Current VR Systems: HTC Vive & Pimax 5k+
MY PC
CPU: i7-7700
GPU :GTX 1070
RAM: 32GB DDR4 2400mhz
OS: Windows 10
Pros
- Wide FOV
- Cable doesn’t get twisted like the vives
- The image is nice and clear
- A big step forward in the VR industry
- Colours are pretty decent
- Compatible with my previous Vive setup
- Runs most of my VR games just fine
- The strap doesn’t hurt my head after playing VR for a while
- Using Pitool was easier than expected and setup was easy
Cons
- Light can bleed through the nose part (there’s no nose piece like the Vive) unless you have it on just right.
- The headset has to be on just right to see things clearly or images seem to be stretched
- The headset seems to fog up a lot when playing Beat Saber unlike the Vive
- Plastic shell seems too fragile
- My headphone jack seems to be a little broken after an hour of play (haven’t submitted a support ticket yet) it only plays sound out of one side of the headphones, but I have a temporary fix for it.
- The nasal bridge of my nose hurts after half an hour of gameplay and my nose also becomes “stuffy”
- Padding could be more comfortable
Setup: The setup was really easy for me, but it did require a restart of my pc for some reason in order to work which should be said when setting up. I’ve heard that the setup was hard for some people, but I didn’t find that at all.
FOV comments:
Since using the Pimax 5k+, most of my games have become a lot easier to play and are more enjoyable. I can now see what I could not see before which really helps a lot in any shooting game. The FOV has increased my scores in almost every game I play and makes VR more enjoyable. The only problem I’ve noticed is that if you set the HMD to large FOV and look in the right corner it looks really blue. I don’t know if this is a software problem or hardware problem, but it’s no big deal since you don’t notice it much and I play in regular FOV. The FOV can be comparable to looking through glasses because it’s really big.
Design comments:
The Pimax has a decent design and isn’t terrible, but surely has room for improvement. One of the main issues I’ve noticed is that the headphone jack doesn’t seem to be in the best place. The jack is at an angle that makes it easy to come loose and it also rubs against one of the headsets I have. The headphone jack becomes really annoying over time when wearing some headsets
Wearing Experience: I find the strap on the headset is more comfortable than my Vive probably because it doesn’t have wires going through the top of it. The major set back for me is where my nose rests because it can hurt a lot if I wear the Pimax for too long. My nose could just be large, but it feels like I have a stuffy nose and it’s hard to breathe. Also if I move around too quick with the Pimax it rubs against the bridge of my nose and irritates it, unlike my Vive. If the Pimax had a proper nose piece then it would be a more comfortable experience for me.
Image quality: I have no complaints about the image quality because it really is just that good. The screen door effect is very minimal and the colours are not OLED, but they are still decent. I haven’t been able to test the image quality to its potential because I only have a GTX 1070, but it’s still really good with most of the games I’ve played. The FOV really helps not noticing the screen door effect because you’re not looking through binoculars looking for every detail.
Performance: My performance isn’t exceptional, but the Pimax performs better than I thought it would. I usually play at 0.75 render for beat saber which is the main game I play. If I play higher than 0.75 there’s some noticeable lag which causes motion sickness. Using Brain Warp smoothing really throws me off sometimes because it feels almost unnaturally smooth looking around and throws off my eyesight when I take the headset off. If you use a more powerful GPU than mine then you could probably get a really nice more polished experience.
Conclusion: I feel like the Pimax could be more polished, but for the time being it’s ahead of the game when it comes to visuals. If the design was improved then the headset would be astonishing. As of now, PImax has really taken a big step forward in the VR industry and it will be interesting to see where this goes. I feel like the VR genre needed someone to make this headset to show what’s possible. Hopefully, more companies take a look at the 200-degree FOV with a high res screen because right now all of the high FOV headsets have terrible resolutions.