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[PIMAX] All about the VR headsets

Discussion in 'VR Headsets and Sim Gaming - Virtual Reality' started by Pit, Sep 19, 2017.

  1. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    Of course 8K set exist. It is the 8K X (2x4K, no upscaler) that has no prototype as far as I know, but I could be wrong.

    There is hundreds (well, a lot) of comparison videos on the internet, and most of the time, no one has the same "vision" about wish one to use. The only real consensus that I could find, is that both headsets (5k+ and 8K) are really good ones. There is no big looser, just preferences. I kept the 8K for no particular reason.

    There is a video from pimax that show that their tracking system works better that vive with only one base station. It seems to be doing a really good job at tracking.

    The Vive base station lighthouse 2.0 are only sell with the Vive pro headset as far as I know.
  2. The Iron Wolf

    The Iron Wolf Active Member

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    Thank you, this is helpful information.
    About Vive bases - they can be USB powered, right? I found some bases without power supply on ebay.
    Also, is there any benefit in getting 2 bases, if use will be just seated/racing? Or one base is just fine?
  3. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    I never tried one base, but I had some problem with 360 rotation when someone was standing in front of one of my base (into MY zone). So, I guess you will be fine if you don't try to turn around to look behind.

    Never powered the base by usb. Usb cable is for update. I don't know and my setup is kinda troublesome to check that right now. I doubt.
    • Like Like x 1
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2018
  4. Fluke

    Fluke Member

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    Backer 2679 and swap my 8k to the 5k+, just hoping I have done the right thing.:confused:

    BTW my new liquid cooled PC build is:
    • ASUS PRIME X299-DELUXE Motherboard
    • Intel Core i9 7920X CPU
    • 64GB (8x8GB) Corsair DDR4 Vengeance RGB White, PC4-24000
    • 2x Crucial MX500 1tb SSD drives
    • 1x Samsung 970 PRO 1tb V-NAND M.2
    • Asus 2080ti
    [​IMG]

    Hoping its enough. :thumbs
    • Winner Winner x 1
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2018
  5. The Iron Wolf

    The Iron Wolf Active Member

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    Thanks for your inputs Pierre. I went ahead and placed an order on 5K+.
  6. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    I received this e-mail yesterday. Mirabel is an international airport at 163 km from my home. I had a phone to pay $27.26 cad for duty. I refused and sent it back. Of course not. It's paid and I am waiting for it any day.

    Greetings from Pimax VR,
    Hi futurist,
    We have already delivered the item for you, the tracking info is as below, please kindly follow it, thanks.
    Carrier: FedEx
    Tracking no.: ---------------------
    Tracking website: https://www.17track.net/en
    Thank you very much for your interest and support to Pimax team all the time.
    Best regards,
    Pimax Support

    Tracking:
    2018-12-29 10:27
    MIRABEL, PQ, International shipment release - Import
    2018-12-29 07:18
    MIRABEL, PQ, At destination sort facility
    2018-12-29 03:58
    MEMPHIS, TN, Departed FedEx location
    2018-12-29 01:01
    MEMPHIS, TN, In transit
    2018-12-28 23:59
    MEMPHIS, TN, Arrived at FedEx location
    2018-12-28 14:59
    ANCHORAGE, AK, Departed FedEx location
    2018-12-27 21:29
    TA YUAN DISTRICT TW, In transit
    2018-12-27 20:33
    TA YUAN DISTRICT TW, In transit
    2018-12-27 20:33
    TA YUAN DISTRICT TW, Scheduled delivery updated, Scheduled per shipper request
    2018-12-27 15:29
    ANCHORAGE, AK, In transit
    2018-12-27 13:04
    ANCHORAGE, AK, Arrived at FedEx location
    2018-12-26 21:25
    LANTAU ISLAND HK, At local FedEx facility, Scheduling per shipper request
    2018-12-25 22:10
    LANTAU ISLAND HK, At local FedEx facility, Scheduling per shipper request
    2018-12-24 22:53
    LANTAU ISLAND HK, At local FedEx facility, Scheduling per shipper request
    2018-12-23 20:19
    LANTAU ISLAND HK, At local FedEx facility, Scheduling per shipper request
    2018-12-22 20:57
    LANTAU ISLAND HK, At local FedEx facility, Scheduling per shipper request
    2018-12-22 12:47
    TSUEN WAN HK, Picked up, Scheduling per shipper request
    2018-12-20 05:02
    Shipment information sent to FedEx
    • Like Like x 1
    • Winner Winner x 1
  7. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    What was your backer number, so we have a rough idea where Pimax is up to. They certainly did not deliver the majority of HMDs by Xmas as promised.
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2018
  8. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    1229.
  9. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    Got it this morning. Did not have much time to play with it. It's nice. Not the revolution I was expecting, still, the best on the market.

    IMG_2119.JPG
    • Like Like x 5
  10. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    Congrats I am looking forward to your thoughts once you have had the time to play a bit more with your Pimax.
    • Agree Agree x 1
  11. BlazinH

    BlazinH Well-Known Member

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    It appears their big bold claim of , "A new generation in VR", when you opened the box wasn't very exciting and convincing for you :D. Since I just started in VR I'm not the one to say which is the best on the market but the new Odyssey+ is pretty amazing. There is no SDE at all (I know what SDE looks like from owning dlp projectors). You can sometimes notice some very very small dots where rendering lighter colors but barely. Colors are amazing too and tracking seems to work flawlessly also. So I hope the Pimax delivers after all this waiting and isn't now one or two years old technology.
  12. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    Okay, I'll try to give you my first impressions that I had with the headset.

    - The first impression was about the box. It's so small. Since there is only the headset, it make sense.
    - I tested only at normal FOV (small, normal, large). I simply don't feel the need to go wider. I will one day, don't worry.
    - Like I said, I don't feel a huge difference with my Vive. But coming back to it, it felt small and fuzzy. Jagged edge are less evident on the 8k of course. But there is some in the bloom and highlight.
    - I can see the pattern in the pixel, the round distortion of the image while moving, the Fresnel, the black edges. But they are less than the Vive for sure, except for the distortion as the image is not big enough in the Vive to be distorted.
    - I am more happy with the vertical gain in the FOV. That helped me a lot in my games. The horizontal gain is great also, don't get me wrong.
    - While playing, I did not look much at the side, because it was a bit distorted and fuzzy(like looking in big thick glasses, just a bit of deformation). It's just when there is movement in that area, you are drawn to it and you focus. It's useful as hell, no beautiful as heaven. In the Vive, you don't see it if you don't turn your head.
    - The headset is well balanced. The control are simple. The phone jack doesn't click, but worked fine. The strap are simple and they work. I had the headset for a long time and did not feel the head pressure all the time.
    - Close object in VR are close. The fish in The Blue are right into your face. Its great.
    - The Pitool app is simple. The room setup is only standing, no room scale. You can still play room scale.
    - I have rendering issue with Elite Dangerous and DCS. The 2 eyes don't overlap properly. I will have to communicate with Pimax.
    - I had a lot of issues with SteamVR, but I think it's not related to Pimax, but to the fact of having 2 monitors and a headset at the same time. Audiosheild did not start with 2 monitors. Other did.
    - Did not play with over sampling. I'm still at the stage of making things work.

    So, am I happy? Yes. Do I recommend it? It's an expensive toy. But while playing, I could easily forget about the headset, and that's a big plus.
    • Informative Informative x 3
  13. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    Today, I took a bit of a break from building my rig to test my Pimax.
    I still had a few issue with Elite Dangerous and DCS not rendering properly. I tried to install Piplay, and everything just stops. SteamVR did not want to start anymore.
    I logged and contacted Pimax. Withing 15 min, I had a response telling me to remove Piplay and reinstall Pitool. I did. Still had my rendering issue, but it turn out to be just a setting set to off for performance.
    Now, everything works like it should.
    Elite Dangerous is beautiful because of my 1080ti, and the feeling is so much better with the Pimax. Now I can read text easily and look all around in combat. This is great.
    Can't wait to play it on a working 6DOF.
    • Like Like x 5
  14. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    Just seen a review video from someone who purchased it retail, WTF...:mad:. obviously Pimax are being strategic in who they are sending a headset to....
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2019
  15. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    And yet another Pimax delay apology, this time with the promise Kickstarter HMDs will be sent out in January: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pimax/comments/adhd0n/apology_for_the_delays_with_kickstarter_campaign/

    Dear community,

    We are extremely sorry for the delays with Kickstarter campaign. Please accept our sincere apologies for being overly optimistic and providing only sporadic official communications.

    Through January 5th, 2019 we have produced a total of 4,650 headsets and shipped 2,027 units to our valuable backers. The first thing most will notice is the large difference between the number of headsets produced and the number shipped.

    We feel it necessary to provide backers with much more details on some of the challenges we have faced in completing the development process and quickly delivering your headsets to you. What follows is a detailed list:

    1. Quality Assurance (QA) testing and insufficient manpower for the additional checks.

    Due to reports from backers who have reported quality issues our response was to raise the standard of quality via more advanced and thorough testing procedures. We know that our backers and customers have high expectations for quality products so we instituted a series of new systems to both insure the best quality but also for QA reports to properly flow to the production and assembly teams for adjustments to reduce the incidence of any issues that are discovered. This resulted in additional time required to process devices before they are released.

    Therefore, specifically our response to this was to add additional steps into the QA process and as a result this required additional manpower. To ensure an ideal quality, every product now must pass stringent additional QA testing which includes lengthy sanity testing. The team could initially test up to 40 units per day but this process required time to become efficient and we continually trained more personnel for this process. We then began a process of hiring additional experienced QA personnel. Once hired we train them for two (2) weeks before adding them officially to the team.

    2. Package issues and logistic limitations

    We have two vendors who supply the packaging materials for our head mounted displays. One of the vendors supplied boxes with quality issues that prevented their use. These boxes were returned for replacement and it required time to remanufacture the packaging. Another concern was that better packaging would reduce the stress on the HMD during overseas transport as we have evidence this contributed to some of the quality issues upon delivery. In addition, to increase logistic efficiency, we agreed with our logistic supplier that we would not ship every day but instead once every two working days. This also has delayed the delivery.

    3. The difficulties of manufacturing a hardware product for a Kickstarter campaign

    We find that there is a big difference between a Kickstarter campaign as Pimax 8K and a commercial project like the Pimax 4K. For the 4K deliveries we started selling products when we had already thousands of units produced in the warehouse, whereas for 8K, we started crowd funding first when there was only a prototype product. We have overcome considerable challenges in the process of R&D which include upgrading the tracking to the newer Lighthouse 2.0 standard which required far more time than we originally expected.

    We know backers are eagerly anticipating receiving their pledges so we have chosen to deliver as early as possible despite the fact we were still at the production ramp-up stage. The ramp-up stage has a much higher degree of uncertainty than longer running production lines.

    4. Inadequate customer service and slow response times

    The amount of manpower required for customer service for a new product line is difficult to predict. Because the software and firmware of the 8K and 5K+ headsets are a very active ongoing development process providing full support resources has not been synced up between support staff and our development team.

    We KNOW that the best way to say sorry is not just words, but ACTIONS. Therefore, here are our key next steps:

    1. Shipping Transparency:
    To increase clarity on shipments and deliveries, within this week we will release a spreadsheet with all our backers’ specific delivery information and updated on a daily basis.

    2. Continue to quickly increase QA Manpower.
    We will optimize the planning of manpower capacity and speed up the hiring of testing engineers, while we are enhancing the training and efficiency of these personnel for a more rapid testing. Our new QA target will be to fully test 280 headsets per day.

    3. Expansion of the support team and elimination of vague responses.
    We already have a dedicated group of customer service personnel and we will keep expanding the team by hiring more dedicated service professionals. We certainly need to improve our communication methodology and provide clear and concise answers to our backers when dealing with enquiries rather than vague responses like ‘shipping soon’.

    4.Additional Resources to reduce BACKLOG.
    We know the backlog is clearly causing consternation. We plan to put more resources in production and the reduction of backlog and we will accelerate updates on the status with the community.

    Our goal is to push the limits of VR and while we continue to be extremely enthusiastic in this endeavor, we freely admit that as a start-up growing quickly, we have not done well in respect to the aspects mentioned above.

    Over the last month we have increased production capacity to the point where we expect to complete all Kickstarter production approximately mid January and because shipping capacity has also increased with an average of 100 units per day we expect all devices to ship by the end of this month.

    We are grateful that the community is continuing to support us. Whether the feedback is positive or negative we treasure them with sincerity because only with these true words we are encouraged to do better and create the experience backers expect and deserve.

    Sincerely and Respectfully,
    The Pimax Team
    January 5th, 2019
  16. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the heads up @noorbeast , but it does make me wonder if I will ever receive the 'X', or the other items for tracking etc...
  17. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    Pimax is currently showing off the completed but yet to be shipped eye tracking. It does not seem like they have tackled foveated rendering yet:

  18. marco balletta

    marco balletta Member

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    I have got my pimax 8k last week.
    I have not got a chance to try it much.
    I tried project cars 2 and skyrim.

    I have an asus maximux extreme xi with an i9 9900k to 4900 mhz on all cores cooled by air (noctua). 32 GB gskill at 3700 mhz and a msi 2080 ti trio.

    I think there is no issue at all with rendering even at the highest fov , at least for the little I used the headset.

    My concern is the interpupillar distance and warping at the far edges of the lens when moving my head quickly from right to left and left to right. The fov looks much improved from the vive and the dk2 or the gearvr but the warping effect and the hard to figure out interpupillar set for the right spot and the hard to get a right wear on the face of the headset , is not giving me a pleasant time with the headset so far.

    I have never had a so hard to find "right fit" with any other headset that I have.

    The fov enjoyment is for now ruined for me by the not perfect fit and distortion. It is kind of causing me nausea while wearing the headset. I hope the problem is just about me finding a proper fit, but I am not sure that is the solution to the experience.

    I have also backed the 8k x.
    If I can't figure out the 8k, I might end up selling at some point the 8k (also because I will get at some point the 8k x or the alternative to the 8k x in case the 8k x is substitute ) and buying maybe the xtal. No way I buy a new vive generation . The vive is giving nothing in terms of field of view


    Screenshot_20190103-231528_QuickPic.jpg
    Serial.jpg
    20190105_005055.jpg
    20190105_005114.jpg
    20190105_005123.jpg
    • Informative Informative x 3
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2019
  19. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    I totaly agree with the interpupillar distance. I saw so little difference and the pop up window is distracting me during the process of adjusting it. I set it by many trials and errors and I have no idea if it`s optimal.

    Another thing I forgot to mention is that our eye are really close to the lense. Sometimes, I had the feeling that my eyelashes were touching the lens.
  20. marco balletta

    marco balletta Member

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    My eyelashes too touch the lenses.
    I see a lot of distortion on the sides and other owners told me to increase the distance from the lenses by adding more face padding. Do u see any distortion on the sides ?

    The sides of the lens have game footings warping