So, with the games working (clarity was nice, FPS appears nice even though fpsVR shows 2 frames per second, which is clearly not right) I went back to solving the switching between triples and VR problem.

Ugly solution, but it sort of works

The best I have been able to come up with is to do the following:

(a) Connect the power puck for the Varjo breaker box to the Bluetooth-enabled power plug that’s connected to the wall

(b) Plug all your monitors and Varjo Aero into your PC.

With the above setup, you have to follow a dance every time you want to switch still, as follows

You are running on triples, and you want to use VR

You are set up with triples, Varjo Base or SteamVR are absolutely not running, and you want to move to VR, this is what you do:

1. Open up NVIDIA Control Panel, and turn off the left and right monitors in it

In the image above, you see all three monitors enabled. Simply untick monitors 2 and 1 in this case, leaving only monitor 3, which is the center one. You have to click Apply, wait, and then confirm that everything is as it should be.

At this point, you have only one monitor as far as NVIDIA Surround is concerned.

2. Turn the Varjo Aero headset on. Using your favorite phone app, command the Bluetooth power socket to turn on, thus sending power to the Varjo breaker box. In my case, I click on “VarjoON” in my phone app.

You will hear a bunch of “beep beep beep” telling you that Windows is detecting the Varjo etc. Not a bunch, three. Three sequences of “beep beep beep” to be precise.

Wait for them.

3. Startup Varjo Base. If it doesn’t work right away, in the Varjo Base software, select “Restart Varjo System”

4. Open Steam, go to the game, click PLAY, and then select the SteamVR option

With any luck, you will see the desktop on the headset, the game menu on the desktop, and eventually the 3D renderings from the game.

You are using VR and want to go back to triples

This is when it gets a bit nastier. It’s not Varjo’s fault entirely. NVIDIA contributes a bit to make it harder.

1. The first thing you do is turn off the game, obviously
2. Then, you turn off Varjo Base. Completely. This means going to the task manager or the lower right corner and completely exiting the program. Don’t just click on the “X” on the Varjo Base window and think you are done. You are not.

3. You are still not done. Need to kill SteamVR as well…

4. If you followed these instructions… That’s too bad :-) You have to kill SteamVR first, then Varjo Base. So do step 2 again if you did it in the order I wrote this. In any case, when you are done, you should only see these two in task manager.

Keep in mind that I am not sure if all these steps are strictly necessary. They worked for me and thus I am repeating them blindly. Caveat emptor!

5. Now that you are done with the software part, kill the power to the Aero. Use your Bluetooth app and turn that thing off. In my case, I click “VarjoOFF” on the iPhone

6. With the Varjo properly dead, let’s bring the left and right monitors back to life. If you’ve been playing a while, chances are your TVs have gone to sleep by themselves, and your setup looks something like this:

In other words, the TVs are off. In that case, turn them on.

7. Add the left and right TVs to NVIDIA control panel. You should see them unticked, just tick them on

When you do, it is likely they will not show up in the right order, as you can see below

So now you have to drag them so that they are correct. In my case, it is 1–3–2.

Click Apply, pray and confirm changes.

You thought you were done, right? Wrong!

Yeah, this is the ugly part. I have not found a way to solve this. Maybe there is a way.

Remember that your TVs went to sleep? Well, if your TVs are anything like mine, when they come back they will most likely NOT come back in the configuration you need me (in my case, 3840x2160@120hz). For my TVs, this is because usually “Game Mode” is turned off on a sleep off/on cycle.

This means, NVIDIA Control Panel will show something like this:

Notice the 60Hz refresh rate. So you have to go, change it to 120hz, click Apply, and hope it all works. If your TVs themselves have come out of “game mode” (or whatever the mode is called that enables the TV to accept a high-speed signal) then you have to go into the TV menu and re-enable that on the TV. Only then will NVIDIA control panel show you the right 120hz option in the Refresh Rate drop-down box. This, getting the TV remotes and having to wade through the endless TV menus, is the bit that gets old pretty quick.

And you have to do that for both Left and Right because both might be misconfigured. A total PITA.

And that’s all folks

So that’s the process to switch from VR to Triples and back, coupled with a few first impressions about the Aero.

In short, the resolution is great, but usability needs a ton of work. I am sure I am not the only one with a triple monitor setup, especially since the Aero is aimed at high-end users.

Hope this helps.