I just played with my HTC Vive and it reminded me of how annoying lens fogging can be. Also, wet long eyelashes tend to paint the lens with slathers of perspiration.
You would need to manage the air flow either naturally with openings on top and bottom or with fans, and doing so without causing light bleed.
Wow… Guess we have to play in a dark room at a lower FOV, if that’s the case.
Is Pimax doing anything about this though?
PiMAX will be selling a fan add on to the 8K headsets and if you kickstarted then I believe its being included as one of the stretch goal rewards.
2 Likes
Fans are not going to help, they are meant to cool your forehead…
That’s what I worry. I use a vivenchill and still gets a little sweaty. So @deletedpimaxrep1 @Matthew.Xu @bacon anything to resolve the potential fogging issue? Maybe heat the lens?
Are you sure fans will not help - paintballers/airsofters have been using fans on their masks for years, why would this be any different?
There is another method - close your eyes tightly and spray antiperspirant on your face (old paintballer/airsofter’s trick) - you’ll not sweat at all then, but remember to wash it off afterwards.
1 Like
My experience with vivenchill on the vive tells me that fans on the forehead can still make the sponge on the vive wet, though less wet than without fan.
Maybe the paintballer mask have the fans blown directly on the face, so it doesn’t fog up.
I didn’t know about paintball masks but this what I was suggesting in my first post.
This is just not what the Pimax module does. First time I saw the module I immediately assumed that it was to extract the air out of the headset, but I was told it was to cool your forehead, which is pretty weird imo.
btw, the antiperspirant is a good trick…
Heat the lens?
I think you need something around 3000°C to break H2O molecules, not sure you can get that much power from USB 3. (lol)
I said that because I heard that if the headset is on for a while, the lens tend to not fog up. But it could cause more perspiration I guess 
[quote=“Sofian, post:11, topic:4985”]
Heat the lens?I think you need something around 3000°C…[/quote]
The relevant number is 100°C, the boiling point of water. Actually, I think what’s needed is much lower than that, probably more like 30-40°C, a bit above body temperature.
I believe that the 8K has some very thin wires in the googles, to prevent fogging.
Even assuming that you don’t have any more water on your lens, where does it go?
I think keeping an airflow inside the headset is the best option.
Nothing to do with boiling water, we are talking about evaporation which occurs at much lower temperature than 100, even than 30.
He’s talking about condensation, the 3000°C was for the joke.
To prevent fogging you just have to be in good shape.
Like in airsoft if you are not in good physical condition you start to sweating what cause fogging of the lens.
So to prevent this you have to Jogging at least an hour dally.
I’m kidding even this could be true. Some other solution will be good airflow true VR so air could quickly be exchanged what will prevent fogging.
Could air should enter on bottom and warm air exit on top with natural draft.
1 Like
Thats the most crazy/silly thing i read," to pervent fogging you have to be in good shape"… lol… I sweat a ton but my lens does not fog up because of it, before you turn on your headset, its cold, it takes time to warm up, if you put it on your warm face while its still cold, its gonna fog up cause you have cold and warm air stuck between your face and the hmd with no air flow, when you have hot and cold temps it creates moistures thats fogging up the lens, to stop this , let your hmd warm up before you put it on(let it idle for a few minutes after you turn it on
2 Likes
Over a year ago I purchased the Pimax 4K… never had an issue with fogging. Then a couple of months ago I purchased the Samsung HMD… fogging became a problem for me. Purchased “fogtech DX” instant anti-fog wipes from Amazon. Before a long VR session, I would wipe the lens with “fogtech” then wipe off the excess with a dry lense wipe… no fogging problems!
As someone who owns paintball protective gear I can tell you it is a little more complex than that. Dye (one of the leading manufacturers for paintball accessories) uses laminated lens for their head ware, the interior surface has a patented anti-fog coating and the masks themselves have plenty of ventilation.
this really is not applicable to VR HMD design.