Backer 72 8k day one review

Reviews
1

So my day one review:

So it’s the first impression amazing? Not really, for every pro there’s s con, the fov is great but the distortion is there, the SDE is much better, but it’s still visible, the resolution is better but the brightness and colors are clearly worse than Vive.

So for me there’s no dk1 moment, and add to that whatever is behind the lens and that I got a lot if fog since I’m in Spain and tend to be sweaty.

So is it bad? Not at all, in the end the big question here is… Is it more immersive than Vive? And that’s a big yes, the sum of all the small factors and most of all the bigger fov adds a lot to the immersion, and in the end that’s what matters.

About the fov, for me I haven’t even tried large fov since normal fov fills nearly all my vision and distortion is minimum.

Issues :

Quite a few, I couldn’t get some games to boot like Form, welcome to lightfields, sometimes steam crashes and only get the Pimax screen, I got working New retro arcade neon, scanner sombre and superhot and they worked great.

The thing is when you’re in the superhot room before using the virtual virtual headset, the immersion is amazing, the fov adds a lot, same with the better resolution and sde, si the pros outweigh the cons.

Pimax 8k specific aspects :

  • Pixel persistence : so yeah when I move my head too fast, it’s painful in the nose, but things stay perfectly in place no matter how much I tried it.
  • Clarity : with the default pitool 1.0 and 84 version with steamvr at 100% it’s perfectly clear for me, it doesn’t feel blurry at all, maybe if I could compare it with 5k I could say otherwise, but as it is it’s perfectly fine.
  • SDE pattern : congrats if you can see the pattern, for me it’s just a mesh where you can barely see the SDE but only some incredibly small dots, and that’s only in some specific situations like the sky, while other times with wood or stone textures it’s nearly invisible, even when starting steamvr the white floor is incredibly difficult to see the SDE structure, only incredibly small dots.
  • Performance : hard to say, haven’t tested enough games yet.

Do I miss anything of the Vive?

That’s easy, the brightness, A LOT. Brightness on Vive is nearly ridiculously bright, so maybe that’s why I notice it so much. Colors are OK imho, but the low brightness is the first thing that shocked me.

My biggest issue?

Ironically the fog, it’s there no matter how, I’m thinking on heating the lenses before using like I did with gear vr.

34 Likes
2

I have the same overall feeling, there are some issues (not talking about the fault mine has manifested) brightness and colour being my primary disappointment. I knew I wasn’t getting OLED standards but its still a little worse than I imagined. However… Overall the experience is still far better than anything I’ve witnessed so far. A part of me still wonders if I should have stuck with 8K but the 5K+ is nice.

Nice write-up! Have fun with your Pimax! :slight_smile:

9 Likes
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People who’ve been following development probs won’t be surprised about the brightness issue. Very annoying they’ll only address it in a new business only version .

Must say there were a lot of naysayers when I pointed out how crucial it would be.

I’m glad its an improvement overall though.

1 Like
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Yeah, actually, I don’t see a mesh at all, it’s just tons upon tons of tiny dots. But I am used to it now, and it no longer annoys me :slight_smile:

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5

Do you have a fan in your room? I find having a good fan pointed at you can stop all the sweating completely.

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6

We’d want to check into it & maybe ask pimax. But Rain-X has an anti fogging solution for ski goggles & glasses that might do the trick.

But would want info on whether this solution would be okay on the lenses.

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For me the biggest issue is that I can’t go back to my previous headsets any more. That’s a pity as some apps can only be run on those headsets.

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I found hellblade & some of the other Unreal programs that crash will run on small fov with pitool at x1.0(haven’t tested higher).

Ethan Carter will run okay with small fov at pitool 0.5 but not good enough does weird things when reading letters. Letter folds & when brought to regular text on screen does doubling like on some programs that need parallel projection.

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For the issue with the fog, I can recommend you a ‚anti-fogging‘ spray for motorcycle helmet visors. I had the same issue as you, because I sweat really easy and with this spray I never got this problem.

6 Likes
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So you use it and spray the lenses ?

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Please do, it’s been ironically the biggest problem I had, even more than whatever is inbetween the lenses and the screen.

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I have low light issues the vive is not even super bright for me it’s medium. I’m boned… ಥ_ಥ

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Unfortunate for you, good news for me. I have bright light issues.

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would you pay double the price to solve these issues? aka a possible StarOne VR (price is my guess)

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No way, Pimax is pretty solid as it is, I would buy it if it was 100-300 more expensive, but not twice the price, besides AFAIK StarVR has more sde than Pimax 8k, so even at the same price I doubt I’d buy it.

4 Likes
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Very interesting, that puts the whole thing to rest then. I should be very happy with my 5K+ then.

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I have never tried the vive as I only have a Rift so I am hopeful that difference in brightness isn’t as apparent to me . That being said I find a lot of games on the rift look a bit washed out so I hope the Pimax isn’t too bad in that respect.

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Not according to @mixedrealityTV

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As you spend more time on the 8k do you think the brightness issue will be less of a problem as you should get used to it.

2 Likes
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So do you just wear sunglasses everywhere?