That's really interesting because the Pimax 8KX seems to run so much better with PimaxXR and OpenXR without Steam VR. Got mine up to 45 to 50 FPS. When running Steam VR it gets about 8 to 12 FPS unplayable. So this is really big news on the Crystal thanks.

Just to clarify: you're now at 50fps?

That is weird to say the least, hopefully, it is something that can be corrected with an update. If it is something not working with the runtime I would be hopeful that based on previous performance increases, once fixed, bypassing SteamVR we could hope to see something approaching 60 FPS using PimaxXR, then throw in FFR or ETFR and we have a much better situation.

Great news !!!

@@L_Emir_de_Passy 50-60fps

It's honestly surprising that there's so much high end hardware when you can count the number of AAA like VR experiences to have ever existed on one hand.

@@DiesOnAToilet VR is VR. Good VR is worth every bit, AAA or not. Morrowind VR mod or Subnautica VR port may not be AAA, yet are some of the best addictive VR experiences ever (for those who can appreciate it). You'll def. need more than three hands to count all great VR experiences out there.

Yes please let us know if you can sort it out!

Good luck!

Maybe with the rtx 5090 or 6090. 😂 I think this headset is great but there is no hardware can handle it yet.

Well looks like I’m getting rid of my Varjo 😂

I'm now very curious about all those who've already claimed good to great experiences on msfs in the Crystal.....you're an expert simmer struggling on a 4090🤔🤔🤔🤔 I'm guessing that's because they all were all in controlled Pimax sandbox testing environments

Thanks Andy, it's comments like that which keep me going :)

w/bad frame rates. hopefully, they get this fixed

​@@dabneyoffermein595 Other testers already have. Even Steve says in pinned comment that he's doubled fps since this video was released.

Thanks Mark, much appreciated 🍻

Thankyou 😊

Thankyou 😊

😅 Thanks Simon

Thanks so much! :)

Thanks Jamie 🙏

Cheers Mark 😊

Thanks for watching Stew, although I'll have more to say about this headset once I spend more time with it :)

Thanks for your amazing support buddy

@@VRFlightSimGuy 👍

Thats interesting, never herd anyone mention rivaturner in msfs setting. Would love to know more about it ? Have you any video links I could look up? Maybe you could do a video if not ?

What were your -ve 8KX issues Taz? Cheers, Michael 🇦🇺

​@@SpatialGuy77 Too much I can't list everything for you. The support is very complicated and does not change your hmd so easily in case of obvious problems. The return and shipping of new hmd takes months. The software problems are sometimes completely arbitrary and you need a lot of patience until you solve the problems. In some cases, problems can only be solved with support where any changed firmware is corrected again, etc. Even the 8KX is still fraught with errors after 2 years that also show up in games. Incorrect representations or Hud elements, etc. You have to try a lot on the software to find ideal settings, etc. The Crystal will easily take 1-2 years until the software is on the status where you can say less headache. However, the software is not fundamentally bad, it allows a lot of setting options, but this also creeps in new sources of error. Pimax glasses are not for people who do not want to deal with settings, etc. for a long time. With my 8KX, I sometimes spent weeks with ideal settings.

@@tasmania9576 Perfect. Exactly the sort of thing I wanted to hear. Thanks mate. 👌

I'd love to attend but unfortunately not this year. I've now got over 100% performance back already, thanks to a bit of tweaking :)

It's not just about the visuals, even if you have to downgrade the visuals just a bit. The openness of the field of view and compared to the aero is what I've been waiting for. The Aero is not easy on the eyes for me because of bad binocular overlap and small fov.

@@kangjames2492 Yes that's why I said "Look through the headset" because it is all of that, resolution, FOV, and the Local Dimming is HUGE for me. We are on the same page Kang.

did warn you :)

@Get Your Game On My bad, I was responding to someone elses comment and somehow repled to you.

@@kangjames2492 THATS IT KANG OUR FRIENDSHIP IS OVER!!! Just Kidding, no problem, I've done that before too.

I can't believe I nearly missed your comment, thanks buddy. It's been quite a journey this week so far with this headset! My best to you and your family.

This is 99% retail according to Pimax. Sweet spot is excellent, much like the Aero. Compared to the G2, is a huge step up.

@@VRFlightSimGuy Great thanks!

Thanks Jim, I've since improved my performance by up to 150%, video coming soon.

​@@VRFlightSimGuy waiting! Looking for a new headset for dcs and think I found one lol

So far all testers have only 35 ppd lenses.

@@RJ-kr4bs Thanks RJ ok, thank makes sense, I know at CES there were some issues with the 42 ppd lenses, so hopefully these will be sorted soon. Good signs anyway that the 'lower' ppd / wider FoV 35 ppd lens is performing so well.

Other testers say FFR is coming but not yet enabled, along with DFR.

Thankyou, sorry I don't understand your question regarding the acoustics? DCS video inbound soon...

@@VRFlightSimGuy Sorry I expressed myself wrong. It's about the two Akus that are plugged into the Pimax Cyrstel. Other testers report that they last a maximum of 1 to 2 hours and then have to be charged. How are your experiences there?

We've just been talking about this, I will investigate further so stay tuned. Thanks for watching

Thanks Brad, that's really great to know :)

😂

😂

Thanks for watching, although I personally think the FOV is very nice!

@@VRFlightSimGuy better than the G2 ??

lol thanks... it was a close one!

🤘

The battery requirement comes from Qualcomm to license the XR2 processor, that's definitely not Pimax's doing. Pimax has stated they should ship with about 6-hour battery life, with recharge faster than that, plus the batts can be hot-swapped due to a small third built-in battery just for that purpose. You'll be fine.

Even so, grabbing one extra battery is easy enough. I'm not sure it's really a concern when mod batteries charge to 80% in minutes. It will still be interesting to see as you say.

This flight game is very cpu demand. Other vr games gonna run just fine

Since crystal is cheating with the supersampling in OpenXR, varjo likely just need a "crystal supersample" mode that matches the resolution of the crystal, at similarly terrible fps, for similar clarity. I've run headsets at 500% supersampling and you'd be amazed the clarity you can achieve. What crystal was running at here was like an Aero at 200-400% supersample.

Hi Tom, I agree the reported resolution is very odd, although even scaled down, the Crystal still looks better than the Aero due to less CA, better binocular overlay, better colours, local dimming and more fov (oh and no red shift).

@@VRFlightSimGuy Yes that's what I'd expect - better FOV, colours, dimming, CA and binocular overlap, but clarity at best equal or more likely lower. Both have similar lenses quality and resolution so these should be the tradeoffs to expect. I'd be interested to hear what you think of their clarity at equal performance or resolution When it comes to clarity, frankly, barring a seperate 70ppd panel like the vr3, the Aero is already plenty and more limited by supersampling GPU overhead than the headset itself. Running the crystal at high supersampling and being shocked by the clarity is a good example of that. The things that are needed going forward are improvements to: 1) overall clarity. Only the Quest Pro delivers this from what I've seen, it's very impressive. Pancakes are the future and pimax is no improvement here at all 2) FOV. The quest pro is plenty for me, pimax has always come at the cost of canted displays being terrible, but perhaps the crystal is finally different. For some FOV is super important, for others not so much 3) Colours and brightness. Frankly the Aero is already excellent and close to the OLED displays I've seen, so I don't think much more is necessary here. Always welcome but a minor upgrade 4) black levels. This is the big one for me - and dimming is definitely great, but having seen it on the quest pro, it's no replacement for OLED. Not even close. Only OLED truly performs here 5) binocular overlap. This is excellent on the quest pro but overall a minor improvement from the Aero. So taking everything together, the crystal is likely an overall improvement over the Aero but it doesn't sound like a quantum leap. For that it would have to have pancake lenses or OLEDs or both Just as an aside - how is the standalone functionality? This could be a big advantage too, something I appreciate in the quest pro. Can any decent games run standalone?

Yes it's really very good in the Crystal

@@VRFlightSimGuy Thanks this answer and please tell me the crystal contoller is compatible most of the steam VR games and Oculus home games ( with revive ) ? Thanks this answer in advance,

Pimax have said Foveated rendering should be added by may, im keeping my fingers crossed :)

PPD does not really describe actual clarity, it only describes panel resolution in relation to the FOV. If your lenses are of poor quality, they can't resolve those pixels properly and you end up with less clarity even if you had higher PPD. Aero apparently has quite a lot of chromatic aberrations, and this means that RGB are all focused in a different spot.. leading to a overall softer image as only one of the primary colors is actually in focus.

You can compensate chromatic aberrations in software, but you can compensate for the effect it has in sharpness of the image. As the compensation only happens in 2D, and your lens still focuses all primary colors on different spots in 3D space.

The aero only does 35 ppd. The 39 is a supersample.

The crystal in this video is like an Aero running 200-400% supersample. It's over the top, hence the performance and clarity. They need to be compared at the same resolution and performance levels I've tried my vr3 at 400% supersample and it was glorious - and ran like crap

@@Tom--Ace supersampling is just an anti-aliasing technique, it can't really increase the resolution.. just makes things smoother.

OH HELL NO, now I'm not buying it if this is really something that happens on a 2k+ headset

Never heard of that happening before with an aero. I've had mine 13 months.. its been great

My Aero worked very well for quite a while. It started this behavior several months into ownership. The headset basically disconnects and the reconnects, and repeats that over 15 minutes or so before stabilizing. Once going, I have no issues. I have no complaints with the Aero otherwise, and have not seen this behavior reported by anyone else. Time to get support involved.

Next 👍

Prob poo because dcs is so badly optimised

Lots of things to try, I'll have an update soon :)

@@VRFlightSimGuy I look forward to that. I've 1 on ore order and have a paltry 4080 😅

I did not notice any, but then I'm not moving my head like crazy from side to side (unless something has severely gone wrong with my flight). 😅

Same me. Processing..

same for me , I preordered a month ago, FPS in DCS ive seen approx 60fps in vr modr in one youtube video and 50 plus in msfs2020, so im hopefull that can be improved upon, Pimax have a great opportunity here to fix the issues and make an outstanding VR headset ,thanks for the great first impression video Steve, ive never even tried VR before , this will be my first headset :)

You can use a Virtual Desktop (or like) that will render the game as in virtual display in the virtual void. So you get a fixed screen front of you like any other game.... So... Not good idea. Many would love to have old games where you could rotate camera separately from the weapons like in example ARMA... but not happening if game doesn't support it, or you can't mod it to it. Example there is a VORPX that try to do it, success in some, not so great in other. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/e5ukhNlmtrLMl6s.html

@@Mk82cal Thank you for your reply.

You will be able to use the index controllers. They're releasing a swappable light house tracked faceplate for the purpose of using valves controllers and base stations. Not everyone will wanna buy base stations and extra controllers, so I think it's a smart move. Unlike varjo, you have to spend an extra 600$ to us it after spending 2000 on the headset.

@@kangjames2492 Yeah, I can see it being a smart move however the price range suggests that they are targeting an audience with a higher budget. At that price point I don't think most people would complain about buying base stations (if not already owning them.) The main thing I'm worried about is the battery. Even though its supposed to last 5-6 hours, its still a hassle if you forget to charge it or are someone who live streams. Most people who are looking for a high fidelity experience are VR sim enthusiasts. Most of them tend to spend longer sessions in VR.

@Druew It comes with two batteries. And they're required by Qualcomm to use a battery with the xr2 chip.

Exactly. What's happening here is simple - pimax are cheating with an extreme supersample as "default". People leave with the impression that it's sharper, when more than likely, it is just supersampling. No doubt the QLED and local dimming will make a big difference though

@@Tom--Ace I don't think they are cheating I think Steve's setup is wrong, I'll bet he'll do another video by the end of the week

Even if it is just as clear as aero, the better colors, fov, cheaper price, plus other features definitely has me wanting over the aero

Varjo unfortunately ruined my visual quality with the Redshift and chromatic aberration issues in the IPD. I have a IPD of 60 and it just looks bad and something about the IPD now doesn't feel right.

@@Killswitch1411 that’s all gone away now…at least it is for me and I have the same IPD. It feels like a different headset than it did a few months ago. Nearly perfect really. If it had more FOV there wouldn’t need a single want from me. Nearly perfect visuals, no red shift, gaming in perfect 90fps with settings maxed out using DFR in DCS. If I had 20deg of extra vertical fov, I wouldn’t be wanting really anything more…

@@TheGreekbull I still see Redshift on newest update.. So Idk what kind of magic you are using.

Not that I'm aware of Martin :(