Is VR dead?

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There have been a lot of interesting conversations about ppd.

Multiple headsets with similar or the exact same resolutions are all claiming 35ppd with different FOV values. What we saw recently with the BSB was the first graphical representation showing how this is accomplished in the image below. They have a linear progression dropping away from the center of the lense sort of like fixed foveated rendering.

Some difference is due to culling pixels on the display, but there is also very distinct mapping of more pixels to the center of the lens.

The Somnium and the Crystal both have the exact same resolution displays and both claim 35ppd, but the Somnium has a much larger FOV. That means that they have different resolution densities across the lens not exactly like that below, but something that makes sure things are sharp in the center and then dithers out to the sides.

PDD_watermark.jpg
 
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In preparation for the Big Screen Beyond, assuming I go that route, I decided to try out a little USB-C DAC/headphone amp. This little beast surprised me. It drove my 846 Gen2 easily and they sound good, but what really surprised me was that my little $100 215's sound MUCH better with this.

If my Sure 215's sounded like this when I first got them, I probably would not have bothered to buy the Sure 846's. The 846's still handle vocals better and sound more natural, but for games, they are crazy overkill. With the right amplification the 215's sound plenty good enough.


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Damn that is tiny and $12.99 ! Just crazy!!
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So you have to run a 5m audio cable running from the dac alongside the bsb cable to the headset so that you can use them?

I hate to think of the cost the audiophiles would suggest you should spend on a 5m cable to use with $1000 iem's.
 
I must have misread, I thought you said you got it in preparation to use with the bsb. I didn't know the bsb had a usb-c outlet and assumed you would have to plug it in to the pc and run it along the bsb cable.
 
what i mean is what do you plug the dac in to? if it doesn't plug in to the bsb then it plugs in to the pc and you need a long 3.5mm extension.

to answer my own question the bsb page says it does have a usbc accessory port.
 
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Now that he has said bad things about the Crystal, a rift is forming, but he has historically been a very accurate source of information, I don't think he suddenly stopped being that just because he crossed paths with Pimax.

Pimax did lie to his face in a way that would have pissed me off, and it's likely he hasn't forgotten that.

 
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Bradley seems to have an awkward opinion in general about VR. I run the Crystal at 100% brightness and I see the amount of nits as one of the biggest advantages of the Crystal and the Aero compared to other headsets. I could now never go back to a dim/low nits headset, it would simply ruin the immersion for me. But Bradley prefers VR with very low nits. That's also why he probably doesn't see an issue with the low nits image of the BSB.


So I experience VR completely different than Bradley. He experiences VR the opposite way as I experience VR. So his opinion about headsets does not interest me. Because I simply don't understand how he could like dim headsets at all.

And how can he be objective about the Pimax Crystal if he is biased about the company? I don't see the point of following this guy. He had some interesting findings about the Index 2 in the past but that's about it.
 
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Now that he has said bad things about the Crystal, a rift is forming, but he has historically been a very accurate source of information, I don't think he suddenly stopped being that just because he crossed paths with Pimax.

Pimax did lie to his face in a way that would have pissed me off, and it's likely he hasn't forgotten that.

And now I actually watched the video. He clearly collected all the negative things that he could find about the launch of the product and combined it in one video.

Good compilation of only the downsides and what went wrong about the launch but he made one big mistake: he didn't look through the lenses in the right way, that's why his whole video is flawed. In the end he describes the sweet spot story and that's exactly what I also initially observed with the Pimax Crystal. It looked horrible initially! In fact, I almost wanted to return the Pimax Crystal because of that warping distortion that he is talking about. But I kept thinking that it couldn't be correct and in the end it was not correct! I made a mistake and Bradley did too but he didn't solve it.

It took me one day to get it solved, because that issue could be solved but Bradley clearly didn't do the effort to solve it. It was very simple in the end: the felcro strap on top of the headset needs to be installed in a very precise way, for my headshape: zero space in the front(directly mounted as close as possible to the end) on the felcro left and in the back part, about ~4-5cm left. By doing that the Pimax Crystal comes all the way down on my head(but still floats above my nose) and the back part is a bit tilted.

And BAM: perfect image!!! I could not believe what I saw. The clearest and most distortion free VR image that I've ever seen. Nothing comes even close. Zero distortion/warping going on. Only minor chromatic aberration on the far edges but way way less then the Aero and ALL the distortion/warping issues that he described(and I also initially saw) were all gone at once. I almost couldn't believe it how big the difference was because I almost wanted to return the headset. It went from horrible/what Bradley explained indeed to amazing/the best VR visuals, by doing that. The only issue that I still have, and that is with the plastic lenses so I'm not sure if the glass lenses will solve that; is that the image is not 100% sharp vertically over the whole lens, so I'm waiting for the glass lenses to see if this issue is solved. This is not a visible thing in sim racing at all, but it is in pinball for example (vertical table/VR experience, sim racing is more a horizontal VR experience).

So yes Bradley is biased or uninformed. He wanted to get confirmed what he thought about the product before and when he received the headset and he did confirm it by not looking further to solve the main issue that he had with it.

IF he solved that first and started his review from there in a positive way, then he could have seen the amazing VR experience that the Crystal offers. But he clearly didn't want to find that out, he wanted clearly to get his negative feelings for Pimax out so he collected everything negative that he could find that's what he did.

Maybe he really wasn't smart enough to find out what the cause was for the distortion/warping that he was seeing, it's also a possibility but either way his end conclusion is wrong because of what I just explained.

This still wasn't my full review, I also have negatives but the positives outshine the negatives by a long stretch. The Pimax Crystal is what I hoped the Varo Aero to be. But after the glass lenses I will do my full review here. The glass lenses are shipped so it couldn't take that long.
 
I find the g2 to be the same. By tightening the side Velcro straps and the top strap it eliminates the sweet spot. For me this is crucial, even in sim racing. I have a fov mode that makes my eyes very close to the lenses and due to this the fov slider has to be set very low for no blur at all. I do worry that it might damage my eyes at some point.
Last night I raced for hours and it got dark and I took of my headset and hadn’t turned on the light. Not once did I loose tracking, I didn’t think that was possible with the g2. I thought u had to have lighting on for it? I continued to race until midnight in the dark without loosening any tracking. I went thro a stage with my headset were I had to have my lights a certain way to not loose tracking with the g2. Wish I had known I could just turn them all off lol
 
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There are use case priorities and form factor priorities that that will impact your opinions.

I am a room scale VR user. I wore out my left Index controller trigger after 3.5 years. I am a VR sim user as well, but I care about both. I'm currently playing through Vertigo 2.

So when a guy who drives motorcycles and frequently wears a helmet says the Crystal feels like a comfy helmet, and that he would hate to play any room scale game in VR, I think that says it all.
1686394734180.png


Brad did say in his video that people who are seated in sim titles may be perfectly fine with the Crystal and that it just didn't work well for his needs.
 
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The motorcycle guy seems a bit more balanced than the anime guy, at least he said where it is good and where it is not.
Brad did say that it might be perfectly fine for sit down sims, but yes he is a room scale only user.

The VR Flight Sim Guy's opinions are well grounded. He is a very rare VR headset evaluator because he really is a sim guy. He works to get the most out of each headset and seems to be fair in his appraisals. He also likely rarely uses his hand controllers like many here. I think his opinions are well thought out.

I'm quite sure that many people will be happy with the Crystal.
 
There are use case priorities and form factor priorities that that will impact your opinions.

I am a room scale VR user. I wore out my left Index controller trigger after 3.5 years. I am a VR sim user as well, but I care about both. I'm currently playing through Vertigo 2.

So when a guy who drives motorcycles and frequently wears a helmet says the Crystal feels like a comfy helmet, and that he would hate to play any room scale game in VR, I think that says it all.
View attachment 670542

Brad did say in his video that people who are seated in sim titles may be perfectly fine with the Crystal and that it just didn't work well for his needs.
But that doesn't change the fact that Bradley clearly had the Crystal wrong on his head. He didn't see how it's actually supposed to look through the lens since he had the headstrap configured inaccurately. So his comments about the lenses and who it's good for simply don't make sense, I don't agree with Bradley that "simmers are perfectly fine" with the Crystal if it was really warping and distorting like that. It was unusable for me in that state... So I don't understand his conclusions about it for that reason.

I never wear a helmet and I'm not athletic, but the Pimax Crystal is a sim headset and it's comfortable for its purpose(more then I expected). It's as comfortable as my Reverb G2 or even better maybe (but ONLY with the big foam, the small is terrible).

I don't know what you mean "that says it all". The Crystal is not a beat saber headset, it's not meant for that, due to the weight it moves to much with quick fast head shaking movements. But this is not an issue at all with sim racing or flight simming. I had it on my head for 4-5 hours in a row with zero issues.
 
Enjoy your Crystal. I hope that you are happy with it for many years.

You made a leap of faith based on the best information you had and your priorities and I'm doing the same. The BSB is something completely different and is intriguing just because of the reactions everyone using the beta test headsets keep giving like these:
  • "BigscreenVR headset is not overhyped. It doesn’t make sense how good it is."
  • “Numbers can't quantify an experience. And in my time with the Beyond, I've had some of the absolute best experiences I have ever had in VR.”
  • “This is what I imagined VR would look like in, say, five years from now. But it's in my hands, here today. "
And honestly, how can anyone argue for a headset where people keep saying that the numbers can't capture the experience, or that it doesn't makes sense how good it is. There is nothing to go on except an emotional response.

I know your issues with the brightness levels, and I will have to wait to see if that is an issue for me. It may well be. There are actually a few other issues that I am aware of that I'm not sure I will be happy with, but I won't know until I try it because it is very different from anything else on the market.

I know I made a leap of faith pre-ordering one and I told myself I wouldn't do that, but I did.

Go figure!

Now I wait for some months to see if my leap of faith paid off.

Can I in any way shape or form explain why this will be a better headset?

Nope.

I can merely speculate based on guesses that don't mean diddly poop.

So enjoy your headset, I'll continue to "rough it" with my Aero while I wait for my BSB to arrive.

Happy racing!

Geeze! That is tiny!
tinyBSB.jpg
 
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I've yesterday saw this distortion Bradley talked about the first time with the Pico 4 (own since release) and only noticed it because there is this very close HUD in AMS2 and the floating windows looked distorted compare to my 8KX. I also couldn't read the corner HUD elements as good as with the 8KX without looking at it. Doesn't mean the Pico 4 is bad and overall it's still more clear then the 8KX because of the pancake lenses, just with what Pimax call 'potato FOV'.

I guess this is due to optimise the lenses for a higher FOV and the BSB might get those distortions as well if they increase it without increasing the display-sizes. I guess that's the reason why Pimax planned to offer higher PPD lenses for the cost of lower FOV to have the choice if people can't stand it.

With the new Virtual Desktop version on godlike the visual quality of the Pico 4 is like connected to DP and don't notice the latency. With this quality it's IMO the best choice for under 1k and you need too much more money to beat it. It's just annoying that Virtual Desktop changes my desktop resolution to 1080p and if I turn off the G9, my mouse isn't working anymore. Also the mouse often seems to deep sleep and need clicks to wake up. So if you just want a light headset with pancake lenses and a FOV around 100 with over 4k resolution I now can recommend the Pico 4. At least with a 4080 and a fast router. Directly connected to a USB power supply it doesn't loose battery.
 
Enjoy your Crystal. I hope that you are happy with it for many years.

You made a leap of faith based on the best information you had and your priorities and I'm doing the same. The BSB is something completely different and is intriguing just because of the reactions everyone using the beta test headsets keep giving like these:
  • "BigscreenVR headset is not overhyped. It doesn’t make sense how good it is."
  • “Numbers can't quantify an experience. And in my time with the Beyond, I've had some of the absolute best experiences I have ever had in VR.”
  • “This is what I imagined VR would look like in, say, five years from now. But it's in my hands, here today. "
And honestly, how can anyone argue for a headset where people keep saying that the numbers can't capture the experience, or that it doesn't makes sense how good it is. There is nothing to go on except an emotional response.

I know your issues with the brightness levels, and I will have to wait to see if that is an issue for me. It may well be. There are actually a few other issues that I am aware of that I'm not sure I will be happy with, but I won't know until I try it because it is very different from anything else on the market.

I know I made a leap of faith pre-ordering one and I told myself I wouldn't do that, but I did.

Go figure!

Now I wait for some months to see if my leap of faith paid off.

Can I in any way shape or form explain why this will be a better headset?

Nope.

I can merely speculate based on guesses that don't mean diddly poop.

So enjoy your headset, I'll continue to "rough it" with my Aero while I wait for my BSB to arrive.

Happy racing!

Geeze! That is tiny!
View attachment 670591
If you looked past Bradley's response and past the Crystals launch issues that are clearly there. Then you can find similar responses about the Crystal everywhere on the internet. Even more hyped then that.

Especially combined with the Aero side by side, then in 95%+ the Crystal always wins. Pimax chose at their roadshows to show the Crystal always side by side with the Aero. That's how confident they are.

And I'm pretty sure that this won't be the case with the BSB. If you put that side by side with the Aero then I'm pretty sure that many will choose the Aero over the BSB if you show anything besides nighttime/space/dark/vrchat/movie watching.

People are amazed mostly by what's possible with that tiny form factor combined with the still great visuals that almost has the nits of the Reverb G2 and a higher resolution and similar fov. Of course that's amazing, I would be amazed too probably but for sim racing it's obvious that the Crystal would be a better choice. For reasons that I stated before: way better nits(double!), better fov and stereo overlap, higher resolution, zero distortion/warping(best barrel distortion profile in VR history).
 
Sure whatever you say. LOL!

I'm betting on a different outcome, and I know a number of Aero users who have ordered a BSB who are expecting different results than you suggest.

I can say is that in room scale, even if a headset seems firmly in place, it still wiggles at the end of each abrupt motion which slows down your response time and having something that really is not going to budge will create a much more fluid image. Something this light that has almost ZERO lever arm away from your face will move with you much much much more accurately.

But keep throwing your darts! You've probably got 4 months to continue telling me about my horrible decision. It's only fair to give you the same opportunity I had ribbing you about your Pimax purchase.

Fair is fair!
 
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I doubt that Aero-users will be happy with a BSB because the form factor and weight seems the only superior advantage. I certainly wouldn't pre-order it based on people mainly using VR-chat and other dark content. And don't forget the main problem with the BSB: You can't return it without loosing quite a chunk of the retail price and it's hard one to sell. Do they at least offer facial interfaces without the device for a reasonable price? At the moment it seems more wise to wait what's coming from Samsung and others like the Somnium VR1 if you are willing to spend 2k on a VR heaset.

For roomscale gaming having to use a cable in 2023 is just outdated as well. Wireless PCVR works great enough for 99% of use cases and I'm happy I can do my VR workouts without PC.
 

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