Turns out Thomas was only given an old 8KX cable for for his review of the Crystal. Comment from Pimax:
“The batteries are not required in PCVR mode. As we have stated in official press releases, interviews, and hundreds of live demonstrations, that cable is not the final cable. The custom made cables for PCVR aren’t ready yet. The one used in this review is the old 8kx cable.”
So, same panels and similar lenses to the Aero but at 2/3 the price, with Index level FOV (juuuust good enough), inside out tracking and decent built in audio…
Hope to see some reviews of the software and its motion smoothing/reprojection, and some tests in FS to see if parallel projection is required or not. I noticed in the software it has 1/2 and 1/3 vsync modes, presumably for 45 and 30 hz reprojection (hopefully).
If so that’s a G2 replacement contender I think. Don’t care about standalone at all myself, nor controllers, nor auto-ipd adjustment much. Kinda heavy though!
I would not hold my breath on the battery not being needed in the final version. Maybe they can tweak the power consumption in the future, but it looks like the battery in PCVR is there to stay.
Really weird and probably a deal breaker for me, depending on the competition.
I am lost for words lol. Hahaha if they don’t solve this they are done honestly, nobody is going to buy the Crystal. I mean it’s so stupid…mostly simmers will buy the Crystal and they particularly play long sessions…this company is next level weird.
With some tweaking he’s getting 6 hours for each battery, he also explains why it needs a battery. 12 hours playtime in total is fine for me as I rarely have vr sessions greater than 1 hour.
The crucial info in the video was that the battery also charges when it is plugged in. So if you plug in everything correctly - the USB2 in an external charger - you will never know it actually uses the battery.
Qualcomm seems to be very picky about how its chips are used. They will not sell to you if the end product does not meet their standards.
Seems to be lots of conflicting info on the battery situation. Thomas says he was given the wrong cable, Sebastian may have been given the right one, but it still loses power, and Pimax have said repeatedly that the batteries will not drain in PC mode. None of these things line up.
I don’t care about needing the battery to be attached, it’s just a convenient counterweight, but instead of using a USB2 cable for power why didn’t they just make it USB-C high power and provide a regionally appropriate charger plug? No headset should ever be relying on a motherboard for power.
I also don’t buy hot swapping being seamless when using the sim. A Reverb G2 having its power shut off and on totally confuses the sim and usually necessitates a restart to get audio back etc.
Weird design choices, and if Qualcomm requires its chips to be powered by a battery… well that’s just dumb.
According to MRTV (see the link to the review in one of the posts above) if you connect USB 3.0 to powered hub, it charges the battery faster that USB 2.0 But it must be still connected to the PC for the data, hence you can’t connect UCB 3.0 to a dumb charger, you must connect to powered hub. Battery will still deplete during the session, but it will be somewhat charged and it should allow 6h with USB C 3.0 charging from the powered hub, until it will be flat. Seems like Qualcomm chip is picky regarding the voltage and amperage over the long cable and they need and intermediate battery, ready to provide high current at stable voltage.
For the details see the MRTV review, I’m just the messenger.
@stekusteku Right, I watched the whole thing, but they’re using a USB-3.0 for data, which makes sense, and a second USB 2.0 for additional power only (which makes no sense). That USB 2.0 used for additional power should have been USB-C, which can plug into high power ports on certain motherboards or into a wall charger. There would be no lack of power then at all.
Guess this is just how hardware development goes. There was a big argument about it between Thomas and a Pimax rep on his youtube channel, but the comments were all later deleted. Hopefully they get it sorted out before release.
Listen what he says at 28:00. You can charge via USB powered hub and USB 3.0. Then the battery will last ca. 6h. It’s a lot for a VR session. For me there would be no difference if I should use USB external charger or powered USB 3.0 hub.
This is a little bit weird, I must admit, but nothing like a deal breaker.
Hot swapping usually means there is a second built in battery that keeps the device on for a max of a few minutes while it’s being swapped. So it shouldn’t power off, that’s basically the definition of hotswapping!
I received an update email today for pre-order customers and those who are on their news email list. Beta testers will receive their orders starting in April and, at least according to the email, those who pre-order now will start getting their headsets sent within three months. Hopefully this means earlier non Beta pre-orders will be notified earlier than that. It was also confirmed that those who pre-order “before July, you’ll get a free DMAS headphone upgrade.” Good news, as the standard off ear audio was panned as not being that great, whereas the DMAS set seems as good, if not better than the G2’s audio.
Here’s a link to the current Pimax Crystal situation for those interested.
I for one am looking forward to mine showing up, so here’s hoping the Crystal lives up to expectations. The higher PPD lenses show no sign of the screen door effect that I can see, although the vertical format videos could have been better made. Pimax still needs to lift their game in marketing methinks, although I wish them (and myself as a customer) all the best.
Has Pimax or any of the reviewers covered how large of a head the Chrystal can fit comfortably. I recently picked up a Pico 4 and with the head strap open all the way it barely fits over my 64cm noggin.
