Firehawk G-2 is an internal upgrade which we did not feel was "monumental" enough to promote. The information has gotten around and the substance of the change is a difference in the partical size distribution in one of the pigments. This change was done to eliminate "star" artifacts, when folks would see a brilliant tiny mirror within the image, and to widen the veiwing cone a little bit, by reducing the gain. This also reduces hot-spot. Hot-spot with Firehawk is very much tied to applied throw distance, and with both versions of the fabric, we recommend 1.5 :1 or longer throw distances. So yes, G2 is "better" in terms of hot-spot, but still less appropriate for short-throw installations, than Studiotek, Snomatte, or Grayhawk or Graymatte.
The Firehawk is an angular reflective surface, somewhat analogous to a billiard table bumper, but picture the bouncing ball being divided into a bunch of smaller balls, but bouncing in a defined distribution, centered on the probable bounce path of the originating impact. This behaviour is uniform in vertical or horizontal performance. So light hitting the surface, exits at a complementary symetrical angle, but diffused and distributed. So an extreme example: Projector on the floor, a large amount of light would be directed upward in a complementary angle, toward the ceiling. A high ceiling mount would direct light down below toward the floor. We always have to look at the recommended lens geometry of a particular projector, as clearly illustrated by the previous data on the upcoming Optoma projector. When you have a flexible lens with vertical offset capablilty, a good way to go is to align the lens with a perpendicular horizontal line, originating at the upper edge of the screen. Many projectors are designed to do exactly that. So optimum for Firehawk is always above the screen surface. The further away you can place the projector, then the distribution of incident angles is tightned. This results in better center-to-edge uniformity, and a wider acceptable viewing angle.
The threat of 'sparklies' is a non issue. We re-formulated Firehawk a little over a year ago, specifically to eliminate sparklies, and to slightly reduce gain, and widen the viewing cone.
So it seems that although Stewart did not promote this "upgrade". It seems quite significant, with reduced sparklies(noise/幕紋) and hotspotting