Hope everyone's had a great holiday period! As i get the channel going again, after a holiday break. Upcoming there's a Case 3 tutorial, game preview and of course the full Pimax Crystal review.
Honestly, Eye tracking is a major must have feature to me, I've been waiting for a headset using it. The performance gains made the difference between impossible and playable.
It is a massive performance bump on games which correctly support it (ie quadviews). A lot of games do not fully support it and only downgrade the shaders in the non fovia area which both doesn't give much of a performance benefit and also in some games leads to graphical glitches (ie solid blacks where there shouldn't be any). If you only want to play games which support quadviews (DCS being a big one) then it is worth it but otherwise it's not significant at least for now.
Unfortunately, Quad Views takes a big performance impact CPU wise. I'm running: Quest Pro (1800*1900 per eye) 5800X 6950 XT ... and my GPU has enough raw power to render 2300*2500 per eye at 72 fps. When enabling foveated rendering, I get worse performance due to a CPU bottleneck even in light missions. So results can drastically vary and you best have a 7800X3D or something
@RedKiteRender Q3 on 4090 is smooth as silk and very clear, even without Foveated rendering... and without the jarring artifacts related to stuff popping in and out of vision.
@@hook86 The quest 3 only has around half the resolution (as much as it might not seem to be such a significant difference). Additionally for some inexplicable reason Pimax's default render resolution for the before headset distortion image is somewhere around twice as high as you need it to be (something like 4500x4500 per eye range) which makes the performance even worse.
Hey, I also just got my Crystal a week ago - really happy and absolutely surprised that I can run it (with pretty low settings, but comparable to my old Rift S) on my 3070, thanks to Quad View - with amazing resolution and clarity!
That purple dot is awesome. It would be good to make new tutorials with this feature. It could help players to understand many things. E.G. at aerial refuelling training or helicopter hover training to better explain where to look to keep your aircraft stable.
Wait till you find out about Tobii eye tracking's visualisation! I'd love to use that for videos, but it's a bit expensive for just a video or two. The thought of using this (Crystal) for tutorials has crossed my mind! (Hence its presence here)
Oh yeah, it was a nightmare back on the narrow HTC Vive It's gotten easier with wider FOV headsets, but your neck does need a little exercise to keep up, imagine trying to do the same at several G's in the real thing!
There's a mod for that called "NeckSafer" You can either bind it to a button to enable giving yourself something like an automatic 90 degree rotation (or 180 if you want), or you can set it so it automatically snaps if you are trying to look over your should, once you are within a certain degree range it'll just automatically do it. also helps using an office chair that swivels.
Thanks for the review RedKite. How about another perspective? It's quite possible that some of the visual criticisms are due to the 42 ppd lenses. I do find that spotting distant aircraft can require VR zoom but, with the updated spotting in DCS, there is a huge improvement. I also think that the visual complaints are a result of no optimizing the headset with Open XR Toolkit and DCS settings, especially those related to shadows and avoiding upscaling/supersampling like the plague. Either or both wreck visual quality for details and sighting ground and air vehicles. I probably spent 2 months dialing in the Crystal. Tally Mouse's DFR setup video, the 72 fps Pimax setting, and the changes in DCS were game changers for the Crystal and ended the need for further tweaking of settings. While I think this is a completely honest review, appropriately critical for the setup/configuration, it is not representative of what is possible in the Crystal. I look forward to the following review. One more item. I respect the opinion about weight and fit. It is not as nearly as good as the GC or the Rift S. It is also a third of the weight of the old form fit helmet I wore for ~3000 hours in the USAF in the 1970-'80s. No oxygen mask and hose is a dream in comparison. Many of us want realism in the sim but never consider 5-9 Gs with a brain bucket or, far worse, HMCS on our craniums. I have changed my mind and am OK with the weight/fit once I acclimated to the headset and dialed in the fit. The new strap is in transit. It should allow me to remove the kludge I'm using now.
I tried a crystal but Pimax's software set off a bunch of windows defender tampering malware alerts and when I asked Pimax's support if this was normal they said "We have no idea, we've reported this to R&D to see what they think, but it's totally safe and normal." (seriously) so I just returned the headset. Had some other issues as well, such as visual artefacts on the screens, but I'd have powered through them or got the headset replaced because the actual hardware is amazing. Settled for a quest 3 and the image quality is surprisingly close considering the reduced resolution (I guess because the quest has better lenses).
I hope you downloaded the software direct from Pimax! I've not encountered such an issue with malware alerts. I've encountered corrupt visual static inside the headset and driver issues as well though! Largely these have been occasional and disappeared after resets or diver updates. Software side does leave a bit to be desired. I've seen some seriously cool things from the Quest 3, though my own time using it has been limited. Just a pity it lacks eye tracking.
@@RedKiteRender Naturally yes. The visual static might be due to your GPU. Do you have a 3000 series Nvidia? Their displayports do not put out signal correctly and you need a displayport repeater to get the signal to the headset with sufficient power if using a copper wire (which is the standard).
@@jimmydesouza4375 Happy I scrolled down and read the comments -- I was in a similar situation as you (3080 at the time) and returned my pimax because of this. I upgraded to a 4090 and ran into some of the same issues but got tired of trying to get everything set and went with the Varjo Aero - much more happy with it than the pimax personally.
Interesting, indeed, i have a 3080, so that might be culprit, it's the Nvidia OEM version, and the issues have never cropped up in actual play sessions, just during setup and testing early on, thankfully not shown up again in quite some time.
Hello Redkite. First, thanks for the tutorial videos; they are the best out there. I'm going to be buy the Pimax Crystal in the next week or so, and I would be very grateful if you could answer the noobiest of noob questions for me, since this will be my first VR headset: what about people who wear glasses? I know there is a company that does custom prescription lenses for the Crystal and that all you have to do is let them know your prescription. I assume that would be for near vision? And what happens out of the box?
You can buy third party prescription lenses, I'm not sure about from Pimax directly, I'd contact them. If i recall, the focal distance is fixed to 1 meter, so, if without glasses you can see clearly in reality at 1m, you should be fine with the Crystal at all 'distances' in games. They have a secondary face plate with gaps for glasses, but I'd be very concerned about scratching either set of lenses. I've no idea how contacts or glasses play with the eye tracking too! though i think other channels have looked into this.
@@RedKiteRender Thank you very much for taking the time to answer. And for what it's worth, your videos clarify things so well because you don't seem to make any assumptions about what the viewer knows and does not know.
Though I'd say the Crystal despite being great now, is last gen when the Apple Vision Pro comes out next month. Given Apple's track record they will likely change what we perceive as a great product.
It'll come down to how well it works (if at all) with PC and gaming to be honest. Otherwise it's not terribly useful outside Apple's walled garden, i suspect software will let it down hard.
Every apple product i have personally ever used has been worse than the direct non apple competitors while being several times the price. I cant imagine that changing with their headset.
As someone who upgraded from Reverb G2 to a Crystal I'm extremely surprised to see you say that the whole screen is in focus on the G2. It's renowned for its relatively small sweet spot. I'm not not knocking the G2 - I used it for about 2 years after upgrading from a Rift S and enjoyed it even more after upgrading to an RTX 4090 - but there's simply no comparison between the G2 and the Crystal. The Crystal gives edge-to-edge sharpness - great for a mud-mover like myself - and a wider field of view too. With the Dynamic Foveated Rendering (courtesy of Quadviews) it really is pin-sharp. By contrast, with the G2 when flying past the Carrier doing a Case I recovery, the carrier would just be a grey blur to the side as I passed it. With the Crystal it's rendered in full detail. These days I'm mostly flying the Harrier and the Apache. From the back seat of the Apache I can read some of the instruments on the CP/G's displays. And, if you have the Harrier, try this test. If you look down at the canopy frame next to your right shoulder there's a placard with some values for magnetic variation (I think). Can you read this in your G2, without turning around in your seat or bending down? Colours are more vivid in the Crystal too. That's not to say that the Crystal is perfect. It's far too heavy, and is the most uncomfortable - by far - of the four headsets I have (Rift S, Quest 2, Reverb and Crystal). It annoys me to see Pimax now selling "comfort" accessories which should be part of the basic design. The launch last summer was pretty unsatisfactory too, although refinements to the product and GUI have now resolved those issues. I think you do need a really powerful GPU to do it justice, so the ownership costs are way, way higher than those of the Reverb G2. That's why I disagree with recent comments by VRflightsimguy about the G2 no longer being worthy of recommendation. I think a second-hand G2 would still be a very good buy for someone who doesn't have the budget for a 4090 card. So, if you're still enjoying your G2, that's great. I loved mine too, but it really is not in the same class as the Crystal.
Great video Redkite! I've owned a Crystal now for 6 months and love it. I am curious about the zoom you mention in the vudeo, are you talking about the default DCS setting? Keep up the good work 😊
There's no pass-through camera functionality at the moment sadly, so.... It's a good thing I'm a fluent touch typist. Using hotas / panels by touch is not a big problem with a little practise.
I'd recommend taking a look at Jabbers video on the topic: th-cam.com/video/LVAMQe7eR1E/w-d-xo.html My computer isn't quite up the strength required to record in the same quality as his technique, but i followed the general ideas, although the foveation added issues, as I'm not convinced my vr mirror is the full resolution.
@@RedKiteRender I'm guessing you're using mbucchia's quad views solution in which case yeah the mirror isn't full resolution. DCS prioritizes the peripheral render and we're kind of stuck with that since it's not natively supported in game. It also doesn't render the spotting dots either which makes it a major tradeoff for better performance the way the dots are implemented right now. I'm on the varjo aero and ended up reverting back to normal rendering and just lowering pixel density to make the mirror readable for streaming while keeping frame rates playable.
@Vanfleihigh (Zoids! haha) Yeah figured as much. Unfortunately, the focus is to review the product as a user, not use it for creating gameplay video content. I can't accurately assess it when making sacrifices to its display for me, just for a mild improvement in mirror picture for the viewer. Would be unfair on the headset, so i need to keep the dynamic foveated rendering on.
@@RedKiteRender Yeah that's fair. In the headset's defense these are more problems with DCS itself rather than anything else. Also nice to see you remember Zoids lol.
It only kind of works in vehicles without weapons. I wouldn't suggest actually trying to play CA in VR. You might notice i had a plan B, a Huey measured up at the same distance just in case the Landrover didn't work out.
I still don't have a successor in sight for my Rift S. HP G2 has been discontinued. Quest 3 and Pimax Crystal have Batteries which I don't want! A Pimax Crystal Pur , only with DP Cable and No Batteries will be better for Sim Gamer 🤔
The batteries are not a significant issue. If you want to use them wired as long as you are plugged into a power bank with enough wattage output the batteries will stay topped up and if you want to go wireless all you need is a powerbank. And you should go wireless. Until you experience wireless VR you don't really fathom what a massive upgrade it is. Not having to constantly keep your mind on the wire eliminates one of the last barriers for immersion. The downside is image quality, but the gen 2 snapdragon chips have enough decryption capability to handle high enough bandwidths for there to be no image quality decrease (also a thing to keep in mind is that images over displayport are also compressed due to displayport only having around 20-25Gb/s capacity). The wireless module for the crystal might even use WiGig (similar to the vive pro wireless kit) which has a high enough bandwidth that only minimal compression is needed.
I was hoping to see some through the lens pictures to see the actual smoothness and resolution. Even a 30-buck tiny camera module could record an excellet 4K+ footage of what we actually see - well, part of the FOV at least. These pictures are pretty much independent from anything the user actually experiences. It’s like showing 3D renderings instead actual product shots - not at all convincing…
Review will discuss the more physical. Trouble is, there is not a good way for me to truly demonstrate the though lens view. I cannot run the headset at 100% native resolution across its entire fov it's less than a slide show. Cameras don't cooperate with the eye tracking, so the native rendered area doesn't sit well, I'm hoping i can come up with some fixed foveated solution for the review.
Through lense camera imagery doesnt work either due to differences between how each works. Only way to really tell is by getting your head in one. Pimax do have boutiques where you can try headsets.
In real night flying, you can have complete darkness with zero distinction of horizon, and no idea where the ground is. Total darkness... except for ground lights.
DCS does a pretty good representation of that, and you'll get the same disorientation if you don't trust the instruments. It's just that what is 'black' is a grey glow from the screen backlight, unless you have an OLED screen, which can literally turn the pixels off (no backlight at all) to 'make' darkness. So you're in a slightly grey void rather than black.
You say you had edge to edge clarity, but the crystal I had did not have edge to edge clarity. Around the outer 20% of the radius was blurred with mine. How is the chromatic abberation in your headset? I have seen people theorising that they send better quality headsets with better quality lenses to influencers (though on the flip side they have sent damaged headsets to influencers before so...) as a way of explaining why some people's lenses are seemingly more clear than others. Regarding things seemingly changing in size and distance while you move your head. This is a headset issue. I can't remember all of the specifics but there's a couple of in depth reviews of the crystal that go in to this. It's an artefact of the way the headset simulates depth while only having a fixed focal distance. Basically nothing is scaled correctly but the incorrect scaling varies depending on aspect away from centerline of the headset. If you are used to the index or the quest series they got this as close to correct as it is possible so it's not as much of an issue on those. There was a pretty indepth review of the Pimax crystal that went in to this but it has been taken off of youtube for some reason so I can't remember the specific concepts.
20% Yikes! there is the smallest amount of blur to the edges of the headset, not enough to notice or get in the way on my test headset. I've certainly heard stories of mixed quality issues. I go into a lot of what you've asked in the review, CA is at least personally only an issue on distant lights/objects.
@@RedKiteRender On mine the CA was awful, have you ever seen the FPSvr overlay for instance, there was a roughly 5-10% offset for one colour (the blues I think) up above the overlay and a similar offset underneath it (for the orange/yellows I think). It was like one of those "80's image filter" type things. I suspected it might be the eyetracking not getting my IPD correct but I went through a little cycle of raising and lowering the headset on my face (relative to my eyes) while cycling the IPD setting in and out and the CA only got worse.
Like i said, the display mirror you see on screen, doesn't represent the headset, sadly I've not managed to find a way to replicate it properly, i think the dynamic foveation is tripping the mirror up.
Yes, I'll be comparing to those I've used where i can. Though I've not owned any recent headsets, I've used the Quest 3 for a bit, but most comparison will be to the ageing Index.
I can give you a comparison of the Pimax vs the index as an additional opinion while you wait for Redkite's review but here is the rundown; -The Crystal is counterintuitively much more comfortable than the index, despite a lack of comfort being a typical complaint. -The Crystal is the only headset I have ever used (Rift S, Index, Quest 2, Quest 3, PSVR 1) where the stock facial interface had no light leak HOWEVER there is a problem where the edge of the screen and the power button actually leak light into the closed off area which makes this less valuable than it otherwise would be. But the light leak is minor and you can ignore it easily. -The image quality, excepting some glitches I had on mine potentially due to broken screens, was amazing. I could count the individual branches on trees several kilometers away in DCS (with all graphical settings maxed of course). Meanwhile on the index I have trouble reading smaller text in the cockpit. -The local dimming is absolutely pointless and you'd be best to turn it off. It only works in chunks (512 per screen) and these chunks are too large to achieve a good effect so you can easily see that it is just big chunks turning on and off, rather than it seeming like there is colour depth. Additionally there is a very noticable latency while the backlighting chunks change in brightness so you see these chunks ramp up in brightness and it just looks awful. Pimax have the local dimming turned off by default and I assume this is why. -The sweet spot for the lenses was massive due to being pancake lenses, compared to the index's tiny sweet spot. Additionally the lenses on the crystal while they do not have true edge to edge clarity are much more clear outside of the center area than the index. -The crystal has an issue with something called chromatic abberation, which is where because the lense isn't perfect at focusing all wavelengths of light in the same position on your retina you see doublevision but offset based on what colour (so red will be offset in one direction, green offset in another, blue in another). All headsets technically have this because lenses with no CA are impossibly expensive, but I personally almost never notice it on any other headset whereas on the crystal it is constant and severely intense to the point where it can make looking at or reading things difficult. -The inside out tracking for the headset is perfectly fine. I never had any issues with it. -The tracking for the controllers is unusable. The right controller for example had a constant roughly 20 degree oscillation on the horizontal plane. This made any kind of shooter gameplay impossible. You can however buy an extra face plate for the headset which makes it work via the steamVR lighthouse system which will then allow you to use valve knuckles which will remove this problem. Meanwhile the index is just steamVR stock so nice. -The headset has no passthrough, though they did say they will introduce a half baked passthrough using the inside out tracking cameras later on, this didn't exist when I tried it. You need to buy a second additional "MR faceplate" to get proper full colour and depth adjusted passthrough, but this then means you can't use the lighthouse faceplate and it did not seem like the plug for the faceplate would stand up well to constant plugging and unplugging. Compared to the index itself this isn't so much of a loss as the index's passthrough wasn't great either, but compared to something like the quest 3 where the passthrough is good enough that you can legitimately read fine print it is a big downside. -The battery life issue. The pimax works off of the batteries even if plugged in, the plugs just charge the batteries, if you do not have a powerful enough powered USB hub (the stock one isn't powerful enough as an aside) the batteries won't stay charged. This isn't too much of a concern though as if you intend to use it wired you can just buy a more powerful hub and if you want to use it wireless the quick change batteries give you endless lifespan as you can charge the one battery while playing off the other. -Wireless if it ever comes out is a game changer compared to tethered headsets like the index. The freedom it provides is like nothing else. You can actually freely move in games.
The biggest reason I do not use VR is the frame rate.I wanna the rates above 144 and ultra settings,2D is the only solutions.My specs 7950X + 128G ram + 4090.4090can't hold this monster game and device,waiting for 5950.
One of the few subscribers here; recently discovered your channel and have enjoyed your content thus far however; I could not find your computer setup, not in the video, not in the description either that I could find? (Perhaps in one of the previous video's; sorry I can't recall.) Let me guess; you're running a 4090? If so, congratulations: That's probably at most 5% of the simming market and 1% of the gaming market at a whole. Personally, not interested in a headset that costs this much if you can't even benefit from "Most" of its full capabilities on a mid range PC setup. Finally upgrading to a 7800X3D, (parts in-route) but will still use my 3080Ti for most of this year until I see what AMD is offering next. Thanks for the info anyways......
You can definitely use the crystal to it's full potential then. With quad views foveated rendering, given you set it aggressive enough, playable frame rates can be achieved with such GPU's. This only comes at the cost of the CPU having to calculate every frame twice, but a 7800X3D couldn't be better suited for that
I still haven't bought into VR after years of flight sims. I really just enjoy my wireless TrackIR 5 and 34" OLED monitor. Looks and runs great. Maybe in a year or two more when VR is even further refined.
If TH-cam could pay the bills, I'd have more time to make tutorials. They are coming (esp the F-4e!), but my limited time has to be prioritised. Edited tutorials frequently take 10-20 hours and i get back a pittance, couple that with the youtube algorithm's hunger for more videos rather than quality, it's a lost cause without something else to support it. Rest assured i spent some significant time soul searching about whether or not to accept Pimax's offer/requirements on this and concerns about bias. I do try to insure at least one video that's not hardware related in between reviews, but largely it's just been down to the sudden influx of new products and myself not being able to keep up! I've got 3 other things waiting, some for months. With the F-4e coming, i hope to get into full swing on a series for it once it's available, and other work behind the scenes has come together to help me organise and plan such complex series out for DCS modules in general. Truth is, i can't afford to make everything i want to, i appreciate the concern, it's crushing that i can't deliver everything I'd like to. Life has many things more important that cause me enough stress in life as is!
@@RedKiteRender I thought you enjoyed making the tutorials and that's why you did them. I don't think niche content like DCS tutorials will ever make more than your RL job! At least you get free stuff with sponsored reviews I guess.
I do enjoy making tutorials! But I've got to be realistic, i can't spend all my time working on videos, neglecting some pretty serious responsibilities in life to do so. If ED for example took me under their wing with full time employment it'd be a different story. There's just not enough hours in the day for everything.
He focuses his reviews on stuff thats relevant for simming so I dont see a problem with that. If he was reviewing a landmower I'd be like well thats weird but sim hardware is fine imho.
Hope everyone's had a great holiday period! As i get the channel going again, after a holiday break. Upcoming there's a Case 3 tutorial, game preview and of course the full Pimax Crystal review.
can you show lens fotages ? to show the display ?
Yep, i will be for the review, though it's a little tricky getting it to work well.
I hope eye tracking with FOV rendering becomes a standard feature. It seem like it could be a major performance bump.
Honestly, Eye tracking is a major must have feature to me, I've been waiting for a headset using it. The performance gains made the difference between impossible and playable.
It is a massive performance bump on games which correctly support it (ie quadviews). A lot of games do not fully support it and only downgrade the shaders in the non fovia area which both doesn't give much of a performance benefit and also in some games leads to graphical glitches (ie solid blacks where there shouldn't be any).
If you only want to play games which support quadviews (DCS being a big one) then it is worth it but otherwise it's not significant at least for now.
Unfortunately, Quad Views takes a big performance impact CPU wise.
I'm running:
Quest Pro (1800*1900 per eye)
5800X
6950 XT
... and my GPU has enough raw power to render 2300*2500 per eye at 72 fps.
When enabling foveated rendering, I get worse performance due to a CPU bottleneck even in light missions.
So results can drastically vary and you best have a 7800X3D or something
@RedKiteRender Q3 on 4090 is smooth as silk and very clear, even without Foveated rendering... and without the jarring artifacts related to stuff popping in and out of vision.
@@hook86 The quest 3 only has around half the resolution (as much as it might not seem to be such a significant difference).
Additionally for some inexplicable reason Pimax's default render resolution for the before headset distortion image is somewhere around twice as high as you need it to be (something like 4500x4500 per eye range) which makes the performance even worse.
Hey, I also just got my Crystal a week ago - really happy and absolutely surprised that I can run it (with pretty low settings, but comparable to my old Rift S) on my 3070, thanks to Quad View - with amazing resolution and clarity!
That purple dot is awesome. It would be good to make new tutorials with this feature. It could help players to understand many things. E.G. at aerial refuelling training or helicopter hover training to better explain where to look to keep your aircraft stable.
Wait till you find out about Tobii eye tracking's visualisation! I'd love to use that for videos, but it's a bit expensive for just a video or two. The thought of using this (Crystal) for tutorials has crossed my mind! (Hence its presence here)
Sweeeeeet, glad to see you wringing out the crystal
Best eye sight test ever :D
As always, informative and to the point, thanks 👍
One of the biggest draw backs for me in VR sims is checking 6. It is such a pain to swing your whole body around vs. using trackIR.
Oh yeah, it was a nightmare back on the narrow HTC Vive It's gotten easier with wider FOV headsets, but your neck does need a little exercise to keep up, imagine trying to do the same at several G's in the real thing!
Well in real jet, you don't have track VR as well.
I consider it immersive. Helps stretch out your back after long sitting sessions lol.
There's a mod for that called "NeckSafer" You can either bind it to a button to enable giving yourself something like an automatic 90 degree rotation (or 180 if you want), or you can set it so it automatically snaps if you are trying to look over your should, once you are within a certain degree range it'll just automatically do it.
also helps using an office chair that swivels.
Yeah if I only could have gamed it like in real life lol. By the way at least in vr your head doesn't way 180lbs !
Thanks for the review RedKite. How about another perspective? It's quite possible that some of the visual criticisms are due to the 42 ppd lenses. I do find that spotting distant aircraft can require VR zoom but, with the updated spotting in DCS, there is a huge improvement. I also think that the visual complaints are a result of no optimizing the headset with Open XR Toolkit and DCS settings, especially those related to shadows and avoiding upscaling/supersampling like the plague. Either or both wreck visual quality for details and sighting ground and air vehicles. I probably spent 2 months dialing in the Crystal. Tally Mouse's DFR setup video, the 72 fps Pimax setting, and the changes in DCS were game changers for the Crystal and ended the need for further tweaking of settings. While I think this is a completely honest review, appropriately critical for the setup/configuration, it is not representative of what is possible in the Crystal. I look forward to the following review. One more item. I respect the opinion about weight and fit. It is not as nearly as good as the GC or the Rift S. It is also a third of the weight of the old form fit helmet I wore for ~3000 hours in the USAF in the 1970-'80s. No oxygen mask and hose is a dream in comparison. Many of us want realism in the sim but never consider 5-9 Gs with a brain bucket or, far worse, HMCS on our craniums. I have changed my mind and am OK with the weight/fit once I acclimated to the headset and dialed in the fit. The new strap is in transit. It should allow me to remove the kludge I'm using now.
I tried a crystal but Pimax's software set off a bunch of windows defender tampering malware alerts and when I asked Pimax's support if this was normal they said "We have no idea, we've reported this to R&D to see what they think, but it's totally safe and normal." (seriously) so I just returned the headset.
Had some other issues as well, such as visual artefacts on the screens, but I'd have powered through them or got the headset replaced because the actual hardware is amazing.
Settled for a quest 3 and the image quality is surprisingly close considering the reduced resolution (I guess because the quest has better lenses).
I hope you downloaded the software direct from Pimax! I've not encountered such an issue with malware alerts.
I've encountered corrupt visual static inside the headset and driver issues as well though! Largely these have been occasional and disappeared after resets or diver updates. Software side does leave a bit to be desired. I've seen some seriously cool things from the Quest 3, though my own time using it has been limited. Just a pity it lacks eye tracking.
@@RedKiteRender Naturally yes.
The visual static might be due to your GPU. Do you have a 3000 series Nvidia? Their displayports do not put out signal correctly and you need a displayport repeater to get the signal to the headset with sufficient power if using a copper wire (which is the standard).
@@jimmydesouza4375 Happy I scrolled down and read the comments -- I was in a similar situation as you (3080 at the time) and returned my pimax because of this. I upgraded to a 4090 and ran into some of the same issues but got tired of trying to get everything set and went with the Varjo Aero - much more happy with it than the pimax personally.
Interesting, indeed, i have a 3080, so that might be culprit, it's the Nvidia OEM version, and the issues have never cropped up in actual play sessions, just during setup and testing early on, thankfully not shown up again in quite some time.
I do recommend the XRNS for those that can’t physically check 6 as easily
Hello Redkite. First, thanks for the tutorial videos; they are the best out there. I'm going to be buy the Pimax Crystal in the next week or so, and I would be very grateful if you could answer the noobiest of noob questions for me, since this will be my first VR headset: what about people who wear glasses? I know there is a company that does custom prescription lenses for the Crystal and that all you have to do is let them know your prescription. I assume that would be for near vision? And what happens out of the box?
You can buy third party prescription lenses, I'm not sure about from Pimax directly, I'd contact them. If i recall, the focal distance is fixed to 1 meter, so, if without glasses you can see clearly in reality at 1m, you should be fine with the Crystal at all 'distances' in games. They have a secondary face plate with gaps for glasses, but I'd be very concerned about scratching either set of lenses. I've no idea how contacts or glasses play with the eye tracking too! though i think other channels have looked into this.
@@RedKiteRender Thank you very much for taking the time to answer. And for what it's worth, your videos clarify things so well because you don't seem to make any assumptions about what the viewer knows and does not know.
I can't wait to get one.. Just have to save up a while!
Though I'd say the Crystal despite being great now, is last gen when the Apple Vision Pro comes out next month. Given Apple's track record they will likely change what we perceive as a great product.
It'll come down to how well it works (if at all) with PC and gaming to be honest. Otherwise it's not terribly useful outside Apple's walled garden, i suspect software will let it down hard.
Every apple product i have personally ever used has been worse than the direct non apple competitors while being several times the price. I cant imagine that changing with their headset.
Lastly recommend you remove the nose flaps - helped with any fogging etc and kept it cooler
Have you tried Quad Views. This is what i use why max settings in DCS. Works great.
Yep, i'm using Quad Views, wouldn't want to run DCS without it!
Highly recommend not using max local dimming for night missions. I have that turned down
Can you share what DCS graphical settings you were using and your system specs? Also any relevant Pimax settings.
I'll stick to my HP Reverb G2. The whole screen is in focus. No issues with the GTX 4090 either. :)
As someone who upgraded from Reverb G2 to a Crystal I'm extremely surprised to see you say that the whole screen is in focus on the G2. It's renowned for its relatively small sweet spot. I'm not not knocking the G2 - I used it for about 2 years after upgrading from a Rift S and enjoyed it even more after upgrading to an RTX 4090 - but there's simply no comparison between the G2 and the Crystal. The Crystal gives edge-to-edge sharpness - great for a mud-mover like myself - and a wider field of view too. With the Dynamic Foveated Rendering (courtesy of Quadviews) it really is pin-sharp.
By contrast, with the G2 when flying past the Carrier doing a Case I recovery, the carrier would just be a grey blur to the side as I passed it. With the Crystal it's rendered in full detail.
These days I'm mostly flying the Harrier and the Apache. From the back seat of the Apache I can read some of the instruments on the CP/G's displays. And, if you have the Harrier, try this test. If you look down at the canopy frame next to your right shoulder there's a placard with some values for magnetic variation (I think). Can you read this in your G2, without turning around in your seat or bending down?
Colours are more vivid in the Crystal too.
That's not to say that the Crystal is perfect. It's far too heavy, and is the most uncomfortable - by far - of the four headsets I have (Rift S, Quest 2, Reverb and Crystal). It annoys me to see Pimax now selling "comfort" accessories which should be part of the basic design. The launch last summer was pretty unsatisfactory too, although refinements to the product and GUI have now resolved those issues.
I think you do need a really powerful GPU to do it justice, so the ownership costs are way, way higher than those of the Reverb G2. That's why I disagree with recent comments by VRflightsimguy about the G2 no longer being worthy of recommendation. I think a second-hand G2 would still be a very good buy for someone who doesn't have the budget for a 4090 card.
So, if you're still enjoying your G2, that's great. I loved mine too, but it really is not in the same class as the Crystal.
Great video Redkite! I've owned a Crystal now for 6 months and love it. I am curious about the zoom you mention in the vudeo, are you talking about the default DCS setting? Keep up the good work 😊
DCS has two levels of VR zoom available which you can cycle on / off, it causes your image to go 2d and zoom in in effect.
Have you used the Reverb G2? How does it compare?
Great review.
I wonder if this would be a better upgrade for me overall compared to a gpu upgrade from a 2080
Hope ED can help with the resolution and lighting issues
Nice video as always. Never used one, how to you look at your keyboard and HOTAS?
There's no pass-through camera functionality at the moment sadly, so.... It's a good thing I'm a fluent touch typist.
Using hotas / panels by touch is not a big problem with a little practise.
What are your hardware specs?
Hey, can you tell us how you record and especially how and with what settings you stabilize your VR Footage? Thanks!
I'd recommend taking a look at Jabbers video on the topic:
th-cam.com/video/LVAMQe7eR1E/w-d-xo.html
My computer isn't quite up the strength required to record in the same quality as his technique, but i followed the general ideas, although the foveation added issues, as I'm not convinced my vr mirror is the full resolution.
@@RedKiteRender I'm guessing you're using mbucchia's quad views solution in which case yeah the mirror isn't full resolution. DCS prioritizes the peripheral render and we're kind of stuck with that since it's not natively supported in game. It also doesn't render the spotting dots either which makes it a major tradeoff for better performance the way the dots are implemented right now. I'm on the varjo aero and ended up reverting back to normal rendering and just lowering pixel density to make the mirror readable for streaming while keeping frame rates playable.
@Vanfleihigh (Zoids! haha) Yeah figured as much. Unfortunately, the focus is to review the product as a user, not use it for creating gameplay video content. I can't accurately assess it when making sacrifices to its display for me, just for a mild improvement in mirror picture for the viewer. Would be unfair on the headset, so i need to keep the dynamic foveated rendering on.
@@RedKiteRender Yeah that's fair. In the headset's defense these are more problems with DCS itself rather than anything else. Also nice to see you remember Zoids lol.
never owned vr but how does it apply for people with glasses?
Hi,
Are you doing a special manipulation for Combined Arms?
In VR, I am either offset or outside the vehicle even if I refocus my view.😶
It only kind of works in vehicles without weapons. I wouldn't suggest actually trying to play CA in VR. You might notice i had a plan B, a Huey measured up at the same distance just in case the Landrover didn't work out.
I still don't have a successor in sight for my Rift S. HP G2 has been discontinued. Quest 3 and Pimax Crystal have Batteries which I don't want!
A Pimax Crystal Pur , only with DP Cable and No Batteries will be better for Sim Gamer 🤔
The batteries are not a significant issue. If you want to use them wired as long as you are plugged into a power bank with enough wattage output the batteries will stay topped up and if you want to go wireless all you need is a powerbank.
And you should go wireless. Until you experience wireless VR you don't really fathom what a massive upgrade it is. Not having to constantly keep your mind on the wire eliminates one of the last barriers for immersion.
The downside is image quality, but the gen 2 snapdragon chips have enough decryption capability to handle high enough bandwidths for there to be no image quality decrease (also a thing to keep in mind is that images over displayport are also compressed due to displayport only having around 20-25Gb/s capacity). The wireless module for the crystal might even use WiGig (similar to the vive pro wireless kit) which has a high enough bandwidth that only minimal compression is needed.
I was hoping to see some through the lens pictures to see the actual smoothness and resolution. Even a 30-buck tiny camera module could record an excellet 4K+ footage of what we actually see - well, part of the FOV at least. These pictures are pretty much independent from anything the user actually experiences. It’s like showing 3D renderings instead actual product shots - not at all convincing…
Review will discuss the more physical. Trouble is, there is not a good way for me to truly demonstrate the though lens view. I cannot run the headset at 100% native resolution across its entire fov it's less than a slide show. Cameras don't cooperate with the eye tracking, so the native rendered area doesn't sit well, I'm hoping i can come up with some fixed foveated solution for the review.
Through lense camera imagery doesnt work either due to differences between how each works. Only way to really tell is by getting your head in one. Pimax do have boutiques where you can try headsets.
May I ask you what you use to record VR ? And settings.. thanks..
In real night flying, you can have complete darkness with zero distinction of horizon, and no idea where the ground is. Total darkness... except for ground lights.
DCS does a pretty good representation of that, and you'll get the same disorientation if you don't trust the instruments. It's just that what is 'black' is a grey glow from the screen backlight, unless you have an OLED screen, which can literally turn the pixels off (no backlight at all) to 'make' darkness. So you're in a slightly grey void rather than black.
@@RedKiteRender OLED is nice
You say you had edge to edge clarity, but the crystal I had did not have edge to edge clarity. Around the outer 20% of the radius was blurred with mine. How is the chromatic abberation in your headset? I have seen people theorising that they send better quality headsets with better quality lenses to influencers (though on the flip side they have sent damaged headsets to influencers before so...) as a way of explaining why some people's lenses are seemingly more clear than others.
Regarding things seemingly changing in size and distance while you move your head. This is a headset issue. I can't remember all of the specifics but there's a couple of in depth reviews of the crystal that go in to this. It's an artefact of the way the headset simulates depth while only having a fixed focal distance. Basically nothing is scaled correctly but the incorrect scaling varies depending on aspect away from centerline of the headset. If you are used to the index or the quest series they got this as close to correct as it is possible so it's not as much of an issue on those. There was a pretty indepth review of the Pimax crystal that went in to this but it has been taken off of youtube for some reason so I can't remember the specific concepts.
20% Yikes! there is the smallest amount of blur to the edges of the headset, not enough to notice or get in the way on my test headset. I've certainly heard stories of mixed quality issues. I go into a lot of what you've asked in the review, CA is at least personally only an issue on distant lights/objects.
@@RedKiteRender On mine the CA was awful, have you ever seen the FPSvr overlay for instance, there was a roughly 5-10% offset for one colour (the blues I think) up above the overlay and a similar offset underneath it (for the orange/yellows I think). It was like one of those "80's image filter" type things.
I suspected it might be the eyetracking not getting my IPD correct but I went through a little cycle of raising and lowering the headset on my face (relative to my eyes) while cycling the IPD setting in and out and the CA only got worse.
Your pc spec, dcs settings please. Thx.
th-cam.com/users/RedKiteRenderabout
Redkite. Ok so were to see if we can see license plates.
Me: brother i cant see shit
Like i said, the display mirror you see on screen, doesn't represent the headset, sadly I've not managed to find a way to replicate it properly, i think the dynamic foveation is tripping the mirror up.
Oh I know I'm just trolling. Now I'm going to pay attention to license plates in DCS.
Haha noted, It actually surprised me the variance available in license plates within dcs!
In the review, would u cover a comparison to the index and / or any other vr headsets you have used so far?
Yes, I'll be comparing to those I've used where i can. Though I've not owned any recent headsets, I've used the Quest 3 for a bit, but most comparison will be to the ageing Index.
I can give you a comparison of the Pimax vs the index as an additional opinion while you wait for Redkite's review but here is the rundown;
-The Crystal is counterintuitively much more comfortable than the index, despite a lack of comfort being a typical complaint.
-The Crystal is the only headset I have ever used (Rift S, Index, Quest 2, Quest 3, PSVR 1) where the stock facial interface had no light leak HOWEVER there is a problem where the edge of the screen and the power button actually leak light into the closed off area which makes this less valuable than it otherwise would be. But the light leak is minor and you can ignore it easily.
-The image quality, excepting some glitches I had on mine potentially due to broken screens, was amazing. I could count the individual branches on trees several kilometers away in DCS (with all graphical settings maxed of course). Meanwhile on the index I have trouble reading smaller text in the cockpit.
-The local dimming is absolutely pointless and you'd be best to turn it off. It only works in chunks (512 per screen) and these chunks are too large to achieve a good effect so you can easily see that it is just big chunks turning on and off, rather than it seeming like there is colour depth. Additionally there is a very noticable latency while the backlighting chunks change in brightness so you see these chunks ramp up in brightness and it just looks awful. Pimax have the local dimming turned off by default and I assume this is why.
-The sweet spot for the lenses was massive due to being pancake lenses, compared to the index's tiny sweet spot. Additionally the lenses on the crystal while they do not have true edge to edge clarity are much more clear outside of the center area than the index.
-The crystal has an issue with something called chromatic abberation, which is where because the lense isn't perfect at focusing all wavelengths of light in the same position on your retina you see doublevision but offset based on what colour (so red will be offset in one direction, green offset in another, blue in another). All headsets technically have this because lenses with no CA are impossibly expensive, but I personally almost never notice it on any other headset whereas on the crystal it is constant and severely intense to the point where it can make looking at or reading things difficult.
-The inside out tracking for the headset is perfectly fine. I never had any issues with it.
-The tracking for the controllers is unusable. The right controller for example had a constant roughly 20 degree oscillation on the horizontal plane. This made any kind of shooter gameplay impossible. You can however buy an extra face plate for the headset which makes it work via the steamVR lighthouse system which will then allow you to use valve knuckles which will remove this problem. Meanwhile the index is just steamVR stock so nice.
-The headset has no passthrough, though they did say they will introduce a half baked passthrough using the inside out tracking cameras later on, this didn't exist when I tried it. You need to buy a second additional "MR faceplate" to get proper full colour and depth adjusted passthrough, but this then means you can't use the lighthouse faceplate and it did not seem like the plug for the faceplate would stand up well to constant plugging and unplugging. Compared to the index itself this isn't so much of a loss as the index's passthrough wasn't great either, but compared to something like the quest 3 where the passthrough is good enough that you can legitimately read fine print it is a big downside.
-The battery life issue. The pimax works off of the batteries even if plugged in, the plugs just charge the batteries, if you do not have a powerful enough powered USB hub (the stock one isn't powerful enough as an aside) the batteries won't stay charged. This isn't too much of a concern though as if you intend to use it wired you can just buy a more powerful hub and if you want to use it wireless the quick change batteries give you endless lifespan as you can charge the one battery while playing off the other.
-Wireless if it ever comes out is a game changer compared to tethered headsets like the index. The freedom it provides is like nothing else. You can actually freely move in games.
The biggest reason I do not use VR is the frame rate.I wanna the rates above 144 and ultra settings,2D is the only solutions.My specs 7950X + 128G ram + 4090.4090can't hold this monster game and device,waiting for 5950.
Yeah good luck, you’ll see that in 2047 🤣
One of the few subscribers here; recently discovered your channel and have enjoyed your content thus far however; I could not find your computer setup, not in the video, not in the description either that I could find? (Perhaps in one of the previous video's; sorry I can't recall.) Let me guess; you're running a 4090? If so, congratulations: That's probably at most 5% of the simming market and 1% of the gaming market at a whole. Personally, not interested in a headset that costs this much if you can't even benefit from "Most" of its full capabilities on a mid range PC setup. Finally upgrading to a 7800X3D, (parts in-route) but will still use my 3080Ti for most of this year until I see what AMD is offering next. Thanks for the info anyways......
i7-8700k and 3080, 32gb ram
th-cam.com/users/RedKiteRenderabout
You can definitely use the crystal to it's full potential then. With quad views foveated rendering, given you set it aggressive enough, playable frame rates can be achieved with such GPU's. This only comes at the cost of the CPU having to calculate every frame twice, but a 7800X3D couldn't be better suited for that
Thank you for the info, that is great news!@@blenderalien
Wow, nice; looks like i'm going to replace my trusty Reverb G2 in the near future. Thanks for the info sir!@@RedKiteRender
I still haven't bought into VR after years of flight sims. I really just enjoy my wireless TrackIR 5 and 34" OLED monitor. Looks and runs great. Maybe in a year or two more when VR is even further refined.
No mention of the elephant in the room, their terrible QC and CS?
That is not terribly relevant to its capacity playing DCS, so to save scope creep, that's saved for the actual review.
So this is now a sponsored hardware review channel?
He's been doing sponsored hardware reviews for a while. Nothing bad about them as long as you trust the reviewer's credibility.
If TH-cam could pay the bills, I'd have more time to make tutorials. They are coming (esp the F-4e!), but my limited time has to be prioritised.
Edited tutorials frequently take 10-20 hours and i get back a pittance, couple that with the youtube algorithm's hunger for more videos rather than quality, it's a lost cause without something else to support it. Rest assured i spent some significant time soul searching about whether or not to accept Pimax's offer/requirements on this and concerns about bias. I do try to insure at least one video that's not hardware related in between reviews, but largely it's just been down to the sudden influx of new products and myself not being able to keep up! I've got 3 other things waiting, some for months.
With the F-4e coming, i hope to get into full swing on a series for it once it's available, and other work behind the scenes has come together to help me organise and plan such complex series out for DCS modules in general.
Truth is, i can't afford to make everything i want to, i appreciate the concern, it's crushing that i can't deliver everything I'd like to. Life has many things more important that cause me enough stress in life as is!
@@RedKiteRender I thought you enjoyed making the tutorials and that's why you did them. I don't think niche content like DCS tutorials will ever make more than your RL job!
At least you get free stuff with sponsored reviews I guess.
I do enjoy making tutorials! But I've got to be realistic, i can't spend all my time working on videos, neglecting some pretty serious responsibilities in life to do so. If ED for example took me under their wing with full time employment it'd be a different story. There's just not enough hours in the day for everything.
He focuses his reviews on stuff thats relevant for simming so I dont see a problem with that. If he was reviewing a landmower I'd be like well thats weird but sim hardware is fine imho.
WAAAY too much cash just to play games. $2,900 CAD 😂🙄
Isn't this just dead electronics since MS get rid of their Windows Mixed Reality Software ?
Pimax use OpenXR and SteamVR not WMR
Flash in the pan company produces overpriced niche product. A shame they won't be around in 5 years. 🤣