Hi guys. Sorry for not being available in the forums lately. Ive been busy in Germany since Tuesday helping and working with a VR arcade company setting up things, and Im still in Germany until Monday night.
But I have some good news!
During my days here, one of the issues to solve was the occasional/random stutter/judder problem many of you are experiencing ever since PiTool 149 or even earlier. Its an occasional stutter/judder or lost frame every 6-8 seconds or sometimes less often. This issue was reproduced on many computers and in all refreshrates available.
After 3 full days of troubleshooting, working with the Pimax engineers side-by-side (remotely) we finally got it sorted! I wont go into the techical details now, but it was indeed piserver and some parameters in debug tool that was the cause.
The last late hours yesterday, on Friday, was spent to test the fix in many scenarios, different computers, GPUs and Pimax headsets to make sure the issue is gone. And indeed it is solved now!
A new PiTool version is expected to be out in public very soon (some time after the weekend). To get this issue fixed without the upcoming pitool requires some fiddling, so I suggest we all just wait for the PiTool which will do everything for us without the hassle.
Anyway, just wanted to share some news that many will appreciate for sure. And remember this is all thanks to the whole group of engineers working hard to eliminate this problem for many weeks now. Hard work pays off!
@SweViver Some users of the 253/254 PiTool build have reported a reduction in the vertical FOV (see here and here) - has that issue also been resolved in the upcoming build?
Good question. Im forwarding this to the engineers. Personally I haven’t noticed the difference in vertical FOV, despite the fact we have been using Large FOV the whole week here in Germany. Let’s see what the engineers reply…
Good news!
I don’t know if it has anything to do with the other problem affecting version 254, which is that the headset locks up after one hour (more or less) of continuous use. I am in two groups with people who use Pimax and are not using 254 for this reason, waiting for Pimax to fix it.
I’ve already been told that because of this bug, some car racing simulation players have lost races and were really angry.
I guess this bug was known, since there was a topic in which it was discussed.
It reminds me a lot of the typical software error of reserving memory and not releasing it, which usually causes these errors over time; it could also be due to access to an invalid memory area.
That problem is caused by a memory leak or something. The team is still looking into that. For now, better use version 253, and they will make sure the next PiTool (with the stutter fix) will not have the same issue as 254.
They really are. I am a Pimax fan since the 4K because of what the devs were doing and show they are capable of. I mean cracked housings are not nice but when focussing on the software alone they are doing great stuff
That was what I suspected. I haven’t had the stutter issue but 254 did introduce cashing for me.
It also seems to have better performance, by a few fps. Did you find that?
If so, tell the team to leave that part in.
Yes the performance is better in 254, most likely because of the higher GPU utilization. The engineers are aware of that. Let’s hope they can solve the freezing while maintaining the performance…
I will double check with them. Same for 8KX and 120Hz.
They are also working on 72Hz and 82Hz for Pimax 5K+, and later on also the other headets. I tried a early version with these refreshrates, it works but needs some work. So the new refreshrates will be available within 1 or 2 weeks (by firmware update) because the panel vendors have a few minor things to fix until the refreshrates are 100% with max FOV.
@SweViver Hi, I always use 90Hz with my 5K+ and mostly have no problem booting the headset however sometimes it is a pain to start the headset. I have to keep restarting PiTool and cycling the headset and restarting PiServiceLauncher before it eventually actually will start.
When this happens the headset has always been automatically switched to 120Hz so I set it back to 90Hz which causes the headset to reboot however now I have a red light on the headset so I reboot it again using PiTool after which I get a green light.
The headset should not switch refresh rates of it’s own accord so could you ask the engineers to have at look at this problem.
Im aware of this, we saw that with PiTool 249 at CES even with 8K+, 5K Super and Artisan. Ever since uppdating to 253 I haven’t seen that happening. Been using 5K+ here in Germany all week, changing refrashrates and it takes about 6 or 7 seconds but works every time. Dunno what caused this with 249. I recommend you try 253 for now, until a new PiTool and firmware will be available next week, as mentioned.
The main problem is the headset is sometimes switching refresh rates when starting it up and seems to be getting into problems because of that not the changing of refresh rates with PiTool.
Thanks!
