Don’t forget that the main component the screen and it’s driver is available only from a limited number of companies and on allocation ($$$). Event with 1 millions and the best intention it’s not sure you would be able to procure all the hi-end part required. Pimax Team member add prior experiences in this domain which give them a chance.
it’s sad that the razor HDK has not been upgraded, this could have been a path for those willing to pay a higher price for a top quality customized product
Plus they do have osvr to build your own. Lol
Why are people treating Pimax and a big, mega-corp company? Pimax is a small company doing big things. You need to manage your expectations, and perhaps Pimax should have addressed realistic expectations in the beginning. They dropped the ball. But it’s expected of a small company trying to grow and make big things. Every maturing company has growing pains.
Be patient. It will come. There will be delays, but it will come. And when it comes you will appreciate the delays because you will have a better product.
True to by told for my part Pimax is exactly on the calendar I imagined when bidding last September. development delays are understandable, Production delay (units build by month) was foreseeable, they don’t have replicators… The 8K headset with the sensors all over the case is way more complicated to build and assembled than the Pimax 4K just take a look at the HTC PRO tear down on fix it:
Seriously backers if you take a step back and look at the info’s we received in the last 2 days I don’t see a company stepping out, but simply a small company overwhelm with the task at hand and relying on many third party vendor shipping late
-Optic tooling
-Lcd Manufactured
-triad semiconductor ( trackers)
-Leap Motion
-MIPI chip
I see progress here so I would give them another month up to the 25 of may before any harsh judgement, at this time the M1 units should be send to the Beta testers.
Yes I agree but with lenses its a different story. Look at all the options available for cameras. headset manufacturers have to make lenses probably for around 20 bucks. Imagine if you could buy a set of premium lenses for a few hundred. I wish Pimax would go down this track with their modular design
I’m honestly wondering of there isn’t a viable market for just that, premium third party custom lenses.
Of course there are providers such as lenselab or vrCover that already sell products which greatly increase HMD comfort already, but when browsing the osvr shop for custom lenses these go up as far as €2.000, just to give an idea how expensive a small batch custom lense can get.
The GearVR lense mod for Vive has shown that there is demand for non-fresnel lenses but it seems as though the custom calibration per HMD and user is where the issue lies and hence why pretty much everyone and their mom has chosen fresnel design for current HMDs.
It’s been reported that the Oculus Go lenses are something to behold so I’m very excited that progress is made within optics as well. We shouldn’t forget that without optics that provide a considerably larger sweetspot than current designs, eye-tracked foveated rendering is considerably less worthwhile.
Camera lenses are round so for regular vr headsets perhaps an option. But with 200 fov special lenses need to be made.
Thank you for all the updates and new info @deletedpimaxrep1. Im very happy to hear that you are aiming for the best possible lenses on the Pimax 8K. The lack of optical quality in most of today’s available VR headsets is really something that needs to be taken seriosuly. A higher panel resolution wont help much if the lenses aren’t improved, which has clearly been proven with the Vive Pro.
Keep up your great work. Despite the delays, I’m getting more confident about the 8K for every update.
Best Regards
Martin
While I like your idea… I don’t think that’s going to be feasible with the Pimax 8k. Your avatar picture looks like a V3 Pimax 8K lense to me and as you can see with it… it’s awfully unique compared to the lenses of other HMD’s so swapping them out with round standard lense sizes won’t be possible. It’s Pimax’s unique lenses that helps achieve the 200 degree field of view. Over the course of several months we have seen Pimax modify the lenses and each time they have done so it created many visual problems that then required much software modification to correct. And finally, as Xunshu mentioned in his last update… when Pimax does modify the lenses they have to pay their lense provider vendor $50K to $100K to retool. The fact that the 8K requires unique lenses to achieve the 200 degree FOV, drivers to work properly with the unique lenses and the retooling cost for each custom lense… I think it’s safe to say the likelihood of having swapping lenses doesn’t look too promising.
Also can you explain in what way exactly the new lenses will be better @deletedpimaxrep1?
This idea was presented in the early ks months & if you recall quite the debate. It is likely though with how close to releasing unlikely to be implemented due to the unique lens design. Since we never really heard anything on the v4 it possible they might have attempted to retool the lens holder for this early idea(only a guess since no info on the v4).
I think it would be an awesome idea to make it possible to replace the lenses. Pimax might get new insights after a while on how to improve the lenses, if we then could just buy a new version and screw it on, that would be awesome.
Exactly! That would be super!
I agree completely if you recall the old thread. 
I liked the idea of swappable lens as it makes good sense for as @VRGIMP27 mentioned with compressing the FoV could be better for movies. Granted might only be able to compress it to say 150-160(a guess).
But for warranty purposes very cost effective & i could see a potential for folks (like me lol) to want to purchase a spare set (for just in case).
Upgradeability. Something new maybe better than fresnel? Here ya go buy the new improved.
With the recent news of ppl trying GearVR lenses on the vive pro & such demonstrated the market is there.
The benefit 2 with swappable design is different thickness spacers could offer minor focal adjustments (maybe -1.5mm, -1, 0, +1, +1.5mm)
But even just len swap with a lens profile in pi settings (extensible firmware?)
Exactly, that’s all that would be to it from a user perspective: screw on the new lens and select it in the Piplay GUI, the software would do the rest.
Not that there aren’t those among us that fear no evil when it comes to hacking hardware and software, but when one considers Pimax’s recent move to a “world class” assembly facility, it seems quite likely that the need for a serious “clean room” negates most people tackling a lens swap in this headset. I am willing to be corrected on this assumption, although when the change of facility was announced, I did flash back to the gloveless tech in that picture posted a while back.
For full first assembly yes. But after it would be no different then biying an dslr camers with different lenses.
Keep in mind just because it’s there doesn’t mean one needs to use the option. There are many folks that pay to have computer componets like Ram & Graphics cards installed. There are even some that pay for software installations.
Options are simply optional.
I was just thinking of Sweviver’s video and having to clean the lenses 3 times before satisfied. No doubt it would be easier than a full assembly but not for the faint of heart, I’ll bet,
Also, based on issues Pimax had in the early days of the 4k, like blurred lenses, damage in shipping, etc. Making this a possibility would save them money and make logistics easier.
They have already mentioned that its 50,000 in tooling each time they change lenses, so a swap design makes good sense.
Amazing that this is still being discussed.
