Compatibility with Oculus and Vive

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Hi All,
The reason for this post is to express my opinion with regards to the Pimax VR unit. And also as a caution to people to not make any assumptions with regards the Pimax being in any way compatible with either the Oculus or HTC Vive.

If you read the advertising and the presentation on the Pimax web site, you would be excused if you though that the Pimax had these capabilities. Also if you thought that it is a 4K capable unit you would be excused.
But, unfortunately after much time spent with my Pimax, I have concluded that neither of these are true.

First I have not found Pimax to be able of displaying any image at 4K resolution. The best resolution I have been able to get is standare HD at 60fps.

Second, it is extremely unwise to install ANY Oculus software for Pimax.
There are too many points in the Pimax firmware and software that can clash with Oculus runtime and cause problems.

Piplay is a very poor piece of software and can lose contact (PERMENANTLY it seems in my case) with Pimax if the slightest issue arises with video card drivers.
Installing the Oculus runtime, even the earlier releases, can cause these problems to occur.
I know because I fell into the trap of installing the Oculus runtime and now have a unit can cannot be used on the VERY expensive pc I purchased specially for VR.

To give credit to Pimax support, they did try reasonably hard to resolve the issue, but unfortunately were not able to get to the bottom of the problem and have now given up.
Final suggestion from Pimax support was to reinstall Windows. Not something I will do for a product like Pimax.

Let me stress, that there is nothing actually wrong with my Pimax unit (apart from the lenses) and it works fine on my old under rated pc with a GTX960 video card. This pc has not had any other VR software installed other than Piplay. However I am certain that the problems would start if I installed ANY Oculus runtime programs.

I’m hoping that the Pimax engineers will produce an update to both the Pimax firmware and Piplay software to make it a bit more professional and fix some of the current issues.

Right now the standard of the software is in my opinion at a poor beta level at most and so Pimax is not a product I would think suitable for the consumer market yet. In my opinion it requires too high a level of technical understanding to be able to avoid the pitfalls a normal non technical user would likely fall into.
And there is not User Manual or clear operating instructions for the product and software. In fact there isn’t any software supplied with the product. So right from the outset you have to be capable of finding the right software and installing it.
Without this forum you would be stuffed.

In fact, the Pimax people are relying on the people who communicate on this forum to find solutions for them and themselves and as far as I can tell, only one person can communicate in English and even then, quite poorly.

So in conclusion, The Pimax did originally work out of the box on my new pc with a Nvidia GTX1080 Strix video card, but after inatalling the Oculus runtime things went down hill and even after unstalling ALL the Oculus software it still doesn’t work on that pc.

So if you want to run SOME Oculus games (Tatooine seems to work), do it from within the Pimax Extended Mode. Keep away from the Oculus software.

SteamVR seems to work ok from within Pimax Mode, however many VR games on Steam are for the Vive and require the Vive hand controllers and don’t seem to work with the Xbox hand controller.
However there some apps the work fine. Virtual Desktop and SimpleVR Video player to name two.
I have not managed to get DCS World to work. It starts up but again, doesn’t seem to like the XBox controller.
If anyone has this working, would you please let me know what you did.

So if you have a Pimax, I hope some of this helps you steer away from getting into trouble like I managed to fall into.
Don’t expect too much from the Pimax and don’t take the advertise seriously. You’ll be disappointed.

Basically you get what you pay for. Pimax is cheap for a VR product and I have found it to work that way.

If you are not very technically capable and want a reliable VR product, go for either the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive.

Pimax may one day be a good VR unit, (if it survives) but thay have some very serious issues to resolve before that happens.
The most serious in my opinion is that of image focus.
Currently there is no way that I have found of focusing the unit. So if your vision is not what Pimax has considered normal, you will need come up with your own solution. Probably like I did by sticking other lenses on top of the lenses in the unit. But it is a poor solution.
I have asked Pimax for some replacement lenses, but my confidence is not high that they will send them.

Cheers, Luke

4 Likes
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I’ve for all occults software working that I have tried. Sometimes through random manipulation, sometimes with bits of code at startup, my point is that they do work, but very very little qorksout the box, first time or even fifth time if you have followed all the steps.

I’ve started to take note of how each thing works and with what. Sometimes indirect mode with steamvr, if you switch of headset. Clap three times and cross your fingers, sometimes in pimax mode with revive running.

I’m trying to make it an exact science but its not. I think it’s a good product with a technical comuntiy it might be a great product.
Piplay is a pretty shitty program.

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That’s good Feranti. Hope it stays that way.
My mistake was installing the Oculus runtime.

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I’ve done that
Spent yesterday trying to get rid of it, had to restore a backup of the registry files after installing a old oculus runtime.
It actually altered something in the registry that stopped my graphics diapay being recognised. Uninstalling was not enough. I found some instructions to restore registry from backup and that worked.

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Hi Feranti,
At last I’ve managed to get pimax to recognised as a second monitor again by reverting to an earlier restore point. However Piplay still can’t find it and so won’t work with any SteamVR apps.
What I get is pimax displaying the pc desktop theme instead of the Pimax Logo.
Pani in the but.

You mentioned that by restoring a backup of your registry you were able to get your unit working correctly.
Do you have any idea what the offending entry was, because I believe that my problem is based on a subtle video driver issue that persists regardless of uninstallation or downgrade.

I just don’t have a clue what it could be.

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Yes, I think that was the same problem that I had.
There were entries in the components registry that had been changed. The back up I restored it to was in the regback folder in windows. I needed to boot into command prompt and restore the back up there.

Have a look at this link :

I would also uninstall and resinstall steam and piplay. Just to be safe. I can’t remember for sire but I don’t think I could get any mode working, so you light be closer to resolution than I was.

Best of luck.

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For DSC use head (dot in the medle of veiw) and left mouse buton. Thou you need to buy playn, I personaly didn’t risk to buy one.

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That’s why it’s asking me to log in.
I’m not ready to spend money on games yet.
Once I’m sure that Pimax is OK then I will.
Cheers, L

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I just had a session with Pimax support and they guy (I don’t know his name) managed to diagnose the problem.

It was caused by my DirectX program (that’s why uninstalling and reinstalling would not do anything).
Usiing Teamviewer, he run a DirextX repair tool and BINGO, it’s working again.

My confidence has been restored (so far).

Pimax seems to be working normally again (almost scared to turn the pc off).

I won’t be fooling around with Oculus runtime that’s for sure.

Ran Tatooine (free oculus version) and it worked properly.
Now running SteamVR and that works as well.

I also had notification that the new lenses are on the way as well.

So I’m happy again. Hope it lasts.

Cheers, Luke

1 Like
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Good result Luke, hope it lasts. I never knew there was a oculus version of tatooine, going to check that out.

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Yes, I found it at https://www.wearvr.com/?device=oculus-rift whilst looking at what I could try with the pimax.

I then found the SteamVR (Vive) version, but it seems to require the vive hand controllers. Can’t get it to work with my XBox controller. Would be good if there was some kind of translator because I suspect that more vive games will have that issue.

If you hear of anything let me know ;).

Cheers, L

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Only solution I have found is to get a leap motion controller, which can be used in steam games with a piece of software. I don’t own one yet, but bidding on one on ebay. There about thirty pound. There not perfect from what I hear. But do the job.

Thanks for that link. I gave up looking for the oculus version. That’s why I searched out the leap motion.

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I was lucky to find a Razer hydra motion controller for $50. Works well with steam driver. Now tho good luck finding them for a reasonable price

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yeah I have looked for one, there crazy prices now. Well done on getting one so cheap. I have given up on the idea of the controller for now, got into sim racing which is it’s main use at moment. They should relaunch the hydra it seems like a good solution.

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I agree it would be great for them to re release but atm they seem to be focused on complete wireless tracking modules & controller.

Search sixsense

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They do look good and accurate, interesting solution for tracking, here is a video for anyone interested :slight_smile:

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That’s what I want. That way it won’t matter which HMD I end up with.

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Indeed which is why i have said Hmd should be modular to allow you to choose pos/controllers. That way you can upgrade to any hmd as time passes. The same would be true with controller/pos setup.

Still wish tho Razer would re-release the Hydra

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I am new to VR and have tried the Pimax for about 4 days now.
I totally agree to all the points you made and can confirm that the Pimax has the better optics but lacks the game content of the main VR brands including PSVR.
There is a loophole for the Pimax - sadly not seen by the company:
The Pimax would be most awesome to use with voxpr and have instantly a HUGE amount of VR playable games that do not need VR controllers. The Pimax would be doing “mouselook” - nothing else needed.
I was hoping to play those classics like skyrim, gta, quake, fallout etc - all those run GREAT in 3D gaming with TriDef.
PIMAX should just replace the 3D TV screen by offering a “VR mouse look” experience rather than offering a VR TV screen to play games on.
If a TV screen can show an image, why cant that image be shown on those two PIMAX lenses?
Left image left eye , right image right eye = simple stereo seperation done by the TriDef software and the PIMAX could make it appear as VR

o.O

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Truth though the PiMax & other vr headsets don’t use a 3d panel. Now it might be possible to introduce a mode that tells your video card it is a 3d display (maybe). But there is also an extra layer of re rendering the image to fit each eye. For example the Panel is 16:9; however once the screen is split into 2 you get 8:9 (more square image).

Which is why when watching videos in the headset you in most video programs are presented with a theater room.