Is VR dead?

[Leynad777]

The Bigscreen Beyond costs 1369 €, 299€ for the Index Controller plus 149€ for each base-station, so yes, it's 2k and won't do anything significantly better than the Pico 4 or upcoming Quest 3, but major features not at all like passthrough or wireless mode.

I'm writing this in VR with the Pico 4 btw and kind of funny, that Virtual Desktop for the Pico can do this while I can switch to VR-games any time. With the Steam version for VD the pancake "Vision Pro" Mode was more impressive with native 5120 x 1440 pixel support instead of 1080p here, but once I've opened VR-games they launch in theatre mode, not VR.

Maybe I'm wrong ,but seems that a VD-version must run on the headset to switch between full desktop and proper VR-mode. There are other tools like Desktop+ to launch desktop apps within SteamVR itself, but seems clumsy and not the same at all. Unfortunately SteamVR itself is the major braker for the hole VR-experience so far on PC not providing full desktop-access and BSB entirely depends on SteamVR only...

 

[RCHeliguy]

It's interesting so see all the excitement about all the new tech and headsets coming. I'm caught up in it too.

Apple has already announced that a less expensive headset will follow the introductory headset in 2025. I have a feeling they did this now for two reasons. First because of backlash over the price of the first headset, and second to try to curb enthusiasm to buy the first which they were not planning for mass production.

I was surprised to hear my daughter trying to justify the new Apple headset. That's a bit scary because she really shouldn't be buying one.

But I do think Apple.like it or not will create a lot more action in this area.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Wow! A patented curved display with 200 degree FOV.

Good days are coming!

https://community.openmr.com/t/samsung-has-patented-a-vr-headset-with-a-flexible-and-curved-display-for-200-of-fov/5523

 

[cnhoff]

Just some random Discord posts to show there is many other opinions as well on the Crystal.

 

[tweaks_mcgee]

I hope VR doesn't die before I get to try and make a judgement for myself. Not everything is for everyone, and only going off others reviews, leaves something to be desired.

On the review subject, I see some people pointing out Boosted Media's review of the Crystal. What I appreciate is that he gave an open review of the product, warts and all, and presume he communicated with PiMax on this. It's also a genuine customer experience.

How the company responds is also a factor IMO. Regardless of Will's motivations and what he does with criticisms on his page, I am interested in how PiMax respond. No company is perfect and how they respond to criticism/product issues, hopefully tells me as a consumer what kind of service to expect. Whether or not that's his intention, I don't know, but it seems like a logical course of action when engaged in this type of media and marketing. I don't want ads masquerading as reviews. Got enough of that, but sometimes it's all we get. (Not saying Will is doing this)

Not everyone has the same experiences or interprets things the same. Lots of subjective points when it comes to VR and applications. Some like it some dont. What really has me excited is that there is performance improvement as time goes on. I'm really looking forward to upgrading monitors, but if VR headsets are gonna be getting better and better and on a decent schedule, maybe by the time I pull the trigger, VR and myself will be ready for each other.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I hope VR doesn't die before I get to try and make a judgement for myself. Not everything is for everyone, and only going off others reviews, leaves something to be desired.

On the review subject, I see some people pointing out Boosted Media's review of the Crystal. What I appreciate is that he gave an open review of the product, warts and all, and presume he communicated with PiMax on this. It's also a genuine customer experience.

How the company responds is also a factor IMO. Regardless of Will's motivations and what he does with criticisms on his page, I am interested in how PiMax respond. No company is perfect and how they respond to criticism/product issues, hopefully tells me as a consumer what kind of service to expect. Whether or not that's his intention, I don't know, but it seems like a logical course of action when engaged in this type of media and marketing. I don't want ads masquerading as reviews. Got enough of that, but sometimes it's all we get. (Not saying Will is doing this)

Not everyone has the same experiences or interprets things the same. Lots of subjective points when it comes to VR and applications. Some like it some dont. What really has me excited is that there is performance improvement as time goes on. I'm really looking forward to upgrading monitors, but if VR headsets are gonna be getting better and better and on a decent schedule, maybe by the time I pull the trigger, VR and myself will be ready for each other.

That's completely fair, and we have people who use VR only, VR and triples depending, and some who used to be hard-core VR people who went back to monitors.

The fact some people, who like VR, still using triples points to the fact that it doesn't cover all the bases yet.

The fact some have gone back to monitors points to a lot of the pain and aggrevation there can be to get things working right.

I had a VERY brief period with my 4090 and Index where there was zero software PITA. I could just run everything easily without tweaking.

That says something. State of the art GPU and a 3.5 year old headset to achieve simple no tweaking, perfectly reliable VR.

I have my Aero working well, but to say it was just plug and play to get solid frame rates in the titles I use would be lying.

 

[mechsicko]

Wow! A patented curved display with 200 degree FOV.

Good days are coming!

https://community.openmr.com/t/samsung-has-patented-a-vr-headset-with-a-flexible-and-curved-display-for-200-of-fov/5523

That's.. pretty cool. And in shorter term here's another example of this space heating up due to the Vision Pro upping the ante. Samsung is revamping their upcoming XR headseat to better compete, most notably jumping from 2000 to 3000ppi

Samsung to revamp its Galaxy XR headset to compete with Apple Vision Pro

Apple Vision Pro headset is an impressive piece of technology that has reportedly forced Samsung to redesign some components of its upcoming Galaxy XR headset.

www.ibtimes.co.uk

 

[RCHeliguy]

The Titans have entered the arena!

Watch out!

Sony and Samsung building high volume high ppd VR displays should be all upside.

Fingers crossed.

 

[metalnwood]

Well i hope that we are not all leapfrogged by great tech that doesnt care about a the pc experience. It will be interesting to see where someone like samsung wants to position themselves in the vr space. Tethered (or the opportunity to tether) or stand alone with little to no support for the sims we want to use.

 

[RCHeliguy]

It's starting to look like the Crystal works for some faces and other people just can't get it to look right even with glass lenses. Otherwise Pimax is having some serious quality control issues. I now know of 3 people trying to get refunds. None have been told they will get one yet.

Update: One has a return authorized, so things are starting to move positively.

One guy who has glass lenses and says he has ghosting, CA and generally can't focus well with them was asked to produce through the lens video to prove this.
Canada.

BTW I've not even watched this to comment on it.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Well i hope that we are not all leapfrogged by great tech that doesnt care about a the pc experience. It will be interesting to see where someone like samsung wants to position themselves in the vr space. Tethered (or the opportunity to tether) or stand alone with little to no support for the sims we want to use.

I thought about this a bit, and I think it all can't do anything but help. Look at BSB, they are doing something very unique and unlike anything else on the market.

Look at at Somnium which has a seat on the board of a VR display company. These are basically upstarts putting out their first products.

If displays and lens combinations become mass produced products, someone will service our needs. If they leave a hole in the market, or ignore it and there is a buck to be made someone will take care of it.

The existing cast of companies are still there too. Meta and Valve should comfortably be around for a while. HTC appears to be subsisting in professional services and still throws a bone this way. Varjo similarly has professional services and threw us a bone.

We will have headsets to pick from.

 

[Rebel_488]

Shocked nobody has posted this

Be amazing if this is good

 

[RCHeliguy]

I won't watch MRTV anymore. I have told YouTube not to recommend his channel anymore. His OMG! OMG! hype hype antics wear thin after a while.

Somnium has a seat on the board of the company that was showing off those prototypes recently. SadlyitsBradley covered it. They have a single display per eye 140 degree H FOV demo headset as well. As I understand it they use lower resolution side panels to fill in the peripheral vision for the version showing.

This is one of the reasons why I said Aspheric lenses are now dinosaurs. When you can get that FOV with a small light form factor the days of monster heavy headsets are over.

This is also why I said Pimax needs to pivot in a big way and can't bring the 12K to market as planned. It would be DOA.

 

[Rebel_488]

I agree about mrtv, I also have done the same but this was show to me by a human. And he rarely speaks in this video so I was able to watch the whole thing. I’m old (43) and a lot of what u said in the message makes little sense to me. You have way more knowledge about vr than me dude. Are u saying they are good or bad lol?

 

[RCHeliguy]

I agree about mrtv, I also have done the same but this was show to me by a human. And he rarely speaks in this video so I was able to watch the whole thing. I’m old (43) and a lot of what u said in the message makes little sense to me. You have way more knowledge about vr than me dude. Are u saying they are good or bad lol?

I think these new small light pancake displays are the next generation of VR and Aspheric lenses are going to fade away now.

So yeah, pancake good

This is a 3D printed scale model I just printed of the Big Screen Beyond.
It's tiny

 

[wajdi]

I fully paid my Crystal today. I hope to receive it in 2 weeks. For now it seems to be the best pcvr out there. Great clarity and colors, better FOV than my G2 reverb, good sound and comfort. For seated gaming/sim racing it’s the best vr headset.

 

[Rebel_488]

Look forward to hearing what u think of it.

 

[cnhoff]

I fully paid my Crystal today. I hope to receive it in 2 weeks. For now it seems to be the best pcvr out there. Great clarity and colors, better FOV than my G2 reverb, good sound and comfort. For seated gaming/sim racing it’s the best vr headset.

Do you have motion? The deciding factor, whether i do the final order once it is my turn is, whether there is gonna be issues with the headset moving around noticeably on my head with reasonable motion effects on a SFX or similar system.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Do you have motion? The deciding factor, whether i do the final order once it is my turn is, whether there is gonna be issues with the headset moving around noticeably on my head with reasonable motion effects on a SFX or similar system.

Some have also mentioned interference with the headrest of the chair.

 

[RCHeliguy]

It's funny, I immediately wrote this off the BSB audio strap because of the price, but I really should have thought, for $99 it's probably worth getting just to see if I have a use case for it.

I think I caught myself being an audio snob. I know I'll use my IEM's on my rig just so I don't hear the rig in game, but maybe for room scale I might like this for some things.