Because Pimax now have the Portal and are taking the XR2 route. Where in contrast Valve are taking the PCVR route obviously for Steam compatibility. It really is a core business and conceptual ideology that rips Crystal apart. It’s overly ambitious resolution based on the core underpowered XR2. Pimax wants PCVR and Mobile all in one but one contradicts the other. That concept gets even worse when it comes to the 12k. Maybe they’ve realised already. Maybe it’s already too late. Portal could sink Pimax if they invest too much resources into it diverting core personnel away from the profit making products. It’s frustrating to watch. Sword controllers. Portal. 12k. They’re burning $40 million of investment and I’m not sure a new product will arrive before competitors will come out with their own much better solutions.
IMO for the Crystal to remain off your shelf after two years of use, it’d have to be as solid as the Valve Index is. There’s ‘potential’ of that, but right now for me, it’s still rather a cloudy scenario.
Not everyone has the same use-case. I suppose it’s nice to have the flexibility.
However, my opinion is that for gaming and immersion in gaming, higher FoV is a better path, even at the cost of some PPD.
Higher PPD is welcome, but if one ends up feeling like they’re in a tunnel, then, at least to me, that’s a killer for game immersion. So, I wonder what the use-case really is for the higher PPD lenses? Virtual Desktop?
I imagine one element is the cost. If they relied on the outlet, then they’d have to then make sure their units are compatible for different regions’ electricity environs. They’d have to provide some transformer power brick maybe in order to avoid having to make different HMD models for different regions.
I don’t know the numbers but I imagine it introduces enough of a cost to where they may want to avoid using wall outlets.
A wallsocket on the backpack is stupid. Apparently, the aspect of the buyer group “Arcade” is still not enough familiar. That’s where the biggest market is. (At least for devices like the 8kx, 12k)
Well if they take the aim to recommend using a usb vs supplying 12v wall plug that is likely being stepped down to 5v anyway. It simplifies sku to not need to have a wide variety of different wall transformers risking shipping an incorrect adapter. Adapters that may have varying quality.
We can easily buy high quality usb power adapters ourselves. The KS models all had 12v adapters that many had found at times the junction they plugged in could become very hot; this was true also at the hmd end where the cable plugged into the hmd
The Index backed out of what now is dead having the power supplied by a usb-c connector on the gpu. Which was indeed a good thing as the concept was not well planned for future useability. Ashame though to have bought a new gpu at that time with a more or less abandoned standard not long after it’s adoption.
Perhaps but there has been leaks suggesting valve maybe working on there own standalone that will likely use an alternative to LH tracking.
Valve like meta will likely target the greater market vs the high high end pc user.
I think Valve will do everything to protect Steam. Steamdeck and Index are two examples, next comes the third - stand-alone SteamVR.
When you have a mastermind such as GabeN sailing the ship there’s a clear sea to sail. Pimax are sailing several rough seas where Portal is supporting emulators and piracy and Crystal natively supporting a yet to be released android stand-alone store with a HMD that struggles to be a stand-alone headset.
Which is why he will target the greater market as he has always taken aims to do.
Strange how you tie emulators to piracy; when emulators are legal if you own the games.
Though I imagine you also think GoG supports piracy by opting to selling drm free software.
However, TikTok would never consider such a thing. 
Pimax has actually mentioned the 42PPD lenses being more aimed at business use. Immersion is not really a factor in that case. But rather professional applications like 3D editors.
Oh, that’s a really good point I hadn’t considered.
That’s a use case I hadn’t considered either. It seems at odds with Pimax not really supporting laptop GPUs and DisplayPort though. Perhaps they only support very specific laptops for these arcades.
Hm. I’ve been using my 8KX daily for nearly two years. No issues with durability. If the 12k wasn’t coming along, I’d expect to keep using this HMD until something else demonstrably better for my purposes came along. I don’t see anything like that in the pipeline from other manufacturers other than the 12k. I think the crystal will be excellent, but I don’t know if I can go back to a lower FOV for my flight sims. Valve’s next headset may be great, but all we have to go on are scavenged files that Bradley found and a whole lot of speculation on what they mean. I’m in no hurry to ditch my 8KX. I think lots of folks will still be using their Reverb G2’s and Pimax 5k’s and 8kx’s and Quest 2’s for a while yet. I don’t see anybody else in the market working on a super wide FOV with the clarity of the 12k.
You never know. Something amazing might be waiting just around the corner. It’s a cool time to be in our hobby.
@Heliosurge Absolutely correct- I don’t see how Pimax can compete with Meta or steam in providing a software store for the Portal. I’ve got a Portal system coming though, and I’m pretty keen to see what it can do as a hand held game device. I may have to go out and buy some old retro games so I won’t feel bad about using an emulator to play them. I really enjoyed some of the Nintendo 64 games back in the day. Also, Pimax may find some amazing software developers for their store too.
The use of pancake indeed necessitates higher brightness values, but the new micro OLED displays are already being designed to allow e.g. 10,000 nits. Obviously the entire package must work well together.
An update by replacing the traditional lenses with pancake lenses only helps a bit - the housing is and will remain bulky. [EDIT: and then you really run into the lack of brightness issue with Crystal’s existing displays not being chosen for use with pancake lenses)
What I would like to wear on my head in say 3 years would rather be the form factor of a HTC XR Elite. The displays weight will be experienced differently if worn 3 cm or 6 cm from your eyes.
So, some of the China beta testers got their units. They are reporting extremely low FoV. To the point it’s suspected Pimax accidentally gave them the 42PPD lenses instead of the 35. They used test HMD and also Risa2000’s tool. TestHMD can be effected a bit by faceshape and we only have hard results from 1 tester, but they said that other testers are saying the FoV is ultra low too. Risa2000’s tool measure’s what the headset itself reports so no subjectivity. And honestly, the numbers look like they’re 42PPD level.
The FoV here contracts literally every single claim from every single event about the Crystal, especially the vertical FoV which was repeatedly mentioned as being gigantic. Something feels wrong here.
Good lord.
Well, I hope they ship the 35ppd lenses asap.
Pretty amateurish.
Update, they used Risa2000’s tool on the 42PPD preset and go this. DO NOTE, apparently the 42PPD is not finalized so take this with a grain of salt. But when coupled with the above 35PPD results, we can reasonable assume that the 35PPD mode has a rendered max of around 103/103.
Which is uh, wow. Very disappointing coming off of CES. Like, holy hell. That’s incredibly small. I was expecting 110-120 or so based on the CES claims. But this is sad.
Why did they not get both sets of lenses? Or do Chinese customers not get both?
Someone mentioned this might have been a roadshow headset, not a retail one, so that might explain it also. Still, a bit worrying.
IPD 69, below that it should be a few degrees more. But in the single digits.
The diagonal field of view is interesting. 120 speak for the larger, almost square picture, as in the CES reports.
@SmallBaguette - There are readings for both lenses.