Pimax Crystal Super
- Thread starter ScarySquirrel
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This is pretty much the exact same experience I have had. I've tweaked the IPD and the horizontal and vertical offset in the Pimax app (which improved it), but it just hurts to focus on anything. Cross eyed is exactly how I would describe it. Also, the sweet spot is tiny and the edges and anything around the small sweet spot is blurry AF.
I've had an infuriating back and forth with Pimax Support but I'm close to them just replacing the headset now. As you say, the clarity is great on the bits I can see properly. The colours, brightness and contrast are great too.
I'm convinced I have bad lenses.
Ok, this is weird. I wrote my above first impressions before I did any testing today.........and in answer to my own question "Is there such a thing as having to acclimatise to aspheric lenses or something?"........is it possible this is totally the case, and my brain and eyes have 're-wired' themselves overnight!? I just fired up Alyx and then the Aircar demo, and my god they felt superb. Almost all the issues/ eye strain I was having yesterday and Friday were almost totally gone. I could focus properly on things near and distant, sweetspot felt right and big. Everything felt significantly better. WTF is going on here then?
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That is very strange, but obviously great news for you.
I tried several times but I just couldn't get used to it. The final nail in the coffin was when I went back to my Quest 3 and was blown away by how clear everything was. I gave up on it after that.
I've just heard back from Pimax Support with more useless generic suggestions. I've asked for a full refund.
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Soldato
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I would take any pimax review with a pinch of salt due to the huge quality control issues. You've no idea if someones got a faulty one or not.
The tolerances of the lenses must be totally out of whack and it's pot luck if you get good ones.
My first crystal light was a disaster. Refused to power on with my PC so I tried on my sons. Took about 10 attempts before it sprung into life....all for five minutes. In those five minutes I also had a bad experience. Eye strain, poor edge to edge clarity, awful CA etc etc to the point I questioned why anyone would buy it over a quest 3.
anyway, a few months later I tried again and this time the experience could not have been more different. This one is like a completely different headset. I'd say the lenses are even better than the quest 3. Mine has 100% edge to edge clarity. I was looking again last night and even when looking right at the edge of the lens it's as clear as it is in the middle. Colours are well saturated, blacks are black, no glare, very bright, no eye strain either. Looks like I got lucky. The biggest stand out feature is the clarity. It's pin sharp! and I really do mean pin sharp. The clarity is off the scale.
There is an aspheric sweetspot, it's not like with pancakes though. If you are out of it, it does feel weird. Usually it's because the headset is slightly too high.
The only three major cons really are that you need to spend more money on the comfort mods, the panels can get quite warm and you need one hell of a PC to run it. Even on a 5090 it can struggle at times running native res. That said, as a laugh I tried 72hz mode and it actually felt fine. Couldn't really tell the difference. Just debating if I could swap to 72hz and go mad with the eye candy, or stick to 90hz and drop a few bits. Think for any races in the rain or at night I might default to 72 regardless. It's really quite good.
So, all that being said.............I'd probably recommend the BSB2. The things 107g!
The tolerances of the lenses must be totally out of whack and it's pot luck if you get good ones.
My first crystal light was a disaster. Refused to power on with my PC so I tried on my sons. Took about 10 attempts before it sprung into life....all for five minutes. In those five minutes I also had a bad experience. Eye strain, poor edge to edge clarity, awful CA etc etc to the point I questioned why anyone would buy it over a quest 3.
anyway, a few months later I tried again and this time the experience could not have been more different. This one is like a completely different headset. I'd say the lenses are even better than the quest 3. Mine has 100% edge to edge clarity. I was looking again last night and even when looking right at the edge of the lens it's as clear as it is in the middle. Colours are well saturated, blacks are black, no glare, very bright, no eye strain either. Looks like I got lucky. The biggest stand out feature is the clarity. It's pin sharp! and I really do mean pin sharp. The clarity is off the scale.
There is an aspheric sweetspot, it's not like with pancakes though. If you are out of it, it does feel weird. Usually it's because the headset is slightly too high.
The only three major cons really are that you need to spend more money on the comfort mods, the panels can get quite warm and you need one hell of a PC to run it. Even on a 5090 it can struggle at times running native res. That said, as a laugh I tried 72hz mode and it actually felt fine. Couldn't really tell the difference. Just debating if I could swap to 72hz and go mad with the eye candy, or stick to 90hz and drop a few bits. Think for any races in the rain or at night I might default to 72 regardless. It's really quite good.
So, all that being said.............I'd probably recommend the BSB2. The things 107g!
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I would take any pimax review with a pinch of salt due to the huge quality control issues. You've no idea if someones got a faulty one or not.
The tolerances of the lenses must be totally out of whack and it's pot luck if you get good ones.
My first crystal light was a disaster. Refused to power on with my PC so I tried on my sons. Took about 10 attempts before it sprung into life....all for five minutes. In those five minutes I also had a bad experience. Eye strain, poor edge to edge clarity, awful CA etc etc to the point I questioned why anyone would buy it over a quest 3.
anyway, a few months later I tried again and this time the experience could not have been more different. This one is like a completely different headset. I'd say the lenses are even better than the quest 3. Mine has 100% edge to edge clarity. I was looking again last night and even when looking right at the edge of the lens it's as clear as it is in the middle. Colours are well saturated, blacks are black, no glare, very bright, no eye strain either. Looks like I got lucky. The biggest stand out feature is the clarity. It's pin sharp! and I really do mean pin sharp. The clarity is off the scale.
There is an aspheric sweetspot, it's not like with pancakes though. If you are out of it, it does feel weird. Usually it's because the headset is slightly too high.
The only three major cons really are that you need to spend more money on the comfort mods, the panels can get quite warm and you need one hell of a PC to run it. Even on a 5090 it can struggle at times running native res. That said, as a laugh I tried 72hz mode and it actually felt fine. Couldn't really tell the difference. Just debating if I could swap to 72hz and go mad with the eye candy, or stick to 90hz and drop a few bits. Think for any races in the rain or at night I might default to 72 regardless. It's really quite good.
So, all that being said.............I'd probably recommend the BSB2. The things 107g!
Thanks for the input fella!
Just tried Flight sim 2024 for the first time today with the Crystal Light. Sweet baby Jesus, I see what people are raving about now with the clarity. It really does feel like another level compared to the G2. And much as I love the PSVR2 for certain types of games (dark horror types) when super sampled and sharpened, it is still absolute dog **** for Flight Sim. The lack of clarity and mura are just unusable.
I'm genuinely confused about how much better my Crystal Light feels today regarding eye strain and everything else I described earlier, it's very weird and I've more testing and tweaking to do for sure. But if it stays like this or gets even better I think this is a keeper. It's not OLED, that's my main gripe, but it's almost half the price of the BSB2 with base stations and controllers.
Also, I'm now very glad I went down this route of cancelling my Super order and 'trialling' the Crystal Light first. I'm running an overclocked tuned 5080 (so pretty much on par with a stock 4090) and it's doing a good job in some games at full native res and 90Hz, but other stuff - absolutely no chance - and various compromises have to be made.
I very much doubt even a 5090 will run the Crystal Super at full native res at the sort of details etc that I would want. I think a 6090 will be needed at least - GPU grunt is always at least one gen behind the cutting edge of VR it would seem.
And don't poo poo 72Hz either. I've tested this out today and it feels very good. 60Hz on the G2 was awful as I could see the strobing. 72Hz must have magic maths. None of that strobing horror in the Light and barely indistinguishable from 90Hz in terms of 'feel' in Half Life Alyx for example, and uses significantly less GPU grunt obviously. I'd take 72Hz at full res vs 90hz at a compromised res in many games, I think. Trial and error and all that.
If I do keep this Light I'll definitely look into some comfort mods.....
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Soldato
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Bigscreen 75hz 2560x2560 (3696x3696)x2 = 27.32m
Pimax Crystal 2880x2800 (4312x5100)x2 = 43.98m
Pimax Crystal Super 3840x3840 (6420x7412)x2 = 95.17m
Nobody is running the super at native res, imho not worth the price
@wunkley The things I bought for mine
Studioforms:
both sets of rear weights
silk fabric front pad with the spacers (spacers help with light bleed, I also used some 3m velcro tape here and there)
silk fabric rear pad
apache top strap
I then ordered the pimax comfort top strap with the studioforms silk fabric cover. Not sure which I prefer, but the pimax looks neater so using that. I find both stops it from wobbling from side to side.
and this little thing is worth every penny!
Pimax Crystal 2880x2800 (4312x5100)x2 = 43.98m
Pimax Crystal Super 3840x3840 (6420x7412)x2 = 95.17m
Nobody is running the super at native res, imho not worth the price
@wunkley The things I bought for mine
Studioforms:
both sets of rear weights
silk fabric front pad with the spacers (spacers help with light bleed, I also used some 3m velcro tape here and there)
silk fabric rear pad
apache top strap
I then ordered the pimax comfort top strap with the studioforms silk fabric cover. Not sure which I prefer, but the pimax looks neater so using that. I find both stops it from wobbling from side to side.
and this little thing is worth every penny!
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Had a similar experience when i first recieved my crystal last year, turned out that the right side lens was defective, they sent a replacement lens and everything you're experiencing were resolved.
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I had a very apologetic response from 'Cindy' at Pimax Tech Support, offering again a replacement. I had resigned myself to just waiting for the Super and returning the Light, but I would prefer to get a good Light considering the price difference.
I've accepted a replacement. I now have to wait 2-3 business days for a shipping label to be sent to me (why?????), then I need to send it back, it'll then be another week or so before they send a replacement. So all in I'm probably looking at 2+ weeks before I get another headset.
I'm keeping my Super pre-order just in case, given that will probably be months before it ships anyway.
I've accepted a replacement. I now have to wait 2-3 business days for a shipping label to be sent to me (why?????), then I need to send it back, it'll then be another week or so before they send a replacement. So all in I'm probably looking at 2+ weeks before I get another headset.
I'm keeping my Super pre-order just in case, given that will probably be months before it ships anyway.
Soldato
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Its certainly sounding that way from your description. The sweet spot should be a decent size with aspheric lenses
Glad I checked this thread today, nice one!
Just got Amazon to refund the difference for the price I paid last week for the Light. Just done the quick maths and once you factor in total costs via Pimax including taxes etc (and with the Prime fee involved for both ways here, which has gone down a bit too!) then it works out to only be about £75 more expensive in TOTAL to get it from Amazon with this current offer. I think that is well worth it, Amazon always do you a solid if anything goes wrong in my experience!
Also quick update with my experience with the Light since Friday. Been doing more testing and tweaking and I'm now way more happy with the 'eye strain' feel, so it's absolutely superb.
Long story short - don't take your assumed IPD value to be a fit for this headset, and try dialling it down (or even up) by more than you would dare!
I'm a solid average 64 and a bit ipd in my PSVR2 and G2, so I naturally assumed this is what I would be for the Light, or any headset, and dialled that in day one.
I tried going up and down around this slightly as it just did not feel right (felt slightly 'cross eyed' / off and painful) but not a lot as I thought that's what IPD I am, so this headset must be faulty!
However, you have to turn the adjustment wheel a lot to move the lenses and I'm guessing mine might be slightly mechanically mis-calibrated vs the digital values it displays? I've gone all the way down to "62", which was a lot of turns, and it started to feel waaay better regarding eye strain etc. I then tweaked the software ipd values in PImax Play slightly (which can shift the images digitally up down left right for each eye in tiny increments).
After a ton of trial and error with these software ipd tweaks at 62 physical IPD I've ended up with very minor software adjustments - but they have definitely helped too. No one's face and IPD stats are perfectly symmetrical by the way, so it's worth experimenting with these. Probably more testing to do, but I'm very happy with the headset now and it's a keeper. Feels especially sweet as I just got a partial refund for my Amazon order, so it genuinely feels like a semi 'bargain' now. Literally half the price of the Super I cancelled, and the BBS2 (with controllers and base stations) I was contemplating ordering. I don't think I'll be changing from this until 6090 level GPUs, at least, are available.
Thanks to you fellas on here for suggesting I give the Crystal Light a go first. Feels like the smart move now.
Long story short - don't take your assumed IPD value to be a fit for this headset, and try dialling it down (or even up) by more than you would dare!
I'm a solid average 64 and a bit ipd in my PSVR2 and G2, so I naturally assumed this is what I would be for the Light, or any headset, and dialled that in day one.
I tried going up and down around this slightly as it just did not feel right (felt slightly 'cross eyed' / off and painful) but not a lot as I thought that's what IPD I am, so this headset must be faulty!
However, you have to turn the adjustment wheel a lot to move the lenses and I'm guessing mine might be slightly mechanically mis-calibrated vs the digital values it displays? I've gone all the way down to "62", which was a lot of turns, and it started to feel waaay better regarding eye strain etc. I then tweaked the software ipd values in PImax Play slightly (which can shift the images digitally up down left right for each eye in tiny increments).
After a ton of trial and error with these software ipd tweaks at 62 physical IPD I've ended up with very minor software adjustments - but they have definitely helped too. No one's face and IPD stats are perfectly symmetrical by the way, so it's worth experimenting with these. Probably more testing to do, but I'm very happy with the headset now and it's a keeper. Feels especially sweet as I just got a partial refund for my Amazon order, so it genuinely feels like a semi 'bargain' now. Literally half the price of the Super I cancelled, and the BBS2 (with controllers and base stations) I was contemplating ordering. I don't think I'll be changing from this until 6090 level GPUs, at least, are available.
Thanks to you fellas on here for suggesting I give the Crystal Light a go first. Feels like the smart move now.
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My StudioForm comfort stuff arrived today, about an hour after I got back from dropping the Light off at the UPS service point
Hopefully it will get back to them in a day or two as it's only going to an Amazon place in Coventry, although I suspect they might then have to send it back to China which will be a pain. I have to wait until they get it, and then another week or so for them to send the new one.
So year, order direct from Amazon if you can.
Hopefully it will get back to them in a day or two as it's only going to an Amazon place in Coventry, although I suspect they might then have to send it back to China which will be a pain. I have to wait until they get it, and then another week or so for them to send the new one.
So year, order direct from Amazon if you can.
Sorry I dont quite know what you mean by the arms?
Must admit I'm tempted especially knowing Amazon are cheaper, if I didn't have a Play For Dream already I'd deffo buy one, hmm.
Hi bud
Quick question regarding the Studioform comfort stuff for the Light - you mention silk front/ rear pads, I can't find that on their website. All I can see is 'PU leather' or 'fabric'. You got a link to this silky goodness?
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Soldato
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Sorry it's the fabric, it's like the new pimax silk fabric. It's very very soft.
Had my first taste of the infamous Pimax 'customer service'......
All I'm trying to do is get the $80 Pimax Play discount code as a previous Reverb G2 owner. You would think this would be beyond easy to achieve. Right? Wrong. I sent in all the G2 details and got 'approved' but they sent me a short code that does not work. Apparently it's a 2 step process and I was assured I'd be sent the correct code within a day. This obviously didn't happen. Had a protracted 'chat' via the website chat feature and they are just full of ****. All empty words and broken promises.
Long story short, if you do buy a Pimax headset god forbid anything goes wrong and you have to deal with these clowns. Thank god I got my Light from Amazon is all I can say.
All I'm trying to do is get the $80 Pimax Play discount code as a previous Reverb G2 owner. You would think this would be beyond easy to achieve. Right? Wrong. I sent in all the G2 details and got 'approved' but they sent me a short code that does not work. Apparently it's a 2 step process and I was assured I'd be sent the correct code within a day. This obviously didn't happen. Had a protracted 'chat' via the website chat feature and they are just full of ****. All empty words and broken promises.
Long story short, if you do buy a Pimax headset god forbid anything goes wrong and you have to deal with these clowns. Thank god I got my Light from Amazon is all I can say.
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You really should push for that discount, iirc you get 14 days to pay the other fee through pimax play, enough time to get the discount and apply it to the final payment?