Guys finally my honest impressions after returning to home …
First of all I was very positive suprised about how well organized was Berlin meetup which gave me plenty of time to test my favorite games and switch beetwen devices as many as I want. I was there since 5 till 8.20 PM and I would stay even longer as an meeting atmosphre was fantastic ( thanks to whole Pimax team , Marcin , Sebastian and Thomas) but unfortunatelly I have to leave becouse my kid get bored. I’m happy that they allow me enter with my wife ( not a backer) and 2.5 old doughter to the meetup which I really appreciate !
My first test was leap montion expirence on 8k and laptops powered by gtx 1070 prepered by Robin Weng. It was fantastic and IMHO the best expirence of the day
Then I meet Martin and he introduced me 5k plus with Skyrim, ED and later 8k with sims like Asseto Corsa , ED, IL2
What I like:
in both devices 8k and 5k - they already implemented IPD indicator with values shown inside HMD. Long awaited but needed feature !
SDE / PPI in both headsets great , hard to notice differences, hard to notice SDE ( 5k PPI is enough with RGB panels)
FOV ! and 3~4 profiles to set
comfort was ok , my glasses fit inside , no problems with nose gaps , YES I can see light coming thru this gap but I like it that way becouse I can glance on keyboard when playing my favoirte sims
both headset very light ( compared mostly to my preordered vive unit, and PSVR)
the lenses ( apart of distortion part) was great , super crisp, didnt notice god rays, around 120~140 degree sweetspot !
tracking , proven tech. - no issue at all
Issues to improve:
distrotions similar to vive gear vr mod but larger between 5~10 % of each side , noticable for example in skyrim vr when looking at trees or high bulding geometry, should not be a huge problems in sim games like ED , IL2 , DCS, AC , PC 1,2
I understand that both headsets are using LCD screens but please Pimax engineer provide a software calibration settings for user. I want to adjust colours temperature , brightness and saturation , I really dont like black level ( more grey than black) in ED.
I tryed lower gamma inside game but it seems that something ( software or hardware) locking it still at very exagerated level and for me was hard to be immersed that I am in space .
Asseto Corsa tryed only on 8k unit and viusal was great only at front plane , I observed lots of distance blurr It was like on my Vive without supersampling. Together with Sweviver we tryed using different supersamplings levels ( Steam VR app shown very high values like 4200x2500 pixels but that input resolutions wasnt on the screen. Game wans’t react at all for supersample changes.
The same problems was with IL2 but Marcin said he was able bump up resolution when changed monitor resolutions at home ( He have 4k monitor) but during meetup we had only 1080p monitors. In vive montior resolutions is nver related with HMD resolutions ! It’s a big issue for me.
I hope that thouse issues will be fixed by Pimax team or game developers but should be adressed before relase.
Conlusion:
I am thinking about changing my pledge for 5k plus and dreaming about 5k plus with RGB OLED screens
I dont really know their pitool settings details but its look like we can achive sharper distance picture in 5k plus and ofcourse 90 hz
upscaled input in 8k panels dosnt look better in my opinon in my favorite games… tester will tell more after NDA lifted
That combined with better colours is an interesting comment. Thanks.
So I am wondering what advantages the 8K has then over the 5K+ considering some people at the meet were definitely on the side of the 8K. Is the SDE that much worse on the 5K+?
We should not concentrate on SDE only while choosing headsets. Both are great ! Almost 0 SDE in boths panels. For me more important is distance resolutions, far objects , ablility to play without AA, crisp, detailed picture without distance blurr… Its hard explain right now…
No, I am with you on this. I think most people will be as well because it’s an issue in a number of games. ED the detail of far away objects is important, you want the space station to show detail rather than being a blur until you are 500meters away. In PGR 2 and the like, those distant corners and cars need to be sharp. Not so much in wave shooters where the action is more close-up.
Your areas of concern are inline with mine. I only sim race. I will be keen to know which HMD you finally choose for yourself.
Good to know that the SDE is very low for both. And if so, then to have distant objects be as clear as possible it makes sense to use native screen resolution, i.e., 5k+.
i will wait for testers reviews