Pimax Crystal Super

I want to like Pimax I really do. I took a punt on the Crystal Light 6 months ago, and I think it's really good technically for what it is and the price, but my god Pimax just get the absolute basics of marketing and everything else so wrong.

Also, I don't know why this doesn't seem to bother more people, but the Dream Air is a 2 grand++ headset and the build quality just looks.......******* awful! So cheap and nasty. This design as per today's videos is the actual 'shipping' version now apparently, and it still looks like a 3d printed prototype. It also does not match the renders (note: renders, not photos!) on their website. It's just not good enough for that money, at all.

I was going to go all in on the Dream Air and was cautiously waiting, but I really can't now at this moment. I'm taking a punt and have ordered the Bigscreen Beyond 2E instead. I'll see how that is and then go from there.

If the actual clarity of the BSB2 is on par with the Crystal Light, especially if you super sample the BSB2 I'm fine with that. This resolution race with VR headsets is akin to the megapixels race in photography a decade+ ago. It's diminshing returns and a marketing ploy, and there's way more to it than that.

I need OLED now, nothing else will do for me. And performance is just glossed over by too many people. I've got a 5090 build and even that can't run the Crystal Light all the time at 72Hz/72 FPS in the stuff I play at the settings I want.
 
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about the cost of the dream air, it is expensive, agreed, but i think the bulk of that cost is due to those 4K OLED panels, they're pretty expensive afaik. the PFD i had was expensive too for this reason and i think the pimax is using even more slightly expensive panels than the PFD I had did.
 
ImMrChris said:
the bsb2 is an amazing headest the comfort is underestimated imo
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I've been watching a few of your vids on the tube fella as I know you have a BSB2e and they cropped up in searches! Actually helped me a bit in making my decision so thanks for that. And I can blame you if I don't like it....
 
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Tykey said:
about the cost of the dream air, it is expensive, agreed, but i think the bulk of that cost is due to those 4K OLED panels, they're pretty expensive afaik. the PFD i had was expensive too for this reason and i think the pimax is using even more slightly expensive panels than the PFD I had did.
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Aye the vast majority of the cost is in the Sony micro OLED panels. I think the PFD uses BOE. By all accounts the Sonys are incredible, and that I don't doubt at all actually.

I think I'm going to stick with my VR rule for now though i.e. at any current time the current GPU generation is always at least one generation behind being able to properly drive the latest headsets. I hate not running a headset at native res as I feel like I'm "missing out" all the time. As mentioned my 5090 struggles in some stuff I play to hit 72hz/72fps on my Crystal Light at native res. No way it's going to drive the Super QLEDS at native res, although the 4K OLEDS aren't as high final render res.

It's 4312x5100x2 for the Light and, I think, 5640x5356x2 for the 4k OLEDS and their distortion profiles (anyone double confirm that?), so still quite a jump up and way more pixels to drive (~44m vs ~60m). And the BSB2 only has 27m to drive, but is still 32PPD, which is nice.

These are the figures/ details I'm working off:


Panel resACTUAL res for 'distortions'ERGO Total Pixels to 'drive'
Bigscreen Beyond 2: 2560x2560x23696x3696x2= 27.32m
Pimax Crystal/ Light: 2880x2800x24312x5100x2= 43.98m
Crystal Super OLED: 3840x3552x25640x5356x2= 60.41m
Crystal Super 50ppd : 3840x3840x26280x6240x2= 78.37m



@ImMrChris have you tried super sampling the BSB2 at all? I'm hoping if you run it at ~150% it will make the perceived clarity at least on par with the Crystal Light, maybe even a bit better due to the Micro OLED panel density, and the 5090 should be capable of doing that at 75Hz.
 
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wunkley said:
I've been watching a few of your vids on the tube fella as I know you have a BSB2e and they cropped up in searches! Actually helped me a bit in making my decision so thanks for that. And I can blame you if I don't like it....
Click to expand...

Haha nowhere to hide for me :cry: it's a great headset i still have mine! you'll love it glad i helped :)
 
wunkley said:
Aye the vast majority of the cost is in the Sony micro OLED panels. I think the PFD uses BOE. By all accounts the Sonys are incredible, and that I don't doubt at all actually.

I think I'm going to stick with my VR rule for now though i.e. at any current time the current GPU generation is always at least one generation behind being able to properly drive the latest headsets. I hate not running a headset at native res as I feel like I'm "missing out" all the time. As mentioned my 5090 struggles in some stuff I play to hit 72hz/72fps on my Crystal Light at native res. No way it's going to drive the Super QLEDS at native res, although the 4K OLEDS aren't as high final render res.

It's 4312x5100x2 for the Light and, I think, 5640x5356x2 for the 4k OLEDS and their distortion profiles (anyone double confirm that?), so still quite a jump up and way more pixels to drive (~44m vs ~60m). And the BSB2 only has 27m to drive, but is still 32PPD, which is nice.

These are the figures/ details I'm working off:


Panel resACTUAL res for 'distortions'ERGO Total Pixels to 'drive'
Bigscreen Beyond 2: 2560x2560x23696x3696x2= 27.32m
Pimax Crystal/ Light: 2880x2800x24312x5100x2= 43.98m
Crystal Super OLED: 3840x3552x25640x5356x2= 60.41m
Crystal Super 50ppd : 3840x3840x26280x6240x2= 78.37m



@ImMrChris have you tried super sampling the BSB2 at all? I'm hoping if you run it at ~150% it will make the perceived clarity at least on par with the Crystal Light, maybe even a bit better due to the Micro OLED panel density, and the 5090 should be capable of doing that at 75Hz.
Click to expand...

I actually haven't the pixel density is so amazing you don't really have to but i'll give it a go!
 
Ravenger said:
If it were wireless and had decent controllers I'd be more interested. It does look very good if you want a wired headset for sims though.
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this version is lighthouse so you can reuse Index controllers, but yes wireless (with puck)/MR/more FoV is the grail
I'm considering a Dream Air when the hardstrap and DMAS speakers are out, then hopefully we'll get some insight on the Hypervision optical stack either from Lynx or Somnium possibly some news from Meta
 
wunkley said:
As mentioned my 5090 struggles in some stuff I play to hit 72hz/72fps on my Crystal Light at native res. No way it's going to drive the Super QLEDS at native res
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Dynamic Foveated Rendering to the rescue ;) Something that Crystal Light does not have of course. DFR lets you render 30% of the screen at full res and the rest at 5% for example. Older games do not support it, but older games are easier to drive. E.g., my 5090 is running Richard Burns Rally at 150% res (120+megapixels) on my Super Ultrawide at constant 90fps with no DFR.
 
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Borsch said:
Dynamic Foveated Rendering to the rescue ;) Something that Crystal Light does not have of course. DFR lets you render 30% of the screen at full res and the rest at 5% for example. Older games do not support it, but older games are easier to drive. E.g., my 5090 is running Richard Burns Rally at 150% res (120+megapixels) on my Super Ultrawide at constant 90fps with no DFR.
Click to expand...

Aye DFR is great and I definitely want it in my next headset.
Problem is you can literally count on one hand the games that support it! And most of them are sims. Most stuff I play isn't sims. Try running Skyrim VR with the huge modlists and ENB, or Fallout 4 similar. Or any UEVR mod, Cyberpunk VR mod etc etc. To maintain 72Hz/72fps at native res in the Crystal Light is not always possible, even with a 5090 PC.
 
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im going to leave this here :
https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualreality/s/prOFR2D748
&
pimax.com

A Note on the Crystal Super's Optical Engine Connector Change

Innovating is hard. You run into problems nobody else has encountered, or even thought about. But innovation is necessary — it's how progress happens, for all of us. And for each of these problems, a solution can be found, and we're still left with the fruits of that innovation and the progress...
pimax.com pimax.com

"The Pimax Supers manufactured until now will no longer be compatible with newly manufactured optical engines"

i have my pop corn ready
 
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I would definitely consider a discounted or used super with LH tracking, they are by all accounts decent headsets that are becoming quickly outdated.

You have to wonder sometimes what goes on internally at Pimax, I don't think they mean to cause problems but its more a case of tripping over themselves in trying to iterate too many products lines faster than they can keep up with leading to these gaffs.
 
Jaap from pimax has posted this on the pimax discord about the connector :

"Right now it's just as mentioned in the blog. I think for future optical engines, we maybe have found a new supplier or found another solution. There are also enough components in stock to make optical engines for the earlier version of the Super. I understand if you have an early Super that you're worried about future compatability issues. But if there are real individual issues that users have with their optical engine I'm happy to sort those out."

so there might be a way out? i think pimax like other fairly small/niche manufacturers are at the mercy of other suppliers. I know this applies to any manufacturer but the smaller ones dont have the buying power to guarantee big production runs and supply etc. The PFD MR became unavailable partly because the supplier of its display stopped being able to make them (afaik iirc they re-tooled their display production line to supply someone else).
 
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