I’d like to buy a Pimax for software development (Visual Studio Code), but after doing some math it seems I need to get the Pimax 5K plus FOV down to an optimum of about 45 to 50 degrees horizontal. Anything higher means my eyes will be moving too much. Imagine a text editor taking up nearly all of your field of view. To look at text on the left side of the screen you would have to rotate your eyes all the way to the left, and then rotate your eyes all the way to the right to see text on the other side of the screen. Of course you could move your head as well, but for me that’s unacceptable for coding because it’s too slow and takes a lot of energy constantly moving your head around. While coding I quickly move my eyes around a lot.
Another option is to just make the editor window small enough so that it’s around 50 degree FOV. The problem with is that even the Pimax 8K resolution isn’t high enough even with it adjusted to 120 degree FOV. After doing some tests I think the editor screen should be at least 1900 pixels wide. So the Pimax 8K resolution is 3840 pixels. If we adjust it to 120 degree FOV, then the editor screen would be about 41 percent (50 degree / 120 degree * 100%) of the entire screen, which comes to 1574 pixels.
According to WikiPedia the minimum FOV for the Pimax is 120 degrees horizontal. So I was wondering if anyone who owns a Pimax could adjust it to the minimum 120 degree FOV and then move your head back far enough so that the entire screen is about 50 degree FOV. Is the screen still in focus and seems 3D? I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Paul
If you are using Pimax as a TEXT Editor. Get the 8KX. It’s going to release.
I wouldn’t say text on the 5K+ is bad for reading but it’s no 4K Monitor. The 8KX is going to be great for reading text.
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Unfortunately, this is not how changing of the FOV works. The FOV is defined by the optics (lenses) and the headset is designed in a way it can display 160° horizontally (in Large FOV mode). These 160° do not cover the whole display though, because some margin has to be left for an IPD adjustment (which is done by moving the lenses, while the displays are fixed, so the image has to move around the displays for that).
Now, when you set a Normal, or Small FOV, this will mean, the image will use proportionally smaller part of the panel, because the geometry of the optics remains the same, you just adjust the FOV for the rendering. I do not know out my head the ratio for Small FOV, but I know that for Normal FOV, the image uses basically 2/3 of the panel horizontal resolution (so I guess for Small it would be between 2/3 - 1/2).
It also seems that you are confusing the panel resolution, which (in a way) determines the single eye FOV and the total headset resolution, which is calculated from both eyes FOVs. Single eye horizontal FOV in Small FOV config is ~ 103° (https://risa2000.github.io/hmdgdb/hmd_cfgs/Pimax5KPlus_Small_Native.html).
Finally, Pimax 8K has very bad display for the text, it has effectively only half of the resolution because of the matrix type and because it is missing half of the subpixels. So if you plan to work with the text, wait for 8K-X, and then try to test it before buying, because I believe even 8k-X will struggle, e.g:
Using the model from 5k+ and Normal FOV:
- only 2/3 of the horizontal res covered by the image
- single eye (left or right) horizontal FOV in Normal is 113°
- corresponding viewing frustum tangent values (left eye, right has it reversed): left = -1.742203, right = 1.346154
would give for 50° FOV (symmetrically split to the left and right):
3840 * (2/3) / (abs(left) + abs(right)) * tan(25°) * 2 =
3840 * (2/3) / (1.742203 + 1.346154) * 0.4663 * 2 = 773 pixels
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Thanks both of you. Risa2000, thanks a million! That’s a wealth of info that clearly shows I don’t understand how VR headsets are made. I have no clue what subpixels are lol. Maybe a subpixel is red, green, & blue. I’ll head over wikipedia & youtube to try and learn about all of that. That’s interesting about subpixels so I’ll look into purchasing the 8K-X, hopefully directly from a company here in the U.S., … unless I’m mistaking. I’m assuming the new Pimax 8K-X would ship from China. I read about someone purchasing a high end VR headset from China, which got stuck in security, so the poor guy had to pay a hefty fee to get his product. I’m sure he was just unlucky. I’ve bought plenty of stuff from China, nothing expensive though, but my experience is that I have roughly a 90% chance of getting my product.
I’ll keep my eye on a Pimax 8K X at amazon. Anyone have an idea when they’ll get them?
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Early to mid-2020, if we’re lucky. Iirc, Kickstarter backers for the 8KX will start receiving theirs’ sometime in December. From what I’ve heard, the 8KX will be the best VR headset for a virtual desktop for a while.
Typo. 
2021 is the date if we are unlucky.
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What are you using as the software to display Visual Studio in the headset? Virtual Desktop lets you adjust the screen size, distance, curvature, position within VR. It doesn’t have to fill the headset view.
I know you can adjust it in virtual desktop but according to my math and risa2000 the resolution of even the Pimax 8K isn’t enough. You’ll be able to read the text but it won’t be clear enough for a software developer.
I have a reverb and text is very clear in that but it’s not really as good and as a sharp as a decent 1080 lcd monitor because although the center of the lens is nearly as good you have top move your head to read lines of text and not just scan it with your eyes
