All Pimax Crystal users can update their Crystal’s firmware to enable eye-tracking (including Dynamic Foveated Rendering and Auto-IPD), as well as Standalone mode (beta).
Eye-tracking
Pimax has ended beta testing for eye-tracking software for the Crystal headset and released the feature to the public.
The Pimax Crystal is a high-end VR headset with 2880×2880 pixels per eye. The eye-tracking technology powered by Tobii registers the position of the user’s eyes 120 times per second, and enables multiple features, optimizing the device performance and user experience.
Social
With eye-tracking, the Crystal headset can enhance users’ social presence by reflecting their real-time eye movements like rolling and blinking on the user’s avatar. In social VR experiences such as VRChat, users will benefit from such features and enjoy the lifelike experience and the connection with fellow players. (For VRChat, you’ll need the VRCFT plugin.)
Performance
Tobii’s eye-tracking also powers Dynamic Foveated Rendering (DFR). Unlike other VR headsets, Crystal has built DFR into its Pimax Client so that it’s compatible with almost all VR games without any modding required. DFR helps the headset render only the area you’re looking at, which reduces GPU shading load and allocates computing power to other critical areas. In our benchmark tests, we’ve seen a 15% to 40% FPS boost.
(See Mixed’s coverage by Alan Truly: “Pimax Crystal’s foveated rendering supercharged my PC VR system”)
See here a compatibility list.
Comfort
IPD (interpupillary distance) plays a critical role in avoiding eye strains and giving individual users visual comfort, but measuring it can be difficult. With auto-IPD, the eye-tracking hardware & software determines the distance between the user’s eyes, and adjust lens cups automatically with the tiny motors in the headset to get the best visual experience for users.
Additionally, the Crystal headset offers a positioning guide to make sure users wearing the headset properly. Indications are provided in the headset to help users adjust the headset vertically and horizontally.
Intuitive Interaction
Gaze-based interaction and object selection in games and applications are gaining traction. The eye-tracking technology in Crystal allows developers to innovate new input modalities to enhance the gaming experience.
To use eye-tracking on the Pimax Crystal, you can follow these steps.
Standalone beta
The Pimax Crystal has a switch to toggle the headset from PC VR to Standalone mode. The Standalone mode has been reviewed in a closed beta group as well as tech reviewers, and is now moving to public beta.
The Crystal is Pimax’s first VR headset that also offers standalone mode, after having had pure PCVR headsets with the 4K, 5K, and 8K series. Standalone mode will be available to all Crystal headsets via an OTA update. (The Pimax Portal will share the library with the Crystal.)
Titles that are available:
- – Whirligig VR Media Player
- – X-Fitness
- – Pierhead Arcade 2
- – Labyrinth Trap VR
- – Z Show
- – Voxel Fly
- – Frog & Froggie
- – OpenBrush
- – Hitstream (soon)
- – David Slade Mysteries: Case Files (soon)
- – First Person Tennis (soon)
Overseeing the development is Carol Yuan: “These games use the Unity engine, We’ve got several other game engines coming up, with corresponding games, that’ll quickly add much more content to the library. We’ve already signed agreements with those developers and those games will be ported to the Pimax Store soon.”
