Video from "Zitronenarzt" - Are the distortions realy THAT BAD?

Pimax 8K Series
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Hello Pimax8k Community,

@all who have already got their headset: Are there realy THAT MUCH distortions in the outer edges of the screen? The warping effect while turning your head seams also very uncomfortable.

For me, that looks absolutly horrible and immersion breaking. Way more than i expected.

Greetings,

Michael

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I can’t speak from experience because I’m still waiting for my HMD.
However positioning plays a major role in reducing distortions, and Zitronenarzt because of his glasses had very limited options.
Also the recent PiTool version reportedly also comes with a better lense profile.
Most recent german Youtube reviews mention the distortion as a drawback, however it’s not talked about a lot in the community.

https://community.openmr.ai/t/i-get-rid-of-all-issues-with-only-one-simple-mod/12978

https://community.openmr.ai/t/thick-plush-face-foam-to-replace-factory-foam/14420/20

4 Likes
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No,

I notice the distortions in menus, and maybe extremely slow gameplay?, it’s not at all uncomfortable but it looks a bit odd maybe. It’s so far out in the corners of your eyes that it in no way impedes on you using the headset.

It’s more or less completely invisible while actually being focused on a game.

The SDE on the 5k annoys me more than the distortions.

2 Likes
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Well there are a few things to notice:

  1. The distortions are NOTHING like he shows in the video (at 8:50). Not sure how he recorded that but that’s not how it looks because this shows stretching and the distortions (at least how I see them) are the contrary of a stretch, they’re compressing the world instead of stretching, near the edges. Also it’s really not as bad shown in this video.
  2. The distortions can be greatly diminished by adjusting the horizontal position of the HMD on your head and also by adjusting the distance to your eyes, so via the foam thickness. If you get both right it’s way better.
  3. It’s personal, it actually seems that most people don’t even notice them or aren’t bothered by them.

That being said, for me personally I agree that this is THE biggest downside of this HMD. Still I’d take the 5k+ over the Vive Pro any day (my vive Pro isn’t even connected anymore, I have it stored, I only use my odyssey+ and 5k+)

6 Likes
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That is a lot worse than I was expecting based on the reviews so far.

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The distortions for me are very minimal and only at the far corner of my vision. I very rarely even notice them so what is shown in that video is no where near what I experience.

3 Likes
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Like others have said: It is highly dependent on getting into one’s eyes the sweet spot of the device, (which may not be the same for every aspect of optical effecs, but that’s a side issue), and if one want all the FOV, and the least distortion; For my eyes that means brushing-the-lenses close, which is not possible whilst wearing glasses.

This extends to where you are looking within the headset: The periphery distortion actually does not look too bad to me if I look in their direction, which means I have moved the pupils of my eyes several millimetres to the side – If I look straight ahead, however, the periphery compresses (rather than stretches), like sjefdeklerk mentioned (the characterisitics of the distortion really changes with eye position).

All may not be lost, however: There is a parameter for eye relief in the distortion profile, although I don’t know whether anybody has tried tampering with it yet, to see whether it does anything; And theoretically, if the 7invensun eyetracking is good enough for it, Pimax could augment their distortion algorithm with dynamic off-axis warping, to account for pupil swim.

4 Likes
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For me it doesn’t matter which foam i use 11-18mm. Sweetspot hunt with wobbling the hmd up and down your face is pretty quick and then the distortion is a very subtle and very thin warping wave at the outer edges of the fov at normal fov setting.
It isn’t bothering me at all and i would prefer it over the narrow fov or known distortions of older hmds anytime. It depends though, which PiTool version youre experiencing it with.
.91 was very good and even .95 had no distortion issues for me. With the new .103 beta distortions came back a little in some games. But most of my tested titles won’t suffer at all. Onward is the most pronounced “distorted game” at the moment for me.

4 Likes
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Wow that looks really bad.

With stuff like this my brain screams NOT REAL and cannot let go of it. I’ve got a messed up brain that always sees the thing which doesn’t fit the reality of the situation being presented.

I can be immersed with a blurry view, I can be immersed looking through a screen door (I’m myopic and live in Australia so a blurry view through a screen door fits my reality.) I can’t be immersed when the world doesn’t move the way it should, stretching and compressing across the view. My brain won’t stand for it.

1 Like
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Somewhat irresponsible about the video is that it does not mention that the vast majority do not have these problems. Neither the owners nor at the meetings so far. Therefore, it is grossly misleading.

He also lets it be seen in the comments that the topic pimax would actually annoy him because it has been reported so long and often. This is quite idiotic, if you consider that he wants to be a VR fan according to his own description.

5 Likes
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Although using small fov, you still can see the distortion if the face pad is too thin.

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0 distorsion in Large FOV. Only with a little foam mod.