Darshan Shankar

CEO, Founder @BigscreenVR – creators of the Bigscreen Beyond, the world’s smallest VR headset. Previously @ycombinator @UCBerkeley

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

This is Bigscreen Beyond 2

· 116° field of view – the best visual fidelity
· 107 gram weight – 5-7X lighter than Quest 3 & Apple Vision Pro
· eyetracking

We aim to prove that @BigscreenVR makes the best VR optics in the world, better than Apple or Meta.

I'm so proud of our team for creating this breakthrough device. We made something people want!

Demand is approximately 10 times larger than I expected, and we'll achieve our 2026 goals in 2025. It's time to accelerate!

[Bigscreen @BigscreenVR]

A major update on the Bigscreen Beyond 2 Halo Mount.

In December 2025, we made the decision to delay the Halo Mount's mass production and implement new design changes. Although this comes with a very significant financial cost and schedule delay to redesign and retool, we firmly believe in listening to customer feedback and building excellent products. The final product will be worth the wait, and we're excited to share these improvements:

• Secure & easy to remove: New clip-on mechanism (no adhesives)
• 3rd-party accessories: M3 brass-threaded screw hole for 3rd-party mods
• Built-in flip-up mechanism significantly improved
• Extra USB extension for better cable travel
• Easier vertical adjustment of the Halo Mount for better forehead positioning

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

@jmdagdelen No way. Really?

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

Read more in today's production update on the @BigscreenVR blog: https://t.co/wNDEa9Kbki

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

We're wrapping up an incredible 2025 for @BigscreenVR:

∙ we shipped more Beyond 2s last month alone than we did in 2023 or 2024! December was 4X larger than October/November
∙ Beyond 2 is climbing the Steam charts in usage, surpassing the HTC Vive Pro and hopefully the Meta Quest Pro soon
∙ we didn't anticipate this level of demand for Beyond 2 last year. It took us months to catch up to the preorder backlog. Leadtimes are improving, with many orders now shipping within a couple of weeks. By February/March, new orders will ship within 1-2 days!
∙ the Beyond 2 production line has been continuously running since summer 2025. To support our enterprise customers and the SteamVR ecosystem, we're committed to producing Beyond 2 for many years to come

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

We built a similar vision in 2014 with @BigscreenVR! One of the early a16z VR investments. The original prototype in 2014 was called HQVR. Too early. Successfully pivoted to make VR hardware as HMDs limited such use cases (resolution, comfort). Decade-long deep work, now finally hitting PMF!

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

@GAMERTAGVR @BigscreenVR I’m just the social media shitposter. All the good work is the rest of the team!

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

Today, we're launching Dynamic Foveated Rendering for Bigscreen Beyond 2e!

The @BigscreenVR team accomplished some really cool state of the art computer vision techniques and challenging software engineering to accomplish this!

Big thanks to the Beyond community and VR developers that helped with the development and testing of eyetracking & DFR over the past year!

[Bigscreen @BigscreenVR]

👀 BIG UPDATE! Dynamic Foveated Rendering (DFR) is now available in Early Access on the Bigscreen Beyond 2e!

By using eyetracking to render full resolution only where you look, DFR unlocks massive performance gains in demanding titles, basically giving you a GPU upgrade just via this new software feature!

DFR is great for demanding flight and racing sim games. We have internally tested and confirmed compatibility today for DCS World (@eagledynamics), Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (@MSFSofficial), and @iRacing.

Popular VR games like Kayak VR (@btl_sandwich) and Pavlov are also supported!

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

@BoofyBobo @BigscreenVR @VRChat I don't believe foveated rendering is supported in VRChat due to engine/rendering limitations? I think @dtupper has written about this before.

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

@lauriewired @BigscreenVR We don't publish latency figures. Edge cases such as saccades with blinks are particularly tricky for neural prediction and therefore you need large or dynamically large safety areas. Some of the latter is user configurable in some games, so people can fine tune their sweet spot.

[Bigscreen @BigscreenVR]

DECEMBER PRODUCTION UPDATE!

This December is our largest month of shipping in the company's history. Our factory is running nights, weekends, and overtime shifts to get as many Beyond 2 units shipped by the holidays as possible.

Unsurprisingly, we've already shipped more Beyond 2 than Beyond 1 over its 2-year lifetime. But the volume is picking up! We have shipped more Beyond 2's in just the past 2 weeks than we did in the previous 2 months. In fact, we are on track to ship more Beyond 2's this December than we typically do in an entire year!

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

I'm proud of a lot of things with @BigscreenVR.

We've shipped more Bigscreen Beyond 2 headsets in the past 2 weeks than the past 2 months! In fact, we'll ship more units in December than we typically did annually in 2023/2024!

We've made something people really, really love, and we've quickly grown from a VR software company to making a niche first-gen headset and now a pretty serious player in the VR industry climbing the Steam charts.

But here's another thing I'm really proud of: our silly little Storage Can.

Bigscreen Beyond is so small it fits inside a coke can. It's our manila envelop (IYKYK) and I'm proud not just of the artwork but the story it tells about our vision for what VR headsets should be like.

[Bigscreen @BigscreenVR]

Introducing the new Bigscreen Beyond ~ Cyber Storage Can

DRINK RESPONSIBLY
STORE AND PROTECT
ZERO CALORIES

https://t.co/dQeQck3RMj

In stock, and ships from Los Angeles, California.

[Bigscreen @BigscreenVR]

Our Los Angeles factory has been busy yeeting out Beyonds:

We've shipped more Bigscreen Beyond 2 headsets in the past 2 weeks than we shipped in October and November combined! 🥳

[Bigscreen @BigscreenVR]

Orange is the new black

ft: @jugendingenieur, pc: cprescott

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

@_ViolaLayne_ @BigscreenVR The optional Audio Strap provides audio (output) for anyone that wants built-in audio.

Microphones are built into all Beyond headsets.

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

Confirmed this morning: as of 2025, we @BigscreenVR are the largest buyer in the world of micro-OLED displays in VR.

Apple was the largest in 2023/2024 for Vision Pro. Bigscreen is the largest in 2025!

[Bigscreen @BigscreenVR]

After months of challenges with engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and tariffs, we're thrilled to announce the Bigscreen Beyond 2 with Universal-Fit Cushions are now shipping!

December is poised to be our largest month of shipping, ever. We will ship more Beyond 2s this month than we ever did in an entire year of Beyond 1 shipping in 2023 or 2024.

Having successfully shipped the vast majority of Beyond 2 orders, we're rapidly approaching being fully caught up with our preorder backlog with a massive volume of shipments going out in December and January.

Please note: due to a large amount of demand, new orders placed now will not arrive before the holidays.

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

Based on this, the window to order and receive a Beyond 2 before Christmas is now closed.

New orders placed today are estimated to ship in January. We will update our website shortly to reflect this latest estimate.

We’ll do our best to improve lead times and hope to deliver units faster than estimated, but for now this is the most realistic estimate.

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

Yesterday was our biggest sales day in the past couple of months – did something massive happen in the VR industry?!

It's so interesting to me how Apple Vision Pro's 2023 launch day and Steam Frame's launch day have both been huge sales days for the Bigscreen Beyond! Rising tide…

Just like Apple Vision Pro, I'm bullish on Steam Frame for similar reasons. I think it's a fantastic product and a marvel of technology with unbeatable ability to bring in new audiences and growth into VR. That's what VR needs!

And just like Apple Vision Pro, I think some people have unrealistically high expectations and not meeting those will immediately lead to that group claiming "failure"

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

@RODO1308 @matiOnVRC @Raphiiko More bandwidth for face tracking and more accessories is certainly a good wishlist request for future devices! That’s fair!

[Darshan Shankar @DShankar]

If we had 100% failure rate, how would anyone use their Beyond? That’s obviously not the case.

USB3 is not what makes a cable great. It’s not even close to the top of the features list of priorities for Beyond 1 or 2, but perhaps in future generations we’d consider USB3. There has to be concrete reasons for needing USB3.