(Text from above comic strip)
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My first VR HMD was the HTC Vive then the Rift, PSVR and others… I thought I was happy with resolution. But I was unsatisfied with FOV.
I WAS WRONG ABOUT RESOLUTION!!! I had been missing so many details and didn’t realize it. Did you know that Paladin Danse from Fallout 4 isn’t bald? It turns out he’s just wearing a hood! Paladin Danse: I’m not bald! With the low level of detail that I was used to, I honestly thought he was some bald guy! (maybe I should have just looked closer…)
But my first time with the 5K+ wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns. Like many others have experienced (788 posts)… Spongebob: My eyes really hurt.
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Spongebob: I’ve got it! The solution must be more foam! So I tried making the foam thicker …but it didn’t help. 56mm…just kidding.
(Doubt) I thought that either I must be doing something wrong, or my head is just shaped too weird to make this work. And if eye strain wasn’t enough, selecting “Large” FOV ruined my resolution!
What is going on here?!? I’m running a PC with:
Intel Core i7-6700K
Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti
64gb RAM (because why not)
1TB EVO 850 SSD
So my PC isn’t an issue! Fortunately, the Pimax community is fantastic! The forum is full of people willing to help with troubleshooting.
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After reading a post from another user who took their foam off completely, I decided to give that a try. And lo and behold, I found a sweet spot! Thinner foam was the answer! About 11mm. With this issue solved, it was now time to resolve the FOV issue. It turns out that the best solution is to just use "Normal" FOV…good enough for now.
YES!!! Finally… With my issues mostly solved, I could finally just play a game and not spend all my time tweaking and configuring! Also, by this time, I had printed the DAS adapter and got some extenders to optimize my cable layout. Before discussing my gameplay experience, here is a little info about my play space to get the full picture of how I’m using my Pimax 5K+…
Itchy’s VRoom
Play Area: 6ft x 8ft (1.8m x 2.4m)
Light Houses: 7.5 ft (2.3m) above the floor
The Vive Link Box allows all of my PC VR headsets to be connected at the same location minimizing the friction of getting into VR. I still use some of the other headsets for specific applications such as my VirZoom (I don’t want to sweat in my 5K+).
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Field of View. The first thing that hit me while using the Pimax is that the larger FOV makes it feel like you’ve stepped further into the virtual world. The FOV allows you to move your eyes around naturally to look instead of having to move your entire head. You are further immersed by no longer requiring unnatural head movements just to see the world around you.
Resolution. After the FOV, the impact of the increased resolution starts to set in. You can now see all of this detail that just wasn’t there before. Games that looked decent before now look amazing! These increased specs lead to more natural movements. With older HMDs, you sometimes had to move around in the game just to be able to read text. This process is very immersion breaking . With the increased resolution, I no longer have to move around until the text is clear enough to read or at the right place to render. This immersion breaking task is no longer required with my Pimax 5K+.
Games I’ve played so far are: Space Pirate Trainer, The Lab, and mostly…Fallout 4 VR.
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Most of my time has been spent in Fallout 4. This requires Parallel Projections, which, even with an RTX 2080 Ti causes quite a bit of stuttering at Normal FOV. However, the increased FOV and resolution make it so that I will gladly deal with that. The good news is, it sounds like this is a limitation of Bethesda’s game engine which could potentially be updated in the future. (Please Bethesda…add support for canted displays!) Space Pirate Trainer and Valve’s The Lab both run amazing. I don’t know for certain, but I think I am maintaining 90 fps at Normal FOV.
There are two issues that I can’t ignore that aren’t necessarily due to the headset. First: I’m kind of over the Vive Wands. They were great when they were the only option, but knowing how amazing the Touch controllers are kind of kills it for me. We really need something better to provide better hand presence. We need better controllers to compliment the experience as soon as possible.
Second: Coming from an HTC Vive with a wireless kit, it’s kind of disappointing having to deal with a cable again. This takes away from immersion pretty significantly when you’re moving a lot. We also really need this wireless module as soon as possible. These two accessories combined with better game engine support would give us everything we need for a true Gen 2 VR experience. I am very much looking forward to having this complete package.
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Everything just feels more convincing and immersive with the Pimax. Although we’re obviously not there yet, it does feel like we’re a little bit closer to the Ready Player One fantasy. I think that once we have better controllers, wireless, and better game engine support we’re not going to be constantly looking for more the way we were before Pimax was available.
I am very happy with my Pimax 5K+ and excited to continue to get lost in Virtual Reality. Thank you Pimax for improving the VR experience for all of us and for your dedication to the success of this headset!
