Crystal
Frank on Facebook: “When will I get my Crystal I’m number 53 on the list?”
“Thanks for pre-ordering! The delivery order will be arranged according to the order number, final payment order, and country area, and we will send you an email confirmation before delivery. The first few hundred Crystals are shipping to pre-orders (inside and outside of China) before the end of April.”
JameJame on Twitter: “Does the Crystal have mouth/lip tracking? We’ve heard face and eyes, but this tidbit remains elusive.”
There is no arrangement for developing mouth/lip tracking yet. We have plans to include them in subsequent accessory development. We’ll share more information when the development of those accessories is in progress.
Steffen on Facebook: “Some people who already tested the Crystal in December said that there are issues with the eyesight between the eyes. When they wear Glasses and said it was blurry, but without they can better see through VR. Is that experience on your To-Do Focus to fix?”
This situation was mainly seen in users who used it in the first public demonstration; in subsequent demonstrations of the device, we have made adjustments and it is now more suitable for use by people with standard vision. People who tested the units at CES or after didn’t report any problems.
SafetyHammer83 on Reddit: “What’s the battery life for Crystal? Do we need the Crystal battery while playing PCVR games if powered by cable?”
The current battery life is about 4.5 hours when using a cable and we’re working on increasing it to 6 or 8 hours. And yes, you need the battery when playing PCVR because that’s the requirement from Qualcomm for using the XR2 chip. The XR2 enables a lot of things, even for PCVR. Read more about this here.
Low_Capital_4314 on Reddit: “Any plans for a wifi module?”
We plan on having a working sample of the WiGig module in May, but to ship it we obviously need more time.
Zestyclose_Clue6184 on Reddit: “How the hotswap battery works? Does the headset have a internal battery that will keep it alive long enough while the swap is made?”
Yes, the headset has a small internal battery, which is used to provide a short period of power when the rear battery is disconnected.
Stock-Parsnip-4054 on Reddit: “Can we run games like Automobilista 2 without Parallel Projection with the Crystal? If not: How much performance do we have to sacrifice for that?”
Default is ON, and it works on the Crystal, it doesn’t affect the performance, we’ve already tested it.
Greenonetrailmix on Reddit: “The next-generation reality series Pimax headsets use Tobii eye tracking. What kinds of values will we see from the eye tracking?”
Eye-tracking is working right now on the Pimax Crystal but auto-IPD still need work, we hope to have it working next month. Then foveated rendering is the next step in that process.
“Do the screws for the lenses screw into plastic or metal?”
Metal.
Do the Crystal controller use Hall Effect Joysticks like the Portal does?
Both use ALPS. We initially planned on using Hall Effect joysticks for the Portal, but the quality could not reach our standard, so we went for ALPS.
Portal
Paulct91 on Reddit: “Does Portal really not come with an HDMI cable?”
No, but it does come with a USB-C cable.
Xikari on Twitter: “Can Genshin impact run at native 120 fps on the Pimax Portal?”
No. You can run the Android game natively but that has a maximum of 60 FPS. For higher you’ll need the PC version of Genshin.
Erukaze on Twitter: “Will there be a longer cable than the standard 4.5ft/5ft cable? (Like 6ft-8ft)”
Portal is compatible with third-party cables, so you can get any cable that fits your desired length.
Haareblond on Twitter: How far is the eye face tracking on the portal?
Still working on this, but it’ll get some tech from Crystal.
“Will Portal support the official open xr loader from Khronos for VR compatibility?”
The official one.
“Do the controller have capacitive sensors?”
No.
Balint on Twitter: “Will there be an option to connect the Portal to a PC, to play PCVR games through like a cable? Thanks for giving us an opportunity to ask questions.”
Sure, we have USB-C/Wifi PCVR mode for all users and 60G Wigig/native HDMI in for QLED version users.
“When does Portal ship for Kickstarter backers?”
The current timeline is that the Portal ships in April, including the Portal View (VR headset).
12K
Lot of people asked about the 12K. Let’s just pick one.
Tony D on Twitter: “At what point in 2023 do you think we’ll be able to test out the 12k? Can’t wait for it.”
We will have a working sample of the 12K this year, probably coming to a roadshow later this year.A dedicated team is still working on this, and it’ll share a lot of tech with the Crystal as well. Like 75% of the parts in Crystal, both hardware & software.
More fan questions will be answered in the MRTV interview between Pimax’s Nordic & MRTV’s Sebastian. Stay tuned on his channel.