BTW Play for Dream is releasing also about now, they’ve already shipped to kickstarters and say they’ll ship to regular customers later this month: Play for Dream Expects to Adopt Android XR for Standalone OS and Bring New Focus to US Market
Now it’s going to be interesting! With this coming up and then Valve and Samsung in the pipeline, damn, it’s actually going to be difficult to choose 
Especially if they’re going to retrofit android XR, damn, it’s going to be an interesting headset!
Do you know if it has a displayport connection for pcvr?
No, it doesn’t have DP connection, but the image quality over Wifi is very good (with a little tweaks in their app).
Depends on how you look at it. For a casual consumer, Index might have been just another headset, but from the technical point of view, Index was quite a huge change from previous Rift, or Vive.
It was (to my knowledge) the first headset sporting low latency LCD, which allowed high refresh rate and get rid of smearing (which was typical for OLEDs). Thanks to that you can run it at 144Hz nowadays.
It was the first headset with canted optics (and canted rendering). Which was then disabled, but was there anyway.
It was the first (and the last) headset with Valve patented sandwich Fresnel lenses. Which provided large eye box and great geometric stability at the cost of horrendous god rays and stray light.
It came with “knuckles” which for me are still the best VR controllers on the market (balancing ergonomics and features).
And last but not least, it came with LH v2, which may look almost the same to LH v1 to the casual observer, but internally is quite different and basically perfect (there is nothing you can really improve).
So Index may look bland, but it was probably one of the most advancing headset ever released, which was also successful and which set de facto standard to which any other headset can still be compared.
Very true. That’s why I loved it so much it was a, wonderful headset very very well engineered. But just in terms of regular vr specs it was a, bit boring
Index (codename “Frank”) was the result of their high end development (codename “Vader”) after they realised no one would purchase a £3,000 HMD
Despite the display panels (BOE) being a MY2017 product, they held up very well with super sampling due to density of sub pixels.
There was a lot of subtle engineering in the Index HMD, including the dual compound Fresnel which managed to squeeze a couple more degrees vertical and horizontal compared to competing HMD.
As an ergonomics specialist, I found Index a logical progression of the awesome Oculus Rift CV1, you can clearly see the design influence.
However Valve boasted the industrial design was done in 6 weeks, and this was telling due to some weak points including the tether routing, BMR ear speaker mounting, headstrap spring stack and the decision to remove the wide face gasket weeks before launch ( it existed in preproduction sample)
I thoroughly enjoyed the user experience in Index despite the 13ppd and internal lens glare.
I’m still using my Index as it’s an excellent choice for fast rhythm games like Synth Riders, and older PCVR games from the 2016-2019 era which generally have lower quality assets.
I thought Pimax came out with a headset with all of this in 2018, the original 5k+ which could do 144hz. Maybe I’m wrong? For canting I think Vrigineers were the first of the modern headsets to do it back in 2017.
This isn’t to minimise the Index, I think it’s an amazing headset.
Risa mentions Canting of Optics vs display panels. To which we could say StarVR was the first for canting panels. Not sure in Canted rendering. Though the og StarVR didn’t use OpenVR so likely their runtime had special rendering in their SDK. At least prior to moving to using OpenVR.
Low latency LCD though would need a deeper dive. Pimax KS headsets definitely use low latency panels. Though there was other less known headset manufacturers that also used LCD panels at 90hz which was the targetted preferred refresh. StarVR under InfiniEye used stacked aspherical lenses before moving to the Hybrid fried egg design.
As for pimax vs Valve we would need to look at Index & pimax release dates and when the higher refresh rates were added.
In very early days Sony lead the pack in refresh though their first headset the PSVR used RGB Oled panels.
Valve does indeed have some cool pluses on the index. It was too bad their headset HDK kits failed; leaving them to move onto making the Index.
I would absolutely prefer a wider FoV above going beyond 30-35 PPD.
But that is unfortunately not what we see in the market, as far as manufacturers are concerned. They are pushing for ever more PPD. In part because they also see the use case of replacing a monitor full value with a headset, but also simply because it‘s easier. Getting a FoV beyond 120 degrees right is not trivial, you get distortions which demand more from your lens design, and possibly narrow the margin for error making it costly due to less yield and more waste from the lenses manufactured, or something comparable.
And as said, if Valve even actively suggest that this headset should be utilized as a Steamdeck with virtual monitor, they have even more reason than any ordinary manufacturer to increase the PPD to make the flat games look almost as good in VR as they would on your high definition monitor.
I am not saying that I am happy with this anticipated choice, but it seems a pretty logical choice from their point of view. There is hardly any competition boasting a significantly wider FoV, but if they want to get folks to seriously consider the Steamdeck use case, it needs to look as good as the AVP. You don‘t get there by pushing for the super-wide FoV.
You are right. For some reason I live in an alternate timeline where Index was released in 2017 
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Readjusting to correct timeline invalidates some of my statements.
Pimax had canted optics and canted rendering. StarVR had something like quad view canted rendering with low res and high res regions overlapping each other. Xtal from Vrgineers had canted optics, but not canted rendering.
For what concerns low persistent panels, Pimax probably might have claimed that, but the panels were not really good (remember black dots and stray light).
So the only feature (or two) which were unique was sandwich lens design and LH v2 tracking, and now I realize the audio was also unique.
Also the microphone! Still outstanding.
Keep in mind original StarVR was LCD at 60hz. The quad rendering I believe was introduced in StarVR One.
Index release Apr 2019
5k+ 120hz & 144hz mode came after(announced in Jan 2020)
5k+ initially released in 2018. With the first model when the new 120hz/144hz modes unavailable with a max top refresh of 110hz. The first release like the Index had the black dot pattern issue; the Index black dot pattern was not as strong and Valve unlike pimax did not exchange headsets over it - Stating this was normal. Iirc 5k+ serial 202.
5kSuper was released in 2020.
Hey @PimaxQuorra When is pimax crystal super launch day? And is everything set up for production and delivery for end of this month? I also like to see some pictures and videos of the pimax crystal super and also the factory behind the scene? Thank in advance for making the best vr headset!!!
Shipping will start this month.
Alright, let’s see if we can film something about the Super production and some behind-the-scenes shots.
Nice I can’t wait for the pimax crystal super 50ppd!!
I expect the first units to be shipped, if really happening at the end of March, to function as (another) beta test. I would feel bad about those who pre-ordered, but if they had any experience with Pimax or read the articles on websites like RoadtoVR or UploadVR they should have known.
So if & when Deckard becomes available towards the end of the year, the Super hopefully has dealt with a number of issues it will inevitable show at launch, and a meaningful comparison will become possible with a most certainly very well polished Deckard and the Super, not as rough around the edges any more and coming closer to the best experience one can expect it to reach.
I am curious how that comparison will pan out, and if the difference in resolution will help the Super survive against what I expect to be a superior Deckard in almost every other aspect. Especially as the Deckard is said to cost roughly half the price of the Super.
However if Valve go below 4K per eye to keep costs at bay this could be the one point which may make the Deckard seem mortal after all and make it a difficult decision for me. Then it would be my Index experience all over again.
Sweviver has put out this video, an overview of Pimax over the last 10 years.
Now I’m not sure it’s a good idea when employees make videos like this despite trying to be unbiased. This video would have so much more meaning if it wasn’t a paid advertisement.
For me the reality of Pimax is something much different.
Pimax are still a non profit organisation which seeks bailouts on a regular almost clockwork cycle. The last round being 2 months ago for $14 million.
In 10 years Pimax have raised $82.7 million that’s a whopping $9million a year!
So where are Pimax now after 10 years? They are still a small niche company which regularly gets overtaken by new start ups like Bigscreen, Somnium and now Shiftall with the excellent MeganeX. Pimax wasted years developing the Crystal, Portal and Sword controllers. Many millions gone for nothing.
Pimaxes biggest USP is FOV but Pimax have turned their back on the 8KX in favour of resolution which has seen some success with the Crystal and Simmers market.
Now Pimax are in a world of hurt because now they’re finally going small with the Dream Air but only after being blind sided by a new startup.
Pimaxes wasteful strategy of pumping out design after design with no coherent long term goal means they’re still at the start up phase and haven’t grown from the 200 staffers they’ve had from practically the start.
Nearly $90million gone and no closer to sales figures that can sustain a viable business model.
If Pimax sell 10,000 HMDs a year and spent $10 million each headset is costing $1000 on average to produce. That’s a shocking figure when you see the Crystal Light sell below that price. So Pimax are not making any profit at all. Never have. Maybe never will.
Hmm not sure I’m that negative. Pimax actually seems to have made great impressions with their latest generation of headsets, people really seem to like them. It seems they have replaced pimaxusa and that long haired dude (forgot his name) with Jaap which seems to have made a very positive impact too, Jaap really seems to be doing a great job. Sure, they most likely have only burned cash so far but they improved a lot during their journey. I honestly believe they can still turn profitable although competition is also heating up of course.
