Going back awhile many VR users were shouting for better field of view, higher resolution and no screen door and many other things. Lots of technical challenges,.nay sayers and people saying we need cheaper VR not more demanding VR.
It was a quagmire of wants from different markets.
Then came along Pimax saying they could improve the high end and the KS began. Everybody else, including the big players seemed to ignore this and aim their R&D at mobile and untethered HMD’s to boost adoption so Pimax were left alone to continue without much competition but now that the Mobile versions have not only been developed they are releasing them left right and center with PC/Steam streaming and 6DOF controllers.
They talked, they built, they tested and they are now available.
That is fast concept-to-market movement. So now cheaper VR is becoming more and more available and pretty much out the way, it looks like the VR market is now aiming its sights at the High End. Increased FOV, Higher density displays, eye tracking etc.
Super dense PPI displays which offer improved FOV are popping up in the news daily now. Not just one display manufacturer but lots of them all showing off displays that could knock the Pimax 8K aside should one of the other established HMD manufacturers start on their v2 iteration, we know they can get to market fast too. Not only that, they demonstrate these new displays in HMD enclosures through lenses.
Today the 8K is nearing?!? completion. Pimax have, until the last couple of months had little competition but this is now turning into a race. In my opinion.
If I was developing a HMD in this crazy fast market I would put heavy R&D into making it so modular that everything on it could be upgraded with a kit. Including lenses and displays. This is why the PC is modular as there are so many third party parts involved and why the closed Mac ecosystem will never dominate PC’s no matter how amazing they make a single product.
TL;DR
I hope Pimax get it right. Do it well and do it fast because I personally feel all these daily news announcements of VR advancements are chipping away at the lure that (the rather quiet) Pimax had/has.
Been in the Rift CV1 for 2 years now, so the advancing tech is not surprising. I said it before. Pimax 8K isn’t my last headset -just my next one. This assumes they are going to get it to us soon. I still see no one working on 200 fov at the home enthusiast level besides Pimax, so I suspect to get a couple of good years out if it. At my age everything is speeding up, so it’s a good thing tech is in sync. Got to get as much in as I can before it’s too late. lol
LG already commented that they would improve the displays, so it’s more than possible that they end up using those panels with 1,443 ppi 18 megapixels at 120 Hz, with an approximate resolution of 5500x3000 pixels.
They are showing them off at various expos inside a VR device already, it’s the only way to demonstrate them properly outside a lab.
A commercial device though? who knows but based on the speed these mobile VR headsets appeared then not long at all for HTC/Valve and Oculus who already have tons of R&D knowledge. Microsoft MR and partners also. We don’t know how far along they are already, just waiting for tech manufacturers to give their nod.
Thats how several good start ups, not unlike Pimax, showcase their potential. Next to good PPI there is also demand for graphiccards and low cost. Is the concept of LG a B2B concept, or also a B2C?
The race is always on once one company goes against the grain releasing something new.
Vr was stagnant for years until Oculus gave it a boost into the limelight.
If pimax hadn’t pushed high res, high fov. Other main players would have milked the market for years with mediocre improvements.
But agreed in mid to late 2019 we are likely to see consumer level competition with Pimax.
A fully modular headset should be there next step; at this time would likely require too much more delays. But could be done with a pro series down the line. At present better to penetrate the market and gain a decent share.
Pimax is a relative small company. They cant compete with big companies like LG, or Google in terms of budget and capabilities. They might be better of, even after delivering on the 8K, to join a large company in China. Or gobble up other companies themselves. But they need investment soon to keep going. I hope that part works out.
A new wave of Graphic cards are imminent. July I think but that is mostly a brute force solution to the problem of high quality graphics at these resolutions. Foveated rendering and eye tracking will be the biggie to get those displays running anything at high quality graphics and panel frame rates.
Along side GPU’s there are other interesting technologies like using Voxels instead of polygons as almost all games use polygons for data, it has downsides like having to render large geometry even if it is clipped by the camera so this tech could give a huge boost in graphical performance on the same hardware.
This particular model supports foveated rendering too.
They’ll do fine; just look at the partners & Oculus was nothing but didn’t have the backing needed til fb bought them out. Pimax has more strength tgen Oculus did with investors.
I’m not suggesting Pimax can’t deliver. I think they can. That is not a contest. I believe Pimax will deliver. I’m thinking past that stage. If Pimax does deliver a wonderful product, it will be gobbled up by a larger company, because of the good product, or Pimax does need capital to grow into the butterfly it can become. Right now, Pimax is a caterpillar cocooning to grow into a beautiful butterfly. Or Pimax can become the next Facebook, or Pimax is just an add-on for a giant tech company.
There will always be a better headset coming down the pipe. No matter where you step on with your money, if you look to the next headset you will have buyers remorse. I literally was not going to back until they guaranteed foveated rendering support, and when they did, i backed because it gives some decent forward comparability with emerging tech.
When these 18 mp headsets come out there will be better headsets than them in development , headsets with full facial tracking, variable focus you name it . And that’s a great thing. It’s going to stop feeling like a console cycle and start really feeling like a mobile phone cycle.
My hope is with this headset and controllers, pimax can do well and position itself to become a growing brand and at very least take a nice chunk of its homegrown chinese market while putting out decent feelers globally.
Unfortunately for us this actually has not been such a fast-paced market yet, as is being suggested. The DK1 was specified and KS‘ed in 2012, and look what the current best in class, the Vive Pro, is offering in terms of advancements of e.g. resolution full 6 years later. Not exactly breathtaking, right.
But I guess there are a number of technologies better VR depends on which need to be advanced, and only when all links in the chain are in place at consumer-price levels, does it make sense for the manufacturers to move to the next level - even where they have the ingredients & design for their own next gen HMD already in place.
I don’t know man. If it’s a race it’s a damn slow one, a turtle race I had some hopes that Google/LG would present a challenge for Pimax at Displayweek but their tech was far from ready for release. Then there’s Oculus Dome, I think that’s going to be a very interesting HMD but their tech was also not ready to be demonstrated at DisplayWeek, let alone close to customer release. It’s also not 200 degrees but only 140 degrees. Then there’s of course Panasonic working on a wide FoV HMD but they’ve been awfully quiet the last year. And some smaller Chinese companies are working on wide FoV HMD’s but they’ve also been quiet lately. And StarVR will most likely never release to consumers.
Also while the display tech that was demonstrated last week at DisplayWeek has nice resolutions, it’s not very suitable for Wide FoV HMD’s since the resolution is too low for wide FoV and the form factor also too small.
So I don’t see the race yet, at least not for wide Fov HMD’s.
I had some hopes that Google/LG would present a challenge for Pimax at Displayweek but their tech was far from ready for release. Then there’s Oculus Dome, I think that’s going to be a very interesting HMD but their tech was also not ready to be demonstrated at DisplayWeek, let alone close to customer release. It’s also not 200 degrees but only 140 degrees. Then there’s of course Panasonic working on a wide FoV HMD but they’ve been awfully quiet the last year. And some smaller Chinese companies are working on wide FoV HMD’s but they’ve also been quiet lately. And StarVR will most likely never release to consumers.