[Pimax 5k+] Have Eye Strain on RMA Headset (Fixed it)

[manzilla]

[TL;DR 1st headset (Feb.) no eye strain. 2nd headset (Aug.) after crack replacement. Eyestrain. Fixed with +2 “Left” offset in Pimax]

I had a 5k+ that arrived in February. I didn’t have any eye strain on this headset and could play 1-2 hours. (Eventually the head strap became uncomfortable, but no eye strain.) Eventually Pimax released the offset sliders (IPD offset, Left/Right offset) but I left them all at 0 because any adjustment caused issues.

My 5k+ developed cracks, so I RMA’ed it. When I received the new one (beginning of August) and tested it I had eye strain with the same settings that worked fine with my old headset. [I will describe how I fixed it later.]

I had very slight double vision when first putting it on, however that quickly resolved itself but I was left feeling uncomfortable and I could never quite focus on large text. (It had a slight double image.) I tried lots of things but nothing quite fixed it. (Headset position, Adjusting the IDP slider, changing the different offset sliders using the “Desktop” view in the headset)

After I took the headset off I had slight double vision in the real world, but this also quickly went away.

I eventually ended up fixing it by using BeatSaber and an object located at the edge of my play space at eye level in front of me in if I sat in the center. (A humidifier) This caused the menu text in BeatSaber to be at about the same virtual distance as the humidifier.

After this I held the headset up and focused on the menu text until it was in focus as it would get (1-2 seconds) the I quickly removed the headset. I saw double vision of the humidifier. I then adjusted the “Left” offset by 0.5 and repeated the process. Eventually once I got to +2 there was no more double vision. I kept going and started to notice double vision again at +3. So I went back to +2.

(I first tired this with the IPD offset and I got it slight better but not completely. Also the world scale was awful. After I found that the left offset of +2 fixed things I could go back to the IPD offset of 0)

Now the new headset feels more like the old headset and I was able to play BeatSaber for 45 minutes without any eye strain or double vision after taking off the headset.

It seems like my 2nd headset was manufactured with the panels vertically offset by “2” pitool units (Whatever that means) but my 1st was not.

(As an aside, from my experiments with the IPD offset in pitool it doesn’t seem to be the same as the IPD slider. I put the IPD slider to as low as it would go. Things sill looked 3d, but it was not that comfortable. I then adjusted the IPD offset back to my normal IPD of 64 (I think it was around +6). Theoretically this should have looked similar to using the IPD wheel to move to 64, however it did not. The image was so terrible that it wasn’t 3d at all. It was terrible double vision like there were two different images in front of each eye.)

Edit: Mentioned the 2nd headset was received at the begining of August. I saw the eye strain immediately but didn’t have contacts or time to experiment to try to fix it. I wasn’t certain if the issue was caused by using the headset without glasses or not. Everything is blurry in the headset for me without corrective lenses and on my 1st headset my glasses scratched the lenses.

[neal_white_iii]

Thanks for the info! I hope this helps others.

I don’t normally feel eyestrain with my 8K and I can play for hours. If I change the physical IPD too far out of range, I get eyestrain after half an hour or so. If I change the software IPD (even as little as 0.5), I get instant eyestrain within seconds and have to yank off my HMD.

So yes, the two settings (physical and software) are clearly doing something different.

[dillanski]

Your post prompted me to fiddle about with mine for a while with positive results
I hope this helps someone
I physically adjusted the lens so that I was getting the sharpest possible image through both lens irrespective of my actual ipd and then adjusted the software ipd which is now at +2 to get 67.5 ipd
I’ve also set the screen vertical offset value to -0.5

Best immersion I’ve had so far in the 5K+
I’m making extra efforts to get best possible visuals before considering 8k+ or 8KX

[Possyguset]

Well I hope they looked into the IPD range and made it so you can get a bit more range on the IPD dial up and down.
If not WHY NOT ?

[burstingtops]

See here, as @dillanski noted, it appears the proper way to use the software ipd adjustment is with moving the lenses physically to a better position, and then compensating the movement in the software. There are other uses of course such as if one eye has a different offset than the other, or to compensate if one of your screens or lenses is physically offset.

[mr.sparkle]

@Heliosurge Can we add this thread to the pinned banner thread under possible fix list for the eyestrain issue?

[manzilla]

In case anyone happens across this thread, PimaxUSA has said that there is a process in place now that should prevent this issue on newer headsets.

@PimaxUSA

The manufacturing process gained a custom designed automated calibration system a few months ago. Most devices calibrated that way didn’t begin to appear until late August.

The optical deviation between now is dramatically less. Previously some of that process was manually performed.

@PimaxUSA

Lens and panel orientation, alignment, backlight luminance and uniformity, optical performance. Also things like glue and adhesive can be detected. This step now occurs prior to the extensive manual examinations.