Crystal chromatic aberration.

[Panzerlang]

Now that I've started flying again and getting some extensive use from the Crystal I've noticed that a) there's seriously noticeable CA when looking to the edges of the lenses (wing strut edges really get it) and b) the image is quite blurry there too. Before chucking my toy out the pram (and thinking it might be my face shape relative to the headset) I did a google search and discovered this is a pretty common issue with the Crystal. Lots of people have either had their unit replaced or refunded.

I never had this CA issue with the G2 or Pico4.

Hopefully the wide FOV lenses will help but it's another reason to go back to the Pico4 I guess. $1900 for the Crystal, I feel like I was robbed. Sure, the resolution is great but with that being the one and only pro for it...$1900? Puh.

[DBCOOPER011]

2 hours ago, Hetzer-JG52 said:

Now that I've started flying again and getting some extensive use from the Crystal I've noticed that a) there's seriously noticeable CA when looking to the edges of the lenses (wing strut edges really get it) and b) the image is quite blurry there too. Before chucking my toy out the pram (and thinking it might be my face shape relative to the headset) I did a google search and discovered this is a pretty common issue with the Crystal. Lots of people have either had their unit replaced or refunded.

I never had this CA issue with the G2 or Pico4.

Hopefully the wide FOV lenses will help but it's another reason to go back to the Pico4 I guess. $1900 for the Crystal, I feel like I was robbed. Sure, the resolution is great but with that being the one and only pro for it...$1900? Puh.

 

I also notice a little bit of blurriness starting outside the binocular overlap towards the edge of the lenses. I don't notice it at all unless I'm actively looking for it, and don't see it all in games using eye tracking. I just started running IL2 at the Crystal native resolution (4312x5100) at 72hz with opencomposite. That may have have sharpened it up enough for me not to really notice it much. But yes, it's there..

 

I also have the G2 and Pico4, and IMO the Crystal is in different league on its own between those HMD's. The only problem I have with it now is getting it to routinely go into charging mode every time I shut it down. That's a big pain in the ass..

 

Also, I hear that this plugin clears up the CA some. Your mileage may vary though..

 

https://pimax.com/testers-wanted-almalence-plugin-with-the-pimax-crystal/

 

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by DBCOOPER011

[Panzerlang]

7 hours ago, DBCOOPER011 said:

 

I also notice a little bit of blurriness starting outside the binocular overlap towards the edge of the lenses. I don't notice it at all unless I'm actively looking for it, and don't see it all in games using eye tracking. I just started running IL2 at the Crystal native resolution (4312x5100) at 72hz with opencomposite. That may have have sharpened it up enough for me not to really notice it much. But yes, it's there..

 

I also have the G2 and Pico4, and IMO the Crystal is in different league on its own between those HMD's. The only problem I have with it now is getting it to routinely go into charging mode every time I shut it down. That's a big pain in the ass..

 

Also, I hear that this plugin clears up the CA some. Your mileage may vary though..

 

https://pimax.com/testers-wanted-almalence-plugin-with-the-pimax-crystal/

 

 

 

 

Got it, I'll give it a go later today, cheers dude.

[Panzerlang]

It doesn't work. I followed the instructions to the letter but nada. There's supposed to be a confirmation-box appear when an OpenXR game is fired up but it doesn't happen and pressing the Del button in-game changes nothing. SteamVR does show it as an activated API though, along with OpenXR.

The in-app pdf says there's supposed to be a shortcut on the desktop, the instructions on their website says it should auto-run when an appropriate game is launched. Bit confusing.
 

I also removed and re-fitted the lenses, just because. Lol.

I suspect the simple answer is a whole bunch of glass lenses are not particularly well made. These ones 'bother' my eyes in general.

Edited December 30, 2023 by Hetzer-JG52

[DBCOOPER011]

5 hours ago, Hetzer-JG52 said:

It doesn't work. I followed the instructions to the letter but nada. There's supposed to be a confirmation-box appear when an OpenXR game is fired up but it doesn't happen and pressing the Del button in-game changes nothing. SteamVR does show it as an activated API though, along with OpenXR.

The in-app pdf says there's supposed to be a shortcut on the desktop, the instructions on their website says it should auto-run when an appropriate game is launched. Bit confusing.
 

I also removed and re-fitted the lenses, just because. Lol.

I suspect the simple answer is a whole bunch of glass lenses are not particularly well made. These ones 'bother' my eyes in general.

 

Thats not good. I briefly used it and was only able to get it to work in steamvr. IL2 crashed with it on in opencomposite. I know the resolution has to be 4312x5100 or above to work though. I seen a slight improvement visually, but not enough for me to keep it as I use opencomposite. Some people in the pimax discord swear by it. So, I dont know...

[Panzerlang]

Just to add to the overall shitty experience of this headset, now the eye-tracking is no longer working. Sometimes the auto-IPD green bars will come up but they don't auto-adjust or even go away. The eye-tracking calibration, nada on the gaze-dots and the moving-dot calibration fails (because there's nothing tracking my eyes anymore).

I re-started the service and headset in Pimax settings, powered the unit off and on and rebooted the PC, no joy. All I did was remove the earphones. I've also had the lenses out again to ensure the gold pins are being properly located (as much as that's possible), I suspect they might be why the eye-tracking is now fubar.

The unit works in IL2 still but the chromatic aberration is randomly worse or better (but never perfect). Edge-to-edge clarity? LOL! I have no idea if the eye-tracking is supposed to somehow adjust focus on the fly (through some kind of software majik).

What else...oh yeah, a 20w charger doesn't appear to do any charging at all, even with the unit turned off (should a charging light come on somewhere?). The 65w I ordered turned up from Amazon but was clearly used, so that's going back for a refund and the next one is due on Thursday.

Well, plenty of people warned us about Pimax so we knew we were taking a gamble. Mine 'works' but overall it's shit so I guess my luck was bad in the Pimax lottery.

[DBCOOPER011]

On 1/1/2024 at 11:15 PM, Hetzer-JG52 said:

Just to add to the overall shitty experience of this headset, now the eye-tracking is no longer working. Sometimes the auto-IPD green bars will come up but they don't auto-adjust or even go away. The eye-tracking calibration, nada on the gaze-dots and the moving-dot calibration fails (because there's nothing tracking my eyes anymore).

I re-started the service and headset in Pimax settings, powered the unit off and on and rebooted the PC, no joy. All I did was remove the earphones. I've also had the lenses out again to ensure the gold pins are being properly located (as much as that's possible), I suspect they might be why the eye-tracking is now fubar.

The unit works in IL2 still but the chromatic aberration is randomly worse or better (but never perfect). Edge-to-edge clarity? LOL! I have no idea if the eye-tracking is supposed to somehow adjust focus on the fly (through some kind of software majik).

What else...oh yeah, a 20w charger doesn't appear to do any charging at all, even with the unit turned off (should a charging light come on somewhere?). The 65w I ordered turned up from Amazon but was clearly used, so that's going back for a refund and the next one is due on Thursday.

Well, plenty of people warned us about Pimax so we knew we were taking a gamble. Mine 'works' but overall it's shit so I guess my luck was bad in the Pimax lottery.

 

 

I bet most of your issues are related to power delivery via USB. Before I had this charger, I was having the same problems with eye tracking disconnecting, eye tracking calibration not being saved, and the HMD not charging when shutdown.

 

With the charger, I have the HMD USB 2.0 cable plugged into the 60W QC, the HMD USB 3.0 cable into a USB 3.0 port on the back of my computer, and the DP cable in my graphics card obviously. The HMD is charging when shutdown (yellow light charging and white light charged) and it keeps a charge while playing in VR. I also found out that there was only a couple USB 3.0 ports on my computer that would work properly with the HMD 3.0 cable.

 

The USB hub they provide is garbage and setting it up is a pain in the ass. But once set up properly, its a pretty sweet VR unit. Also, I don't think IL2 is able to use eye tracking. At least I wasn't able to get it to work..

[Panzerlang]

5 hours ago, DBCOOPER011 said:

 

 

I bet most of your issues are related to power delivery via USB. Before I had this charger, I was having the same problems with eye tracking disconnecting, eye tracking calibration not being saved, and the HMD not charging when shutdown.

 

With the charger, I have the HMD USB 2.0 cable plugged into the 60W QC, the HMD USB 3.0 cable into a USB 3.0 port on the back of my computer, and the DP cable in my graphics card obviously. The HMD is charging when shutdown (yellow light charging and white light charged) and it keeps a charge while playing in VR. I also found out that there was only a couple USB 3.0 ports on my computer that would work properly with the HMD 3.0 cable.

 

The USB hub they provide is garbage and setting it up is a pain in the ass. But once set up properly, its a pretty sweet VR unit. Also, I don't think IL2 is able to use eye tracking. At least I wasn't able to get it to work..

I fitted the 65w charger yesterday (USB-C to USB-C, the port on the right side of the head unit) and it now charges nicely but the eye-tracking is still dead. For IL2 it doesn't matter.

So the three cables are DP, USB-3 and the black USB 2 is another way to charge the battery?

Oh, the auto-IPD now seems to be working again, which I thought would mean the calibration routine would also come back to life but sadly that hasn't been the case.

Edited January 5, 2024 by Hetzer-JG52

[DBCOOPER011]

1 hour ago, Hetzer-JG52 said:

I fitted the 65w charger yesterday (USB-C to USB-C, the port on the right side of the head unit) and it now charges nicely but the eye-tracking is still dead. For IL2 it doesn't matter.

So the three cables are DP, USB-3 and the black USB 2 is another way to charge the battery?

Oh, the auto-IPD now seems to be working again, which I thought would mean the calibration routine would also come back to life but sadly that hasn't been the case.

 

I dont know what kind of charger your using, but USB-C to the HMD USB-C port should be good to go. You shouldn't even need to plug in the USB-2 cable to anything with USB-C connected.

 

Maybe you can go into windows services and restart the "Tobii VR4PIMAXP3B Platform Runtime". Hopefully that will start it up. Also, only a couple of my USB-3 ports on the back of my computer worked with the crystal. So you may have to move it to a different port if thats the case.

Edited January 5, 2024 by DBCOOPER011

[DBCOOPER011]

On 1/4/2024 at 11:00 AM, DBCOOPER011 said:

The USB hub they provide is garbage and setting it up is a pain in the ass. But once set up properly, its a pretty sweet VR unit. Also, I don't think IL2 is able to use eye tracking. At least I wasn't able to get it to work..

 

I may be wrong about IL2 not being able to do eye tracking with the crystal. I noticed messing with the settings in steamvr, that I was getting a performance increase with the dynamic foveated rendering (DFR) setting in pimax play at minimum instead of being off. I put a P-38 on the runway and maxed out as much settings I could in IL2 without going into reprojection. I put the resolution to 4312x5104 at 72Hz and noticed with the DFR setting off the GPU was a little above 90% and a little above 13ms. With DFR at minimum, the GPU was around 75% at around 11.5ms. So, either DFR is working somewhat or atleast FFR but I didnt see any clarity difference between the two..

[chiliwili69]

7 hours ago, DBCOOPER011 said:

So, either DFR is working somewhat or atleast FFR but I didnt see any clarity difference between the two..

Interesting. The CPU looks like it is it increases the frametime (DFR or FFR calculations?).

This should be also noticed in other devices with eye tracking like the Aero or QuestPro.

Since IL-2 has not implemented DFR it should be some kind of FFR but not noticeable. You can increase it to maximun to see if there is any visual effect.

[DBCOOPER011]

6 hours ago, chiliwili69 said:

Interesting. The CPU looks like it is it increases the frametime (DFR or FFR calculations?).

This should be also noticed in other devices with eye tracking like the Aero or QuestPro.

Since IL-2 has not implemented DFR it should be some kind of FFR but not noticeable. You can increase it to maximun to see if there is any visual effect.

 

I dont know if its actually DFR or rather FFR. But, according to the post below, mbuccia was able to get DFR working but it was buggy for other people..

 

 

[Dagwoodyt]

I was able to get DFR running using the mod described. Unfortunately it appears to have become disabled as of the most recent BoX update. I was never able to get any response as to whether the BoX team is interested in pursuing DFR support so I guess it's not going to happen.