Pimax 5K+ spotted after a 16 month hiberation.... First impressions

[anton_Chez]

Well, it's here. The Pimax 5K+ headset I backed on Kickstarter in October 2017 has finally made it from the depths of hell and everywhere else in between to my house in Australia. What a ride it's been.

To start, the box is fairly nice, nothing too fancy but definitely of Rift quality, nothing flimsy or cheap. The smell is actually like a brand new paid of shoes! I'd say that's the padding. Anyway who cares about the box, hey?

Upon fitting the strap, I was horrified at the comfort. Only after I messed around with it a little bit did I feel I could actually make it work. It's not as intuitive as the Rift but it's workable for me at least. One thing that's immediately struck me is I've nearly got my nose poking through the lenses from the inside out. My face is literally ON the lenses. We are going to have to order custom cushions. It's insane that they've left this unaddressed. I think additional face cushions are a stretch goal reward but I've not see them being any different to the standard one. We need thicker pads, Pimax. I have a small face and a not so overly large nose and I'm struggling. If it turns out my IPD is able to have the lenses moved to the outside of the headset I might just get away with it.

The strap does tighten on your face pretty well. I did not expect that based on other feedback. It's not ski mask type like the Rift but it does have the ability to stick to my face and feel pressure so there's some modular possibilities there especially for larger faces that won't need to tighten the straps as much. Between the side and top strap you should be able to get the HMD sitting nice and flat on your face without any tilting at least while sitting down.

I've yet to power it on so I'll go and do that now. One thing you'll notice is you need an additional power point for this. It comes with an external power source that plugs into the PC side of the cable. It isn't recognised by the PC unless you power it on.

 

[anton_Chez]

So apparently after 2 hours of trial and error, base stations, unlike the Oculus camera, CAN NOT be mounted ANYWHERE there is movement. So, that's that then. I have to leave it static and work around the bumps. Some tracks will be better than others but I think with some tuning in the motion platform, it should be OK.

 

[RobertR1]

Just fyi, their own version 2.0 base stations will be shipping soon and they plan to launch them at GDC today. Maybe worth returning the one you have esp if you're not getting any drift without it. https://www.roadtovr.com/pimax-ruggedized-re-8k-2019/

 

[anton_Chez]

I wonder what difference there will be with a 2.0 compared to mine?

I wouldn't hold my breath but. I'll wait for it to get here and then sell this one off as used. For some reason, I was seeing used base stations selling for more than a brand new one. Go figure.

It's still nice to have the complete 6DOF now, I just need to see if I need to incorporate some sort of motion compensation. This chassis motion is different to the V3. So we might end up needing it since we cannot mount the sensor to the rig anymore.

 

[RobertR1]

Some more feedback. The drift seems related to me turning my head and looking through the corner. I was running Laguna in a MX5 for a SRS race last night. Since laguna is mainly left handers, I was turning my head to look through the turns. I noticed that this introduce a very similar drift every couple of laps.

Take the Andretti hairpin (T2) for example. Coming down the hill you're looking left for a decent amount of time to line up the corner and exit. I believe with my head turned for a decent amount of time this tell the HMD to start drifting to recalibrate.

I then forced myself to not turn my head for a few laps and as I expected, no drift issues at all. So if you want to look through long corners without a lighthouse, expect to recenter. If you don't turn your head much when driving, then it should be ok without a lighthouse.

I ran this test a number of times and it was the same conclusion. So for this particular set it's behavior is linked to my sustained head movement.

The audio port is a RMA issue and Pimax recommended I start the RMA process. The port is simply too loose in its tolerance.

 

[anton_Chez]

Ah nice Rob, good to hear that there is a reason for the drifting. I was at Suzuka when this happened to me and I think yes that circuit has many sweeping medium speed corners so I could very well have been moving a little too much out of the sweet spot to not incur drifting. For all other times, it's been fine without a base station.

Now that I have one, it's even better. Still need to continue to work on the heave effect when running motion though. Without motion, the tracking is great. No stutter, very smooth and even when frames drop without smoothing enabled, it's acceptable. The Rift would never allow that, for me anyway.

Hopefully you don't have to wait too long for the process to get underway. I must have been a very lucky one indeed.

 

[Mascot]

I've got 6DOF working fine but the bouncing is still a slight issue. You get used to it after a while but it definitely is more uncomfortable racing with motion than without. How are you guys' experience with heave and other HMD's like the Rift or O+? I forget what it was like with the Rift. I still have it installed and it's just a matter of plugging it back in to try, but I don't think I want to.... If I remember right, there was more bouncing with the sensor static, off the rig than when I moved it onto it. I'm hoping for a more stable image with the base station now mounted as well. If it hurts the device, whatever. I don't even care if I have to buy a new one every year. If it makes the ride smoother it's worth it.

I realise there is head movement in a cockpit with the weight of your helmet and the load placed on the car but still, a little bit of shaking is OK. It's already better than with 3DOF static, I've now gone 6DOF mounted. I don't think it gets any better than this from here so fingers crossed. The HMD seems pretty firm on my head too, so I think it's just one of those things. Worst case, turn heave down and smooth it a tonne. I've even added a 'small bumps' effect that Henk suggested a while ago. I wonder if that was even on when I was driving before? Hopefully it was, might just be a case of turning that effect off.

I actually did 2 races at Phillip Island last night with the 3DOF fixed, and motion running, albeit at around .75 intensity. It was actually alright but PI I think is not that bumpy.

I might be misunderstanding what you are describing mate but I was experiencing a lot of image 'bounce' in my SFX/Rift last night, something I've been kind of aware of since setting up the SFX but haven't really paid much attention to it as I've had other issues to resolve.

Anyway, after a bit of investigation it turns out my fire-and-forget Real Head Motion app for Assetto Corsa has disappeared without me noticing - it normally autoloads and just works quietly in the background, but has somehow vanished. Have you tried it? I found it to be excellent in striking a good balance between cockpit shake and world movement. You can fine-tune the stabilisation of the image in the HMD to reduce bounce and judder. I need to reinstall it stat.

I think I used this starter too https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/real-head-motion-starter.21356/

 

[anton_Chez]

I haven't used RHM for ages, so I doubt it's me missing it. I'm going to run Rift and 5K back to back when I get a chance and see if I notice a difference. Might just be a coincidence that I noticed it more with the 5K because of a certain track I was on. Raced tonight in it, full tracking, motion on and it felt OK.

 

[Steve D]

I might be misunderstanding what you are describing mate but I was experiencing a lot of image 'bounce' in my SFX/Rift last night, something I've been kind of aware of since setting up the SFX but haven't really paid much attention to it as I've had other issues to resolve.

Anyway, after a bit of investigation it turns out my fire-and-forget Real Head Motion app for Assetto Corsa has disappeared without me noticing - it normally autoloads and just works quietly in the background, but has somehow vanished. Have you tried it? I found it to be excellent in striking a good balance between cockpit shake and world movement. You can fine-tune the stabilisation of the image in the HMD to reduce bounce and judder. I need to reinstall it stat.

I think I used this starter too https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/real-head-motion-starter.21356/

Unsurprisingly Steve, RHM can be set to auto-launch in CM these days, unless the functionality has been removed of late. Not at my PC but I recall it being only a couple of mouse clicks to set up and point to the installation folder.

I don't get any 'bounce' other than what I would expect to, (AC, Rf2 & R3E), but I suppose that's because my Oculus sensor is fixed to the rig and moves in unison with the actuators.

 

[RobertR1]

Ah nice Rob, good to hear that there is a reason for the drifting. I was at Suzuka when this happened to me and I think yes that circuit has many sweeping medium speed corners so I could very well have been moving a little too much out of the sweet spot to not incur drifting. For all other times, it's been fine without a base station.

Now that I have one, it's even better. Still need to continue to work on the heave effect when running motion though. Without motion, the tracking is great. No stutter, very smooth and even when frames drop without smoothing enabled, it's acceptable. The Rift would never allow that, for me anyway.

Hopefully you don't have to wait too long for the process to get underway. I must have been a very lucky one indeed.

I have the settings dialed in pretty good now.

- PiTool @ 1.0 scale
- SteamVR 130%
- 72hz
- Normal FOV
- No FFR
- No Smoothing

Running the same visuals as on Odyssey+ within CM. Go notable sluggishness or lag and the PQ is very sharp. The SDE is there but miles bette than the rift and the clarity over the OD+ for me is worth the trade off in having more SDE.

The FOV is where it's at though. I'd say it's pretty close to having a helmet on in terms of peripheral vision.

 

[Mascot]

Unsurprisingly Steve, RHM can be set to auto-launch in CM these days, unless the functionality has been removed of late. Not at my PC but I recall it being only a couple of mouse clicks to set up and point to the installation folder.

I don't get any 'bounce' other than what I would expect to, (AC, Rf2 & R3E), but I suppose that's because my Oculus sensor is fixed to the rig and moves in unison with the actuators.

I tried setting RHM up again and - surprise surprise - have spent the last two hours trying to get Assetto to display in my Rift. Had to remove any sign of it to get the Rift to work in AC.

*sigh*

Does anyone have easy step-by-step instructions to get it to work with Content Manager and the Rift? I seem to remember there were two versions of RHM around at one point too, one where you don't have to register dlls maybe? I really cannot remember, it was so long ago when I set it up. I'm guessing now it's just activated like any other app in Content Manager, but as to the 'correct' way to get there so it works with the Rift... who knows.

 

[Steve D]

You don't have much luck do you Steve! If I recall I just ticked the box, pointed it to where my RHM folder / executable was, set some parameter with regards how it run and the job was a good'n. No impact on the Rift.

When I get home I'll email you the version of RHM I have, (which is the latest I believe) as I recall another supporting app was required with earlier versions. (Can't recall what it was called)

Grasping at straws but aren't there some alternative options in CM / Custom Shader Patch to do with neck / head movement or something along those lines? I might be wrong but as I'm using RHM I think these were 'greyed out' for me. Maybe do some digging to see if they are enabled and possibly causing the above issue.

 

[anton_Chez]

I think we're all in a little bit of sim racing / VR hell right now tbh. Rob that's nice to hear you're getting on with it a lot better. I literally spent an hour driving in Raceroom seeing what Steam SS settings I could get away with while maintaining at least 64hz. It now will not boot into the game, and my desktop gives me the regular black screen, now with a tiny little picture in picture in the top left hand corner. Headset refuses to boot into the game and instead throws me to the VR Dashboard instead. I cannot understand for the life of me why it's so hard to VR programs to just do what they are supposed to do. Click game, run game, IN THE HMD.

Oculus software was the cause of much frustration and anger for me over a long period of time. I now see that it learned all it's tricks from the plague that is SteamVR. May every piece of VR software spend the rest of it's useless lifetime rotting in the pits of Hades.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Grasping at straws but aren't there some alternative options in CM / Custom Shader Patch to do with neck / head movement or something along those lines? I might be wrong but as I'm using RHM I think these were 'greyed out' for me. Maybe do some digging to see if they are enabled and possibly causing the above issue.

Neck FX, doesn't work with VR though.
I just enable AC native lock to horizon, almost the same as RHM with slightly better performance.

 

[RobertR1]

I think we're all in a little bit of sim racing / VR hell right now tbh. Rob that's nice to hear you're getting on with it a lot better. I literally spent an hour driving in Raceroom seeing what Steam SS settings I could get away with while maintaining at least 64hz. It now will not boot into the game, and my desktop gives me the regular black screen, now with a tiny little picture in picture in the top left hand corner. Headset refuses to boot into the game and instead throws me to the VR Dashboard instead. I cannot understand for the life of me why it's so hard to VR programs to just do what they are supposed to do. Click game, run game, IN THE HMD.

Oculus software was the cause of much frustration and anger for me over a long period of time. I now see that it learned all it's tricks from the plague that is SteamVR. May every piece of VR software spend the rest of it's useless lifetime rotting in the pits of Hades.

Yeah VR is still a bit of trail and error. Hopefully with OpenXR api's now released there can be better consistency going forward. I do like that you don't need anything running with the Pimax btw. Just launch SteamVR and you're done. That's way better than having Windows Mixed Reality or Oculus Home being mandatory.

@Mascot I just use AC Lock to Horizon. Works perfectly for me and I can take one more program off the list to deal with.

 

[Mascot]

Neck FX, doesn't work with VR though.
I just enable AC native lock to horizon, almost the same as RHM with slightly better performance.

@Mascot I just use AC Lock to Horizon. Works perfectly for me and I can take one more program off the list to deal with.

​

What I liked about RHM was being able to balance cockpit shake and environment shake so there's a bit of both. 'Lock to Horizon' is very digital, and all about the cockpit shake. I'm all for thinning out additional apps though, I like keeping things simple if I can. It's a shame CM doesn't let you bind mouse control to a steering wheel joystick otherwise I could bin Joy2key as well.

Just tried 'lock to horizon' and it's OK, but RHM when set up and balanced properly is undoubtedly better IMO.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Hopefully Ilya will make Neck FX work properly with VR. Integrated solution is always better than 3rd party separately running app.

 

[anton_Chez]

Lock to horizon is just too ON / OFF for me. I love the 0 - 100% slider in AMS, gives you a great balance of horizon lock without completely locking it.

rF2 had this, until it went completely missing for me the past few months. I still haven't worked that one out.

 

[RobertR1]

More testing last night.

The drift is 100% related to turning the head so atleast now that’s a known issue.

I’m a bit hesitant to RMA as I don’t want to necessarily swap one issue for another but I can’t seem to make the audio work.

I will say the wider fov and clarity are amazing as is the lack of software. Just streamVR and content manager and you’re playing the game.

The headset also seems to behave better without Pitools running. My advice would be to shutdown pitools and only use it if you must make hardware and feature level changes. Since those Changes actually reside in the headset itself, you never have to use pitools once you set it up.

 

[anton_Chez]

Yep that's what I pretty much do. Change whatever I need and then close it. Still trying to find my sweet spot for the sims with SS settings but I'll get there. It's hard when mod tracks throw a spanner in the works and make you change just for that track. When you know you get heaps more performance out of stock content, it's frustrating.

I'm experiencing some eye strain with my 5K now. I think I've set the IPD incorrectly last night with some further testing, trying to maximise the sharpness and clarity. I drove just now for 20 minutes and I am hammered. I'll have to change it back. I was 63.5mm or something similar with the Rift from memory. That's the measurement I got when the lines in the setup looked the most sharp. I might measure my eyes exactly and see how we go. I was using like 62mm last night and just now and I am very sore.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Eye fatigue usually is a result of lower than 90hz refresh rate.
Think of faulty fast flickering fluoriscent lamp.