A head-mounted apparatus include an eyepiece that include a variable dimming assembly and a frame mounting the eyepiece so that a user side of the eyepiece faces a towards a user and a world side of the eyepiece opposite the first side faces away from the user. The dynamic dimming assembly selectively modulates an intensity of light transmitted parallel to an optical axis from the world side to the user side during operation. The dynamic dimming assembly includes a variable birefringence cell having multiple pixels each having an independently variable birefringence, a first linear polarizer arranged on the user side of the variable birefringence cell, the first linear polarizer being configured to transmit light propagating parallel to the optical axis linearly polarized along a pass axis of the first linear polarizer orthogonal to the optical axis, a quarter wave plate arranged between the variable birefringence cell and the first linear polarizer, a fast axis of the quarter wave plate being arranged relative to the pass axis of the first linear polarizer to transform linearly polarized light transmitted by the first linear polarizer into circularly polarized light, and a second linear polarizer on the world side of the variable birefringence cell.