When was this screenshot taken?
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Sweviver posted the original video on his channel on 21st October 2021. I took all the screen shots direct from that reveal.
So going back over the March Kevin/MRTV live stream which is like 3 hours long lol, Kevin does say there’s not going to be Bionic Displays. For thos interested in a wishy washy answer from Kevin 2:08
I don’t think any such thing has been announced. I think it’s just speculation because the Crystal has interchangeable lenses.
Without a doubt, Pimax is making no such last minute change. If the 12K has interchangeable lenses (and I do actually think this is likely), it will have already been part of the design for a long time. The only thing that would be new is them telling us about it.
My own speculation is that the 12K probably does have interchangeable lenses because it’s on the same platform as the Crystal. And we know the Crystal does. However, the Crystal has two different kinds of lenses to choose from. The 12K would probably not have such an option. So the feature would amount to making it easy to swap lenses if they are damaged and need to be replaced (something which is already user serviceable on the 8KX but not as easily).
Except that Pimax might sell customized lenses for different diopter corrections. Pimax has said that diopter correction will be available for the Crystal. My guess is that this will not be adjustable but rather come in the form of ordering customized lenses. I suspect Pimax intends to try out this concept for the Crystal first, and then if it works out apply the concept to the much larger and more complex 12K lenses, too. But until and unless they ever decide to do that on the 12K, Pimax won’t (and shouldn’t) say anything either way.
I think that making the lenses interchangeable in a VR headset isn’t a particularly hard thing to do in the design. What they’ve pictured just shows them being mounted with four screws each. Pretty simple. So this is a nearly “free” feature. What’s challenging is actually providing alternative lenses and handling the distortion profiles for them.
Bionic displays were never a thing. Qled and miniLED d
Kevin said on discord that it’s a thing, or at the very least being considered. I’ll dig up posts tomorrow, about to hear to bed lol.
Bionic displays were never a thing, the word bionic was only used in reference to lenses afaik. Qled and miniLED doesn’t mean bionic, miniLED just refers to the backlighting.
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So what you’re saying is Pimax outright lied in the original 12k video?
Pimax released the spec for the 12k, a price and a release date. We know non of that is now true.
Pimax should remove that video and apologise for misleading everyone that viewed it.
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What are you talking about? When did they say bionic display? Can you timestamp? I genuinely only remember the word bionic being used for lenses.
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I’ve already posted the Pimax video from 2021, with screen grabs a few posts ago. Just look up.
It will go down as one of the times where Pimax use a term in an interpretation different to what the market expects when such term is being used, see i.e. the use of „8K“ which was clearly addressed in many publication about the respective Pimax headsets as being misleading.
Here the term Bionic Display seems to be a trade mark coined by Varjo - question is, if there is a true industry wide understanding of what such term is supposed to describe.
Varjo already had a true Bionic VR headset on the market - the VR-3.
On 21st October 2021 Varjo live streamed the Aero release on YT.
On 21st October 2021 (the same day) Pimax release the specs of the 12k Bionic in a YT video on Sweviver YT channel.
Is this coincidence??? Lol
The thing is Pimax didn’t know the Varjo Aero went back to using singular panels and had no plans to use Bionic panels like the VR-3.
Pimax after realising the Aero has no Bionic panels changed the 12K Spec to have no bionic panels either.
But Pimax had already released the 12K video announcing Bionic Panels.
After changing the 12k spec to copy the Aero, Pimax should of come clean and admitted the change and removed the misleading video which is still there falsly advertising the Pimax 12k as having Bionic displays which it does not.
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What the Aero and 12k do have is “Bionic Lenses”, totally different technology to dual projected bionic displays and far far easier/cheaper to include.
Hmmm, not according to Pimax. This is taken from their announcement.
So Pimax say the 12k includes face tracking. Thats not an addon.
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I think I was being too pedantic. Afaik they never used the term ‘bionic’ display (bionic lenses) but yeah they did say they would use like a short throw projector for 70PPD or something. I thought that was just enterprise though? It’s definitely the least solid feature in terms of details and also seems the most outlandish so I doubt it is actually going to be in the 12k that comes out initially at least.
Body tracking is an add on (not coming at launch). Eye and face tracking are included.
Well, book it under my „Pimax using fancy terms but meaning something different“ remark then (see „8K“).
Actually anybody who is considering to buy the 12K should be happy of they skip some of their advertised features to increase the chances that what they try to implement actually works, and works in combination with all other features. But I agree that announcing a world-beater with all you can wish for specs and then crawling back feature by feature would be pretty amateurish, and instills not much confidence in their products.
So if I were cynical I would say in terms of getting my popcorn ready for prime time, the Crystal is just a the starter to the main course, the 12K, where they promised so much and it will be fascinating to see how many of those features work really well, and how many work only with undue limits or issues or unstable - or not at all.
As said earlier, given their processes it would have been wise to improve the 8KX in all the little details where it failed or is poor, and perhaps add proper eye-tracking and hand-tracking to it, and that‘s it, and aim for a price below 1k. If this device had been of better polish and QA standard than the 8KX and its software, it would have offered an interesting alternative. Alas, that‘s not the path Pimax chose.
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There is Kevin confirming the 12k lenses. Reading through it, there’s actually no reason to assume this is a new feature added on late into development but rather it is a feature that they didn’t include in the original release video (maybe they were waiting to make sure it worked as intended).
Interchangeable lenses here may just be for diopter adjustment. Not really that outlandish or wild if just that.
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Thing is that was 4 months ago. Wonder how much has changed since then. 
In the video, Pimax refers to bionic lenses, not bionic displays. I agree that it’s a similar sounding marketing term to Varjo’s bionic displays. But let’s be clear that Pimax has never used the term “bionic display” in any of its marketing. That’s another company’s marketing term.
Pimax did show in the video having a 70PPD center which is what Varjo calls their “bionic display”, but Pimax did not refer to it is that and doesn’t seem to have named the feature at all. They do seem to have dropped it from the spec for the base 12K.
There’s isn’t any relation between Pimax’s “bionic lenses” and Varjo’s “bionic displays”, not even in function, other than they’ve both used the word “bionic” in their marketing term. I don’t see any reason to be concerned about that. There are many other similar examples in all sorts of industries.
Note that the Varjo Aero had advertised features that were not available at launch. And some of those features (such as local dimming) are still not present now. That’s not a strategy unique to Pimax. Getting the Aero onto the market sooner and enabling those features later was a good move for Varjo. Imagine how different the competitive situation would be if the Aero and Crystal had released around the same time.
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