Bigscreen Beta News

Hi everyone,

Crazy to think Bigscreen Beta launched on Steam 3 years ago. It's been in development for more than 4.5 years now!

We've been releasing dozens of updates and patch fixes in the past 2 months. Most of them were fixing bugs, crashes, and UX/usability issues. Today, we have a new feature we are releasing for fun :)



The Filters Update adds several screen filters that you can apply to your VR desktop screen.

• Night Mode reduces the blue light emitted from the virtual screen. Since people spend an hour each week in Bigscreen on average, and some people spend 20-30 hours every week using Bigscreen, enabling "Night Mode" in Bigscreen could make a significant impact on your sleep quality.
  
• 8-Bit Filter makes your screen blocky & pixelated (text becomes unreadable lol) and can make a game look like DOOM
  
• CRT Filter adds barrel distortion and moire effects. Both 8-Bit and CRT are purely for fun, and make modern PC games look like retro nostalgic games
  
• Brightness, Sharpness, Contrast, and Saturation: fine tune your screen by adjusting brightness to reduce lens glares, adjusting sharpness and contrast for better text legibility, and adjusting saturation for vibrant movies. We also have some presets like "Movie" "Text" "Sports" and "Black & White"
  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK-7t0vMgB0


We're currently working on Quest, a Friends System, and several important bug fixes (some users cannot create accounts, especially on GearVR).

Let me know what you think! If you have bugs or feedback, you can chat with us on Discord:

http://discord.gg/bigscreen

Hi everyone,

We've released many updates and patches in the past month. Today's update is another usability improvement based on your feedback!





Many people complained about comfort and ergonomic issues with the Big Cinema. We have addressed these issues by pushing the screen further away so it appears smaller and can be fully seen in your VR Field of View.

We've also lowered the screen and changed the rows of seats, so that you can more easily view the screen straight ahead without having to tilt your head up painfully.

TLDR: Fixed your painful problems with the Big Cinema


Improved the usability of the VR UI. It is now easy to switch between these three modes of using Bigscreen at any time, seamlessly.

• A beautiful 2D UI on your desktop when your headset is off (do you want a Setting to always use this 2D UI, even with headset on?)
  
• Use Keyboard & Mouse to control the VR Menu
  
• Use VR Controllers to control the VR Menu
  

Also:
- fixed a few crashes and bugs, and small performance fixes
- fixed a bug where GearVR users could not create an account


In a couple days, we will be launching "The Filters Update", a new feature that lets you change your screen into a CRT screen, 8-bit retro screen, brightness/contrast/sharpness adjustments, and more.


Also, join our Discord! If you have issues or ideas, it's the best place to come chat with us.

Hi everyone,

We've released a dozen small patches & updates in the past month since we launched the 2019 Update, mostly fixing bugs, crashes, performance issues.

Today's update adds:

• a 2D UI that you can use when you are not wearing your headset. This makes it easier to set up and use Bigscreen. This is not a "non-VR" version of Bigscreen, but we plan to make a non-VR version at some point in the future!
  
• added the Login/Accounts and the Bigscreen Audio Driver to Bigscreen's Remote Desktop client to make it easier to stream your desktop to your mobile VR headsets
  

More fixes are coming soon, like ergonomic & comfort improvements to the size/scale/shape of the Big Cinema.

Next week, we will be launching "The Filters Update", a new feature that lets you change your screen into a CRT screen, 8-bit retro screen, sharpness adjustments, and more. Join our Discord for an sneak peek.

Hey all,

In the past 2 weeks, we released many patch updates. Patch #5 launched today. Bigscreen should be significantly more stable now. All known performance issues and the gamebreaking bugs have been fixed. Also, many feature requests and UI changes have been implemented now!

• fixed a major performance bug with a GPU memory leak
  
• fixed an instant crash for people on older 8+ year old CPUs
  
• improved the UI, easier to use, and navigate. a slider to adjust room size to any value up to 12.
  

Patch 4 Fixes:

• fixed a major performance bug with PC where performance was getting worse after every minute of usage
• fixed a major performance bug for SteamVR PC users, where external supersampling would stack on top of Bigscreen's supersampling, causing extreme performance issues (1fps)
  
• fixed crashes when people join or leave your room
  
• fixed issues with desktop audio streaming & the Audio Driver please click the REFRESH AUDIO DEVICES button during streaming to re-capture audio from your apps, games, and videoplayers
  
• fixed issues with microphone audio volume
  
• fixed issues with Remote Desktop client and audio streaming not working. there are still a couple issues with RD Client that will be fixed soon (see below)
  
• fixed/added improvements to the clarity of the desktop screen for ultra-high res desktop resolutions
  
• fixed bugs with the presenting your desktop on the "big screen" & SBS 3D bugs
  
• re-added the split screen feature when multiple people present their desktop on the "big screen" (it splits into quadrants)
  

Patch #3 fixes:

• fixed a performance bug for PC users that had additional supersampling set outside of Bigscreen
• fixed a performance bug with the Camera tool rendering 4K or even 8K video
  
• fixed a bug where some GearVR users couldn't use the keyboard, couldn't login, couldn't use the app
  
• fixed a bug with grabbing the UI
  
• fixed a bug with the list of rooms not updating
  
• fixed a bug when changing a public room to a private room
  
• fixed a bug with Windows 7 users crashing on app start
  

Friday Patch #2 fixes:

• fixed Remote Desktop not launching for some users
• fixed the Public Rooms List not updating sometimes
  
• fixed bugs with the Alt-Tab screen; it will appear less often, and won't be annoying for users with VR controllers!
  
• fixed several UI bugs
  

Thursday Patch #1 fixes:

• fixed a crash on app start (on the PC)
  
• fixed Audio Driver installation errors
  
• fixed Audio issues due to audio devices with unicode/text names
  
• improved UI/poking issues
  
• fixed bug with Alt-Tab screen and it will not appear for users with VR controllers unless you Alt-Tab to Bigscreen
  
• moved the full Environment selection UI from the Room page to front of the Home page
  
• fixed performance issue in multiplayer rooms due to incorrectly streaming at >1080p resolutions (ex. 4K), affecting PC & Mobile performance
  

Since we have now FIXED the biggest performance issues and bugs, next we will:

For example, we're working on a 2D desktop UI that you can use without putting your headset on, like the old Bigscreen UI (current Bigscreen Menu only works in VR)

We are also working on Remote Desktop improvements: standalone installer on our website, easier login/account/room setup, built-in Audio Driver (currently uses your existing Windows Audio setup, which is unreliable and might not work), input streaming, lower latency, etc.

We also will continue to work on audio issues. Some people say the audio stream volumes are too low, some say too high. And the sliders aren't enough even at max. We're working on this.

Also, the "FRIENDS system" is coming very soon! It will make it easier to see when friends are online and invite them into your Bigscreen room

READ about the 2019 UPDATE here: https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791453071702/announcements/detail/1754619140864802328

Hey all,


Some extremely bad performance bugs, desktop audio streaming bugs, audio bugs, crashes, and Remote Desktop client bugs have been fixed

• fixed a major performance bug with PC where performance was getting worse after every minute of usage
• fixed a major performance bug for SteamVR PC users, where external supersampling would stack on top of Bigscreen's supersampling, causing extreme performance issues (1fps)
  
• fixed crashes when people join or leave your room
  
• fixed issues with desktop audio streaming & the Audio Driver please click the REFRESH AUDIO DEVICES button during streaming to re-capture audio from your apps, games, and videoplayers
  
• fixed issues with microphone audio volume
  
• fixed issues with Remote Desktop client and audio streaming not working. there are still a couple issues with RD Client that will be fixed soon (see below)
  
• fixed/added improvements to the clarity of the desktop screen for ultra-high res desktop resolutions
  
• fixed bugs with the presenting your desktop on the "big screen" & SBS 3D bugs
  
• re-added the split screen feature when multiple people present their desktop on the "big screen" (it splits into quadrants)
  

Patch #3 fixes:

• fixed a performance bug for PC users that had additional supersampling set outside of Bigscreen
• fixed a performance bug with the Camera tool rendering 4K or even 8K video
  
• fixed a bug where some GearVR users couldn't use the keyboard, couldn't login, couldn't use the app
  
• fixed a bug with grabbing the UI
  
• fixed a bug with the list of rooms not updating
  
• fixed a bug when changing a public room to a private room
  
• fixed a bug with Windows 7 users crashing on app start
  

Friday Patch #2 fixes:

• fixed Remote Desktop not launching for some users
• fixed the Public Rooms List not updating sometimes
  
• fixed bugs with the Alt-Tab screen; it will appear less often, and won't be annoying for users with VR controllers!
  
• fixed several UI bugs
  

Thursday Patch #1 fixes:

• fixed a crash on app start (on the PC)
  
• fixed Audio Driver installation errors
  
• fixed Audio issues due to audio devices with unicode/text names
  
• improved UI/poking issues
  
• fixed bug with Alt-Tab screen and it will not appear for users with VR controllers unless you Alt-Tab to Bigscreen
  
• moved the full Environment selection UI from the Room page to front of the Home page
  
• fixed performance issue in multiplayer rooms due to incorrectly streaming at >1080p resolutions (ex. 4K), affecting PC & Mobile performance
  

The top priorities are the performance issues and the Audio streaming issues.

• instant crashing on old CPUs (ex. i7 930-980 CPUs)
  
• GPU memory leak after 10 minutes of usage
  
• some people cannot create/login to accounts
  
• Remote Desktop client sometimes cannot stream desktop audio
  

Over the next few weeks, we also have lots of Menu improvements and fixes to make Bigscreen easier and less frustrating to use.

Also, the "FRIENDS system" is coming very soon! It will make it easier to see when friends are online and invite them into your Bigscreen room

READ about the 2019 UPDATE here: https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791453071702/announcements/detail/1754619140864802328