@SmallBaguette Yes, true but the main stream companies that represent their chief competition are i marketing, their HMDs as in the enterprise space, or an enterprise company developing a pro Sumer device.
Quest pro for example is an oversized quest two that has special lenses and is marketed by Meta as an enterprise device.
Aero was Varjo’s first foray outside of enterprise, and into the prosumer space.
Crystal kicked the pants off of both of those devices at the same price point.
So yes, it’s true that pimax is not declaring it’s an enterprise device, the competition is what is saying their device aims at
You don’t have to call it an enterprise device, where it is competing on specs, and price is what says that it’s enterprise facing as well. It’s not a bad look for this company to bring forth the crystal when quest pro is what Meta calls enterprise. Lol
The truth the 4090 is only currently able to catch up for now til newer content demands more. Now there are titles like Hellblade that recommends irc a 1080 for low FoV hmds.
The FoV options were both to help expand compatibility as is the various refresh options. But imho the FoV setting option was intended also as a compromise vs having different lens options. To which I maybe wrong but do not think the 12k would have that option from the crystal. But this is speculation on my part as I don’t believe pimax has mentioned lense swap options save on Portal and Crystal.
As for enterprise use that will depend on a company if they take interest. I imagine Marek with being impressed with the 8kX encouraged there own 8k model as the 8kX might have been a concern vs there 5k model. After all if the 8kX could be sufficient for a company use. You could at the time buy 3-5 8kX for the price of 1 5k Xtal.
Swappable maybe. Different lens options not as probable. Swappable makes sense to reduce downtime. Replacement lenses may have a high price vs conventional lenses.
8KX’s lens is also interchangeable if you scratch one, it’s pretty easy to replace. There is no need to complicate the whole project if the purpose is to self replace a spare part; Crystal’s interchangeable lenses are used for nothing but getting different FOV and resolutions.
Earlier 8kXes yes. But it was reported later models maybe using a much stronger adhesive increasing the likelihood of breaking the lense mount cavity. Iirc I remember seeing a user report cracking the holder on one of the pimax hmds using the suction cup method.
You can’t beat something designed for easy replacement. Especially when a standardize system is in place to make the process relatively easy like swapping lenses on a Professional camera.
In the past at least with earlier pimax p2 hmds no unscrewing was required. However it did require quite a bit of force to yank the lense out.
It was reported by some users that new manufactured hmds seem to have a much stronger adhesive that may indeed cause damage with the original method prescribed.
The core benefit of a properly designed lens swap system also can ensure proper lense placement. Ie the adhesive not create potential variance in focal distance. Now a proper tutorial if using screws maybe required to ensure even torquing so to speak. However a magnet system can also create a very simple method with a seal in place to help prevent dust.
It is indeed a long proven simple concept from Professional cameras to early Oculus dk to OSVR HDK which was a 100% modular idea where you could awap out every component. Save that it was not really aimed at end users but more to be a platform base for Hardware Developers to build OpenSourced vr hmds
I just watched the vid, haven’t read the comments here yet, will do when i’ve made this post. I’ve not much to say about his Portal opinion as that device doesn’t interest me. About his remarks on Crystal, i don’t agree with him on saying interchangeable lenses are problematic. I owned a Rift DK2 with such lenses and it was 0 problems. Yes occassionally a bit of dust/dirt could get in there but it was simple to clean with blown air, you didn’t even have to touch the lens or panel.
What he said about the controllers concerns me. I don’t want to have to use lighthouses/knuckles. Good to hear he had no focal issue. Good to hear he really liked the display. All in all the vid wasn’t as bad as i thought it would be given the title and the fact the he doesn’t like Pimax anyway.
I’ll repeat what I commented on the SadlyItsBradley’s video on YouTube:
I put up with Pimax for exactly one reason: The wide FOV.
I seem to be considered a proponent of Pimax on their forums, but in reality if another more reputable company, especially Valve, were to produce a wide FOV headset, I would abandon Pimax and jump to that company in a heartbeat.
The fact is that no other company is even working toward building a wide FOV consumer VR headset that the public is aware of. Pimax is literally the only game in town. Every other company is focusing on making VR headsets which are cheaper, more accessible, lighter, mobile, etc… but none of them seem to have any interest whatsoever in improving the quality of immersion in the VR experience itself beyond what was available in 2019.
None of them except Pimax. If you want that, there’s only one company you can work with. That company is janky, and it makes products that suffer from jankiness. But if you can handle that, they provide the most immersive VR experience available on the consumer market today.
Pimax has (amazingly) continued to survive and grow. I have made observations that they seem to be moving in a direction of cleaning up their act and could be maturing into a better company with more polished products. Don’t be too quick to predict them based on their past history because things have been changing at Pimax. But more recent information on the state of the Crystal, etc do show that this tiger hasn’t completely changed its stripes so far.
Just been thinking, the Crystal looks like an Aero clone to me now with the addition of local dimming and audio. Crystal was said to be better in a few ways such as wireless and not needing basestations/knuckles but it turns out these features aren’t available or are poor, i question will they ever be ready? idk.
So the Crystal as it stands is an Aero with local dimming and audio at a few $100 less. Still worthy of consideration imo if you’re looking for a high ppd hmd intended for simming. Edit: Crystal will only be good for simmers once the faceplate is ready. Crystal also edges Aero in fov.
It was really frustrating for me, especially when I heard from my colleague at the roadshow that he was into crystal at the time(2~3hours);
Anyway, I’m glad some of his fans still like crystal, you know…
Completely agreed. This guy seem the king of world and almost nothing that he said is rasonable or logic. Always few comment without any backup info…
A Youtuber star, superficial and banal
The differences are in addition to the audio and local dimming - you get microphones, controllers, i/o tracking, wifi6e wireless, wider fov, interchangeable lenses, 3 high power usb ports, WiGIG compatibility, configuration and setup without a pc via xr2, stand-alone, option for MR, full face tracking. Not $100 less btw, $400 less, $500 if you already own a pimax.
yes it’s a better package than the aero, what i meant was currently there’s been no demonstration of wireless working and until it’s demonstrated i have to assume it doesn’t have it (remember the 8KX wireless), and yes it comes with controllers but feedback on them is atm not very positive. btw i did say a few $100 less, not $100, but yeah $400 or $500 less is significant. even with these caveats it’s still a better proposition on paper than the aero but without demonstrated wireless and good controllers it is less so.
I am afraid that I do not realistically expect to be using this headset in 4 years from now, too fast development cycles at this stage.
I guess the point he is making is that at the time HTC also said that while they didn‘t mind the users exchanging lenses, it was not recommended because they claimed they out a lot of effort in calibrating each individual headset with its display and lenses. I never saw final evidence of that becoming a greater issue though, so cannot really judge on this.
Where do the five years come from? It released in late autumn of 2019, so 3 years ago. But yes, you can argue that it‘s great value for money if it will grow on you when GPUs become more potent. The flipside is though that you then have to concede that it cannot really be fed appropirately at the time you are spending your money on it and by the time the GPU power is there, you‘d have to fear that then-current products are more sophisticated b/c they match the resolution but have all the advances in VR tech which were not available yet at the time the 8KX launched. Same goes for the 12K - however, here both DFR and the huge leap the RTX 4000 generation brought about are potential game changers. And of course Pimax day was saved by the fact that nobody else tries to go ultra-wide FoV for con- and prosumers, so Pimax remains unique in that area.
The 12K may struggle though if future headsets all are much lighter & more compact due to new lens & display concepts, but time will tell.
i think its a good sign for pimax that the need to hurry up with the lighthouse tracking faceplate and fix the inside out tracking from the controllers and headset …
