Hi, First post here after reading a lot on the forums lately and wanted to share my findings.
I own the 5k+, 8k+ and the 8kx after getting it delivered 2 weeks ago.
I had the IPD adjustment problem as well and yesterday I spent a couple of hours to try and make the best out of it and want to share my approach.
I used the startup picture in Pitool with the Pimax circular logo TJ
Adjust your mechanical IPD until it feels the best you can get.
I had to go to the smallest value possible and leave vertical and IPD offset to zero in software.
You see some circular strains/ghosting from the lenses in the blacks if you look at the Pimax logo.
If you mouse click the dot in the offset sliders you can use the arrows on your keyboard to adjust the slider in VR surroundings (but most already know this)
First thing I did was closing 1 eye (right or left doesnt matter) and adjust the vertical offset so that the logo lines up horizontal with the circular strains from the lenses trying to find the middle point for both of them.
You will notice if it’s okay because it is also the point were your eye will relax and feel comfortable plus the logo looks most sharp.
After that do the same with your other eye.
I got a offset value of left +4.5 and right +4
Now comes the IPD offset. I focus in the space between the T and J in the logo.
If you slide left and right with your keyboard arrows you will notice this space hopping a bit left to right and the logo looks double if you go to far into plus or minus offset. Play with it and pay attention to the space in between and you will see if it lines up the best way possible. Mine is set to +0.5 IPD offset.
After doing this I finally got no tension anymore on my eyes and they stay relax all the time. Also if i take of my headset and look on my monitor i’m able to read instant without having my eyes to refocus.
Hope I explained it so you understand and just give it a go. Maybe it will help you as well
Happy to help, this function deffo helps getting everything dailed in without taking of the headset so you really see what is going on I didn’t know it either but saw it on a YT video a while back and assumed I was the only one
Hi. So if I understand well the process you also make this mistake of setting your ipd with a 2d image (for clarity) while ipd is supposed to be related the 3d scale, not the clarity.
I understand you can try to set the lenses position to have a good clarity (which is still the Wrong thing to start with IMHO) and then compensate with the ipd offset to get your real far ipd, or with a virtual 3d environment, to get things on scale, but unless I misunderstood your process, sounds like to me you also use a 2d image to set the ipd offset.
So after that how will you deal with the virtual world scale ?
As far as I know on every vr headsets, ipd setting has always been related to 3d scale, not clarity, and can never be set correctly with anything but a 3d environment or just by knowing your real ipd and puting it on the headset.
There is nothing wrong doing it anyway, but then you can miss a huge part of the immersion and realism if the scale is not spot on.
Hi,I’m not the theoretical guy to judge if something is the right or wrong way and have not enough in dept inside in the mathematical stuff around VR. I only tried to describe what I figured out yesterday and getting a much better experience from my 8kx as before.
It’s not clarity that gave me the consideration to share my findings but the relax state my eyes where after following the steps i mentioned. I get better clarity going to something like minus 3 in the offset IPD for example but it just doesn’t feel right in game as i get a sort of double vision and that strange feel is gone now. I use the picture to get rid of that double vision feel and it worked out great in the sim I play most.
I would be thankful if you could point me out in how to setup the IPD the correct way with an 8kx so i can see myself what I’m missing out here
I personally think clarity and correct focus is the number one priority for health and safe use, and leads to long term comfort. You’re absolutely doing the right thing in my opinion. 3D depth can be dialled in as well but it is secondary to correct use. My dad is a retired eye surgeon and opthalmologist, so yes I’m biased
Failing to do it right is like getting glasses where one of the lenses is set to the wrong prescription. It’s going to lead to discomfort, eyestrain, headaches and possible long term repercussions as your eye muscles and brain adapt incorrectly.
No one should use a VR setup where one eye is out of focus and leads to discomfort, it may cause damage and is not the right way to continue. For people in that situation they either need to get the issue fixed, or get a headset that suits them better. Don’t push through it and get used to it being set up badly.
The 8KX seems to be worse for more people in this regard than 5k+ or 8k. I solved it by removing the Comfort kit cowling and replacing it with the 5k+ one, I hope others can find an equivalent solution. It’s different for everybody.
Tnx for clearing things up I tried the thicker foam from my 8kplus as well and the circular rings on the lenses were almost not visible anymore but it looked if i lost some clarity so I jumped back to the thin foam kit. Need to test the 5kplus foam over the weekend.
if IPD, which means VR world scale accuracy, was not the first important setting to take in account, we’d better use monitors. we use VR to feel like we are really inside the game. for that we not only need the headset that tracks our head movements, we also need to have the real scale.
So in every headset IPD is the priority, yes.
now pimax is special. it’s the first ultra wide fov that uses 2 big canted panels, in association with Fresnel lenses that has concentric circles that are less and less clear as you’re looking further away from the center.
this design leads to a headset that is by design, meant to be looked through the center of each lenses with one eye at a time, not both at a time.
that’s how it’s made, no matter what you or me like, it’s how it is supposed to be set, and it works perfectly if you let your visual system adapt.
So the center of circles to center of circles distance is supposed to be (5 mm) higher than the IPD.
trying to match this distance to your IPD is forcing you either to have the wrong IPD setting (wrong scale) or to use a big +5 IPD offset on the pitool software to compensate , which is too much and leads to eye strain, cause wrong stereoscopic setting.
So, unless we have non fresnel lenses, the IPD you set in your VR headset, including pimax, is supposed to be your real IPD.
now I only have the 5k+, and it looks like the 8kx is more problematic, but the center to center distance has never been supposed to match IPD in the first place. not on this headset.
I don’t know about the 8kx, but for the 5k+
if you know you IPD just try to match it with:
zero IPD offset, turn the wheel until the number in the headsets matches your IPD.
Or
try to use a combination of IPD offset and the wheel.
What is your IPD?
No worries. To get focus, comfort, and sufficient depth for me, I’m using:
5k+ cowling (couldn’t get both eyes in focus without it)
Thicker VRMust foam (still waiting for Pimax thick foam, they say it will reach me soon)
8KX counterweight from Studioform Creative, 300g (really takes the front heavy pressure off the cheeks)
Slight tilt downwards on the nose and upwards on the back (really couldn’t do this without the counterweight)
Mechanical IPD at minimum ~59-60mm and software IPD offset -0.5
No vertical offset
Of course you’ll have to find what suits you, but if your eyes are now relaxed then that’s the best starting point. Took me a long time to get that in the 8KX.
My ipd is 66 and in the 5kplus I could set it to 65 mechanical and leave software offsets to zero. Never had any problems before setting my ipd. Even on the 8kplus it is way better to get a relax and comfortable fit and sweetspot.
I changed again to the thicker foam from my 8k+ and this does the job together with my method to get the best feel but I need software adjustment also. Mechanical offset to lowest possible. Software Offset to -3 now instead of +0.5 but got a lot more clarity and much less ghosting from the lenses and also the double vision is gone completely. I think this is the way to go for me and just forget about the thin foam.
On a side note, I use the vive Das with thick vrcover headfoam for extra comfort. The counterweight is on its way as I ordered it last week.
Sounds like a weird way to design a HMD. If we could live our lives in VR it would probably be okay to adapt, but what about when you take the HMD off? Do you experience any discomfort or transitional period of adapting back to RL again?
Given that visual therapy often includes exercises to train muscles and the brain over time and do have a proven effect. Makes me wonder what the long term effect on the eyes and brain is when they are adapted to focus on something that is out of focus or less clear than they usually see. If a person can’t see objects in the distance clearly, to my knowledge things being unclear becomes a part of the way he or she judge depth/distance. Now I’ve spent alot of time in HMD’s which had less clarity than the 8kx will ever have so it might not be a problem.
Do you know what effect is to be expected when moving the eyes closer or further away from the lenses? If you move the headset further does that mean a higher or lower IPD? or should it not change at all?
I wonder about this; my left eye is 20/22 and my right is 20/25. I can read the computer screen with my left eye at arm’s length, but not my right. However, nobody (not my eye surgeon or optometrist ) ever suggested that if I didn’t correct this issue I’d somehow suffer permanent damage to my vision. So in the headset, I try to adjust it so that while my right eye might not be quite as clear as my left, they work fine in combination and everything looks fine. When the VR lens people have a new set of prescription lens holders to fit the Pimax, I’ll order in a pair of lenses and see what difference that makes. Right now, I can’t put glasses on under the HMD because there isn’t enough clearance between the eyeglass lenses and the HMD lenses.
Anyhow, if our eyes adapt in real life, why not in VR? I’m not being argumentative here, I just wonder about it.
No issue with vr->real life with my 5k+
It took me some time to have a clear 3d image while I never have both of my eyes on the very clear zone but now all that I see is a clear 3d image.
The only real issue With this design is choice of fresnel lenses, but I assume it would have cost way more with non fresnel lenses of this size?
Speaking of discomfort after a vr experience, once I tried a phone-VR headset on a game I must have set a too strong ipd on the headset.
After 20 min of game I put the headset off and then I had a strong double vision during 30 min irl.
I never experience anything like this on the 5k+. Even by using higher ipd than I should.
On the contrary, When I was using the smallest ipd as possible (in order to have both eyes on the clear zone at the same time) like a lot of us do, I had eye strain for days.(no double vision but eye strain)
This disappeared when I started to set the ipd equal to my real far ipd (one only eye on the clear zone at a time).
After testing with the thick and thin foam I needed to set the Pimax to a smaller IPD with the thick foam. -3 to +0.5 offset in software with both manual to lowest possible.
Vertical offset stays the same which is a surprise to me.
With the thick foam I also gained some clarity and lost most of the ghosting from the lenses. Another big plus is comfort with the thicker foam so i’ll settle for now with this solution.
If I take my headset of, my eyes don’t need to make any corrections in the real world to adapt.
i tried to do that and i just don’t really feel whats the best setting. it kinda feels the same, whether its at lowest or highest settings. i just don’t feel the difference. problem is, that there is that stupid wheel, and it takes too much time to get some adjustments and by the time i do it, my brain just “fixes” the picture for me and cant see the difference. i would prefer a slider with FAST (to minimize the time for brain to fix stereo vision) adjustments instead of that slow crappy wheel.
i played starwars, dcs world and dirt 2.0 on vr. if i am just flying / driving straight or left, right, is all ok. but once i do a “roll”, holy sh!t it gets me fukin crazy nausea! and yes, i have tried that splitting image until it lines up technique.
even when it all feels “ok” (not including roll move), the world feels smaller. particularly cockpits or car interiors. but when i try to make some ipd adjustments, i am getting eye strain and nausea.
i don’t know. i just cant set proper scale/ipd. my far ipd is 63mm and near ipd 57. my optometrist made the measurements.
