How To Make Your Pimax Image/Picture/Screen Clear/Crisp (Increase Clarity)

PimaxVR Software Discussion
61

I’ve written a .bat script to clean all PiTool folders to not do it manual as it can be annoying.
Copy content from below section & put it in file with .bat extension, now with only 1 click you will clean all those folders automatically. If log complains that some files can not be deleted try to run it with administrator rights by right clicking on it & selecting appropriate option.

BAT file content

@taskkill /F /IM PiTool.exe
@taskkill /F /IM PiService.exe
@taskkill /F /IM pi_server.exe
@net stop "PiServiceLauncher"

RD /Q /S C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\PiTool

RD /Q /S C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\LocalLow\Pimax

RD /Q /S C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Pimax

RD /Q /S C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\PiTool

RD /Q /S C:\ProgramData\pimax

set /p WAIT=PiTool folders were removed. Hit ENTER to continue...

** added to thread post

9 Likes
62

Please help,

I ran the command with and without quotes, and as admin. Nothing happens when i do this. I tried changing the 64 to 32. nothing. I only have one drive and have the file location pulled up. I was unable to run it in 64 or 32. I installed notepad++ and got it open but it looks like another language.

I’m sure I’m doing something wrong. I assume steamvr.vrsettings will be there when I get it to run/open?

Thanks for the help!

63

quotes are nesessary because there are spaces in the command.

If nothing happens then go to the specified directory in the explorer and start the file manualy.

It is an .exe (executable, compiled) file, so of course you get garbage if loaded in a text editor.

Edit: if i run it in the cmd window i see the following:
C:\Users\mruu>“C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR\bin\win64\vrpathreg.exe”
Runtime path = C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR
Config path = c:\program files (x86)\steam\config
Log path = c:\program files (x86)\steam\logs
External Drivers:
C:\Program Files\Pimax\SteamVRSupport\drivers\aapvr

should be similar to your installation.
simply go into your config directory and there you should find the steamvr.vrconfig file and that one is to open in the notepad app.

Make a backup of the file first. copy it or rename it and start steamvr again. steamvr will build a new one up. i changed many things in it once and after the next start steamvr did build up a new one and all my settings were gone. be prepared for that to happen.

2 Likes
64

Found it!

So I don’t have all of the values that are in the tutorial. I see he says to add in the lines. Does that mean ALL lines? I assume different GPUs will have different stuff, so im not sure on which ones to ADD.

Here’s what I have

1 Like
65

to add those that are marked in red on screenshot, they also added in text form under the image inside of accordion.

If you have no section where the red lines are added you alo can add section, like this:

“section name”: {
“name”: “value”,
“name 2”: “value2”
}

2 Likes
66

Got it and it definitely works. Thanks for the help!

3 Likes
67

Added to OP some basic points about pitools settings, performance, nose pain as many people recently were asking about those on reddit & here

4 Likes
68

Few words about the IPD thing.
Yes the minimal distance between the two lenses seems to be in the 64-65mm zone, and yes if you have a 63-64mm IPD and you want to look at a point with a perfect clear view on both eyes at the same times, you’ll have to put the mechanical IPD at the minimum.
But does it mean you are supposed to do that?

That’s what I thought but I’m not sure anymore.
I mainly play simracing with the 5k+, that I have got 6 weeks ago, and my everyday game is Assetto Corsa with the content manager, shader patch and SOL.
Recently I have started to play on large mode, for immersion,but even when I played on the normal mode, I was applying the IPD trick discussed on this topic. : putting the mechanical IPD at its minimum. (my 63 mm IPD minus 3mm=60)

I had clear view, but something was off on the world scale, didn’t know exactly what.
I have experimented a lot, switching between 3 software IPD offset : default, +0.5, +1, ended with +1 and always hardware IPD at minimum so the pimax told me I used a 61mm IPD. (60mm + offset 1)
But something was still OFF.
the most awkward thing was how the other cars didn’t really have the right scale.
they looked real just in front, but when they were going away, it was a bit like they shrink rather than being further away.
Nothing as dramatic as it sounds like, nothing obvious, but something was off, and I wasn’t really 100% there. the roads, and the sens of speed weren’t 100% right neither.

But recently, I pushed the mechanical IPD further, and after a lot of races on different tracks, different cars, I came to a total of 63 mm (which is my real IPD).
Then, WOW, I was really there, the world scale looked real, the way the other cars behave when they are getting further or closer was right, the roads and far distances were right, and the sens of speed was legit.
Despite the distance between the two lenses center was higher than my real IPD, my eyes weren’t seing fuzzy images and above all, the scale was right, and so was the immersion, which is the most important to me.

SO, I’m not sure now that the indicated IPD on the screen is OFF like most of us may think.
ON my experience at least, this number is way more legit than what we can think if we only consider the center of the lenses and place the clarity before the sens of “really being there”.
The eyes move very often, so maybe it’s not a big deal if they don’t look at the center of their respective lenses at the same time, the brain probably accommodate anyway, which could explain why I don’t see any fuzzy image.

4 Likes
69

sounds interesting, I have my Pimax set at lenses centers & have no wrong scale issue I had but afair I fixed it with horizontal software IPD offset.

Just to double check, if you look at far distances, at stars, your eyes have bigger IPD than if you look at closer objects, when people measure IPD in front of mirror or with mobile app they can look at closer distances, I personally had 67 & 64 measurements.

So my question is your far IPD ~63?

Also what happens if you put your pupils at centers, but tune your software IPD further to match the same 63mm? Won’t it work either?

Did you try https://community.openmr.ai/t/guide-how-to-achieve-perfect-real-view-with-pimax-ipd-compensation/18369 this guide to achieve right scale?

1 Like
70

just to double check, if you look at far distances, at stars, your eyes have bigger IPD than if you look at closer objects, when people measure IPD in front of mirror or with mobile app they can look at closer distances, I personally had 67 & 64 measurements.

So my question is your far IPD ~63?

I have few PSVR years prior to pimax, so I already investigated the IPD subject and its issues.
My real far IPD is something between 63 and 64, it’s hard to know precisely since, like you pointed, it depends on the method.
In addition to that, the scale in games are not exact science.
depending on the game and how developers implemented it, on PSVR I had to use a higher IPD setting for certain games to have a decent sense of scale and vastness, while the default was OK of some other games.
(It’s also developpers dependant on PCVR games. on assetto corsa, with +1 IPD offset on pimax, cars interiors and virtual hands look a bit bigger than it should, but everything else looks in scale to me: other cars, roads, distances, sens of speed)

But it was a plane panel (PSVR), and all the IPD setting was through software.
Pimax introduces additional things to deal with: canted panels and hardware IPD & software adjustment.

Thanks for the link. I already read that a while ago, but by reading this subject again, I’d say Rita explains pretty well why I have better scale and immersion results by using my real IPD rather than artificially lowering it :
https://community.openmr.ai/t/clarifying-near-ipd-x-distant-ipd-confusion/14809

71

It makes me think that your IPD can be a bit bigger, for sure it’s not a science but you can find some “real IPD” value that works for you. Personally me don’t need to set IPD higher & scale is fine for me if I set software offsets correct, if that works fine for you it’s great though. Probably Im fine with it coz my real IPD dial in properly then.

72

the +1 offset comes from the period where I artificially lowered the hardware IPD to it’s minimum.
it was to give me a more accurate sens of scale/presence/speed/vasness
yesterday, after my trials on offset+hardware IPD=63mm, I tried to put the software IPD offset back to zero, and to increase the hardware IPD even more so that I get 63mm again, and in term of scale it was good but then my eyes were even more further away from the lenses centers, leading to a more fuzzy image, and I felt a bit of eye fatigue, like if I had to make an effort.
I also tried to put 0.5 offset, to decrease a bit the hardware IPD, this was a bit better but in the end, I figured out I wasn’t too much bothered by the cars interiors being a bit big, since it limits the increases of hardware and everything else is right.
I’ll keep experimenting.

1 Like
73

It has, as it happens, been mentioned on numerous occasions on this forum (…and more than once been contested, too), that since the lenses are canted, their axes converge, and in order to make them intersect one’s eyes, so that one can look right down them - straight through the lens centres, the lens spacing needs to be slightly larger than one’s IPD - how much depends on how much eye relief one have; The closer one can get the lenses to one’s eyes, the less extra spacing between the lenses is needed.

Along with the real-world optical alignment; Only from the sweet spot, which lies on the lens axis, at a certain distance from the lens, will the position of the viewer’s eye match the observer point of the in-game camera, and the centre- and shape of the distortion profile that compensates in software for the distortion of the lens. Only there wíll the view have geometric verity.

Unfortunately (…and highly annoyingly) this means giving up getting both eyes simultaneously in optimal focus as a lost cause – best focus for the right eye will be when swivelling one’s eyeball to look ten degrees to the right, and vice versa for the left eye.

3 Likes
74

Nice reading, I missed this one, it explains many things. Seems I use exactly that method how to get both eyes in focus by loweing IPD distance, in my case it reduce discomfort as I have issue with my 2nd eye & it gets much faster tired if things aren’t in focus, I also don’t have issues with scale & distorsions, but I have my pupils really close to the lenses, so it helps with angular views problems I believe. I added this link to section about missing world scale & 3d immersion.

75

I have made several more tests and ended with a total of 63.5mm, with a +1.5 software IPD offset, and minimum + 2mm hardware setting, and it looked even more accurate in term of scale.
What I did was to closely follow a group of BMW 1M from the original assetto corsa because their size is easy to estimate; and while I was getting closer and further I was focusing on how “real” and accurate was their apparent size.
When I found I couldn’t have a more accurate setting, I measured again my IPD with the mirror / one eye closed then the other technique and it turns out my real IPD really seems to be 63.5mm, exactly the same IPD that gave me the better result in the game.

So, to me, at least for my own IPD, the pimax IPD number is legit, and not exaggerated.
if you set a lower IPD for clarity, you risk to end with a sens of scale that is off.

I also made some experiments, achieving the same 63.5mm by increasing the physical wheel, while I was decreasing the software offset, and also the contrary, and the difference between both is hard to quantify.
In term of scale it looks about the same, but I feel there is a little difference in term of feeling.
need to investigate more.

So clearly,to me, you don’t set the IPD by measuring the distance between the lenses, but rather with the better combination between hardware lenses distance and software IPD offset, IN GAME!.
The final IPD number must be your real far sight IPD, not the near IPD like it is repeated in this forum.

5 Likes
76

well, it might be true for your eye relief & other variables case, when people start using Pimax, many complains about eye strain & nose pain, lenses centers is a starting point where people can understand better how to wear HMD (it should be on centers level vertically, so there is more nose gap). Usually it allows people to align it properly & get better understanding where to look to measure IPD. Also -4 IPD proposed for cases with eye strain. I see your point that Pimax probably can quantitify it’s IPD by doing correct calculation, but again as Risa’s article states the bigger eye relief the bigger IPD should be in order to have correct convergence with lenses axis. So Pimax IPD popup value is not constant, it varies per eye relief & it’s why there are so many complains & cases. Coz when people hadn’t read the forum first thing that user does is setting IPD according popup value & it doesn’t work all the time.

So if person has a larger eye relief value it makes sense to increase IPD value or vise versa, usually people try to push it as close as possible to the face coz it elliminates black space in nose area & helps with immersion & makes FOV even bigger, I guess you can check the image with eyes & lenses axis & imaging how hardcoded IPD value & needed one varies per eye relief value.

So the solution here is simple - if standard doesn’t work - know that on Pimax it’s legit to try somethign that isn’t supposed to work in your understanding & solution is to play with IPD values & put it beyond the default one. We shouoldn’t overcomplicate things for newcomers as it’s too much information & a bit overwhelming, once person confident with some stuff there are links which can be used to get deeper understanding of problem. But at starting point it’s more working solution to get simple instructions to try that, that & that, if doesn’t work read that & that.

2 Likes
78

IPD on Pimax is tricky, there are variety of values which can work for you on that or another eye relief distance.

As some users mentioned earlier some values work better to get boths eyes in focus in middle ares but you can loss a bit of right world scaling (how it feels). Other values lead to small fuzzy in center but scale will be better, if you can try to find a balance which can work better for you in both cases. I guess that as closer you to lenses centres as less there should be problems to find the spot. But sometimes this close HMD placement can be a problem for some users coz they start to experience distortions, so this guide is more or less something like collection of tips & insights which can help you to find a better usage of you Pimax by empirically trying those approaches. There is no simple answer how to properly align IPD I belief on this kind of HMD.
It’s up to your preferences like:

  1. clarity in stereo overlap zone
  2. eyes strain free image
  3. no need to refocus once you get off your HMD
  4. distortion free image
  5. more clarity on the sides
  6. trying to achieve bigger FOV & less nose black gap which affects eye relief & IPD should be adjusted as well
  7. some other users preferences …

Try to check this article to get a beta idea how IPD & eye relief work on this HMD, it became my favourite article last days as I got a lot of insight how it works by reading this:

https://community.openmr.ai/t/clarifying-near-ipd-x-distant-ipd-confusion/14809

3 Likes
79

I have a program over here that will sets the steamvr.vrsettings in the correct file automatically

maxRecommendedResolution = 16384;
GPUSpeed’s = 2000;
gpuSpeedRenderTargetScale = 1.5m;
allowSupersampleFiltering = false;
supersampleScale = 1;

direct link: https://github.com/craftyinsomniac/WFOVFix/releases/download/v0.1/WFOVFix.exe

24 Likes
80

Thank you for those settings. @BNP

I was for the life of me wondering why I couldn’t get a decent clear image over distance with my 8K-X and your recommendations for steamvr.settings file made a very clear difference. Clarity over distance in Il2 and also wider sweet spot with the 8K-X

Sometimes I wonder if Valve deliberately messes with us alternate headset users - nah, that would be monopolistic corp conspiracy :rofl:

5 Likes
81

sounds like your experience improved. glad to hear that :slight_smile:

2 Likes