8k X Screen & UI element scaling issues?

EDIT: As discussed below and in a reddit thread, this appears to be mostly a non-issue with VR as 2D UI/HUD elements are not done in 2D as this poses issues, and done instead in 3D so hopefully that means HUD elements should maintain their size across resolutions.

Will this be a non-issue or something that actually might creep up as a issue with the 8k X using native 4k.

So what I’m talking about is the UI scaling issues faced with many games when you try to say use a 4k 13" laptop screen at 100% scaling, vs using a 1080p 13" laptop screen at 100% scaling.

Many games and titles don’t have proper scaling options and you end up having menu’s and UI elements far to small.
Example: (Where top menu’s are smaller and more difficult to see, having been scaled so its more readable for the size of display)

This is one user posting about issues with League of legends, notice the health bars above the character and towers.
(1080p left, 4k right)

My question is how does SteamVR and other VR SDK’s planning to use this headset with support and deal with this for futureproofness, I know 4k in some games on small displays doesn’t work correctly for this very reason, with elements being 4x smaller on the same display area then they are meant to be.

a 100x100 pixel box is still a 100x100 pixel box. Just there are so many more pixels to fill.

This of course being a lesser issue for the 8k Version since its dpi isn’t so insanely above current gen headsets at a software level.

Would love to hear peoples opinions, concerns, and insight on this!

Honestly i think if there is going to be an issue with the above we’ll see it in 5k/8k models even thought its 1440p and not 2160p native. Menuing may need tweaking though due to 32:9 vs 16:9 depending on how menus are set to render.

My question is more in regards to the non-scaled 2160p models hence why I focused on the 8k X for my examples.

Which is 8k Native, and is displaying a screen that isn’t what the current prototype is showing.

Throwing native 4k onto the screen will shrink UI elements if they aren’t scaled. Basic math alone would make elements on screen if unscaled be 2.25x smaller then 1440p upscaled

1 Like

Gotcha your refering to something like when you switch resolutions how onscreen items become very small. :wink:

Good point though i think most menus are scaled other wise games used to rift/vive at 10801200 per eye are scaling well on the 4k at 12601440/eye upscaled to 1980*2160/eye.

But yes could be a concern & need some kind of update.

Yes precisely, which given how niche the product the 8k X is, question would be how many games would be broken this way, and have menu’s that are too small to be usable. And how many of those devs would be willing to fix the UI scaling issues since its software side for sure, nothing PIMAX can do to my knowledge about it if its not hardcoded support in the sdk (which I highly doubt)

@Neokolzia What you describe is basically the poor/lazy/shortsighted UI design. The developers were able to get away with it until recently when 4K gaming took off. Now, you may have people who game on HD res (1920*1080) and on 4K (basically twice as much in each dimension). It is clear that it is no longer possible to use the same 2D UI without proper scaling for both.

Now, good UI design takes that into account and renders 2D UI in a different plane from the 3D world in modern 3D games and then merges both into the displayed frame. This however works only for normal (monitor) viewing, but not in VR.

There is quite lengthy and detailed article here, which describes why it no longer works in VR and what are many potential pitfalls and challenges even when doing it right.

On the other hand if done correctly, then UI should be perceived in the exactly same way in VR, regardless of the HMD brand or geometry.
BTW rendering 2D content in VR is facing similar issues.

2 Likes

I’m reading all this now, yes there is alot of design considerations and I can see that 2D is explicitly avoided.

I hope that this means the differences between the 8k and 8k X will be minimal if at all when comparing things like say health bar sizes.

This is clearly a misunderstanding from myself, though I do have concerns still on how the scaling will look for Virtual desktop. I know reviews have labeled the 8k Version as unusably blurry, which I wonder if the increased resolution will help but I’m doubting it once you take scaling into account, or if virtual desktop also works some means of magic?