VR vs TRIPLES in Sim Racing - How to DECIDE? - Feat. Pimax Crystal

in one of our recent Community surveys we were surprised to see that only 12% and 133% respectively were using triple screens of virtual reality headsets and when it came to Future purchases the two camps were evenly split what is your dream Sim setup the decision depends on manufacturers and is very complex at the end of last year I put a brand new triple setup into operation myself and shortly thereafter pimax provided us with a state of art VR headset for a limited test period pimex Crystal I was very excited to see which technology would convince me the most in terms of field of view immersion performance and driving experience in everyday Sim racing and I'm going to share my thoughts and experiences including pros and cons with you [Music] today you're watching overtake I'm Michel and we will start today with an overview and specification of the two objects of comparison the PX crystal is one of the craziest headsets you can buy right now it costs over $1,400 and was awarded at CES in Las Vegas in January as having the highest Clarity of any consumer VR headset a resolution of 2880 by 2880 pixels per eye refresh rate of up to 100 Hertz 200 nit brightness local dimming and 20 ,000 by1 contrast is promising but certainly require a very powerful PC especially for our use case the official recommendation is an RTX 380 or better no wonder the total pixel count of the PX crystal is exactly 50% higher than my 7,680 by 1440p triple setup we'll talk later about the performance losses I experience with my RTX 480 system in I use Asus um 31.5 in screens uh the vg32 vqr with 10065 HZ refresh rate attached to my simlab p1x Pro cockpit I'm very happy with the monitor so far they have a very consistent picture and vibrant colors in Germany they cost about €320 if you add the almost €300 for the integrated triple mount on my rig you're up to almost €1,300 which is not far from the PX there are of course much cheaper alternatives for both varant which also reduce the system requirements and therefore further costs with slightly lower resolutions with a Pico 4 met Quest 3 or other headsets you can also get started for $4 or $500 or Euros with triped screens you can also go down to 5,660 by 1080 resolutions and often get even higher refresh rates and better response times crucial for racing for less than $250 or euro per monitor there are many options on the market not to mention super ultra white monitors and solutions like track IR I also covered psvr2 with Gran Turismo 7 here last year uh feel free to check that out there's no question that a triple screen setup requires much more space than a VR kit mine is almost 130 CM or about 50 in wide so much for the basics before we get to the driving Impressions and some very interesting topics a few words about setting up and configuring PX has several guides blocks and helpful videos about the crystal headset and its settings I use this setup video as a guide on their Channel but the paper instructions are also easy to understand the black USB 2.0 cable is apparently optional I ignored it and everything worked right out of the box apart from a free display port connection on your graphics card there are no other requirements for using the crystal nor does it need a Tracker or anything like that although the headset is powered uh via the USB hub it still needs an additional battery of which two are included the battery life is between 3 and 5 hours depending on the application charging takes up to 2.5 hours with the included charger and it is possible to perform a hot swap that must be done within 1 minute the crystal also supports dfr Dynamic for viated rendering with it tring simply put this improves performance by rendering only the area you are looking at this is not noticeable during use Auto ipd is also great to have this is an adjustment of the lenses to the distance of your pupils in a range of um 58 to 72 mm you can also set up your room and environment in Steam VR though I sometimes had to reset the position when switching between racing titles when it comes to configuration and the depth of FPS gain including using open XR this is an absolute rabbit hole with countless tutorials and options our colleague Yanik is also a VR user since a few weeks with the P4 and according to him it took several weeks just to Tinker the optimization of automobilista 2 he recommends this video by DDF racer for VR and Sim racing you have to be the type of person who spends hours researching and tweaking which is not everyone's cup of tea for the triples it's not a walk in the park either especially if you want to avoid using the media surround or IMD Affinity tools which means some work like adjusting XML files in some cases such as the code Master's titles where you don't even get the real triple support but you only have this stretched image you can't avoid the Nvidia surround solution as an RTX owner for example which can be a bit clumsy at times a single screen is certainly less of a headache but in my opinion the result is worth the effort in both cases don't let that put you off there are tons of great great tutorials out there and there will be more to come on our Channel too so be sure to subscribe and hit that Bell to make sure you don't miss any we are also interested in your journey between switching from the triples to VR and back I know examples of both directions uh would be very interesting to hear your story in the comments so what does it look like when you do your first laps with the pimax crystal the image sharpness colors and contrast are very impressive everything looks crisp you will notice that dark or black surfaces or areas will actually appear dark and not washed out I did not notice any screen door effect visible grids or pixels the clarity is really where I wanted it to be when this whole VR thing started a few years ago the sense of depth and the active perception of the environment are factors that really appeal to you to be able to look around the cockpit to look into the Apex that's just another level and when you go go back to the flat screens um there's definitely something missing the sense of speed increases too and I felt that I could adapt more quickly to new situations or tracks because the breaking points and steering were better coordinated with my hand and eyes only with dir really 2.0 it was the exact opposite it will take me a while to get up to speed of driving on the Monitor and motion sickness is a factor for me or was more at the beginning at the first sign of sweating or dizziness you should stop take a walk in the fresh air and start with flat racing tracks before tackling bumpy rally tracks Yanik opted for VR SS at the 10hour potona race last weekend and said that the puddles were much easier to spot in the new rain and iRacing I tried it myself and have to say that iRacing generally works really well in VR and you get a good feel for the car in the first moment if I keep the same graphic settings I use on my triples I usually lose about 30 to 40% of my FPS going from G 90200 fps to about 60 FPS in ACC iRacing and ams2 that said anything above 60 felt good to me with the Crystal but ideally you want to tweak it to 90 plus using open XR or lowering the resolution scaling to for example 70% in Steam VR while testing and switching between my triples and VR I noticed the field of view aspect something that is very important for our Sim Racers the human eye can see about 200 to 220° horizontally according to the manufacturer the 35 PPD standard lenses of the PX Crystal achieve a horizontal fov of up to 115° which is very strong in VR comparison they also have a big fov lens in the work which should improve things even more of course you can change your view at any time by just moving your head but you must if you want to see a car approaching from the side using this highly recommended fov calculator that we Linked In the description my triples allow for a natural nearly 160° horizontal view which pretty much stretches from left to right front windows for many cars it makes it much easier for me to be aware of cars around me without having to move my head too much that was quite surprising but also logical when you think about it this is definitely an area where VR headsets need to improve going forward I also have to say that I still noticed the dark edges while using the crystal which killed a bit of immersion but it's way better for example than with the psvr2 but thankfully also no light leaks so there were some pros and cons better performance more FPS with the triples a slight win in terms of the horizontal fov but the pure experience much closer to reality is much more remarkable with VR especially with a crystal clear unit comfort and ergonomics are also important factors the PX Crystal weighs around 1.1 kg or 2.4 lb including the battery since the battery is on the back the weight is well distributed after longer use I did not feel any significant pressure points however pimax is working on further improvements and head straps it could be argued that it even adds to the immersion as race drivers wor helmets that weigh a bit more depending on the specification as we just had the f OV topic interestingly an FIA compliant helmet has to guarantee a minus plus 90 AKA 180° field of view another side note I think the crystal could be a bit nicer in terms of material and finish for the price but I also understand that technology and weight are Paramount some factors you should also consider when deciding between triples and V some of you have nice equipment in terms of Wheels button boxes dashboards and other cool stuff to improve the immersion of the place you are Sim racing in for example you have a 1,000 or dollar wheel that is super fancy yeah you just can't see it anymore you won't see them when you enter the virtual world where ideally you will have the well- modeled replic car of the real car that you are driving uh right next to you or right in front of you it's a mixed back but you get the idea using buttons rotaries and coders and sometimes we have a lot of them can be a challenge with VR the same goes for checking your phone interacting with your friends families pets and sometimes just eating or drinking while driving removing the headset between sessions can also be annoying so think carefully about how you want to use it and what your priorities are so what does it look like for me personally after all of this as long as I'm still allowed to test the pimax I'm extremely happy about short immersive trips automobilista 2 in particular has a lot of content to offer that is simply fantastic in VR especially the historic stuff I'm currently very happy with the triples for long-term use I think a super ultra wide would have also worked for me and would have been more relaxed uh for streaming ideally you would have just both triples and VR but for me the deciding factors are graphical detail and harmony with high FPS and the Comfort factors I just mentioned which currently make me use the screens more especially when I want to drive for longer periods of time while switching between games on the other hand and you can use many other applications with the VR headset there are more games like halflife Alex for example um even if Sim racing is already one of the best use cases do you have any other ones uh for triples besides Sim racing not sure maybe space or flight Sims um something also to think about though that's it for today's video thank you for watching I mentioned psvr2 earlier that might also be interesting to watch for you see you next time w

Channel: OverTake_gg

Views: 30,589

Keywords: esports racing, sim racing, simracing, overtakegg, overtake, overtake gg, ovrtk gg, pimax crystal, vr vs triples, triple screen, vr headset, review

Id: he-AvQl9v0s

Length: 13min 3sec (783 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 11 2024