First off a BIG thanks and well done to @SweViver, @mixedrealityTV and @VoodooDE for your in-depth analysis of both HMDs, help in making them better, and making us feel like we were there with you in Berlin! We appreciate you!
But it seems that there is a big problem in your reviews that’s still making it difficult for folks to decide between the 8k and 5k+, namely your reviews seem to be focusing on what you can do with each right now with your current hardware. While that is helpful for sure, I think many people still want to know which is the better HMD regardless of current GPU limitations, to get an idea of what to expect from each longer term when the foveated rendering add-on comes out, or 7nm GPUs come out for example.
EDIT: I asked Sebastian about this in his live AMA last night, you can hear his response here.
From the reviews it seems to me we are talking about 3 different clarity factors (outside of SDE which we know is slightly better on the 8k) which are:
- Blurriness/sharpness (possible distortion from the upscaler)
- Distance clarity (resolution)
- Text readability
But the problem here is that these 3 things are going to be affected by supersampling with the 8k’s upscaler in play, it makes it more difficult than ever having to take it into consideration!
And as if that isn’t already problematic on it’s own, we now have this weirdness in SweViver’s video that makes it unclear what the ‘Rendering Quality’ slider actually does. Maybe it is some new magic that I’m unfamiliar with, but it seems to me it would just be another way to adjust supersampling which would just stack the same way Oculus Tray Tools + Steam VR SS + in-game SS does now. But if that’s the case, from that video it is not just starting at 0 for the 8k, which if that’s the case is really muddying the waters here even more! Sebastian says all of his review data is from 1.0 SS, but is it really? And what weird SS was Martin comparing with the way he was playing with the sliders there?
We know that both HMDs have the same input resolution, and while we expect the 8k to need more GPU because it needs to SS the image to offset the upscaler, that should NOT be something the ‘Rendering Quality’ does automatically without being clear to the user about it!
So while it’s obvious that you can barely run games at the native Pimax resolution with your 1080ti’s now, and that you might be able to with a 2080ti, you still won’t be able to supersample much, if at all. But some of us want to know what the HMDs themselves are capable of in the future without GPU limitations. For example, what if you used 2x SS on both HMDs, which will look better then? What really is the limitation of the 8k scaler vs. native 5k+, if any? What is the max SS for each that still gives visual gains before diminishing returns?
Obviously you can’t expect to run any games to test this, but certainly it could be tested to just take some screenshots comparing them in EQUAL supersampling values, 1.2x, 1.5x, 2.0x for examples. And to even do that, we all need to be confident of what the values are regarding the ‘Rendering Quality’ slider.
Please help clarify which HMD is better without the GPU being the limiting factor, and help us understand this magic ‘Rendering Quality’ slider. It would be much appreciated!
I hate to even bring up how the pixel arrangement differences between both, the FOV setting, and the lack of timewarp might come into play in all of this. Yikes!
Also Sebastian said he would share some screenshots of the Oculus Go vs. the Pimax HMDs, would really love to see those too!
Seems like the 8K is kind of flogging a dead horse (to me).
