140° undistorted FOV: Crystal Super Ultrawide

[Calvin.Pimax]

 

[Porco Rosso]

Il 26/05/2025 at 04:27, Calvin.Pimax ha scritto:

 

Hey Calvin, in the end the ultra wide has “only” 5 degrees more than the super with 50 ppd? Cause I ordered the that version 

Edited May 27 by Porco Rosso

[Pteradon]

6 hours ago, Porco Rosso said:

Hey Calvin, in the end the ultra wide has “only” 5 degrees more than the super with 50 ppd? Cause I ordered the that version 

Hey Rosso, i don't understand your comment about "only" 5 degrees more than the super with 50 ppd. 

 

The Super 50 ppd has an FOV of  127° with an overlap of 105° for both eyes.

The Ultrawide has an FOV of 140° with an overlap of 90° for both eyes.

 

 

Maybe a stupid question but,

The overlap of both eyes. That is needed for the 3d view (depth perceptive)?

 

 

Edited May 27 by Pteradon

[Nodak]

Easy to check quickly to get a rough idea, most of it depends on your schnozz size.  Sit somewhere with a lot of detail on the wall, can be fairly close, close one eye and look toward your nose with the open eye, don't move your head.  Note the maximum spot your vision ends being blocked by your nose on the wall and remember or mark it.  Do the other eye the same and mark it, you can also simply put up your hands to mark.  Should already have a good idea of the angle, my maximum overlap is certainly less than 90, so for me everything above is wasted.  Got a huge nose blocking much of that overlap, it also makes my overlap pretty much oval shaped.  At nose tip it's more like 15 to 20 degrees, didn't help I busted my nose a couple of times as a kid. 

[Pteradon]

Thanks @Nodak

It seems my max overlap is around 90°.

So the Ultrawide would be the best experience with VR in DCS.

But we will have to wait when the first real reviews of the Ultrawide appear.

 

Another question.

Are the lenses (unit) of the Ultrawide swappable with the Super 50ppd?

 

[Gun Jam]

The larger overlap (exceeding 90 deg) is important when you look left and right... right?

[Calvin.Pimax]

5 hours ago, Pteradon said:

Are the lenses (unit) of the Ultrawide swappable with the Super 50ppd?

The lenses are built with the optical engine, making it quite challenging to replace them. For this reason, we do not recommend attempting to change the lenses.

[Pteradon]

17 minutes ago, Calvin.Pimax said:

The lenses are built with the optical engine, making it quite challenging to replace them. For this reason, we do not recommend attempting to change the lenses.

Thank you for the answer.

But i think there is a bit of miscommunication.

 

A while back, when you where able to pre-order the Super, there was information about swappable "lensunits".

If i bought the Super with Qled lenses, it would be able to change the Qled unit for Led unit, wich would be later be released.

 

My question is, is the Ultrawide lens-unit swappable with the normal Qled 50ppd unit, or do i have to buy a whole new Pimax Super Ultrawide package?

[eFirehawk]

Remember guys that Pimax lies when it comes to their FOV numbers. They used to say the OG Crystal had 125 HFOV when in reality it has about 105 HFOV. They originally said the Super 50ppd had 135 HFOV and in reality it's closer to like 126 HFOV (as reported by reviewers). Probably they are lying about the Ultrawide's FOV as well. Better wait for user reviews (not affiliated). Also, assuming the numbers are correct, with lower binocular overlap in the Ultrawide differences in brightness will be a lot more noticeable (since about 60% of the screen will overlap, compared to close to 80% of the 50ppd).

Edited May 28 by eFirehawk
typo

[j9murphy]

I *think* these are the correct numbers for overlap...

Pimax Crystal Super (50ppd standard) ~105 degrees of overlap
Pimax Crystal Super (50ppd UW) ~90 degrees of overlap
Pimax Crystal OG  ~85 degrees of overlap

Edited May 29 by j9murphy

[eFirehawk]

7 hours ago, j9murphy said:

I *think* these are the correct numbers for overlap...

Pimax Crystal Super (50ppd standard) ~105 degrees of overlap
Pimax Crystal Super (50ppd UW) ~90 degrees of overlap
Pimax Crystal OG  ~85 degrees of overlap

Yeah in that case the overlap of the 50ppd will feel about the same as the OG, with 20 degrees of non-overlap vision probably.

Crystal OG:        105 HFOV, 85 BO = 20 degrees no overlap

Crystal 50ppd:   125 HFOV, 105 BO = 20 degrees no overlap

Ultrawide: likely 135 HFOV, 90 BO = 45 degrees no overlap

So basically with the Ultrawide the non-covered area by overlap could maybe be twice as wide as the other variants. Imagine 45 degrees without 3D-effect and with brightness difference. Not sure how big of an impact that could have and how much eye-strain it could case. Like I mentioned before, better wait for reviews and reports from people who were not paid by Pimax before pre-ordering imho.

[j9murphy]

8 hours ago, eFirehawk said:

Yeah in that case the overlap of the 50ppd will feel about the same as the OG, with 20 degrees of non-overlap vision probably.

Crystal OG:        105 HFOV, 85 BO = 20 degrees no overlap

Crystal 50ppd:   125 HFOV, 105 BO = 20 degrees no overlap

Ultrawide: likely 135 HFOV, 90 BO = 45 degrees no overlap

So basically with the Ultrawide the non-covered area by overlap could maybe be twice as wide as the other variants. Imagine 45 degrees without 3D-effect and with brightness difference. Not sure how big of an impact that could have and how much eye-strain it could case. Like I mentioned before, better wait for reviews and reports from people who were not paid by Pimax before pre-ordering imho.

For others reading this, there are three things at play...

- Objects within the stereo overlap will be 3D (therefore more overlap is better)

- Objects which are partially in the overlap and partially not will have one eye see the complete object, and the other only see only part of the object.  The degree to which your brain can put these images together varies by person.  For some it causes eyestrain and perception issues, for others it's really not much of a problem.  Additionally, the more into the periphery that object is, the less likely it will bother you.  For reference the fov for the human eye is almost 200 degrees, and the fov of stereo overlap is about 120 degrees, so the last 40 degrees at each side of your fov is experiencing this already and its not an issue.

- Objects outside the overlap will be rendered in 2D as @eFirehawk points out, and again the farther into the periphery this is is (like in the human eye), the less likely it is it will bother you.  You will only notice these in the HMD as 2D if you move your eyes all the way over without moving your head.  Obviously moving your head would move the object to the stereo region.  The human eye has a distinct advantage here of being able to move the overlap region with your eye movement.

The amount of overlap expressed as a percentage is really not as important as the amount of overlap expressed as degrees of field of view.  The Crystal OG and the The Super UW have very close to the same field of view covered by stereo overlap -  however, the super has a wider total field of view.  Therefore, the super will render objects in the periphery of its field of view in 2D that are not rendered at all in the OG.  The tradeoff is this.... periphery 2D vs black.  For many people the additional 2D rendering in the periphery will add to immersion.

My personal guess is that if the OG doesnt bother you, the super UW wont either.. but again as @eFirehawk points out, waiting for others to try it out is probably best, as long as you understand that any 2 people may have very different experiences and both could be right.   The one advantage that the Super UW has over the "lab mode" fov increase that Pimax has tried in the past is that for the Super UW they have physically moved the lenses rather than just trying to deal with it in the distortion profile.

 

 

Edited May 29 by j9murphy