Let´s explain for users with little awareness of dependencies and data privacy.
You set up your system. something crashes, your system is broken.
You need to activate again, just to use your already bought and paid hardware. Why on earth should I accept this? The hardware belongs to me and I will not accept a vendor to allow to stop my usage of my own hardware because whatever cloud features I never opted in.
It is just distraction and excuse to combine a shop and the usage of hardware bound to an account. It is to gain control over the user, the usage of his hardware and his data, his personal profile.
And no, I do not play online games at all, always only purely offline. I know, companies use those mechanism for implementing kill switches, to punish users for unwanted behavior, even if it is completely legal activity.
US company Steam did it, on behalf of the US government, blocked users from other countries like Venezuela or Russia etc. Companies deactivate software and functions or accounts on behalf of governments and other companies or even NGOs.
So I do not accept this for me at all. If I opt in for the shop, which I would, then it must be separated and not relatede to each other at all.
Making an account is blackmailing? Just use a fake email and fake details if it’s that much of an issue, then block the app in firewall and keep it offline. I know that is annoying and not ideal but calling it blackmail is pretty extreme when accounts are so common for basically everything.
Yes, it is blackmailing. To be pressed to make an account to make use of your own paid hardware is blackmailing at least.
Why should I even consider to make a fake account to be able to use my hardware? It is just a silly way to try to circumvent it. And it does not solve the issue if something happens to your installation and you need to reinstall it and log in (!).
When I bought my 4K, 5K and my 8KX, it was without any need of an online account. I could block outgoing net traffic. Now it changes and PIMAX did not mention this severe change of policy.
If you are accustomed to such behavior, and willingly accept it, it is up to you, but do not request others to accept it or neglect it.
In Germany we call it the frogs in the cooking pot. starting from cold water, not recognizing the temperature rising and killing them in the end. I fear the software kill switches and unwanted collection of my profile data from the very beginning. If you aren´t affraid of it, good for you.
So I will never buy an Index, Oculus or any other Headset with mandatory cloud connection. I refuse to accept it. It is really about freedom and how freedom and independence is valued. Those, who don´t care will lose it. My red line is the online requirement, which implies an unavoidable external control and kill switch feature.
Only Open Source Software may be able to solve this in the end…
I think you’re exaggerating the problem. I don’t think I can run my Pimax 8KX if I’m not on SteamVR which need to be online. I understand if you don’t have internet access or something and can only use the hardware offline. But c’mon, this ain’t an issue. Yes, I lose all the games i bought on Steam if i forget my username and password but then you can’t blame them for not writing it down and store in a safe place. If you talk about data security concerns…again, i don’t care if they have my data…what data…location…hours of gaming? Who care…I’m not supper rich…they get nothing from me. People are getting brainwashed now a day into believing all this crappy concerns. Unless you’re government agent, celebrity or super rich person, there’s not much to worry about for common citizens (which composed the majority) when it come to data security. I’m not worry.
Fair enough, it is standard pretty much but I understand that it’s not something you agree with. Personally I have no issue with it but I do see the merit in having the PCVR driver aspect of the software being not tied to an account, like how PiTool previously was. Especially for the reason you mentioned prior of a company shutting down and then your hardware is suddenly unusable.
I meant use a disposable email, so just do that again, takes about 30 seconds.
Has it changed for current headsets? Pitool still works for those headsets. It will be mandatory for Reality series I guess but vision series should work just fine for years going forward with pitool. I know some will say that eventually it will stop working, although I’m not sure if any version of pitool has stopped working with steam VR yet. Support for future OS is always an issue and tends to fall behind eventually with any hardware, no hardware is supported indefinitely after being discontinued.
Good point, and noted.
True about the kill switch. The data collection I would suspect isn’t really a thing with Pimax and seeing as there is an offline mode you could just block it from the internet. I feel like if data collection is their goal then PiTool would suffice to do so, no account needed. I think your concerns about privacy are valid but to enjoy tech going forward, it’s going to involve installing software, so you’re going to have that worry no matter what. An account isn’t going to change much, especially when you can just put fake details.
Where do you get your games?
The only online requirement is the initial login. I reinstalled the software even and didn’t have to login again. I understand your concerns but at the same time, I don’t understand how you can be on a forum communicating with me right now if it’s such a concern? There is a line where it no longer is rational. Ultimately we need to push governments to enact laws to deal with these things, as just not having an account isn’t enough to actually tackle data privacy.
You should check out the Somnium VR 1, it’s going to be a fully open source headset. It seems like it’s actually going ahead, I was skeptical at first, probably not anytime soon but maybe late next year we might see it release. It’s going to be a good choice if you want to avoid any online requirements etc.
I do respect your opinions, just giving my own thoughts. Don’t mean for any of my messages to be dismissive or combative, can sometimes come across wrong over just text. Ultimately I do agree that there should be an option like PiTool that doesn’t requirement an account, I just personally think the account or not makes little to no difference to privacy and data collection.
You are probably right. At least compared to the old PiTool which also already phoned home the HMD ID each time PiTool started and was online. So for people who registered their Pimax headset at some point the correlation between this id and the name was at least technically possible. And PiTool was always able to download and execute code from the Pimax servers without user interaction for update purposes. So even though I wouldn’t install Steam or the Pimax Client on any work related PC, I think a basic level of trust cannot hurt, so without forced online requirement it’s ok for me atm. as it is.
That said - a neat solution that probably wouldn’t need a lot of changes would be: Instead of having the login screen as a blocker for the entire application it could just be shown on the tabs where it is needed - the shop and the account. Sounds good?
Thank You so much for your honest response. I value it and your way to answer as well.
We may have different opinions about certain facts but we still can exchange those opinions.
No need to convince each other though.
You asked about where I get the games, obviously I use Steam. I use GOG as well.
Currently, Steam requires to be online for buying and downloading or updating software only. Then you can go offline. And it is not yet related to any hardware usage, as far as I know. As well you can make snapshots of your collection and store them locally, restore them locally. They have an awful forced update policy as well. Same as Pitool forced firmware update policy previously. Currently, PIMAX is the company with the better update policy, hope this remains for a while.
I know about the Pitool phone home, as well as the NVIDIA and AMD driver do with their hidden servers. But you can block and at least partially deactivate or even delete them, reduce the amount of data leakage from your machine. But it is really certain effort.
A mandatory online account cannot be blocked by the user, which was the starting point, when I tested the new software first. They changed it these days, a big improvement for sure. For the shop, to log in is just common practice, at least if you want to buy software usage licenses. If only they would decouple the shop login and the driver features…
The Somnium Headset may be interesting, depending on resolution an FoV. I may stay with my 8KX for a long time then…
Was about to install but app says need to uninstall PiTool first.
If you have installed the new client, do your games shortcuts in PiTool migrate over to new PimaxClient please?
Concerned if I need to set up MS Flight Sim shortcut again, that I will have the hassle of trying to access the exe file which microsoft make it difficult to access/ create a shortcut to
Yes， No forced firmware updates
Bummer. Reply from Pimax is "Hello, if you uninstall pitool first and then install the pimax client, your game will not be migrated, you need to import the game to the pimax client again
Technical support team
Guys it does nit need a huge discussion, we need to be able to play on and offline, at least we all can agree on this.
I still need my viveport games…
oh i the meantime i have done this
Hello @Heliosurge
Thank you for the ping!
@NoamLoop We will compile all of the feedback from this thread and forward them to the developers. I’m aware that certain users may find data sharing to be delicate. We shall figure something on this issue.
Thank you!
Steam though only needs to be online for the initial purchase of a game. Any PC that has your account authorized on(online once); you can simply copy a game from your steam library and put it into your offline pc and play the game without needing to be online to redownload.
My brother for example his pc(laptop) is online maybe once or twice a year. So I have my steam account authorized on his pc. When I purchase a game he might like to play, I simply copy it from my main pc library and manually add it to his. Reload steam offline mode and it adds it.
Good to know! So some games could be rescued when Steam should for whatever reason decide to lock the account. Still prefering GOG where bought games can be used indefinitely (well, as long as the PC supports them…). But Steam has the edge when it comes to availability of VR games - so yeah, not much of a choice in many cases. That said I think Valve is one of the more trustful companies overall. But even they don’t live on an island… But fingers crossed overall!
Indeed in the early days of Steam. I was concerned about if Steam folded what happens to the games we bought?
For me though back in very early days of Steam was not online and quite a few times bought games at a store only to find out needed Internet to install them 
with games that were not even online games.
GoG is definitely very nice; especially with bundles prices. Both GoG and Steam were very useful in getting games to work on linux without needing NoCD mod/patches.
Hi SmallBaguette:
Congratulations, you got the reward as the first person to post screenshots！！
Please sent me the game you want and the registered email address of the Pimax Store via PM:
- CyubeVR
- PAGAN PEAK VR
- KOBOLD: Chapter I
- Surv1v3
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