My package arrived yesterday and as there’s still people waiting and browsing the forums for details I thought I’d share my observations.
Comfort
The cloth strap is terrible, as expected. I couldn’t even get it to stay on my head and had to perform Vive Audio Strap surgery before I could try any games.
Design
I like the look. It’s way darker than in the pictures and looks almost black depending on lighting. The chevron only lights up in green. I don’t know it that’s a bug in Pitool or if there’s only green LEDs inside the 8k Plus.
Distortion
On the 5k+ the distortions didn’t annoy me as long as the headset is positioned properly. It’s the same for the 8k Plus and I didn’t really notice any difference. Distortions are still there but they’re no big deal (for me).
*Resolution/SDE
When I first stepped into SteamVR it instantly hit me how clear everything looks. It feels like there’s so much detail everywhere that you have been missing.
I used to watch gameplay footage on youtube and think to myself “I wish it looked this good in VR”. Well, now it does.
I can still notice a bit of SDE, even in games, but that fades away as soon as you’re the slightest bit invested in what’s happening in game.
It reminds me of 1080p in that it’s still possible to make out pixels if you concentrate on it but it also feels like this amount of SDE could be the standard for a few years to come and still be “good enough”, like 1080p was for a long time.
Sharing my first impression of my 8k+ which arrived today.
First I will start by saying that there is definitely more attention to the small details from Pimax in regards to packaging and the quality of the unit itself. Packaging, and the general feel of things are an upgrade from both the original 8k and 5k plus.
I will start by stating that I don’t use my headset for anything other than iracing. It’s the only sim and experience I’m interested in so this will be to a limited audience. First I will say that all noticeable SDE is gone, which wasn’t a huge problem for me with the 5k plus anyway. But there is certainly an improvement here. I haven’t messed about with settings a ton to this point, however I can say that there is a difference here with how steam and pitool function together, which to this point seems to provide a bit more head room and an overall smoother experience. As many have pointed out on this forum the newest versions of pitool are not ver cooperative with iracing and the judders are still an issue with the 8k+ as well, so it’s definitely a software issue for the 5k+ users fighting those same problems Alpha 254 does eliminate the stutters for me but had random crashes with extended use, so I’m currently using version .132 which seems to be most favorable for me.
In regards to the question of being worth the upgrade for iracing in particular, I have to say it’s not a huge step up to this point from my 5k+. I think it speaks for the quality of IRacing’s VR experience, and how well the sim already performs in VR. There is less SDE for sure, and it does seem to run smoother overall, but the last little bit I’m looking for with this sim is clearing up the jaggies and blur in the distance, which doesn’t seem to be any better with the 8k+.
The comfort kit is a very nice addition and feels much better than the 8k and 5k+. Not sure if it’s the spacing, but my IPD setting in much smaller than what I used for the 5k+. I settled at this point on 62, where I was at 66 with my 5k. I will play with things a bit over the next week and add some additional thoughts later on.
Sorry for the long delay guys - got my desktop on Monday and I had to configure it and stuff. But as soon as I could I checked out the 8K+ - now I’m configuring Project Cars 2 cuz I will move the desktop next to my 3DOF sim setup and then will try it also with the simulator.
So some new thoughts. The SDE is visible, especially in movies when there is some really bright stuff on the screen. But by visible I mean barely. If you don’t look for it you generally don’t see it, however it’s still present, but the difference is huge and you just forget about it.
On the other hand I see no SDE in games, so maybe it’s something I need to tweak or smth. Also the quality of the movie makes a huge difference.
In the case of Project Cars I’ve spent a few hours tweaking it - by copying the Oculus DLL files, editing the XML files and some other stuff, etc. In the XML file i changed the resolution to 5120x2880 and refresh rate to 90.000. The difference in the game is huge. I’ve posted a few pictures, though in reality the quality is far superior and everything in the car is sharp and crisp, you can see all the details, letters, pictograms, etc very clearily, like on an HD monitor. That’s really impressive to the point that I don’t know if I will switch to the 8KX in the following months, but I need to do some more tests. Anyway the game looks as close to reality as possible, you can especially see it on the drivers and cars and generally if something looks worse it just looks worse because of the game, not because of the headset.
Right now I just have two problems with Project Cars 2 - when I run the game from Pitools with the Oculus DLL’s and “Compatible with parallel projections” turned off, my camera in the car is centered a bit, so I’m not sitting in the seat of the car (have no idea how to change this) and it seems like there’s some kind of weird problem with FOV/rendering, maybe because of the Oculus DLLs - when you move your head you see some big white round thing and this part of the frame is not rendered the same way (like in lower quality). When I run the game via Steam or with parallel projections turned on I don’t have these problems, but the picture is far less sharp.
After my first week of use I will add a few more things to my thoughts.
Clarity- Certainly an upgrade here as far as SDE and sharpness. Colors are a little better than the 5k+ but not vastly different
Comfort- the comfort kit is one of the best additions and I would recommend it to 5k+ owners. Much better feel and fit when wearing the headset even without the MAS. I always noticed with my 5k+ that if I pulled away from my eyes slightly, it made the image more clear, so the additional spacing the comfort kit adds is nice.
Functionality and settings- After a week of use I have pretty much settled on all the same settings I’ve used for my 5k+ for the past year. FPS is pretty much identical, so the 8k+ is no less, or more demanding.
Cons- For the most part I’m pretty happy with the headset, but it wasn’t as big of an upgrade from the 5k+ as I had hoped. There is still about the same amount of distortion and aliasing in the distance, as there was with my 5k. Biggest issue I have with it right now is that it seems to act like the OG 8k in terms of the scene moving around with fast head movement which is kind of annoying. Not sure if it’s something that can be corrected with software or not? I had forgotten about this issue as the 5k didn’t have it like the 8k did.
Currently using pitool version 144. I have wanted to possibly roll back to 132 to but the ability to download links off this forum board has changed for me for some reason. Not sure if my latest windows update added security settings or what’s going on there. Most of the links @Heliosurge posted won’t work for me anymore. Perhaps I can get a little help here from @Heliosurge
Alpha 254 does eliminate the stutters for me but had random crashes with extended use, so I’m currently using version .132 which seems to be most favorable for me.
