Pimax Crystal Core and Pro

[Phantom711]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb Dangerzone:

I have concerns about being battery based, both with interruption to flights, as well as it being the weak point for longevity of the headset life itself. (I have long VR sessions, and being battery bound seems like a real compromise -especially with a premium+ priced headset

Is that an actual issue? Does the Crystal not keep the charge when connected to the PC? 

[Dangerzone]

Thanks Aapje,

I’ll skip the Quest as meta’s T&C and I aren’t compatible , but still appreciate the suggestion. 

52 minutes ago, Aapje said:

You're not guaranteed getting a headset without issues if you buy directly from a company either, especially Pimax with their infamous hardware quality control and software issues for any new headset.

Yes, but with new headsets there is warranty protection. Unless you’re saying that Pimax haven’t honoured warranty issues?

5 minutes ago, Phantom711 said:

Is that an actual issue? Does the Crystal not keep the charge when connected to the PC? 

I don’t know fully. I’ve read some’ reviews where people have said they only get 2hrs from a battery and others 7. 
 

Either way, it seems like the battery is mandatory which tells me that it uses more power than the cable can supply. 

Edited April 28, 2024 by Dangerzone

[Phantom711]

vor 2 Minuten schrieb Dangerzone:

I don’t know fully. I’ve read some’ reviews where people have said they only get 2hrs from a battery and others 7. 

ok…but did they use it tethered or standalone? As far as I read, you can also hot-swap the batteries since the Crystal also has a small internal battery to cover for that brief interruption.

[Dangerzone]

32 minutes ago, Phantom711 said:

ok…but did they use it tethered or standalone? As far as I read, you can also hot-swap the batteries since the Crystal also has a small internal battery to cover for that brief interruption.

I don’t know enough, just enough to have reservations at the moment. More research may be needed. But even hot swapping batteries for a device I never plan on using anywhere except plugged into a PC seems counterproductive. 
 

But if the battery isn’t a big issue, it could put the crystal back in the running. 
 

 

[Chief_Biv]

3 hours ago, Dangerzone said:

Well, I'm at a point where I may have to review my statement about bypassing the light due to no DFR. 

I need an external perspective please:

My HP Reverb is showing signs that the infamous cable might be on it's way out and I'm not sure how long I can hold out. I'd appreciate some suggestions/thoughts as to my situation and options incase I'm not seeing things clearly:

DFR was mandatory for me, but I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place and may have to compromise. It seems having VR is more mandatory than having DFR. 

The Pimax Crystal and Varjo Aero seem to be the main 2 options available to me. The problem is that I feel like I'd be paying premium price for the Crystal which would be a compromise to me as well. (I have concerns about being battery based, both with interruption to flights, as well as it being the weak point for longevity of the headset life itself. (I have long VR sessions, and being battery bound seems like a real compromise -especially with a premium+ priced headset).

Add to this that the Crystal Super has this problem solved, and is coming in around 6 months at the same (or similar) price, it seems that waiting is the best option, but that won't be up to me as much as it will be up to my headset holding out. 

Alternatively, the Varjo Aero looked like it would be the ideal go-to for now should my Reverb die in the mean time, but it looks like I've missed the boat with Varjo. They appear to be all sold out, and there's no suitable replacement in the works. (The XR-4 is way above anything I'm willing to spend on VR). 

So... if I have to compromise, it makes sense to compromise with the cheaper option, and just go with the Pimax Crystal Light as a life boat, so this headset's release might have been the perfect timing for me. I know though, once I buy this, I won't spend more on the Super, so that will be it. 

I'm not keen on buying anything second hand (I find it hard to trust the 2nd hand market and know that I'm not going to get a headset with issues). Is there something obvious I'm missing as other alternative options?

On a separate note - I find it interesting that their are options for:

* No local Diming with Controllers

* Local Dimming without Controllers

* Local Dimming with Controllers

... but they don't have "No local diming without controllers". I wonder what that's about?

I know your pain. So I have used the Crystal for almost a week. My longest session was 2 hours. Battery probably reduced to 75 or 80%. I have the copper cable that ships with it and plugged everything in as instructed with the powered USB hub that comes in the box. I reckon it would take several hours flying before it drains. Plus you get a second battery. I will never fly  in VR that long. I would seek advice from people that have owned a Crystal longer than me regarding hassles with the battery. Early signs for me is that it will not be an issue.

The eye tracking/Quadviews combination is fantastic in DCS. It is a noticeable upgrade from a Reverb G2. I think the Light will still be an upgrade. If you have a 4090 it's a harder decision. If you have a mid range GPU you will need to use FFR and that will not be as good to look at, and will result in lower fps too. It's a hard call between these two because of the price difference.

The Crystal Super will come without battery but will have DFR. Pimax said that it would come at the end of this year. That could easily be delayed for what is a new product, especially the new way they are mounting their interchangeable displays. I think 6 months is an aggressive estimate of when consumers will get their hands on one.

 

[WipeUout]

5 hours ago, Dangerzone said:

DFR was mandatory for me, but I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place and may have to compromise. It seems having VR is more mandatory than having DFR. 

FFR also provides huge performance boost, not the OpenXR Toolkit FFR but the Quadviews FFR.  Sure you have to turn the head around but if the HMD is less heavy, then it is more tolerable.  I use FFR with my Pimax 8KX and see my GPU frametime drop by 1.5ms to 2ms compare to FFR with OpenXR Toolkit!  

[Chief_Biv]

16 hours ago, WipeUout said:

FFR also provides huge performance boost, not the OpenXR Toolkit FFR but the Quadviews FFR.  Sure you have to turn the head around but if the HMD is less heavy, then it is more tolerable.  I use FFR with my Pimax 8KX and see my GPU frametime drop by 1.5ms to 2ms compare to FFR with OpenXR Toolkit!  

I totally agree with this as I experienced the increased performance provided by Quadviews in the G2 compared to OXR Toolkit FFR. One thing more important than additional head movements to consider with FFR is that you will not be able to be as aggressive with the lower resolution of the outer zone as you can with DFR. You will have to keep the resolution higher in the outer zone for it to be an acceptable experience. This will be what causes the biggest performance difference between the Crystal and Crystal Light.

[shrimpy_dikdik]

On 4/28/2024 at 4:57 PM, WipeUout said:

FFR also provides huge performance boost, not the OpenXR Toolkit FFR but the Quadviews FFR.  Sure you have to turn the head around but if the HMD is less heavy, then it is more tolerable.  I use FFR with my Pimax 8KX and see my GPU frametime drop by 1.5ms to 2ms compare to FFR with OpenXR Toolkit!  

 I only found out recently you can use quad views FFR on a g2 and that gave me significant fps increase compared to open toolkit FFR.

 

If the FFR 2.0 that's mooted to come with the light gives a similar or even better performance enhancement that I might need to reconsider my needs for DFR.

[WipeUout]

1 hour ago, shrimpy_dikdik said:

If the FFR 2.0 that's mooted to come with the light gives a similar or even better performance enhancement that I might need to reconsider my needs for DFR.

Hopefully Pimax will make it work better and also with OpenXR runtime.  The present Pimax implementation of FFR through their software only works with SteamVR on my 8KX, impossible to make it work using OpenXR as a runtime.

[Dangerzone]

18 hours ago, shrimpy_dikdik said:

 I only found out recently you can use quad views FFR on a g2 and that gave me significant fps increase compared to open toolkit FFR.

You can? I might have to check this out!

Edited May 2, 2024 by Dangerzone

[Qcumber]

18 hours ago, WipeUout said:

Hopefully Pimax will make it work better and also with OpenXR runtime.  The present Pimax implementation of FFR through their software only works with SteamVR on my 8KX, impossible to make it work using OpenXR as a runtime.

Steam VR is the runtime. Open XR is the API. DCS runs using open XR. The pimax will use steam VR running open XR.

[WipeUout]

10 hours ago, Qcumber said:

The pimax will use steam VR running open XR.

SteamVR is not used.  PimaxXR is used instead which is an extra piece of software needed to avoid the ineficient SteamVR.

Edited May 2, 2024 by WipeUout

[Qcumber]

3 minutes ago, WipeUout said:

SteamVR is not used.  PimaxXR is used instead which is an extra piece of software needed to avoid the ineficient SteamVR.

 

Great. I didn't realise that. I thought the crystal needed to run through steam VR. One step closer to a pimax for me then. 

[WipeUout]

3 minutes ago, Qcumber said:

Great.

Yeah great, but this is until some update screws PimaxXR since it is not supported anymore by @mbucchia...  Pimax needs to support OpenXR natively without the need for this PimaxXR runtine from a third party.  @mbucchia created this workaround for free and updated it 15 times, but not anymore. Feels like we have a Damocles sword over every DCS Pimax users.

[Qcumber]

5 minutes ago, WipeUout said:

Yeah great, but this is until some update screws PimaxXR since it is not supported anymore by @mbucchia...  Pimax needs to support OpenXR natively without the need for this PimaxXR runtine from a third party.  @mbucchia created this workaround for free and updated it 15 times, but not anymore. Feels like we have a Damocles sword over every DCS Pimax users.

One step forward then two steps back!! I don't like using steam VR. Pimax seems to be developing software such as FFR2 for the crystal light so perhaps we can hope for a dedicated runtime!? 

[mbucchia]

8 hours ago, WipeUout said:

Yeah great, but this is until some update screws PimaxXR since it is not supported anymore by @mbucchia...  Pimax needs to support OpenXR natively without the need for this PimaxXR runtine from a third party.  @mbucchia created this workaround for free and updated it 15 times, but not anymore. Feels like we have a Damocles sword over every DCS Pimax users.

You're being a little too pessimistic 

the Pimax API is stable and their PVR client is versioned in a way that older clients (such as PimaxXR) won't break on that front. Plenty of software works this way. It's been over a year now right (?) since last PimaxXR update, and nothing broke (EDIT: OK more like 8 months)

the other day I heard someone on reddit getting DCS + QVFR working on a Varjo VR-1, that's software that hasn't been updated in years either. Same for WMR, I think I was the last person to push an update over a year ago, and it's still fine.

Pimas has many incentives to keep PimaxXR working through their updates, since otherwise y'all would riot lol. Worse that can happen is some side effect or issue they can solve themselves in another update of Pimax Play, without even touching PimaxXR.

Edited May 3, 2024 by mbucchia

[Dangerzone]

How much of a performance hit is it if Pimax users had to fall back to go through SteamVR (in a worse case scenario)? 

Edited May 3, 2024 by Dangerzone

[WipeUout]

2 hours ago, mbucchia said:

You're being a little too pessimistic 

the Pimax API is stable and their PVR client is versioned in a way that older clients (such as PimaxXR) won't break on that front. Plenty of software works this way. It's been over a year now right (?) since last PimaxXR update, and nothing broke (EDIT: OK more like 8 months)

the other day I heard someone on reddit getting DCS + QVFR working on a Varjo VR-1, that's software that hasn't been updated in years either. Same for WMR, I think I was the last person to push an update over a year ago, and it's still fine.

Pimas has many incentives to keep PimaxXR working through their updates, since otherwise y'all would riot lol. Worse that can happen is some side effect or issue they can solve themselves in another update of Pimax Play, without even touching PimaxXR.

Well that is reassuring!  Thanks for the details.  I might seriously consider going for a crystal light