Pimax Crystal Dynamic Foveated Rendering available to selected users

User Support Hub Virtual Reality (VR)
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Today Pimax invited selected group of Crystal users to testing the new version of their S/W and F/W. Don’t ask me why the invited me :wink:
To participate your headset’s S/N must be whitelisted in Pimax database, having access to new S/W is not enough. They plan to release to all the users mid September.

The new software provides:
Eye Tracking - works (but don’t be too excited)
Headset wearing position advice - works, but you probably already know the best positioning for your Crystal
AutoIPD - works, precision ±1mm, as I’m not sharing my headset with others, I will remain on manual, I don’t need the automatic adjustment each time when I don my headset
Lighthouse Plate support - you must have the Lighthouse plate
Standalone Mode - works, but not my piece of cake
Improved battery handling - I need some time to see the improvements
Dynamic Foveated Rendering (DFR) - for MSFS PimaxXR and OpenXR Toolkit (OXRT) is required.

My system:
7800x3D, 4090

My settings (I fly VFR, steam gauges, GA planes, looking outside the cockpit):
supersampling in OpenXR Toolkit 4700 x xxx
DLSS Quality
TLOD 300
Average FPS without Foveated Rendering (FR) - 32-41 FPS
Average FPS with Foveated Rendering - 36-45 FPS (+10%)

Foveated Rendering in OXRT: Preset Quality Wide

If I set more aggressive Foveated Rendering I start seeing artifacts in the clouds (set to High) probably caused by DLSS (not liking the Foveated Rendering?). If I switch from DLSS Quality to TAA 100, there are no artifacts in the clouds, but FPS drops to 30 or even less. Maybe I will test TAA 100 with more aggressive FR profiles in OXRT, but I don’t think that even with FR I will get the same FPS level with TAA 100, as achievable with DLSS Quality.

With FR set to Quality Wide I can’t see the difference between FFR and DFR. Despite relatively large sweet spot of Crystal lenses, they become blurry towards the edges which masks the lower res. introduced by FFR. So enabling DFR is not bringing the visual improvement for me.

Summary: FFR (you can enable it now, even without eye tracking) or DFR (you will need the new Pimax software to enable it) gives me +10% FPS boost without noticeable visual difference (except some artifacting in the clouds if DLSS is used). I can’t perceive visual difference (with my settings) between FFR and DFR.

The benefits of FR may be different for different GPUs and settings.
The results in DCS should be dramatically better due to Quad Views implementation in DCS, if Asobo will ever implement Quad Views in MSFS (not likely) we should see more benefits of FR.

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Nice writeup. Doesn’t affect me, but I’m sure it will help others. Good work.

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re: “don’t be too excited” part

IMO the Crystal’s eye tracking is extremely high quality, I will say it is superior to Varjo and on-par with G2 Omnicept. Dunno about Quest Pro.

The trick is you need good calibration and you need very good positioning of the headset on your head to get the best quality (hence the adjustment helper). If you are not getting good eye tracking accuracy, then one of these 2 aren’t right. It took me quite a few tries to get it well calibrated.

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There’s a wish list topic to add it here: Implement Quad Views for VR rendering to improve performance - #3 by mbucchia

Maybe in FS2024!

Good to hear! I seem to recall that Pimax is using Tobii, which might help. I’m very much looking forward to them enabling it for everyone.

Thanks as always for helping the community make these things possible!

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Tracking accuracy is good, but the benefits of DFR vs. FFR in MSFS in my case, with my settings are negligible.
With DLSS if I set any FR profile in OXRT different than Quality Wide I can see artifacting in the clouds. Even with Quality Wide I can see it, but to lesser extent.
And FFR with Quality Wide is for me visually the same as no FFR. So DFR is not making it better.

No matter if FFR or DFR I’m getting +5 FPS, thank you for making this possible in the OXRT.

With 4090 with my settings going from Wide to Narrow adds 2 FPS, but the cloud artifacting becomes pronounced. Going from FR profile Quality to Performance adds slightly more FPS but the artifacting becomes even more visible, so for now I’m locked at Quality Wide.

I will try investigating which MSFS setting is causing the clouds artifacts with DLSS.

For me the ET responsiveness seems slow (despite the fact that I’m getting 40 FPS on average in MSFS). Even outside MSFS, in Pimax software, after the initial successful calibration, during the intro to Pimax calibration routine (the page with 2 eyes and the dots surrounding them) when I move my gaze from one dot to another it takes some time for the dot I’m looking at to turn green, it’s not perceived by me as immediate. I have similar impression in MSFS.
With Performance profile, in MSFS, with DFR I can see shimmer around the centre of my vision, which attracts attention, I guess this is how our brain works - moving objects attract attention.

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Could you please tell us the settings in PimaxXR? Do you required the quad-view add-on too? Most of the settings for FR are done in OpenXR Toolkit? You disable FFR I guess and then you have DFR options?
Thanks!!

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You need access to the newest Pimax software, you will not have it before 15th of September unless directly invited by Pimax.

QuadViews are not supported in MSFS (they are in DCS):

If you have the new Pimax Client and if your Crystal is upgraded with the new firmware, you will have the option in Pimax Client to enable Eye Tracking. You must do it. Then in Pimax Client you will need to carefully calibrate Eye Tracking (you will have a button for this).

You will need to enable Eye Tracking in PimaxXR - OpenXR Control Center (Allow use of eye tracker).

Then you will need to enable Foveated Rendering in OpenXR Toolkit interface in the sim (while in VR). Also there you will need to enable usage of Eye Tracking.

Some Pimax manuals here:

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Does it save the eyetracking calibration to a profile, or is it something you need to/should go through every time?

If it is saved, I would love it if Pimax gave the option to save a couple of users so you could go back and forth between different users without needing to redo it.

I’ve read some fairly positive stuff in general about the new update, especially regarding stability at 120hz and the tracking improvements… looking forward to having a play. When they finally ship the wide FoV lenses and this software the crystal is finally getting pretty close to what was originally promised!

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You do the eye tracking calibration once. It’s saved. No user profiles.
Possibly you should recalibrate from time to time.
90Hz vs 120Hz I can perceive no difference with 45 FPS in MSFS.
No idea about the controller tracking I use Crystal for MSFS only. Pimax didn’t mention controller tracking improvements in the release notes of this update if I remeber correctly. The mentioned in the previous one, publicly available already. But indeed the firmware for the controlles was also updated with the newest software the provided to selected users.

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The artifacting I can see in brightly lit broken clouds with DLSS Quality and FFR or DFR can be described as:

Irregular regions of checkerboard pixel patterns (bright pixels and dark grey pixels).
They don’t appear immediattely when looking at particular point in the clouds, they appear after a couple of seconds and pulsate (with a hint of color sometimes).

The resolution/pixel size of the artifacting depends on DLLS setting: Quality - higher resolution of the checkerboard, Performance - lower resoultion of the checkerboard.
I played with many MSFS graphics parameters and I was unable to eliminate the artifacting in the clouds as long as DLSS was enabled. TAA 100 - no artifacting, dramatic FPS (-30%) drop due to high resolution set.

@mbucchia Can you provide any insight what could be causing the clouds artifacting when FR and DLSS is enabled?

If I play with OXRT FR custom settings - if I set 1x resolution - the artifacting goes away, the higher factor I set for the resolution decrease (like 16x) the more visible the artifacting becomes.

Some FPS measurements with various FR settings in OXRT (Malmo Orbx Airport, A2A Comanche, Broken Clouds, res. in OXRT 4700 x 5562, DLSS Quality, TLOD 305, clouds High, most settings High or Ultra, 7800x3D, 4090, no FSLTL traffic):

FR off: 39 FPS

DFR or FFR ON:

Quality Wide: 42 FPS
Quality Balanced: 42 FPS
Quality Narrow: 43 FPS
Performance Wide: 42 FPS
Performance Balanced: 43 FPS (shimmer in periphery vision starts appearing provoking the eyes to look at it)
Performance Narrow: 44-45 FPS (shimmer in peripery vision annoying)

When I move my gaze with Cull setting (I can see the ring of high res.) I observe that the eye tracking circle moves ca. 4 FPS when following my gaze.

For now I settled on the following custom FR settings:
1, 55%, 1/2, 75%, 16 - results in 43 FPS, with the cloud artifacting only occasional, and no distracting shimmer in the periphery vision. FFR enabled, ET and DFR disabled.

This is 4 FPS (10%) more vs. Foveated Rendering off. Not revolutionary but nice. I can’t perceive a difference between FFR and DFR, due to relatively big res. in the inner and middle rings. The gradual bluriness of Crystal lenses towards the edges is masking the lower resoultion caused by reduced resolution in the outer ring.

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The clouds are a known issue. Only a proper implementation of Foveated Rendering in the sim, without hacks, can solve that.

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Can you share the complete setting? Msfs VR menù, oxr toolkit etc etc… i’ve the beta for Crystal but i’ve not tested in msfs

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Pimax Client, PimaxXR, OXRT:

MSFS (for 4090):
Most settings High or Ultra, Clouds High, and this:

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I’m on the beta-testing team for the Crystal. DFR/eye-tracking works great in DCS due to your excellent Quad-views extension.
However, whenever I now go into a VR-session in MSFS (using OpenXR Toolkit, PimaxXR) and I enable “eye-tracking”, OpenXR/VR fails to initialize when going back into the VR session post-change. I’m forced to use safe-mode in OXRT to get back into MSFS in VR and reset all defaults. I cannot work out what the issue is - any thoughts? (only problem once eye-tracking enabled in OXRT in MSFS, works for everywhere else)

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Do you have Ultraleap installed?

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Is there a known issue with eye-tracking and Ultraleap in MSFS? (eyetracking and ultraleap work fine together in DCS)

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They won’t work together with OpenXR Toolkit DFR.

In DCS, the game is using Ultraleap though the native API, not OpenXR.

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Do I have to uninstall Ultraleap whenever I want to use MSFS, or can I simply stop the service?

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Do you have the hand tracking enabled in OpenXR Toolkit? Can you just turn that off?

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I have it enabled in PimaxXR - should I just uncheck that?