Pimax Experience

Does anyone know how @SweViver is coming along with his Pimax Experience sw?

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I think he doesn’t feel like work in the heat either xD

Hey guys. Im working on it from day to day. Thats basically what I do lately.
Gotta be honest, putting everything together has become a bigger project than I ever expected, but we are very soon there. The online profile system is still halfway only and Im struggling with some parts, but I think we will release the application before the online profile system is finished, and let you all evaluate all the other functionality.

Currently Im re-making the input system, as it didnt support input clicks without having application window active. Struggled with this for almost a week. As you know, PVRHome is supposed to be running in backbround without any desktop window, which wasnt possible before.

Later this week I will give you a full update on the progress and a preliminary date for the release.

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Actually I dont feel for leaving home and go outside at all because of the heat :smile: Makes it even easier to work at home.

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Hey thanks for letting us know, hope you can solve these challenges soon. Yeah, as you said a functional release should be good, the online profile system can follow as long as we get the functionality soon :grin:

I think that would be the right decision. We are looking forward for this app.

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Wondering are you working on this alone? And in what way is the software set up? I would love to see high configurability and even optimalisation, could this interface become open source? Two programmers are way more skilled than one. I say this as a software developer myself.

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I hope you can release it on GitHub as soon as possible, so the community can help out

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Yes until now, I have been working on it alone. As soon as we leave the first beta phase, I will make Guthib repository official. I have already got some help with that from Matthew and also Armin (ArtArmin), and my plan is, to begin with, include Armin in the coding crew as he is a great guy and very skilled Unity programmer. The Pimax engineers have also meanwhile created the communication channel and new versions of PiTool so (almost) all options can be triggered and synced between VR Home and PiTool.

The idea is to release a limited Beta version this week to test stability and the features. There are still some bugs and might be glitchy. For instance, the last week or two I had to re-make the entire UI interaction and input event module, because we are not able to use ready-made SteamVR/Oculus SDK solutions that are under license. The module is mixed, partially made by myself from scratch and partially from a free project online. Far from the best solution but at least it works running the app in “hidden” mode without an active desktop window, which is the whole point. The VR Exp. will simply replace the current PVRHome, running in the background (unless you choose not to have it running).

The first beta will be limited, without the online profile system as its still far from finished and stable on the server-side (work in progress). Also some features like IPD Wizard will be added soon once its more rigid and properly implemented.

You may ask why the long delay, as it may sound like its a minor project, but believe me, I have struggled. I think I have never before spent so much time into any project, and while it may look simple, there are thousands and thousands lines of code that makes this thing possible and properly working. Down the road, i have also re-made a lot of things in the code to improve stability and also prepare for upcoming features and implementations. If you are into Unity coding, you probably know how picky it is getting it right. And remember, I have coded a lot in the past but never in Unity. So every day I learn something new.

Anyway, we will update you later today or at latest tomorrow with the beta release, and from now on, I will be more active in here again discussing everything about VR Experience and all other topics as well.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

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I think it’s important to realize that Pimax corporate should be adding adequate resources to this project and not just you alone with some volunteers. This software will be the face of the company and if it’s shoddy or inadequate, the reputation of the company will suffer further.

The software has to work and work well when it’s out. You can’t just put a “beta” moniker on it indefinitely as an excuse. This should be a companywide initiative, not just one man’s ambition.

When I read the above, it doesn’t give me confidence. Instead it shows me that pimax at the corporate level has a major disconnect in how they view software. They seem to see it’s as a necessary evil since it not a chargeable item.

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No no pressure there then :hot_face: :woozy_face: :scream:

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It’s a bit beyond me how they’ve put 1 guy, who wasn’t even a programmer, on this project.

That’s the only conclusion you can draw indeed. Somebody said it before but it really shows again here, the management of this company is the source of many problems. THEY should have realized how important this project is and they should have allocated a team of professionals to it, not a single hobby programmer. Imagine a company like Oculus asking their marketing manager who done some hobby programming on the side to write Oculus home … That’s hilarious. Yet Pimax does it. Sure, they don’t have resources like Oculus but still, it’s just really bad management

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Hi @SweViver
Really looking forward to trying out the Pimax Experience software you have worked on for the past few months. Give me a heads up if you need a beta tester, id be happy to help out.

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Same here, if you need testers.

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Count me in too… :+1::upside_down_face:

Three Danes in a row… :grin::denmark:

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Also known as an “invasion” of Danes. :wink:

Don’t know how wrong I am, but I kind of get the impression the PE application is all Marcin’s own initiative, from start to finish. Selling that to the higher-ups, and shouldering the work alone, is an impressive drive and committment. :7

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@robertr1 I get your point, but thing is that this software was not intended to be a coorporate project from start. Me and Kevin discussed this long ago, brainstormed a lot and I decided to simply start from scratch to see where I can go with it. Due to the corona virus, I wasnt able to travel with work, so it was quite a good starting point to dig into something seriously from home instead of doing videos (as I honestly got tired of at the time being). Diving into Unity wasnt really a blast from start, but day by day I started to understand the logic which is quite similar to Visual Basic coding.

The team on Shanghai side also wasnt really aware of how far I would go with this little project. But to begin with, I requested a platform to call commands to PiTool to adjust available settings/options externally, which Bill and Alex did now during the summer, and recently completed. Currently, with a new PiTool version, VR Experience will have real-time (2 way) communiication, and sync settings as they are changed at any time. VR Experience will be bundled with the new PiTool, but updates can also be made standalone, as the PVRHome directory contains the enitre Unity build.

Now, upon a first early Beta launch, I have the fundamental parts running, and several cool features being added very soon such as a first version of the online profile management. I feel the potential iis huge for this application, and depending on your enthusiasm, encouragement and maybe also contribution, Im sure Pimax can put some bigger efforts into the project and build a team around it. Time will tell.

Either way, its a nice step forward to automate the user experience with Pimax headsets, and there are lots of cool ideas and plans besides the profiling part. This is something we also soon open up as “open source” on Github/Gitlab, so we can both work on the main builds but also be able to customize our own versions with different features. Possibilities are endless, I guess.

Yes, and it will. The past weeks or maybe month has been a lot about testing it on different configurations with different settings, and I think a lot of bugs have been resolved already, but Im also sure some still exists depending on what hardware/windows setup you are running. But as a Beta software, it has room for improvement and thats our goal. I dont personally “expect” anyone to put their soul into this as I did, but if anyone is willing to dive into the code, I will be happy to work together with you.

I honestly dont like the word “corporate”. Its such a unfriendly word, which reminds me of the total disconnection between a company and its consumers. Corporate business it may be, but in the end this company and its products is made by enthusiasts - for enthusiasts, unlike many other brands.

No pressure at all. Things will work and other things wont. Thats what Beta phase is about.

I put myself into this project. Nobody really asked me. It became my daily job, as pimax is kind enough to let me do it on my working hours.

Its up to you to decide if this is going to be an important project or not. We start off with the beta, keep pushing out new features and options, and we will see where we go from there. Its a free software after all. Already now at this point more customizable than SteamVR I would say.

Resources are there, they can and will be put into this when the software itself proves how much the end-user gains from it. As simple as that.

The idea is to release the first Beta this week(end) here in the forums, and everyone gets a chance to test it. The more input we get, the better I think. And Im thankful for any help we can get along the way.

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Hey Martin I don’t come on this forum very often but I am grateful you are here

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Well I think most people here see that this project is a really good and important idea. But obviously the importance of this project hasn’t really gotten through at Pimax management. That’s what I meant, it’s a shame they don’t see things like that.

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Will be great to be able to test it Martin :slight_smile:

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