VR Discussions, Questions & Feedback

NVM fixed it myself.

 

I've had my first VR headset, the Pico 4, for 6 days now. The feeling when driving is indescribably good. Now you can really say you're sitting in a racing car. The game is also a bomb in terms of performance. Only thing I would wish for in VR. The TV cameras switch over in the repetition, I'm always standing statically at one point on the start/finish line. I would also like to see a pit board displayed after each lap, like the old GTR parts. Round X from Y and Distance Front and Back.

 

Afaik you can assign "switch to next camera" in the control options.

 

I've had mine a couple of days now too, only tried it a bit so far as I've been messing around trying to work out navigation with it, for Steam based PC games, being AMS2 and AC. AC is a pain as I can use the PICO in single player but not multi, and I have organised racing on AC. On AMS2 I find a couple of problems,
1. how to get the steam launcher to show in the PICO.
2. main problem is in the very center of my view it is blurry for cars that are not close to me. I have no idea what settings to use so they are unchanged so far. I've been running a 4K monitor on mid settings and it's been good, so hoping for similar with the PICO.

 

I just got the PICO 4 and I've no idea how to refine my visuals. I'm pretty useless with this stuff so can't even find a way to run AMS2 from VD. If you could help I'd really appreciate it but you should assume I know nothing. sorry.

 

You press the furthest left button on the left controller and a SteamVR menu will appear with your games on.
It's best you use Pico4 Virtual Desktop though, it's a better image quality but you trade extra latency.

Yeah. You're stretching a 2kx2k screen image over your entire field of view. The PPD inside the Pico headset is a little lower than using a 32" 720p monitor.
In the game VR menu see if you can push up the Supersampling slider. Also MSAA helps a lot.
SteamVR 100% scaling should be around 3100x3100 per eye resolution.

 

NB! Anyone who is running HP Reverb G2 headset, read this for future!!

TLDR: when your headset starts failing, its probably your cable. Drop the frame rate to 60Hz in Windows Mixed Reality Portal so you can still run it and order a new 6 meter cable from Amazon HP store ASAP.


I run my headset almost completely seated in racing sims. After 2.5 years of use all of a sudden the headset started getting visual noise in some small parts (like analog "snow"-like noise) and I started experiencing random blackouts for a few seconds.

This was due to the box in the cables becoming faulty. I was able to turn down the frame rate from 90 Hz to 60 Hz in Windows Mixed Reality and continue using it, but it was quite strainful for the eyes and I don't recommend for anyone medium to long term to use at 60 Hz. I used it like that for a week until a new cable arrived (NB! make sure you order 6 meter long, not 1 meter long by mistake). I ordered the new cable from Amazon HP store and it took ca 5 days to arrive. The new cable has a bigger box and an ON/OFF button.

I hope this helps if you all of a sudden start having this issue and wondering what went wrong.

 

ciao. Avevi sicuramente il cavo versione 1, che ha dato problemi a parecchie persone… hp lo sostituiva in garanzia gratuitamente dandoti il cavo nuovo versione 2. Quella che le hai tu con il pulsante on off sulla scatola.

 

Thanks. I was out of warranty and I honestly could not have waited for any warranty process.

 

hahahahaha, thats great.
I love VR.
Not that anyone probably cares but VR has been a dream come true for me. Growing up, all my friends were getting their drivers license and having fun in their crappy cars while i was stuck in the passenger seat wishing i could drive.

For some reason, the state would not give me a license, pretty sure it is because i am legally blind, hmm go figure.

Sure, its not the same as real life driving, but it puts me in the cockpit and now i crave more and more immersion.

Took me a long time to save up for a PC and VR headset + awesome DD wheel.
A motion rig is all i need now. Some day, somehow I will get one

 

So with the Varjo Aero price drop I'm thinking about moving from my Reverb G2.
Has anyone done similar, and is it worth it? GPU is a 4090. I usually run AMS2 on the G2 @ 3100x3100 with game super-sampling set to 2x.

 

I went from G2/3080ti to aero/3080ti and now 4090. As a yardstick, you will be able to get slightly more efficiency with the aero. With 4090, you can max out ams2. In lowlight conditions, I have to lower the settings.

 

thanks, but what's the image quality like between them, is it night and day or subtle at best?
I also play Elite Dangerous so black levels , how do they compare?

 

Has anyone noticed when running openxr that the ai cars seem to stutter?
I've now switched to vrperfkit and the ai are smooth as silk although overall performance isn't quite as good (G2).

 

I went back to the Reverb G2 after trying the Aero. I had many issues:

- Unsolvable motion blur while moving your head.

- Terrible edge distortion, even with the experimental profile it's still visible/distracting all the time.

- Terrible stereo overlap. I saw a black spot between my eyes/at my nose because of it! This made the device unusable for me.

- Impossible to use the Aero with multiple people because of the insane CA. Had to use manual IPD in their software and adjust all the 4 knobs constantly to get the CA stable, but it's always to much. This process takes 10-15 minutes and everytime that I switch from person to person I have to do all the adjustments AGAIN. This was the worst part of the device, as worst as the stereo overlap.

- Dead pixels, way to many people seem to have them(some returned the Aero 4 times and gave up after that). I had one too.

- The red color is shifted compared to other colors.

- Mura(especially visible in skies)

- No possibility for manual IPD adjustment on the device itself, since I cannot use auto-IPD its a huge flaw.

- Terrible vertical FoV which makes it impossible to play pinball on it.

The Aero was for my the biggest disappointment ever in tech because I was super hyped for it because of all the insanely positive reviews. Which I all still don't understand. I was more happy with my Reverb G2, even if the Aero was the same price, then I still would have preferred the G2. The black levels of the Aero were also not good.

So I waited for an better upgrade. Now I have the Pimax Crystal and that's absolutely next-gen.

All the Aero-issues from above don't apply to the Crystal(I only have a slight shift of color blue, that's all) and the black levels/colors are just amazing compared to the Aero and the G2. It's a massive upgrade.

The black levels of the Crystal are near oled levels(especially with tweak 0.01 in the json, no blooming and super black blacks) and the colors are about the same as oled. The lenses are the clearest that I've seen(glass) and got zero distortions/warping going on (opposite of Aero lenses) and have a much wider sweetspot than the G2+better FoV/Stereo overlap. Where the G2 is about 20-25% sharp in terms of the sweetspot, the Crystal is about 80% sharp in the sweetspot. The PPD/resolution/sharpness is about 60% better than the G2 so you can imagine how it looks in AMS2 combined with a 4090. I can run it's native resolution of 4315x5100px+2xMSAA with some fixed foveated rendering applied (at 71%+200% horizontal+10% up, almost invisible) and keep 90fps/hz locked at daytime racing.

 

That's interesting. Thank you. A lot of your negatives seem to be ignored or glossed over by reviews. I was already a little unsure due to the online requirement for the headset software to work but you've just removed it completely from my curiosity.

I was similar with a Quest Pro. It felt like a huge step in the wrong direction and I actually felt scammed and lied to by youtube reviewers.

Not sure I want to go the Pimax Crystal direction though. The battery and clown size of the thing put me right off. I don't know anyone with one so can't demo it.

It's looking like a Somnium VR1 if it's priced similar.

 

Yes nice and day between the G2 and the aero. I have had it for two years/1400hrs and no issues whatsoever. I don't even use the CA fix de lopped by Varjo. It seems as though people with lower ipd are more sensitive. But maybe the pimax works better for you . I had it preordered because of local dimming and a slightly better FOV but when I saw that it was shipped without eye tracking, I wasn't interested. And now, with more interesting headsets around the corner, it doesn't make sense to have it for me. Had they designed a purely pcvr hmd without the awkward design, battery, etc, I would probably have it. And then, pimax customer support is far from stellar.

 

"When it worked, it was superb, but that was rare".
I have lots of sim racing gear and several friends had constant disconnects. But if your setup is simple, maybe you'll be fine. Hopefully they fixed most of those issues, though.

 

Yes I also had connection issues with the earlier Pimax Play software versions and firmwares(same kind of issues as in these video's). They simply released the Crystal to fast, so those issues are all solved now. It's been rock stable ever since. But yes Pimax is not a professional company despite the fact that they have the headset with the best visuals now.

So yes as they both said in those same video's: "When it worked, it was superb" and now that it's all solved; "it's superb" as they all say.

I have no issues with the weight. It's the most comfortable hmd that I've used until now. But only with the big foam, the comfort was horrible with the small foam that was installed on default(but both foams were in the box). The battery charges automatically even when it's off. I never have to replace it anymore(since it works for ~7-8 hours). The battery gives a good balance to the Crystal, I bought a studioformcreative counterweight for the Reverb G2 which did actually the same. But yes it's strange that the device needs a battery, it shouldn't be needed and over the years the battery quality will be worse, but it came with two and I can probably buy a new one if both don't last long enough anymore.

The VR1 is going to be more expensive, it's rumoured to be almost 2 times the price of the Crystal, but it's still unsure. It also comes with a double design poly lenses instead single design glass lenses(Crystal has glass lenses now, I got poly lenses from Pimax at first, they were unusable, the worst lenses that I've ever had). I hope that they can get their distortion profile right and that it won't cause any glare or warping. Yes, the 130 hFoV looks promising and the rest of the specs are about the same as the Crystal. But the Crystal also gets a bigger wide FoV lens soon which add's about 10 extra horizontal FoV. It's still unsure if they will be as good as the current 35PPD glass lenses. But having said that, everything from Somnium is unsure since it's their first hmd.