Pimax Crystal Light VR Headset Partial Payment Version-with Controllers, 8K QLED with Local-Dimming, Lightweight & Comfortable Compatible with Flight Simulators, iRacing & PC Gaming

Flight Sim VR
Pimax created this simplified version of their standalone offering by removing some of the extras, like onboard battery, eye tracking, etc. to make it more affordable for those who intend to use it seated at their computer desk for flight simulators and racing games. Their advertisement and product description clearly reflects on that and surely, they are spot on, everything about this headset as advertised.The Crystal Light retained the original Crystal’s super high resolution and high-quality display. It is somewhat disappointing that they are charging extra for the software, but once installed and the VR headset initialize, it is ready to go! The game controllers aren’t really needed for flight sim, but they are very easy to set up and can be useful time to time, while can be turned off at any time. During the initial setup, it is recommended to charge them right away before the setup is completed, in case one chooses to use them right away. For seated applications like flight simming, I recommend disabling the safety boundary by unselecting the “Activating Chaperone” feature in the Device Settings/Advanced. With that feature selected, the headset will keep turning on the see trough screen and safety boundary lost error every time the headset is removed and placed on the desk. Very annoying, because one cannot select another flight and continue with the gaming session without exiting the game and recalibrate the room setting. That’s something to beware of. Otherwise, the software is fantastic, very simple and easy to use, and includes their own version of built in Open XR. I must say it does worth the extra, if they keep on maintaining it.The performance enhancing features work great, fixed foveated rendering greatly reduces processing load, and the lack of eye tracking probably won’t affect most of the users, while also eliminates some extra burden of processing. I expected a serious performance hit coming from the HP Reverb G2, but to my surprise, it was the other way around, I noticed a slight increase in the frame rate, while sharpness and clarity blew me away. I surely did not expect that level of upgrade in performance, The Reverb G2 is known for its incredible image. The mild screen door effect of the G2 completely disappeared From the Crystal light, colors and brightness are eye candy. I tried the “smart smoothing” feature enabled from Device Setting/Games, also works as expected, but I did not gain enough boost to keep the feature enabled. For fast aircrafts Like the Daher TBM930, Pilatus PC-21 trainer, fighter jects or choppers it worth enabling smart smoothing over busy terrain at very low attitudes, but for normal flights, for maximum clarity and sharpness, better leave it off.As far as comfort, this unit is a mixed bag. It is incredibly big, almost intimidating, and covers one’s entire face! Because it covers my nose as well, it tends to fog up very easily, and I have to remove the headset several times to clear it out, until it warms up enough to eliminate fogging. It takes lots of attempt of adjustment to make it the most comfortable, and once that’s done, it can be worn for hours without much of any discomfort. The 120 Hz refresh rate is a Godsent. It took me a year to be able to use the Reverb when I started, I was hit with motion sickness so powerful that I felt sick even the next day. The high refresh rate of the Crystal Light helps to completely eliminate any residues that I still suffered occasionally time to time, when simulated real time weather conditions and some turbulence effects. While not a perfect product, the team’s attempt and effort to fill the void Micro$oft left in the wake of deprecating its own VR portal, is greatly appreciated. Hopefully they will be successful and are here to stay. I cannot recommend this headset strongly enough for other potential armchair pilots, who are looking for superhigh resolution crystal clear VR solution to upgrade their existing deprecated ones or just getting ready to immerse into the VR flight realm for the first time, without mortgaging their homes for a Somnium VR1 or other super expen$ive units out there. The seamlessly working standalone software independent from Steam VR (though it is supported and featured if one chooses to install it) and any other standard platforms, plus the solid performance of the VR headset with incredibly stable tracking is difficult, if not impossible to beat at this price point! Kudos to the team at Pimax for their work and dedication!

Best option if you can’t afford the crystal super
Why did you pick this product vs others?:Crystal light dope.  Fov:Fov not too bad coming from 8kx. Doesn’t give the annoying binocular feeling my quest 2 did.It’s actually only noticeable when loading into games imo. Once the game starts and your eyes have something to focus on, your brain tunes out the black walls in peripheral from smaller fov imo and I barely even noticed the difference.I’m excited for my crystal super bc I think the slightly increased fov will be enough to make the difference in fov from 8kx completely unnoticeable. Tracking:I was worried about tracking cause everybody complaining on this sub. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought the tracking worked great.The setup process was easier than I was expecting and it didn’t need to be reset every time I used it like I heard. I did need to reset it periodically but it’s super easy and fast.Tracking wasn’t as good as quest 2 but better than valve base station imo. Had some problems with controllers behind head (which when do u actually do that other than testing really?) and when holding up really close to face.But more importantly it didn’t lose tracking on my head or cause my game to flip me around like my index base stations would.Overall I’d give tracking a solid B grade.  Controllers:feel pretty good. USB C charging awesome. Hold charge pretty well. Fit into my quest 2 grips with index like straps.Only complaint is the joy stick had a strange sound when rolling at the bottom. Kinda sounds like a spring. I’m worried that the joy stick might break after awhile like all my index controllers have.But God willing they won’t.  Comfort:Good, I like the pimax head straps for the most part since I learned how to wear them properly. Would be nice if the tightening knob was flush for laying down or headrest. Also I noticed the crystal light tended to tilt left on my head sometimes unlike my 8kx.  Audio:Again surprising good considering people’s complaints. I thought the SMAS was adequate. They could be louder is the main flaw imo. Pretty much got a rock it at 100%.I have the DMAS as well. Which are better sounding and louder. But I also like the SMAS bc it’s nice not having something on your ears. Picture:Great! Best picture I’ve had on a headset to date. Significantly shaper and better colors than the 8kx. Blacks look great in dark scenes as well. Don’t feel a need for an oled but I also haven’t tried one since the OG vive and I Samsung Odyssey+.  No problems with the screens that I could tell like mura or major distortions or anything like that. I had no trouble finding and staying in the sweet spot and I could move my eyes around without too much distortions except the very edges which I don’t really tend to do except when testing. The only thing I noticed at one point was what I would maybe describe as screen tearing when I first got it in very specific scenarios. But idk if I got used to it or it went away but I didn’t notice it after awhile.  OverallIf this was my first headset I can’t even imagine how amazed I’d be. VR truly has come along way.Congrats pimax.

JUNK.1. My headset is defective and will randomly show a pink staticy screen for a second and then show a blank screen (or extremely dim, I can see like shadows..) until the Pimax Play software is restarted – turning the headset on/off again doesn’t fix it.2. The tracking is appalling and just judders all over the place, lags.. It’ll be fine for a minute or two then go completely unplayable. This seems to be caused by the Pimax Play software which uses up all of my CPU – a 5700x3D. Not the best around but it’s still pretty good. I did some research to try and fix this and apparently it’s a known issue, the Pimax tracking algorithm is bad. It needs more than a 5700x3D while Meta have been fine on a lil mobile phone chip since the Quest 1.It’s really sad as the image quality is fantastic in this thing. It’s very, very clear and sharp while approaching the colours and contrast of an OLED screen. It’s a pretty big headset but I find it not too bad comfort wise. I could deal with having a faulty headset but the whole tracking situation renders this as junk.

Visore arrivato con le lenti deformate (non c’era una zona a fuoco su tutte le lenti) inoltre sul pannello LCD sinistro c’era un pixel bruciato al centro. Audio davvero pessimo, comfort che lascia molto a desiderare, su questi ultimi due punti magari si può rimediare prendendo le casse dmas e il cinturino aggiuntivo sulla testa ma sono spese a parte. Software ballerino, controller nella media.Tuttavia la cosa peggiore della mia esperienza è stata l’assistenza del venditore ma grazie al servizio clienti di Amazon ho ricevuto il rimborso in 2 giorni.

Riacquistato dopo aver cambiato componenti del mio pc, in quanto con i componenti vecchi, non riuscivo a far girare bene il visore (simulatori d’auto che richiedono parecchie risorse) dunque cominciamo col dire che i materiali come detto in precedenza non sono granché, e il peso rimane elevato… attendo ancora il kit confort della studio form, ormai da due mesi, ma per accomodo ho accrocchiato un po di spessori, e riesco a usarlo per una mezzoretta di fila, grazie anche alle lenti della vrrock (acquistate a parte) perché con gli occhiali anche se piccoli, niente da fare, si sporcano subito.L’applicazione é stata migliorata, hanno tolto molti bug riscontrati in precedenza , quindi vuol dire che Comunque lavorarono ascoltando la comunity.Nota di merito invece per quanto riguarda l’assistenza, si sono rivelati parecchio attenti alle mie richieste e lamentele :D. Le lenti sono sempre ottime come detto prima. Quindi cambio da 2 a 5 stelle perché ho visto una azienda abbastanza attenta alle varie richieste, e perché sostanzialmente il visore vale quello che costa, a patto di avere un buon pc e il viso meno a punta possibile, ma per quest’ultimo c’è la possibilità di adattare un kit confort (speriamo che arrivi) dove molti dicono di aver risolto questo problema.