Is VR dead?

[Leynad777]

New Crystal-review:

Will has banned me because he doesn't tolerate even soft critique, so my comment on this:
My 8KX didn't get detected without disabling the Intel-GPU unit in the BIOS. I guess it's the same with the Crystal. The jittering is an OpenXR problem in general and I've solved it by not installing the OpenXR Toolkit and in MSFS I still have to switch to SteamVR runtime to avoid it.

 

[Stevie_007]

Same old same old pimax product, pay 1500 spend days trying to get it working.

 

[RCHeliguy]

No point in posting until there is a final decision made.

 

[blekenbleu]

final decision

The journey often makes a better story than does the destination.

 

[RCHeliguy]

The journey often makes a better story than does the destination.

OK, a guy gets a broken headset. Pimax is supposed to send a replacement, but the buyer has changed his mind and wants a refund. Pimax asks for an explanation as to why. That's all we know. Pimax hasn't refused or provided terms yet.

 

[blekenbleu]

Pimax hasn't

... twisting in the wind

 

[Leynad777]

If you've watched Will's review and my fixes work, there are not that many complains left regarding the Crystal. The battery clamp mechanism seems still quite poorly made. The FOV is much wider than the Aero even Bradley claims, it's just like the Quest 2, but Bradely also claim it's 1200 g, which seems are both pure lies. The 845 g Will stated is probably wrong as well and just taken from the Pimax website probably measured without battery and gasket, so I guess the 1000 g measured by MRTV is probably accurate, but better take any review with a generous pinch of salt...

 

[cnhoff]

Some take this out of that review, some that, but Will clearly says, when it works, it is hands down the best VR experience you can get. I am pretty sure, once the dust settles, most people will have a very enjoyable experience.

 

[blekenbleu]

Cynic that I am, Will's seeming intent is to withhold more overtly favorable review
until Pimax let him keep it.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Cynic that I am, Will's seeming intent is to withhold more overtly favorable review
until Pimax let him keep it.

As good an explaination as any.

What motivates us varies so much.

Confirmation bias to justify a purchase.

Vindictiveness when you feel a manufacturer has been deceitful and treated customers poorly.

Being offended by a price. Witness all the Apple Vision Memes.

Getting into a tribe, be that inside out tracking or lighthouse tracking.

Motivations range far and wide...

 

[RCHeliguy]

I understand Boosted Media just got a Bigscreen Beyond to evaluate.

 

[Leynad777]

Finally some proper recaps of the Apple VisionPro...

 

[RCHeliguy]

Somnium claims they are bumping up their production schedule. Their glass lenses are now in mass production.

They are supposed to have a REAL as measured by eyes in the headset 125H FOV.

They should end up as a class leader in FOV for a 35ppd headset.

They were saying by end of 2023, not sure how much earlier that will be yet.

Of course optional hand tracking and dynamic pass through video is also an option that no one else has working in "this price range", but price still unannounced.

Let's see if they can deliver a completely functional headset at launch.

Interesting, they plan for a complete standalone, but will deliver a full PCVR headset first without any baggage.

 

[RCHeliguy]

So Somnium could steal the Crystal's thunder, and BSB is something completely different.

I'm curious how the BSB impacts the market. I see two trajectories. Wildly popular and impacting other manufacturers or claiming a niche just big enough for their company to live in and developing a cult following.

 

[RCHeliguy]

This is an early preproduction lens. They are saying the production lenses have much better stereo overlap and very slightly reduced FOV.

Edit just realized they measured overlap in %.

So that would be ~84 degrees overlap and very respectable. Certainly better than the Crystal and obviously Aero.

FYI, it looks like the production BSB should have be even a bit larger in stereo overlap.

 

[gamma123152]

Somnium claims they are bumping up their production schedule. Their glass lenses are now in mass production.

They are supposed to have a REAL as measured by eyes in the headset 125H FOV.

They should end up as a class leader in FOV for a 35ppd headset.

They were saying by end of 2023, not sure how much earlier that will be yet.

Of course optional hand tracking and dynamic pass through video is also an option that no one else has working in "this price range", but price still unannounced.

Let's see if they can deliver a completely functional headset at launch.

Interesting, they plan for a complete standalone, but will deliver a full PCVR headset first without any baggage.

So Somnium could steal the Crystal's thunder, and BSB is something completely different.

I'm curious how the BSB impacts the market. I see two trajectories. Wildly popular and impacting other manufacturers or claiming a niche just big enough for their company to live in and developing a cult following.

From what I understood the distortion was still a issue with Somnium in shown prototypes. To me the distortion was one of the biggest issues of the Aero. I also understood that they work together with XTAL for their distortion profile. XTAL is known to have one of the worst distortion profiles in VR industry(even worse then Aero), they probably do a lot of tricks to maintain high FoV.

Is there any info about this subject on how they approach these issues? This since Pimax absolutely nailed it with the Crystal, in my opinion Somnium won't steal any market share until their distortion profile is good enough. It's probably the most difficult part to get right but they share the least amount of info about this subject.

The combination, same resolution panels as the Crystal, same PPD but much higher FoV on paper can only cause distortion issues. Or they must use some magic trick that's unknown in the industry and XTAL knows these tricks but as I said it comes with lots of distortion.. If this is indeed the case then the HMD is bound to fail.

Just playing the devil's advocate here, of course I hope that it will be awesome so that there's new good competition in the market but we also have to be realistic with what to expect.

 

[metalnwood]

I'm curious how the BSB impacts the market. I see two trajectories. Wildly popular and impacting other manufacturers or claiming a niche just big enough for their company to live in and developing a cult following.

When I went to the bsb website it told me it was a bit over $2000 in my dollars. When i looked at the quest 2 it was $550 but I see the new one is a bit of a hike at just under 1000nzd.

Thats still less than half the price of a bsb and anyone in the family can use it. Given metas very high % of the market, the fact it is considerably cheaper, anyone can use it, I can't see BSB impacting that a lot, it will remain for now a decision for only people in that $$ range not in the market altering range.

 

[metalnwood]

double post

 

[RCHeliguy]

I heard people in Europe have to pay $1500 euros and not shipping until 2024, so it is definitely a different situation for different people.

 

[metalnwood]

Well that is 2600 of my local dinero and it takes it way out of any mainstream where it could impact the market. Its going to be fighting for more like the 5% share of the market at that price point with those features so i don't expect it to impact the overall market in any meaningful way.

The influence of course will be the change in technologies over time.