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]

I'll take a look, thanks! I visit the forum regularly, I wonder how long this version has been out.

 

[anton_Chez]

Cool I grabbed that and have installed it. Do you run Brightness at Normal, Robert? And then run the -1 in the slider? It's weird that there are 2 brightness options now. Probably they need to remove the High Normal Low option now that there is a slider available.

 

[RobertR1]

Cool I grabbed that and have installed it. Do you run Brightness at Normal, Robert? And then run the -1 in the slider? It's weird that there are 2 brightness options now. Probably they need to remove the High Normal Low option now that there is a slider available.

Yeah I run brightness at normal.

I'm going to guess here but I think they are likely doing is this:
- old brightness = changing the gamma curve
- New brightness = black level adjustment similar to TV's
- contrast = white level adjustment similar to TV's

Ideally, they could give a 1.9/2.2/2.4 gamma curve option instead of old brightness.

 

[anton_Chez]

Just been catching up on the forum thread and I've got a few things to try out while I continue tuning SimFeedback. Do a few things at once

 

[Stevie_007]

How does brainwarp work is it a help for smooth vr

 

[RobertR1]

How does brainwarp work is it a help for smooth vr

It's just a branding name for their effects. Smoothing is part of the "brainwarp" suite as is FFR.

 

[anton_Chez]

The brainwarp, or smoothing, for me is better than the Oculus. I've had the Rift for 2 years, more maybe, and I hated using ASW on it. I use smoothing all the time now, on purpose not just when things get heavy. I only use the 45hz option though as the other 2 hz modes when smoothed are not enough frames for sim racing in my opinion. 45hz looks GREAT and allows so many other things, such as Large FOV and a higher supersample level. I am very VERY impressed with it as I am with the rest of the software suite.

 

[Stevie_007]

The brainwarp, or smoothing, for me is better than the Oculus. I've had the Rift for 2 years, more maybe, and I hated using ASW on it. I use smoothing all the time now, on purpose not just when things get heavy. I only use the 45hz option though as the other 2 hz modes when smoothed are not enough frames for sim racing in my opinion. 45hz looks GREAT and allows so many other things, such as Large FOV and a higher supersample level. I am very VERY impressed with it as I am with the rest of the software suite.

So should I buy a pimax over my odyssey plus

 

[RCHeliguy]

I'd say wait for the StarVR consumer XTAL which we should hear more about soon, BUT it could be pricey. Not sure how consumer they are going to make it. Keep in mind you are not getting more resolution in terms of pixel density than your Odyssey. The big difference is field of view. The XTAL has 210x130 degree FOV which matches an average person's full peripheral vision.

 

[Stevie_007]

I thought the xtal was priced at 5k

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I thought the xtal was priced at 5k

That's in EURO, excl VAT. Accessories and tracking solution not included.
https://vrgineers.com/order/
Pfft, pocket change really.

 

[RCHeliguy]

They are under new management. The last consumer HMD they listed at $2500. They never even got them to developers. I'm hoping they realize they need a lower price point to gain any traction. Fingers crossed we see an actual product launched.

If they can get it down to 1500 I'm in.

 

[RobertR1]

Maxed out every graphics settings in AC and surprisingly still held 72 fps locked in multiple packed online servers. The image quality looks amazingly clean!

Using MFAA in nvidia control panel. I tried the LOD bias but it gives me a ton of eye strain for some weird reason:

 

[Mr Latte]

Its possible Samsung could have a new device within a year using at least the resolution of the upcoming HP models. So much could easily change I wouldn't be running out in a hurry to buy a developer/professional market-based device over a consumer one and especially one costing into the thousands.

Reading this thread with interest but to me, it shows GPUs need to still improve greatly as does how VR works and combined with higher resolutions. Making it not only a nicer more pleasing visual experience but one that's more efficiently generated.

Wider FOV reading to what you guys have been saying does seem not as important as we may once have thought with VR. Even if it is a nice wow factor. Quality in visuals,comfort and performance in framerate still seem to be the main immersion deal-breakers.

 

[RobertR1]

I can’t disagree strongly enough on the FOV comment. That likely comes from not having experienced better.

2 eyes are better than one....

 

[Stevie_007]

I love my odyssey plus but the poor developer support from Microsoft has put me of wmr. I crossing my fingers for the valve index, if it has the rumoured 135 fov then the extra 25 degrees could be the sweet spot

 

[Mr Latte]

I can’t disagree strongly enough on the FOV comment. That likely comes from not having experienced better.

2 eyes are better than one....

So would you rather have a lower quality of the image and lower framerate but still keeping a wider FOV? How do you rate the importance or preference of each, this may vary per user but interesting to understand from those having tried.

 

[RobertR1]

So would you rather have a lower quality of the image and lower but still keeping a wider FOV? How do you rate the importance or preference of each, this may vary per user but interesting to understand from those having tried.

I have the following: rift, od+, 5k+

Image quality: so far, it's always been an improvement so there's no trade off's to be had by going to the Pimax. It's clearer and sharper than the other two.

Framerate: I can run at 90hz but 72hz has no perceptible lag or motion artifacts. However, I can run a decent chunk of higher graphical options at 72hz which enhance the experience thus I chose 72hz. Some people might be a lot more sensitive to 90hz than me so their perception can differ.

So far there hasn't been a case of swapping IQ for FOV.

 

[anton_Chez]

That's the thing with the Pimax. You don't need to sacrifice much of anything if you have a 1080Ti or higher. We will be into a newer generation of cards again before we know it, which will only help drive it harder.

The Rift has NO options when it comes to FOV. You get the toilet roll binoculars and that's it. If I went back to it now, I wouldn't be able to drive. We have hz options, smoothing options, supersample options (that make a big difference in image quality), FOV options, and now brightness and contrast options. If I HAVE to run lower image quality to achieve the hz needed and the FOV desired, I can. If I'd rather have image quality over all else, I can run small FOV (still larger than pretty much all other headsets out there) with 64hz and push the slider as high as it will go until I drop under the 64hz significantly. If I don't have the power for all of the things, I can prioritise one and the others are what they are. If I DO have the power, like Robert, I can run ALL the things (to a degree, SS can go over 50 million pixels) and have an amazing experience.

The great thing is that while someone MIGHT have to settle on a poorer quality image to achieve higher FOV, another person will be able to run both.

 

[anton_Chez]

One case where FOV does get sacrificed is in rF2. Because of the necessity of Parallel Projections being enabled, it makes the headset render like 50% more pixels than it should. It also looks horrible when using smoothing, so there goes the option of cranking SS up super high and running 45hz. The only way I've found to get a satisfactory experience in rF2 is putting the FOV to small, running 64hz with NO smoothing and putting the slider at the highest value I can maintain 60-64hz. Doing that I noticed a massive improvement in image quality and the FOV is still miles ahead of what I am used to. The lenses themselves are HUGE and the way it limits the FOV when using small (and even normal) is not as restrictive as when looking into the Rift.