Here’s the video.
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Going off these two videos alone I think we’re looking at a Somnium Connect in Feb/March and a VR-1 release in the Summer. That’s when I expect the 12k to come. So the goal posts are going to shift mighty fast.
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I would say it is a little to early to judge so heavily on the Somnium VR1 (to be more precise on the protoyp). Since the beginning of the anouncment of the Somnium VR1 and the whole project, it was clear that VRginners are envolved in the development and so the price would not be that “cheap”. They always said that the Headset will be for VR enthusiasts/ prosumers and in more like of small quantities produced.
I really appreciate that now we are starting to see High End VR Headsets developed and produced completly in the EU, as this brings workplaces for people back to Europe. I can gurantee you that everything for the Somnium VR 1 will be produced in tschech republic, as I have some personal experience with VRgineers and the XTALs. They even can develop and produce displays for their older models like my XTAL 5K and that is really something unique. Ask any of the big electronic companies where they are getting displays and they always will say from china.
And do not forget about the modularity of the VR1, if after the warranty period something dies on the Headset, it can be 100% replaced, so your invested money in the first place is not waisted as much as compared to the usual Consumer VR Headsets, as these then normally are just thrown in to garbage by the manufacture after they are getting defective.
So I would just wait and see what the final version of the Somnium VR1 will offer to us and then everybody can make their own conclusions and judgments. I am personally looking foward to the Somnium VR1!
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I don’t buy this built in the EU argument. Sure if two products were the same spec and the same price you may chose to buy the EU version. But if you were investing 1.8k into a back and one bank was Chinese and gave you 300 interest where as the EU bank gave you nothing what bank are you going to put your money in? Money talks.
Don’t get me wrong I want the VR-1 to succeed and I was very excited when it was announced. But now time has gone on the specs are not as special and the price is far higher than the Crystal which comes with eye tracking.
The next big headset to come along in the 12k and that going to be better on paper than the fully specced VR-1 and at this point in time £500 cheaper with a massive FOV.
Even VoodooDe pointed out who is the VR-1 aimed at? Crystal buyers, XR-4 buyers, 12k buyers? Certainly not Quest3 or Pico 4 buyers.
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While I appreciate the efforts I also feel slightly underwhelmed by the offering it poses to me as a VR user. Apart from the designed & built in the EU it doesn‘t really offer much the Crystal doesn‘t already do, does it? And it indeed shares the same flaws, being a front-heavy brick with old school lenses & displays we will probably look back at & shiver in 2026 or so.
Just as the Crystal it is not enough to convince me to invest this kind of money into it. The Varjo VR4 is more interesting spec wise, because it truly is a major leap forward in terms of resolution, but then again yet another brick and simply too expensive for me.
So I will stick with my Quest 3 for the time being and watch the space. In theory we should learn more about the 12K next month, but I expect some kind of vague demo which doesn‘t tell us much about how the final product will perforrm. Good times for my purse.
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I guess you mean with the Trade In Programm? With out that the 12K will cost around 3K € with all taxes and fees. As far as I understand, the price of the Somnium VR1 (Base model) will be with taxes and all 1899€. At least from Voodoo.de video I got the impression of that regarding the total price.
I have some feeling that even the 12K will not be the “holy grail” for all VR Users, as with every other HMD, it will have pros and cons, so the final decision which HMD is perfect for you depends on yourself and is highly individual. I think it will have the same FOV as the Star VR One, so very nice indeed but the FOV will not cover the entire human FOV. For that I think we have to wait for the HyperVision 240 lenses but it is verly likely that this will only happen with VRgineers and that will come with a heavy price tag. I also guess that the HyperVision lenses will take a couple of years to be finally integraded into a HMD, as the presentation on CES 2023 was in a early protoyp stage.
Also the thing with 4 individual displays makes it not easier for HyperVision
From what I heard, VRgineers are not planning any real new XTAL Model (or XTAL 4) for 2024, there will showcase the XTAL 3 MR Neo with improved MR Cameras on CES 2024 and maybe a WiGIG Modul for the XTAL 3 Models. I think that is all that will be showcased by them.
But I am looking foward to HyperVision on CES 2024 and what progress they achivied!
I’m not sure how Pimax will justify a doubling of price from Crystal to the 12k when Pimax have been telling us for years the 12k is 75% the same build as the Crystal. So those Fresnel lenses and 6k panels cost 1.5k more? From the Crystal BOM the lenses are around $30 each.
Besides it’s in Pimaxes interests to keep the price as low as possible and I’m sure they’ve seen increased sales while all the offers they’ve had recently due to the Aero price drop.
Even if Lynx releases a 140FoV HMD using the Hypervision lenses I think it would be a great seller.
Its pretty incredible how many manufacturers are now in the VR game yet non of them want to make THE ONE HMD we all want to buy at a price we want to buy it.
I’m counting down the days to CES 2024 - 17 to go! lol
Somnium VR-1 has the specs I would have liked for the Crystal, but the price is crazy. Kudos for being able to make an headset with eye tracking and mixed reality without using a useless snapdragon with a useless battery, anyway. Excellent choice not to offer controllers, another trap Pimax fell into
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I heard/read iirc on reddit you will have to choose if you want LH Tracking and it is something like $400 Xtra?!?!?
At this point doesn’t look all that promising but maybe they will find the white rabbit.
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I think this is a project worth keeping an eye on
Battery really isn’t that big of issue as most add a counterweight anyways. Snapdragon? Well agreed not maybe a good pairing as we should be more moving back to things like SulonQ.
With the controllers pimax fell into their standard “pi-trap” releasing things not ready at launch. To which we might as well get used to this issue and simply wait before buying to ensure proposed features are in place & working. As we know often features get benched. Ie finger sense on Sword and ATM finger sense on Crystal controllers still Mia.
Indeed looks quite interesting, the vertical FOV will be very nice on this HMD, maybe even the best one out off all current Headsets (beside the 12K I think), as this is still quite a problem for many HMDs to achieve a full human vFOV. I guess the hFOV will be on Index level, so in summary a very nice FOV will be achieved by this project, at least my guess so far.
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So far , the YouTube previews have been underwhelming. I wonder if crystal fan Steve has a different view?
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Hehe there must have been a deep sigh of relief coming form pimax China after these videos. With the same panels but lenses that VoodooDE didn’t like, one wonders indeed why anyone would want to pay the premium over the crystal. Of course lenses were still prototypes but I feel disappointed for sure.
Hopefully ces 2024 will bring some good news
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For sure lol.
Just watching the Flight Sim Guy interview and Art now reminds me of Sweviver with his leading questions
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How much coolaid did Steve drink on the flight over? He’s defo after a free headset lol.
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It’s the whole mobile part that doesn’t make sense. You need an ecosystem that Pimax will never have even in his wildest dreams.
The controllers were made thinking that a $2000 headset would become a mainstream product and not a niche product for simmers and people already owning a lighthouse system
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Haha yeah it’s VERY suspicious the least. His comments are completely different from the other ones and he claims to have seen no distortion at all, while others saw it, also near the middle of the screen. While Bradley hasn’t posted his review yet, there’s a photo of him drawing the distortion on paper so he also saw it. All 3 saw it but VRflightguy couldnt see it LOL. He also really sounds like he’s selling the headset. Definitely all sounds like he made a deal with them, although we’ll of course never know for sure.
Anyway, this kind of distortion this late in the process worries me a lot. They might be able to improve on it but seems unlikely that they’ll be able to fix it completely. All the headsets that had distortion in the beginning (like Pimax ones, Varjo, XTAL) managed to improve on it but they all couldnt completely fix it. And then there are the headsets that are completely distortion free at release like the Index.
For this kind of money I’d have expected a completely distortion free image at the time that they’d be doing demo’s with Youtubers. I mean, they boasted a lot about their lens stack, and then they show distorted lenses to youtubers and say ‘ah yeah dont worry it’s because these were hand made’, it just doesn’t make any sense to do a demo then at that point in time then. So I’m skeptical for sure now and will probably end up cancelling my pre-order
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Overall I find it kind of bizarre to have for quite some time heard all these people with a platform attribute getting rid of several classes of aberrations to moving from fresnel to conventional lenses, when getting rid of those was why the move in the opposite direction was made in the first place…
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