That’s why VRgineers, Somnium and Lynx bought into them to stop that happening.
Somnium just joined the board of directors at Hypervision.
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I think at this point PIMAX should re-think its 12K and get Hypervision’s super-wide FOV system in there. I’ll be VERY surprised if PIMAX’s 12k will be able to top/compete with that Hypervision FOV. Unless we’re talking $5000 for the HMD…
I think the XTAL 4 might be up there in that region with 7k displays. But if the Hypervision lenses are cheap to manufacture and can be mass produced I don’t know why we won’t see multiple medium priced 210 FOV HMDs in 2025.
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That would overthrow their entire approach, starting with the displays and housing, and eye-tracking will need 4 instead of 2 instances, and stitching/hand-over alignment between the 2 covering the same eye, etc. etc…
To me it would seem as opening a can of worms if they jumped to a substantially different design, plus introducing the license fee cost to be paid to Hypervision (well, that is if a Chinese company considers to do so).
I don’t think there is any probability at all to see Pimax go down that path unless they hit a wall with their original design, and this re-design from scratch would seem more feasible to them. But Pimax usually don’t feel the hit of a wall, the keep on running against it and squeeze an arm through one hole and a leg through another and declare it a win, functionality achieved… and to their credit, once in a while they probably find a way to break through it entirely. Perseverance, or let’s call it stubborness, can pay off sometimes. Unfortunately not always but their marketing folks don’t care.
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Thing is even if the 12k becomes a thing the price is so high even less people will buy it than bought the 8kX.
For the proposed $2400 price tag of the 12K, I certainly hope they can hit their advertised 210° & DFoV 240°
Re: Hypervision
The 12K housing certainly looks big enough to fit the Hypervision 240. Albeit with some slight modifications.
MAYBE they could use the same displays, but just add two more (left & Right).
Dunno… Not enough information from PIMAX how they’re REALLY going to achieve their advertised FoV for the 12K.
I really would love to see something in a small form factor with the Hypervision Lenses. But let’s be honest a little bit here too. I don’t think you could cram all the other stuff in, if one wanted things like quality Inside/Out tracking and color passthru(AR), as well as any kind of stand-alone. That is, in part, what makes the Crystal bulky.
I’d love something in the Bigscreen Beyond form factor that could do all of what the Crystal can do and also include the Hypervision 240.
Probably at least another 10 years out from now.
Another big difference to Hpervision is, they already showed the display. Does the 12k display even exist?
Why would the 12K’s advertised FOV numbers be real when the crystal’s are not though? This isn’t even me trying to complain or call Pimax out, just trying to set realistic expectations as Pimax, apparently, calculate FOV in some unique way that gives 125degrees for other measurements that give 104.
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Dunno. I’m not the one making FAQs and advertising specs on a website that, it seems, can’t be really correlated to anything reliable.
I’ll be more than happy to see multiple unbiased 3rd party reviewers to verify FOV numbers within a reasonable tolerance difference. So far, up until this point, I do not see any majority consensus nor consistency in what PIMAX is advertising.
Thus my ‘HOPE’ they can hit their advertised specs.
Literally everyone except pimax has said 104 is the max crystal FOV, with some getting lower due to face shape. No one has gotten above 104 because 104 is the rendered max.
Even though it has been objectively proven that 104 is the horizontal FOV pimax has never adjusted their advertising just claiming they calculate it differently.
Personally I am totally fine with the FOV as the clarity edge to edge makes it feel bigger than it is imo so I’m actually happy enough. So they are just hurting themselves with false advertising tbh.
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To be honest, I am not even sure I want them to hit 210° horizontal: imho 170° would be sufficient to cover even your “conscious” peripheral view, and the additional 40° would be covering areas some wont even be able to see at all and others might just notice slightly when rolling the eyes to a side. In any case, I would personally prefer even more PPD than these last 40° to be covered as long as we haven’t reached retina resolution yet (which I believe Carmack, Abrash & Co. only see at 16K per eye).
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I guess it will end up in that area too. A few percent more than the 8kx on the outside, and that’s quite enough. The people there can no longer see clearly anyway and it would just be pointlessly wasted computing power.
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They should be up front and clear about their product and let it speak for itself. Lot’s of people, including myself, are impressed with the visual clarity. Pushing an over-flated FOV number only magnifies the negative when it doesn’t turn out to be close to that.
Yet still, there are advantages to having a greater FoV, and if that adds to the immersion of the experience, then for me, that equates to an experience I’d prefer over a smaller FoV that may not really provide the maximum immersive experience.
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Of course it does! The 12k has been ready for demonstration since end of 2021. Remember they were going to show it january 2022 at CES? They just had bad luck, parts were sent to different locations all over Las Vegas so they couldn’t show it!! Then they were going to do another demo shortly after that but bad luck stroke again, Sweviver got Covid and they couldn’t demo it again! Just so much really bad luck!
At least, that was the Pimax official version 
No one knows what really happened but my speculation is that they indeed had been planning to show it at CES 2022 (why else would they have made that announcement) but that they realized what they had was just SO bad (or maybe simply didnt even work at all) that it just made no sense at all to show it. Then they went radio silent and no one knows what’s been going on ever since. One can only hope that they’ve been talking to Hypervision but since they’re not part of that group of VR companies that invested in them, I highly doubt it.
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Yeah see this Video posted 12 month ago. 36minute.
I’d be surprised if the 12K shipped in 2024 tbh, i think it’ll be 2025 at the earliest.
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I could not agree more. What they have is great, no need to set false expectations. It’s like getting told your car can do 400mph and be disappointed it can “only” do 350mph.
I think 125 horizontal, actually really that, would be the perfect sweet spot for me personally. More is better of course but in terms of performance etc I would be perfectly happy with that FOV for a long time I believe.
Until Somnium released the VR-1 with true 128FoV lol
They said they plan to show it at CES next year and do a roadshow. I think it will ship next year, otherwise I think it would either get cancelled (which they can’t do now thanks to the trade-in program) or it will get greatly reworked in someway. Realistically it will release like this time next year imo.
The trade-in program, while originally a great idea, I imagine we’ll be seeing more and more grumbling from folks that bought into that program but are still waiting for a 12k. At least a lot of the stuff that it shares with the crystal should be much more polished, so maybe the launch will be smoother than the crystal’s launch (not a very hard bar tbf).
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