Pimax Crystal Super

[chiliwili69]

On 4/30/2025 at 2:14 AM, Varibraun said:

But for you (seriously, thank you for all of your analysis for over a decade), I will try to see if I can get FPSVR fired up to see if it can provide any insight into why I am seeing that on a 4090 (however, I will tell my wife that you have approved a 5090 purchase for the household in the interest of scientific analysis).  Bottom line right now is that I am not aware of doing anything other than XR ToolKit override, but maybe I set something else and those XR ToolKit #s are not an accurate report of the actual resolution?

 

Thank you to you and Sanders for giving us this early feedback of the Crystal Super. This device has a great FOV, and this is one of the things I really like with IL-2 (I miss the FOV of the Index, it was a bit better than the Quest3).

 

But to have more scientific arguments for you wife, you can just create a recorded track of few seconds of your favourite plane looking at the gauges panel or the cathedral church or whatever has details. Then run your headset at 50%, at 100% and 150%, and judge yourself the quality.

 

I thing I don´t know ,since I never used Open XR toolkit (Never had the need) I think you can dynamically change the resolution while you are in the game, if this is true, then it will be easier to see the differences in realtime (to avoid relaunch the game after changing %).

[chiliwili69]

On 4/30/2025 at 7:14 PM, Varibraun said:

Below are fpsVR stats with SteamVR, Pimax & IL2 settings from a Steam VR session last night (fpsVR didn't want to play in Pimax OpenXR, so I switched to Steam VR @ approximately the same 4600x4600 resolution).  It will also probably give you some more familiar stats since I think you fly mostly in Steam VR.  These are in a 2v3 Quick Start Mission on Rhineland Map, but I also flew over some towns and did some ground attack in the 15 minutes.  Also, the session included some paused and loading time that seems to bring the average framerate down just a bit - I never saw anything less than 90 while flying.  I am sure these probably explain better to you what I am seeing, but I don't think I am currently doing any upscaling.

 

Hey!, thank you so much for this nice amount of data. Clearly the 4090 performs better than I thought! Not enough to get most of the Crystal Super but still do a great job.

 

I like that you didn´t use the OpenXR toolkit, but just SteamVR, so we are sure then that this is the right amount of pixels rendered.

I also didn´t know that you can save that statistical data directly from SteamVR. You GPU frametimes were very good for that resolution 42.3 Million of pixels at 90Hz! Very nice.

 

Also, you dont use any of the Pimax features (FFR, Smooth, etc)

 

In the game settings in ULTRA I see you have the shadows OFF, I don´t know how many fps you save by that in the GPU. I have never measured that.

[Varibraun]

On 5/2/2025 at 4:00 PM, chiliwili69 said:

Clearly the 4090 performs better than I thought! Not enough to get most of the Crystal Super but still do a great job.

 

Just as a quick update on this, I went to the Normandy Map in the Overlord Scripted Campaign to add a good bit of stress since I think that map is the toughest for performance, especially with all of the assets grouped so closely around the invasion beaches.  At 4600x4600, I was getting swings from 90 down to the high 60s and some ghosting/chop in dogfights.  So, I probably should drop the resolution a bit or switch to 72Hz mode moving forward at least in that campaign (Great Campaign BTW, I a little over 1/2 way through, thank you @Jaegermeister!).

 

On 5/2/2025 at 4:00 PM, chiliwili69 said:

Also, you dont use any of the Pimax features (FFR, Smooth, etc)

 

Unfortunately, none of those work well in IL2 GB.

 

On 5/2/2025 at 4:00 PM, chiliwili69 said:

In the game settings in ULTRA I see you have the shadows OFF, I don´t know how many fps you save by that in the GPU. I have never measured that.

 

I think I did that a good while back, because even simple shadows seemed to pull my OG Crystal out of the fairly constant 90FPS.  While I like having shadows, I really didn't see them that often so I thought it made sense to just turn them off.  

 

On 5/2/2025 at 3:49 PM, chiliwili69 said:

Thank you to you and Sanders for giving us this early feedback of the Crystal Super.

 

Still haven't decided to pull the final purchase trigger yet.  I just put a few issues up for Pimax tech support to ponder compared to the OG Crystal and will see how that goes.

[TCW_Brzi_Joe]

3 hours ago, Varibraun said:

 

On 5/2/2025 at 10:00 PM, chiliwili69 said:

Also, you dont use any of the Pimax features (FFR, Smooth, etc)

 

Unfortunately, none of those work well in IL2 GB.

Well, there is one solution for foveated rendering in IL-2, unfortunately just for single player:

 

Edited May 5 by TCW_Brzi_Joe

[chiliwili69]

5 hours ago, Varibraun said:

a good bit of stress since I think that map is the toughest for performance, especially with all of the assets grouped so closely around the invasion beaches

Yes, indeed. It is a very nice campaign. I also have chopy fps when flying over all those ships along the beaches. I believe it is a CPU bottleneck, not realted to resolution or GPU. For sure running at 72Hz will help a lot in both CPU and GPU frametimes. The threshold goes from 11.11 ms to 13.8 ms, so 24% more free extra margin.

I have no issues using those 72Hz modes in the Pico4, Crystal Light and currently Quest3.

Edited May 5 by chiliwili69

[dgiatr]

2 hours ago, chiliwili69 said:

Yes, indeed. It is a very nice campaign. I also have chopy fps when flying over all those ships along the beaches. I believe it is a CPU bottleneck, not realted to resolution or GPU. For sure running at 72Hz will help a lot in both CPU and GPU frametimes. The threshold goes from 11.11 ms to 13.8 ms, so 24% more free extra margin.

I have no issues using those 72Hz modes in the Pico4, Crystal Light and currently Quest3.

Some very Cpu demanding missions with choppy performance I play them as cooperative missions not as Single player missions through multiplayer cooperative choice in il2, hosted them in another older p.c. next to the current one and then they run flawlessly.

Edited May 5 by dgiatr

[Jaegermeister]

8 hours ago, Varibraun said:

 

Just as a quick update on this, I went to the Normandy Map in the Overlord Scripted Campaign to add a good bit of stress since I think that map is the toughest for performance, especially with all of the assets grouped so closely around the invasion beaches.  At 4600x4600, I was getting swings from 90 down to the high 60s and some ghosting/chop in dogfights.  So, I probably should drop the resolution a bit or switch to 72Hz mode moving forward at least in that campaign (Great Campaign BTW, I a little over 1/2 way through, thank you @Jaegermeister!).

 

I’m glad you are enjoying it. The invasion ships were placed and tested with my mid range rig running a HP Reverb G2 and a Ryzen 5700x. I get slow frame rates when flying near them also, but it is still playable. The real frame rate killer for me is the tracers from the destroyers.

 

2 hours ago, chiliwili69 said:

Yes, indeed. It is a very nice campaign. I also have chopy fps when flying over all those ships along the beaches. I believe it is a CPU bottleneck, not realted to resolution or GPU. For sure running at 72Hz will help a lot in both CPU and GPU frametimes. The threshold goes from 11.11 ms to 13.8 ms, so 24% more free extra margin.

Thanks, those missions are certainly a good performance test. The frame rate issue from all the ships is almost certainly due to the processing demand of tracking that many complex vehicles at the same time as there are more than the recommended max of 30 active when you go through the zones. There was no other way to get the impression of moving vehicles due to the lack of variety in the static ships and the fact that a barrage balloon has to be linked to a complex ship. All of that together is a lot to spawn at one time.

[von_Tom]

 

How good is the inside out tracking?  Lighthouse 2 precision or not a noticeable difference?

 

Thanks

 

von Tom

[TimSell75]

On 5/8/2025 at 3:34 AM, von_Tom said:

 

How good is the inside out tracking?  Lighthouse 2 precision or not a noticeable difference?

 

Thanks

 

von Tom

Currently is has some issues. It is functioning, but the OG Crystal was much better. They are working actively on it though.

[von_Tom]

On 5/11/2025 at 5:36 PM, TimSell75 said:

Currently is has some issues. It is functioning, but the OG Crystal was much better. They are working actively on it though.

 

Is this a firmware thing?  I’m getting it for IL2/Korea and if the tracking isn’t a problem for that, that’s fine. 

 

The alternative is to buy the tracking faceplate, which I’m ok with doing if I have to. 
 

von Tom

[TimSell75]

39 minutes ago, von_Tom said:

 

Is this a firmware thing?  I’m getting it for IL2/Korea and if the tracking isn’t a problem for that, that’s fine. 

 

The alternative is to buy the tracking faceplate, which I’m ok with doing if I have to. 
 

von Tom

It´s just that it needs more light than the OG Crystal at the moment. And you need to make a room scan after every restart. But these are known issues. Otherwise the tracking works fine for IL2 or DCS

[Dagwoodyt]

 

What a bizzare organization. Looks like Pimax is still unable to deliver headsets that were preordered in 2024 so they are attempting to get customers to ask to have their preorderes switched to the new Super Ultrawide. Then customers will possibly be informed of delay in shipping of their Super Ultrawide due to unanticpated "heavy" demand.🤣🤣

[firdimigdi]

Rather obvious this was happening and here's how it works. Not that other companies don't do the same but that doesn't make it alright, ethical or something that should be accepted (pretty sure in certain jurisdictions it could also be illegal, especially if not tagged clearly as a paid promotion).

 

EDIT

... and the damage limitation superhero is called in:

 

Edited May 24 by firdimigdi
added a pimax marketing rep response

[Dagwoodyt]

That I have been unable to get a single customer' response to my question over a month's time seems at least as concerning.🤔

[Varibraun]

8 hours ago, Dagwoodyt said:

That I have been unable to get a single customer' response to my question over a month's time seems at least as concerning.🤔

 

Sorry @Dagwoodyt, I didn't respond because I use Bitdefender vs. Windows Defender, but I have not had to add the Pimax folder to any Bitdefender exclusions.

 

FYI - I am still undecided about the Super vs. my OG Crystal, enough to the point where I am doing an exchange to be sure that my headset didn't have any hardware issues since I was getting some center distortion no one else was discussing.  For me, Pimax has honored everything advertised regarding the 14 trial and Jaap (see @firdimigdi's "superhero" reference above) personally helped me on Discord PM as I was attempting to work through it on the software side with Support. 

 

I can only share my personal experiences with Pimax since I purchased the my Crystal 2 years ago.  It wasn't perfect back then either, but Pimax worked through a couple of issues with me that included a lens replacement.  Following those couple interactions with Support in the summer 2023, my Crystal has been sharp and reliable and I have been a happy customer.  I still have the same hopes for the Super, but the jury is out for me until I receive my replacement and can then compare it to my OG Crystal when considering all the factors I mentioned in my first very initial impressions post. (PS - No one paid me to say that 😁).

 

13 hours ago, firdimigdi said:

Rather obvious this was happening and here's how it works. Not that other companies don't do the same but that doesn't make it alright, ethical or something that should be accepted (pretty sure in certain jurisdictions it could also be illegal, especially if not tagged clearly as a paid promotion).

 

EDIT

... and the damage limitation superhero is called in:

 

I appreciate that you posted this, definitely disappointing and discouraging with all the other PR effort they have made for the past 9 months.

[Dagwoodyt]

 

Apparently a tour of PCL factory, not the Super, but wow this looks like a paid promotion. Are those the "clean room" practices their factories use? I wonder how many pre-orders it took to pay for that video😉

[Aapje]

6 hours ago, Dagwoodyt said:

 

Apparently a tour of PCL factory, not the Super, but wow this looks like a paid promotion.

 

It seems more that he has zero experience with these factories, and is very impressed by fairly irrelevant stuff, like round hallways and merch.

 

Also, with multiple layers of translation (German -> English -> Chinese -> English -> German), it would be very hard for him to ask complicated questions.

 

I'm not all that impressed by what is shown in the video. Seems rather amateurish.

Edited May 28 by Aapje