For individuals who invested nearly $1,000 in a premium VR headset and an additional sum on a compatible graphics card, it’s understandable to feel disheartened if the equipment malfunctioned on a Linux gaming setup.

Frustration in the Community
Many users of the Bigscreen Beyond VR headset faced such frustrations, grappling with persistent issues for over a year. However, relief could be on the way as Nvidia has indicated that a solution is forthcoming with their next driver update.

The onset of these problems appears to date back to at least May 2024, as documented in a discussion on Nvidia’s forum, where a user remarked, “The Bigscreen Beyond HMD is not able to be utilized on either the Nvidia proprietary or open kernel drivers.”

As more users chimed in, it became evident that a substantial portion was struggling with the same issues — garbled static displayed half of the image in the headset lenses rendered the device almost unusable.

Nvidia has confirmed its awareness of the complications with the headset, noting that they had rectified the problems in Windows drivers, but could not commit to a timeline for a Linux equivalent.

As months dragged on without progress, Nvidia eventually announced, “We’ve root caused the problem (the driver was not properly processing the ‘DSC pass-through’ bit from the EDID). The fix should be included in an upcoming release. I apologize for the delays.”

DSC refers to Display Stream Compression, a technique in DisplayPort that minimizes data transmission while preserving quality. This is essential for VR headsets to cohesively merge multiple video feeds, especially in augmented or mixed reality settings.

An update on when this long-awaited fix would be available was given in a recent statement from Nvidia, emphasizing their commitment to resolve the ongoing issues for Bigscreen Beyond users. For those who have been unable to properly leverage their lightweight VR headsets, this announcement marks a hopeful turning point.