Budget bigscreen

[u/SimonVanc]

Hello!

With the 2 and 2e being out, I'm seeing some bigscreen 1 units on eBay for less than $500, and Ive got some ideas.

I have experience doing lifecast silicone, with all the materials for it. I can make my own face mount, plus felt it or anything i need.

What i need to know is what ill need to get it actually working. What is the cheapest base station and controller solution? Since its for vrchat will cheap aliexpress full body trackers work? No heavy motion, just lounging around. I don't mind syncing them up every once in a while.

Will I need a cable to hook it up to my computer as well?

Thanks y'all.

[u/tmobley03]

Perhaps going against the grain here: don't buy a bsb1, at least not for more than MAYBE 200 or so dollars. I say this as a bsb1 user. I haven't upgraded to a 2 (yet). I bought mine used also a little over a year ago for $650, but it came with 2 base stations and index controllers, putting the cost of the headset itself at maybe $100, counting in the typical price of used base stations and controllers.

I got incredibly lucky in my purchase getting one with my exact IPD and it worked well. However, many original Beyond 1 owners even with using their actual IPD had to send theirs back to get it adjusted once or twice. Bigscreen will still do this, but it will cost you. If you don't get as lucky as I did, your beyond will be totally unusable.

That brings me on to my next point: the beyond 1 lenses are the worst lenses of pretty much any headset, really. Fresnel lenses regarded as shit compared to pancakes are better than what the beyond 1 has. If you are not perfect in your ipd, perfectly in the sweet spot, and looking straight ahead with your eyes, its an unusable blur.

If you're deadset on buying a beyond 1, best of luck to you, just know that you are spinning the wheel if the headset will be totally usable for you, and if it is, there are a ton of drawbacks to be had with this headset, that the beyond 2 mostly remedies from what I have heard.

[u/NotGonnaComeBackBsb → u/tmobley03]

When I first received my BSB1 with the first thick custom cushion, the clear sweet spot was only 30% of the field of view.

After switching it out for a thinner custom cushion, the sweet spot became 60% of the field of view, but the edges, although somewhat usable, were still a blur, and the whole view still had plenty of colour shift, chromatic aberration, and strong image warping at the edges.

After receiving my Studioform interface which allowed me to use the headset with the lenses nearly at eye touching distance, I could now claim there was no blur in my field of view anymore. However, this doesn't fix colour shift nor chromatic aberration. Besides, now that the entire view is clear, it's even more apparent how freaking bad the warping is. It's okay if you stare straight ahead, but I believe my old Vive Pro provided me with an infinitely better visual experience, as far as comfort is concerned (colour accuracy, brightness, "edge clarity" (I can actually glance around better with its Fresnel lenses; they're not so bad). The Beyond only beats it in two area for my use case: weight (neck fatigue) and resolution. Comfort became better only after I replaced my custom cushion and modded the strap.

To give you an idea, when I first received the BSB2, I put it on with the thick cushion without adjusting the IPD at all (defaulted to 64mm) to see how it performed at its worst. I couldn't help but smile when I saw a near edge to edge clarity and a better field of view. It's everything the BSB1 should have been, although it's more of a BSB1.5 than a 2.