I’m planning to buy a Pimax 4K but I don’t know if I should or not.
I have a few things I’m afraid of, stuff I heard on different websites but I need an existing user to confirm. If someone could answer all of these, or at least partially… I would appreciate it!
Do I need a better PC Hardware than the minimum requirements Oculus is asking for because of 4K?
(Just for those who have knowledge of these specs) would my PC be enough for Pimax 4K? If not, which parts do I need to change? My specs: 32GB RAM, Intel i5-4670, AMD Radeon HD 7950. I was thinking about buying an 1060 but if my setup would work I don’t want to spend more money on another GPU
Is the viewing angle 110° or 75°?
I’ve seen users complaining about myopia. I do have myopia and my phone’s VR headset works just fine, had no problem with it. Would I with this headset?
Is there any gyroscope drift? It’s damn annoying when using my phone and the gyro starts drifting away and rotates left/right…
Is there anything about this headset that you absolutely hate? Like… do you even get immersed while using it or the 60hz is a problem?
What about the latency? 18ms. I’ve seen people complaining about it
Did any of you get positional tracking and 6dof controllers (like PSMove)?
Some people said the cables and the overall experience feels cheap. Now I don’t expect the best quality considering the $300 price, but does it really feel THAT cheap?
I’d love to play horror games with the headset. Did you ever play them? What do you think? And… does playing with an Xbox Controller still make the experience worth it?
If you had the chance to buy a Pimax 4K, do you think it’s worth it overall (considering the specs it has, not necessarily the price)?
Thank you, everyone!!! I am really impressed of these specs and I hope it’s a good VR Headset that I can buy. Considering the price, I think it would be better to buy a $300 VR headset and eventually an 1060 for ~$250 ($550 in total) and adding positional tracking with a few PS Eye cameras and two PS Move controllers rather than buying Oculus CV1 + Touch Controllers or an HTC Vive plus a new GPU…
Thanks again for helping me out. Best regards to all of you, have a great day!!
Your CPU & Ram will work fine. GPU you should upgrade. I have 2x7950 cf Steamvr performance test I get yellow on average(vr capable) to just in green (vr ready). With this Steam says Med graphic settings.
The PiMax 4k accepts FHD(1080p) & QHD(1440p) the headset internally scales the image to 4k (UHD)
Due to my gpu being under spec depending on the game the 1080p input setting is better for performance. Though some titles still perform decently with the default QHD.
So if you can get a 2nd 7950 cheap can work to save for a future upgrade.
*If upgrading to the 1060 I reccommend putting a little extra for the 6gig model.
Why? No upgrade for the 1060; does not support sli
4.) Myopia. Are you farsighted? If so @LukeB did have to make a work around. PiMax team did send him a different set of lenses that he reported worked well.
*However I would talk with @PIMAX-Support & see if they could have one of their distrubers send you one with the alternative lense & match the price on gear best if different distributer.
Thanks for the fast reply. I can get a second 7950 HD GPU at half the price of a 1060, do VR games use two GPUs at the same time too? If yes, that would be perfect.
I would say yes as a single 7950 would probably yeild a red result.
You don’t need a headset to use SteamVR benchmark & its free. Goto Library dropdown menu choose tools & find it in the list.
Now though with using a dual 7950 cf setup you may have graphic glitches depending on how intense the graphics are. Like increased ghosting judder & popping.
Example Ethan Carter with quick head movements will see ghosting.
However you system may do better as you cpu is stronger than mine (Amd fx 6300 no oc)
I did the test and it showed a yellow result. If I remember correctly, it was right into the middle. I didn’t overclock my GPU or CPU though, that might give a better result. Not sure if a yellow result would mean an OK experience (I don’t care about graphics, I only want at least 60fps most of the time).
Immersion compared to your phone you will be very happy with the difference. In visual quality much better for reading txt & watching movies over Oculus/vive. No Screen door effect.
Games? I have no complaints
Ethan Carter with vr dlc looks amazing though i do get some ghosting with quick head movements but you can augment this with even using regular controller.
Controllers Positional tracking.
Best option with less work NoloVR.
Psmove can work but requires tweaking. @pimax_fr has alot of experience with this & leap motion.
Interesting result. So what i would reccommend if you decide to buy the PiMax 4k headset. Buy the headset first & test. Then decide on gpu upgrade or not.
I like & am enjoying this headset. But experience will vary according to individual preferences.
I know recently a few members are playing Star trek Bridge crew after Ubisoft released a update that fixed launch issues.
The HD7950 card will run vr, but probably only on low settings but it will be able to run with pretty good frame rate, just make sure your external monitor is connected with a display port and not DVI. this is because the DVI will use one of the graphics cores or ‘channels’ which adds additional stress on the card. A display port is what it says it is so it only is passive and displays whats on the pimax screen without using the graphics cards channels. this is also the case for those people who have multi screens… i.e. 3 monitors and a pimax (like myself). make sure all monitors are on display ports (even if you use a adapter to switch to the display port on the graphics card… as in… monitor only has DVI - use a display port adapter to convert the cable to DVI! you will find increased performance on lower end cards if this is done.
you might also need to note that the Pimax does have a ghosting effect when moving your head when looking at light sources. hopefully it can be minimized via software patches, but to be honest i cant really comment on that as i can only advise on my observations currently.
Hello.
my pc:
Intel i7 6700 k
Nvidia Strix 1080
Ram: 16 giga
Windows 10 (Last Update)
Piplay 1.1.92
I bought this computer exclusively for gaming. In my list of purchases there were HTC Vive but I think that for a spending of more than 800 € the experience must be definitive without having to hope for future updates. Whoever uses HTC Vive judges them as HMDs who suffer from all the defects of a first generation:
Low resolution
Screen door effect
Problem with ergonomics
Overweight
I repeat: the price for me does not justify these defects. So I bought the Pimax 4k. They price is not low ( = they are not considered a product that can justify its limits because of a low price). Also the difference between Vive and Pimax is evident. And I think it is justified the price spread between one and the other.
On the hardware front, there are games such “elite: dangerous”, “project cars”, “Assetto Corsa”, etc., which are not born only for virtual reality. Their graphics are not designed to run a very high number of frames per second and a constant number of FPS is essential in HMD because otherwise you can feel nausea. So with the above mentioned games I noticed annoying slowdowns that make the gaming experience painful. Then i started to understand what settings change and where to start with the Pimax and SteamVR, and now Elite Dangerous and Assetto Corsa are great! BUT i have a nVidia GTX 1080 Strix!
I removed from my Pimax the blue filters, the filters the Pimax says that protect from blue light but seem to have a blurring effect cut function. With the blue filters the Pimax screen is very dark and the colors are “dim”. The Pimax screen is a unique 4k lcd monitor. It is splitted halfway through software. The fact that it is an LCD makes it worse than the OLEDs because there are a “ghosting effect” if you move fast your head. But it is not a problem after few time.
I used the piplay version 1.1.92. It’s old but it’s the one that guarantees the best performance in terms of image and FPS. But it also has defects. The interpupillary distance setting is incomprehensible. It does not respond to the values you can measure. I have an IPD of 63.5 and use the pimax with a setting of 53.
Pimax lenses force your eyes to focus at a distance of more or less 20 cm. Those of the htc Vive instead make your eyes working by focusing at a distance of two meters. The effect, with some glasses, is a eye fatigue when using the Pimax for a lot of time.
I added a foam mask because the Pimax does not have enough. When you hold the HMD Pimax very close to your eyes the field of view decreases (perhaps 75%, depending on the distance between the lenses and the eyes). When the distance increases the FOV grow. Also if you have glasses is better to have more space between your eyes and the screen.
There is a lot of drifting with the Pimax gyroscope. So much to oblige you to keep the keyboard at your fingertips to make a fast recenter (in games that have this feature).
Compatibility between oculus and Vive games and pimax is not at 100%. SteamVr work. But if you need to try external software compatible with the two most popular HMDs, it’s not said that Pimax works.
NoloVR AT THE MOMENT DOES NOT WORK WITH PIMAX. I’m writing it because I decided to buy the Pimax only after seeing the presentation of NoloVr. I also bought them, but I did not get here right now. Anyway in this forum there is a dedicated thread.
After all this, do I recommend the Pimax? If you’re ready to work on the HMD to make them work as you’d like, and you have 330 € to use to make this kind of experience (with pros and cons), and if you want to buy a new GPU, yes. But the Pimax is not cheap for what offer.
I think that virtual reality is a nice thing for bigger, more powerful computers compared to mine, for HMDs with oled screen ,higher resolutions and good FPS performance, for optimized and good games (which are now few on pc). The Pimax in 2017 is a good compromise, as long as the engineers work to fix its current limits.
To be honest, one of the most exciting thing for me is trying out this headset for a horror game experience. I don’t need high graphic games but I heard it’s not worth it to buy this headset just for games because of the 3DOF sensor which limits my movement and also the missing 6DOF controllers which are very important to make this experience worth it.
As far as I know, games for example which have been made for Oculus DK2 or DK1 are working on Pimax 4K too, is that correct? I’d absolutely love to download these Unity VR games made for VR headsets and play them with a simple Xbox controller, but at the same time I’m afraid the fact that these controllers and the roomscale are missing will not make me feel like I’m in the virtual world. Instead of paying $200 for a Nolo VR I think I’d rather buy some PS Eye cameras and two PS Move controllers and try my best to tweak them out for the Pimax.
I don’t want to spend thousands on everything (VR Headset + GPU + Controllers etc), but at the same time I want a modest experience (not perfect, but good enough to feel immersed). So that’s one of the most important questions for me: do you feel immersed when playing on Pimax 4K? Like… do you really notice everything you said about the negative parts of the headset (ghosting, low brightness, lots of gyro drifting etc) while playing all the time? Also, do these Unity3D games you can download from different websites where random strangers create & publish them work with it?
Thank you for taking your time to help me. I appreciate it!
One thing has become clear to me: VR is more than just a headset. You really need controllers for that submersive VR experience. Yes, there are currently some solutions like PSmove but it works horrible, I bought it and never got it to work correctly. Some others had better experiences, I think it depends a lot on your room layout and how dark you can make your room and how much patience you have in tweaking around with it. I gave it probably 5-6 hours and gave up after that. Mind you, I’m usually the type of guy that keeps fiddling with stuff until it works, but I blame my big glass sliding door: a lot of light enters and I don’t have a way of making it dark enough (unless I’d only play at night)
I always thought “yeah but NoloVR is coming” but now that it’s out, it doesn’t even work with Pimax. I do have some faith in Pimax/NOLO that they will get it working, in fact I’d give it a chance bigger than 50%, but it’s a risk and who knows when it will happen… I really like Pimax but it’s a fact that they just don’t have the best software developers working for them, quite the contrary unfortunately. The software front is really pimax’s weak spot.
So if you want some more certainty, I’d wait.
Other than that, I think Pimax is still a great headset, downside is of course the darker screen that loses details because of the shutter glasses that Pimax uses and the ghosting of the LCD screen. But I’d still take the screen itself any day over the Vive or Oculus.
1.I guess it depemd what do you like to play and how smooth its you want it to be.
at the moment i use gtx 780 and its lower than minimum gpu. i think thats still run good enough. but still i am planning to get better gpu later this year. maybe radeon 7950 is still little too weak, i think that rest of your setup will bee good enough. gpu might be or might not.
i am not sure. i have not used any other headsets so i cannot compare. my first experience was that it could be wider but if it is it coud increase screen door effect.
my self do not have any problem with lenses with this headset.
yes there are small drift sometimes. its so slow drift that you cannot see when it happend but realize in some stage that forward is not same place than before. this is anoying spesially in driving simulators.
most anoying thin with this headset is lack of positional trackin or easy way to do it you self. and drifting problems sometimes.
latency is good enough for me. cant complain.
i have ps move setup but its allmost impossible to make headset positional trackin work with pimax. i have triedd severad days and i could not get it to work.
if just pimax software would have way to recieve position data from outside (freepie etc) it would work. but pimax software do not have that sort of onput.
i have not any expiecience from those “premium” headsets so i cant compare. quality it again good enough for me.
i am not fan with horror games but i beleave that vr headset makes everything cooler no matter what controllet would be.
yeah. and if they make thar positional headtracking poissible. Absolutely.
I think exactly what sjefdeklerk thinks:
“i’m usually the type of guy that keeps fiddling with stuff until it works”
“I always thought “yeah but NoloVR is coming””
“I really like Pimax but it’s a fact that they just don’t have the best software developers working for them, quite the contrary unfortunately. The software front is really pimax’s weak spot”
“Other than that, I think Pimax is still a great headset”
Pimax is a kind of bet: will the engineers solve the software issues and those of NoloVR make everything work okay?
About Unity VR: Not all games work. It depends:
from the Unity VR version. Until the most recent a lot of games worked smoothly with 1.1.92. With the latest I found problems
how the version of Unity VR is supported by the Piplay version you choose. The newest are more compatible (theoretically). But Piplay 1.2.75 is not 100% compatible with the last Unity VR. Some games do not work as they should.
from the game in general. In fact, some games are born without native support for VR, which is implemented later, even from third parties.
20kevin20, if you make a specific question about a game or a software house maybe I can tell you if and how they work.
Regarding the level of immersion: the Pimax offer better images than competitors. But maybe, because of the lenses quality and especially because the lack of decent motion sensors, it’s difficult to experience the total immersion experience that give, for example, HTC Vive. If you have tried the Vive maybe you will be disappointed. If you have not tried it, maybe no. For example, since I have Pimax I prefer VR Games because they seem to me to be infinitely more engaging. It is difficult to give an answer that is not subjective. It also depends on the situations that you play in the games.
As an example, I would like to run Affected/Dreadhalls on Pimax 4K. These games have been made for DK2. Will I be able to run them with Pimax 4K? When I’m talking about Unity VR games I’m referring to games based on Oculus SDK, mostly DK2 and DK1. I guess the DK2 and 1 ones would run slightly better than the CV1 ones too.
Another game would be Slender: The Arrival. As far as I remember, the game is not especially made for VR but there’s an option in settings which let you turn it into VR mode. Would this one run on a Pimax 4K?
I have never tried a VR headset other than a mobile phone one, which really disappointed me because of the huge 1080p SDE and the annoying gyro drift (if I looked at one spot for around a minute it would slowly drift like 45-90° away either left or right which brought nausea in minutes after putting my headset on). I’m kind of undecided between Pimax 4K and waiting for a similar headset with positional tracking and motion controllers because I kind of feel like I will feel the need of such controllers and moving around my room… and except using PS Move controllers (which you guys told me don’t work good enough), I guess there are no such plans for Pimax 4K. Or are there?
I haven’t tried those specific games but generally if it works in steamvr or oculus with revive, it will work.
Pimax is excellent for horror games that use a controller. Psmove works for other games but is really fiddly.
I’m a horror fan too and I definitely recommend it. Doom 3 Fully Possessed is amazing in VR. If you get vorpx and have sufficient patience, there are plenty of games on it that look good and use normal controls. Alien Isolation (not true 3d but looks great anyway), RE7, Outlast… and steam has plenty of free horror demos. Dolphin VR for Eternal Darkness… there are plenty of options.
I’d say do what most of us have here, headset first nolo later.
