Wow! Dream Air

So I gave up on VR a few years ago after the Crystal.. too cumbersome/too heavy. So I saw the Dream Air and it basically had end-game specs so gave it a try. Blown away really! Some of my thoughts for someone that has had just about every VR headset under the sun besides the new new stuff like MageneX and Samsung XR:

Box arrived in perfect shape. Everything well packaged. I had already bought 6 foot USB and DP 1.4 extension cables as I always feel VR headset cables were always just a little too short. I knew the repeater/amplifier box would boost the signal and I was right; zero issues with the 6 foot extensions between PC and splitter box.

Mounted my Basestation 2.0's, loaded the Pimax software, instantly detected headset, set my IPD, launched SteamVR. Everything went perfectly smooth. Well my Index controllers won't update; but that's not a Pimax issues and it seems to be a well-known problem. Anyway they still work fine so I'll deal with that later.

The headset quality is decent and so light. Not sure why people are complaining about the built quality it's definitely acceptable. The head strap took some fiddling but so far so good. The facial interface for me was/is fine, but I still may cut the two support tabs up top. Definitely wasn't seriously uncomfortable as many people here were saying, maybe they have narrow faces or something.

The visuals are EPIC. Finally no immersion breaking LCD panels. Perfect blacks/contrast/colors. Clarity off the chart, no pixels or screen door effects. Basically edge to edge clarity. Biggest problem for Pimax with this headset is it's end-game visuals really. Unless they come out with a wider FOV version or something. And I haven't even tried the Sboys3 driver yet for games like Alien Isolation or FOV settings.

OK the audio is pretty quiet, but I'm not going to ding it for that as I ALWAYS wear IEM's. No VR headset audio solution is going to be able to compete with quality IEM's.

I just need to do a belt/clip system so the hefty cable on the rear doesn't pull down on my neck.

Absolutely perfect tracking; Haven't played Beat Saber in years and on first try beat expert on random song.

Having tried three Pimax headsets in the past I was never really impressed. But this baby is the real deal.

TLDR:

1. EPIC visuals.
2. Decent comfort.
3. Decent Build quality.
4. Painless setup.
5. Best-in-class tracking.
6. Stellar weight.

I give a 9 out of 10.

How long did it take from order to delivery?

two grand? ughhhh

At least the size has gotten reasonable, whenever I think VR I think of the early ski-goggle style Oculus stuff. Way too big/bulky for my tastes.

Those pretty sweet, not that kind of money sweet, but remembering VR from the 90's to something like this petty fantastic.

I have been eyeballing the Steam Frame, but have never committed to getting it when available.

Cool. Pretty sure a friend of mine has contributed to that design. He just had his first child at 50 so I have not heard from him much lately lol.

spaceman said:

Cool. Pretty sure a friend of mine has contributed to that design. He just had his first child at 50 so I have not heard from him much lately lol.

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First child? At 50 I had my fifth.

Cool you know someone who may have contributed. It'd be interesting to hear the thoughts on the design process.

If I ever hear from him again lol. He was not expecting to ever be a dad.

jfreund said:

How long did it take from order to delivery?

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Ordered January, delivery end of May.

how is the foveated rendering? is it something per-game or is it something you can just turn on and get performance back?