Is VR Great?

[RCHeliguy]

120V x 180H pancake lens prototype
Maybe it will be ready about the time the 60 series NVidia GPU's are here.
And maybe large enough uOLED displays will be ready by then as well.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1779256900967674117

 

[Neilski]

180H

Holy smoke. Will be interesting to see how they manage the mapping/distortion, balancing off pixel density across the FOV. I guess that people would be content with it being somewhat lower at the extreme angles.
Presumably this also implies a non-square panel?

 

[RCHeliguy]

Holy smoke. Will be interesting to see how they manage the mapping/distortion, balancing off pixel density across the FOV. I guess that people would be content with it being somewhat lower at the extreme angles.
Presumably this also implies a non-square panel?

I have no idea what it implies, but it's also a prototype. For all we know they are just testing out the pancake lenses and working on getting the image sharp while expecting to replace the displays at a later point. Something like this is far enough off, that it's unlikely any part of this will not change between now and something based on it being released.

 

[RCHeliguy]

In other news....
If NVidia controls this end to end, it's possible VR could move over to a console in the future which may be a good thing if it is completely optimized for gaming graphics.

NVIDIA buys Xbox brand from Microsoft: next-gen Xbox has dual GPUs, AI to fight PlayStation 6

NVIDIA acquires the Xbox brand from Microsoft: will power a next-gen Xbox in 2025 with next-gen GeForce GPU, AI, RTX to fight the PlayStation 6.

www.tweaktown.com

 

[GeekyDeaks]

In other news....
If NVidia controls this end to end, it's possible VR could move over to a console in the future which may be a good thing if it is completely optimized for gaming graphics.

NVIDIA buys Xbox brand from Microsoft: next-gen Xbox has dual GPUs, AI to fight PlayStation 6

NVIDIA acquires the Xbox brand from Microsoft: will power a next-gen Xbox in 2025 with next-gen GeForce GPU, AI, RTX to fight the PlayStation 6.

www.tweaktown.com

Ok, the initial characters for the paragraphs in that article are all in bold and spell out APRILFOOLS - I guess that is a hint?

 

[Wreckoning]

Coming up shortly

 

[RCHeliguy]

 

[RCHeliguy]

FWIW even Brad was surprised by their announcements.

Pimax basically promised everything to everyone from $699 upto $2000 covering a stripped Crystal, with no eye tracking or local dimming all the way up to a some day in the future uOLED headset.

 

[Leynad777]

The Crystal Light looks like a winner to me for simming, if it is visually as great as the Crystal for that price and works well. Crystal and BSB just have too many flaws and way too high pricetag to be a replacement of a G2 for example, but it's even interesting enough for Quest 3 users if it is getting decent reviews. And if it sells well, Pimax don't have to rush with the others.

 

[RCHeliguy]

The Crystal Light looks like a winner to me for simming, if it is visually as great as the Crystal for that price and works well. Crystal and BSB just have too many flaws and way too high pricetag to be a replacement of a G2 for example, but it's even interesting enough for Quest 3 users if it is getting decent reviews. And if it sells well, Pimax don't have to rush with the others.

They dropped local dimming, so the blacks won't be as dark. They dropped eye tracking so no DFR which is a huge deal for DCS pilots, somewhat to ACC drivers and less important for iRacing and other titles.

But there is a lot less to fail, less heat, less weight.

I could see it selling well.

 

[RCHeliguy]

From a marketing standpoint they spent a lot of time emphasizing their glass lenses and how great they are compared to plastic. That is a differentiating point mostly because nearly all their competitors use plastic lenses now. Meta, Somnium, Bigscreen. Considering how bad their early plastic lenses for the Crystal were, there are now horror stories in the Pimax community to reinforce this to make it appear true. They blamed plastic on many issues. Smart marketing move.

 

[Neilski]

They blamed plastic on many issues. Smart marketing move.

Sounds like you're saying that plastic lenses aren't intrinsically bad (or "the" problem), and although I didn't watch the (almost ) 3 hours of footage above, I'd be inclined to agree. But did they cite any specific issues with plastic lenses?

 

[Leynad777]

They dropped local dimming, so the blacks won't be as dark. They dropped eye tracking so no DFR which is a huge deal for DCS pilots, somewhat to ACC drivers and less important for iRacing and other titles.

But there is a lot less to fail, less heat, less weight.

I could see it selling well.

Local dimming just costs 200 extra, but I wouldn't bother because sim-racing is mostly happening during the day. FFR is IMO better than 250 more gram hovering in front of my face like with the Crystal, so for me the Light is the more desirable headset for less than half the price. Pimax-page broke already down due to high request...

 

[RCHeliguy]

Sounds like you're saying that plastic lenses aren't intrinsically bad (or "the" problem), and although I didn't watch the (almost ) 3 hours of footage above, I'd be inclined to agree. But did they cite any specific issues with plastic lenses?

Given the Somnium VR1 with plastic lenses manages a wider FOV than than the Crystal does with glass lenses and the VR1 is both brighter and sharper despite using the exact same miniLED display behind it, I think there is proof that well designed plastic lenses can perform better than what Pimax has managed with glass to date.

The VR1 has a more complex two lens per eye design that helps allow a sharper wider field of view. The recently released wide FOV Crystal lenses that are not nearly as wide as the VR1 dropped image quality and stereo overlap pretty substantially for only a marginal improvement in FOV.

 

[gamma123152]

Given the Somnium VR1 with plastic lenses manages a wider FOV than than the Crystal does with glass lenses and the VR1 is both brighter and sharper despite using the exact same miniLED display behind it, I think there is proof that well designed plastic lenses can perform better than what Pimax has managed with glass to date.

The VR1 has a more complex two lens per eye design that helps allow a sharper wider field of view. The recently released wide FOV Crystal lenses that are not nearly as wide as the VR1 dropped image quality and stereo overlap pretty substantially for only a marginal improvement in FOV.

But until now this is only confirmed by VR flightsimguy. So only two people in the world (CEO + the reviewer that liked the VR1 the most) say this.

And maybe even more importantly: It could also be the case that it's not because of the lenses that the image looks sharper but because of the ~double amount of nits/brightness that the VR1 has compared to the Crystal because it doesn't use a battery. I can imagine that a double as bright display will make details stand out much better than a dimmer display. So it's not 100% sure that it's because of the double lens design (alone).

I'm waiting for more info about both devices. Very interesting times now for high end VR enthusiasts.

 

[Neilski]

I can imagine that a double as bright display will make details stand out much better than a dimmer display.

Interesting idea.

It reminds me that my vision is noticeably sharper in good light than dim light (essentially because I need corrective lenses, and the blur spots on the retina are bigger when my eyes' pupils are larger), despite that probably having nothing at all to do with the perceived sharpness for a VR headset (assuming the headset has suitable prescription lenses, or the wearer doesn't need 'em...).

 

[Leynad777]

I doubt that the VR1 is even competitive against the Crystal, but certainly no chance against the Crystal Super. And seems that even the CEO prefers another headset...

 

[The Iron Wolf]

A major limitation with any type of sim, fps, or rpg, is no peripheral vision. In real life you see nearly 180deg around you, and you can glance, without moving your head, to the side or up and down to focus on something else. With VR you can look around, but you still only see what you are looking at; it's like not being able to move your eyes so you must move your head to look around. In a regular game it's like wearing blinders - you only see straight ahead; VR lets you move the blinders around, but you still only see straight ahead.

But the technology is in its infancy, who knows what the future brings.

Actually above depends on the headset. With Pimax 5K/8K heasets FOV is very similar to FIA helmet FOV. And I do agree - peripheral vision is important. That's why despite their flaws I use Pimax headsets and looking forward to their 12x model.

 

[wajdi]

Pimax always try to save money … if the new Pimax light won’t have all these features so why the h you didn’t change the shape ( case) of it and uses the same case of the big bulky Crystal headset?! Why now use a smaller lighter new case that would have made the new light Crystal headset even lighter and with an appeal modern shape ?! You just want to save money

 

[RCHeliguy]

I doubt that the VR1 is even competitive against the Crystal, but certainly no chance against the Crystal Super. And seems that even the CEO prefers another headset...

The VR1 is getting real 125-130 hFOV and appears to be sharper than the Crystal.

Pimax attempted a wide FOV lens and it appears not to be very good and only reached 115 hFOV.

Did they just sandbag on the lens for the Crystal, hiding their true lens expertise? Or do they not really know how to create a sharp 130 hFOV lens ?

The VR1 will pretty well max out a 5090.

The Super has very similar specs to the XR4 and very likely will have a similar FOV about 115 hFOV. The problem is that unless you are only playing DCS, a 15Mp display will need to wait for a 6090 to actually drive it.

At this point I'm pretty sure the VR 1 will be a pretty big step up from a Crystal.

The Super falls into a category like the XR4 where we are so far behind the GPU to push it, that I don't see the point. I also will never see a VR headset as future proof or an investment, so buying something with the hope a GPU released 2 years later will drive it well doesn't make a lot of sense.