New headset : Pimax Crystal

So two things to update.

Firstly I got an update to pimax play, to 1.11 and this has significantly reduced CA on the plastic lenses for me. I still have a bit of a focal length problem and some mild distortion as before, but the CA has definitely been significantly reduced. Still not like super duper great but I would totally be ok with the levels I now have.

Secondly pimax acknowledged the issues in this update and say glass lenses will be sent out immediately. Immediately clearly has various definitions though because I’ve still been told by support that they will be sent at some unspecified “later” point.

pimax.com

Crystal Shipping Update | Pimax

Dear valued Pimax customers,
pimax.com pimax.com
 
Zeeflyboy said:
So two things to update.

Firstly I got an update to pimax play, to 1.11 and this has significantly reduced CA on the plastic lenses for me. I still have a bit of a focal length problem and some mild distortion as before, but the CA has definitely been significantly reduced. Still not like super duper great but I would totally be ok with the levels I now have.

Secondly pimax acknowledged the issues in this update and say glass lenses will be sent out immediately. Immediately clearly has various definitions though because I’ve still been told by support that they will be sent at some unspecified “later” point.

pimax.com

Crystal Shipping Update | Pimax

Dear valued Pimax customers,
pimax.com pimax.com
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Good to hear of progress. I'm not buying 1 right now but once the product matures i may buy in the future.
 
Zeeflyboy said:
The audio on the crystal is fantastic… (caveat being that’s with the DMAS, which isn’t going to be standard fit for future orders afaik) no complaints at all on that front. As always though pimax are making things unnecessarily confusing with some headsets getting (temporary) plastic lenses, some getting fibre optic cable, some getting DMAS etc etc.

I totally get your point of view, I think all things being equal I’d take the smaller form factor but not at the cost of visuals/audio for sim use. As I said though it’s definitely not an issue for sim use, it’s pretty well balanced and comfortable and all these motorsports/fighter sims etc are arguably enhanced by the feel of a helmet.

I’m hesitant to post a proper overview until I’ve got the glass lenses, because obviously the visuals are such an important part of a VR headset and these lenses aren’t supposed to be part of the final product. I would hope anyone ordering now would get glass lenses when their product finally ships but other than trusting the word of others I can’t comment on how far they go to resolve the issues I have.

I can say pimax are replying to my support ticket even over the weekend right now, so that’s a positive. In theory they are planning an announcement asap about the issues.

Oh and FoV in case anyone has a pico 4 - very similar. Significantly bigger than G2, very comparable to Pico 4 (just from general impression, haven’t done A to B comparison yet).
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Can you do some measurements on FOV?

I'm wondering whether to buy this or just put he cash towards the Apple VR fund for next year.
 
I mean the apple VR headset ain’t going to be much use for what a crystal is good for, but for sure there will be some awesome other headsets coming out over the next year or two that will be similarly exciting for gaming use. I don’t really see the crystal and the Apple headset having any crossover since the latter has no way to connect to a PC for gaming, no motion controllers etc.

I haven’t measured the FoV (don’t have anything with which to do it) but I can tell you for free that the stated 125 horizontal is total ********.

It looks very similar to a pico 4 in terms of FoV. Good vertical, ok horizontal… what others have measured with around 103-105 horizontal seems about right to me.

Will be interesting to compare when/if the “wide” FoV lenses come along… I’m guessing it still won’t be 125 horizontal but maybe it’ll get up to 115 or so with a bit of luck.
 
Vega said:
How's the radiated heat in the face? My friend has one and he says it's like a blast furnace.
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Can’t say I’ve noticed it being especially hot… spent a couple of hours flying in MSFS and it was ok on that front. Probably doesn’t hurt that I have a windsim though and sometimes fly with the canopy open for a refreshing breeze!

I will say that despite the lens issues I’ve had some stunning views... The colours, contrast and general resolution are top notch. I spent longer that I like to admit marvelling at a reflection of the cloud in my spitfire’s fuel wobble knob, the shininess of the glass and the copper pipes running internally just pops, and the texture detail is stunning.

It’s so close to being an awesome, albeit bulky, headset. If these glass lenses live up to expectation when they arrive then it’s going to be a great choice for sim use if you can deal with the form factor.
 
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tyke_ said:
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Sadly, he didn't mention if the heat from the headset was like a blast furnace. So it doesn't look like its..... 'baking brad'
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random_matt said:
That is some giant monstrosity strapped to your face.
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It’s not quite as bad as the video/pictures make it seem because of the perspective.

It is huge though. The weight isn’t an issue for me at all though in terms of comfort - the only real problem with the weight imo is if you move your head fast the headset wobbles from inertia/momentum. For seated games I honestly haven’t had any issues with the weight at all… for standing games it’s a different story.

Re Brad I think he has a different focus than most of us (who here sleeps in VR? Because he does…) and also tends to form an opinion and then go hunting for evidence to support it, which leaves him a little closed minded sometimes. Pimax messed up a lot on this launch but the headset absolutely has a lot of promise to the right audience.

I got an email this morning stating my glass lenses and hub have shipped with a tracking number. Unfortunately won’t get a chance to test until next week as I’m away for a while. I’m looking forward to seeing if most of my complaints get addressed by the new lenses though.

In the absolute fuggy heat the last few days I decided it would be nice to have some active ventilation option, so built a fan mod… I’ve since redesigned to 30mm (these are 25mm) and ordered some low speed silent fans. Hope to be able to power them using the USB port on the side, which seems like it will work (unfortunately these are 12v fans I had just lying around so using a Lipo to run them).

The white is just temporary for prototyping because it’s so much easier to see.

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perhaps more of a relevant review than brad's for most of us here


I'm pleased he says he gets no CA - that is promising for the glass lenses when I get to try them soon.

I haven't had the same software issues he came across personally, but he's not a total muppet either so I'm sure his problems were genuine.

Overall I agree with the general tone of the review and his general praise/criticisms except, as mentioned, I didn't have any software bugs beyond my initial connection issues which were solved by the powered hub and a few days later by firmware update (so it no longer requires the hub for a stable connection). A note on the firmware update for any of you that get one - it does indeed hang at about 90% and not show any progress but you need to just leave it. It will eventually finish, you just don't get any progress shown - I think probably what happened to him on that front is that he kept messing with it rather than waiting long enough as it does indeed appear like the process has failed.
 
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Zeeflyboy said:
Re Brad I think he has a different focus than most of us (who here sleeps in VR? Because he does…) and also tends to form an opinion and then go hunting for evidence to support it, which leaves him a little closed minded sometimes. Pimax messed up a lot on this launch but the headset absolutely has a lot of promise to the right audience.
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He's pretty honest about that though and openly admits he's not into simulator games... he also invests in companies that he see's potential from so I think that makes his bias as you said.... he forms a vision of the future and looks for tech that gets us there.

I would consider a Crystal myself when it matures, I'm very curious as to what Varjo do next but they've got to nail that hFoV whilst keeping the price under control.
 
I think Varjo is probably more focused at the moment on making sure apple don’t eat into their core business… the consumer aero was very much a second thought for them if you remember following how it came about.

The somnium VR1 is looking mighty impressive if they can deliver - I’m not sure I’ll be pre-ordering but it’s one I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on towards the tail end of the year.

The beyond I think has too many drawbacks for me at the moment for my use case, but we are definitely getting closer to the day where we can get a high resolution, decent FoV, smaller form factor uOLED headset. If someone came out with basically the pico 4 but 4k uOLED and a native displayport that would be an absolutely cracking all round headset… can’t be too far out now imho.
 
New lenses (and hub) day!


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Glass left, plastic right. Look very different!


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I’ve had a quick play, and all I can say is WTF were pimax thinking shipping those plastic lenses. This is a different headset!

Overall clarity is better, at least 80% of the view is really nice and sharp. I get no warping anymore (caveat below*), and CA while still present is much better controlled. There is probably some room for improvement in CA I think with further correction profile tweaks, but it’s no where near as intrusive as before. The difficulty I had focusing on distant objects is also gone and it’s much more comfortable for my eyes.

Even the FoV has changed. It appears slightly wider, but gone are the Pico style rounded corners and it’s more squared out. I would say still similar in total extent to the pico 4 to within a few degrees anyway, but significantly more in the corners.

I will reserve judgement until I’ve had time to play a bit more, but I’m already now much, much happier with my purchase.

*caveat - the headset has a fairly narrow eyebox for distortion, much more so than for clarity. If you move the headset up and down on your face you can see the image distort and wobble… once in the right place though the image is all square and I get no distortion moving my head around or looking with my eyes. The auto ipd will probably help get things spot on laterally when it arrives (it sets each eye individually which is cool) but it won’t help with vertical alignment I imagine which seems most sensitive for warping.
 
I measured Pico vs Crystal FoV for anyone that it might be useful for... I didn't realise the Pico actually gives you a bit more vertical partly due to that funny little dip in the top middle of the crystal (104 vs 97), but you can see how round the FoV is by comparison, and the Crystal offers the same Horizontal (104 vs 105) and a fair bit more diagonal (106 vs 113).

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I really really hate these Crystal controllers. The tracking is the worst I've ever seen in VR and none of the buttons map to games properly. Any suggestions? Any way to get my Index controller and lighthouses to work independently?
 
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