Yesterday I recieved my pimax 8kx. I have a pimax 5k+ allready. The pimax 8kx worked right out of the box and I really like the increased resolution. Now I spent quite some time with the 5k+, tuning it and sense of 3d and presence was lacking there as well. I’ve been having another go with settings with the 8kx, but it just doesn’t seem to click as far as 3d depth and presence is concerned.
Now I don’t really need tips on how to tune the pimax at this point. What I’m actually wondering if I have lost the ability to feel presence. Its been a few years, but I remember having it with the oculus dk2. Perhaps it was because of the first time wow experience I remember this. After that I had the cv1, samsung odyssey, finally the pimax 5k+ and now the 8kx.
What I want to do is get hold of another headset to check if its me or the pimax headsets that is the problem. My ipd is on the lower side of things, about 60, perhaps a bit less. The thing I could use some advice on is what headset to choose to test this. What headset is generally known to have good sense of 3d depth/presence. Perhaps a better question, what headset has very little reports of lack of presence? I have a lead on a valve index which is not sold in my country so its going to be a bit costly. I also have a lead on the first hp reverb. Would a vive cosmos elite be a candidate? Input from someone who has had the same challenges with the pimax headsets, but experience presence with other headsets would be appreciated. I dread the eventual decrease in fov and resolution
One more question: As steamvr has a few things hardcoded into how it works. Is it possible that 3d depth/presence could be increased with the pimax experience software
TBH I have the same feeling but recently things get better, this is IPD (mechanical + some other HMD specific stuff)
I have about 15 HMDs & for me most HMD I feel presense in are (ranged from 1 to last, 1 is the best):
Vive Pro & Valve Index
OG Vive - now is really cheap especially if you have steam vr you can get a HMD only for 150$ to test, actually the sense of prsense is about the same as for above HMDs but the resolution breaks it a bit
Oculus HMDs always had a bit less presence feeling for me, Pimax was good was bad, it’s really depends on the mechanical IPD setting along with software IPD offsets, try to increase it a bit if you don’t feel eye strain, & adjust IPD software offset it helps.
Pimax can achieve quite good presence feeling but only in the eye overlap zone (about 90-100 FOV) other FOV is seen only by one eye at a time. But Pimax defintely doesn’t lack it.
It’s mechanical IPD, Oculus is more worse in this regard than Pimax IMAO
I have the same problem as OP.
With my Vive, I can immediately dive in the game and feel immersed right away. With my Pimax, I always think about what is wrong with the image. Why does it feel like I’m looking at 2 screens? Why is the world scale off? Why is everything getting stretched and distorted, as soon as I move my head?
With the Vive, everything feels right, except for the low resolution.
Thank you for your input. It’s very helpfull. May I ask, what is your experience in the pimax home space environment? Do the planet and star feel far away? Do the big planet feel like it has geometry, like a sphere? The mountains in the distance do they feel like you are watching something far away? It just feels flat to me.
Weird thing is I see people describe that changing IPD changes the world scale. I’ve never had that experience. I can change software IPD from one extreme to the next and I don’t feel any change in worldscale, it just makes me feel eyestrain. I can change software IPD from -0.5 to 0.5 without feeling any eyestrain. Changing hardware IPD I can use from 60 to 61.5 and after that it gets more blurry. I can get a nice clear picture in both eyes at the same time within the hardware IPD limits of the pimax. I’ve tried moving the headset around and tried different distances. Still no success.
Bummer to hear another report of this. I really wonder if head shape comes into play. What is your IPD?
My dad is in his late 60’s, definitely not experienced with VR, and he actually brought up that the pimax felt the most 3d, better than quest and vive.
I have issues with disntance 3d immersion, only have good sense of it in radius of about 15meters.
Sometimes I have feeling that I look into distance rather than on the screen, but I can’t distinct far away objects in terms of distance, just a little.
I don’t remember good how planet looks like I guess it was flat, but I deleted that image a while ago in games Pimax feels ok.
Mechanical IPD really matters for 3d immersion. My Oculus Quest always felt quite flat, I measured my IPD as 67 then as 64 & I had no eye strain at all at this IPD, then I tried iphone app & it said my IPD is about 69 (68.5) I tried it & it felt better but not as soon as you change the setting, you need to play some time, at least 1 hour to get adapted I believe.
So I ended using 73 (max Quest setting) & initially it was blurry but I had no eye strain, but eventually it started to be sharper & now I can feel 3d much better on Quest. I guess near as on Vive Pro but still worse a bit.
the point is that images should be misaligned properly to have presence, if they aligned or misalignment isn’t good enough you loss the 3d feeling.
Just did an IPD test on the phone. It says reading IPD is 58, far and VR IPD is 61. I did two measurements, the other reported VR IPD at 60, but I guess it’s somewhere in between. It feels like I can use both though.
I guess you can do a good test, Pimax allows to change Planet picture with another stereoscopic one, so you can find some properly aligned images & put it instead & check.
Changing mechnical IPD affects the scale of world, while I believe software IPD affect 3d immersion.
Maybe you need to put it a bit higher e.g. to 1 & try to adapt to it as maybe you used to not misaligned image but it feels flat.
It doesn’t matter what values of IPD you see on your IPD popup in Pimax as canted display change IPD per eye relief value (further/closer to eyes the more different IPD value you need to use). So ideally you need to match your IRL & in VR objects IPD to be the same at the same distance without the need to refocus your eyes
Thanks for the suggestion! Teigue. I’m familiar with the guide you posted. It doesn’t solve the problem for me. I’ve tried pushing closer to the lenses and pulling away as well. I see your point about trying a setting and see if I adapt. Going to give it a go. Thanks again.
Interesting you and others are reporting on this now. I’ve been saying this since I got the 8K, that Pimax VR feels like pseudo VR (especially when compared to other headsets back-to-back) and feels more like having a 3D screen attached to your face unfortunately. I believe this is to do with the user’s face/head shape and the canted displays . Basically a side-effect of having the wide field-of-view. There’s some topics on this matter on the forums here regarding this issue. You can tweak the settings but in my experience, never quite get it right.
I really cant notice any differences if i set a “wrong” ipd number in any headset. Only in the highest setting of the 5k+ i feel some eyestrain but still the image is sharp. Am i the only one? Everybody is talking a lot about ipd and i just don’t understand why. Especially in the cv1 i couldnt see any difference when using the slider. BTW i have no and don’t need glasses…
I assumed that the distortion is the main reason for me, why the 3D effect is so bad. The image on one eye might be stretched to the bottom left, while the image of the other eyes would be stretched to the bottom right. Matching the images together makes no sense to the brain and it can’t generate a 3D effect from it.
In another thread, We’ve tried to figure out why this only seems to effect some people and if others see it differently or it just doesn’t bother them, but I didn’t really come to a conclusion.
This question was never really answered:
Here’s a question for everyone, who doesn’t see any distortion at all (according to Pimax, the vast majority of people) :
You look at some object in real life, preferably not a very close one. Then you start turning your head up, down, sideways, round movements etc. but keep focusing the object with your eyes. The object doesn’t change its shape at all. If it’s too close, it might change a bit, because of the different angles you’re looking at it.
Now do the same thing in a Pimax headset, for example, look at the moon in the Pimax home environment. A perfectly round circle. When you turn around your head, does it stay a perfectly round circle or does it become slightly oval / pulled apart / compressed depending on where on the headset it is being displayed?
Could also someone from Pimax, like @SweViver or @PimaxUSA do this and confirm if it’s always perfectly round to them or if it’s just something they don’t notice during normal usage?
This would be useful to find out, if it’s just an individual perception issue, or an issue with some Pimax headsets. https://community.openmr.ai/t/serious-thread-about-finding-the-root-cause-of-distortion/28900/11?u=willyfisch
I never really understood how they could release that horrible planet world. The design, textures and beauty of it is all missing. Yet again one of many many missed opportunities to wow your audience.
Also, I noticed a severe increase in depth perception when I figured out I need to dial the software IPD back and then the hardware IPD forward again. Suddenly trees stood in a 3D distance from me where previously that effect was not apparent, I just didn’t notice before
Hi, yea that figures about the pimax home environment. Anyway, I spent close to 4 hours yesterday trying different settings. Sometimes in steam vr home-. I’ve tried it in the lab, assetto corsa, House of a dying sun. For me there is no sense of space/3d. I’ve read that for those who “found” 3d after changing their setups and physical placement it sort of just clicked. Its a bit strange, because if my memory serves me right, with the earlier headsets I’ve had the 3d was not something I had to “find”. It was there regardless of other settings. Its not happening for me it seems. I hoped that this was a problem that could be solved through software, but if there is only a small amount of people affected it might be difficult to understand the problem or solve through software.
I’m dissapointed about this, but I hoped it could be my 5k+ and that it would be different with the 8kx. I was very happy with my 5k+ in many ways. Its really nice for sim racing and flying. The fact that I can choose between base station tracking and gyros for 3dof movement means that I can use the headset on my motion rig without having to deal with motion compensation as well as use the best tracking solution available for my needs. And the 8kx image is just awesome. Bah, so close to vr nirvana!
Well, I’m going to try some other headset and give and update when I have something to report.
It’s really hard to understand the reasons why some ppl feel 3d immersion in one HMDs better than another & vive versa.
But there is trend that e.g. vive HMDs or Index have more chances to provide better 3d immersion sense. But I had problem that through years you seems start to loss sense of presense in VR, coz I was so wowed when I first time tried PSVR, later I bought CV1 it was ok but not that great in terms of 3d depth, I bought PSVR after playing CV1 for about 2 years just to remind is it me or the HMD & found out that PSVR also isn’t so wow as it was first time. Probably brain gets used to it to compensate sickness or whatever.
I would recommend to buy used OG vive for 150$ & check the immersion if its there then probably other HMDs will work for you better.
usually when you change mechanical IPD the IPD offset doesn’t change as it’s compensated in software or the image follows the panels depends on the HMD.
But it affect the scale of the world coz angles become different.
SteamVR has offset setting which can be accessed through config or with FPSVR & requires steam vr restart it makes similar thing as IPD software offset in pitool but may be in a different way, so for you who has this issue might be worth to try it
