Yeah obviously it’s very hard to go wider than 120 horizontally due to lens design. Pimax indeed did it but we all have our opinions on their lenses I think until a new lens type gets developed that solves problems like distortion, companies will still push towards higher PPD, it’s just the easy route. Alhough 60PPD will be really the end there since that’s human vision of course.
BTW even the AVP suffers SLIGHTLY from distortion. If you use a mod to get to see the 120 degrees that it renders horizontally, you will see some SLIGHT distortion at the very edges of the panels. But it’s really only in those last few degrees, if you use the standard facial interface you won’t see any distortion at all and everything is 100% geometrically stable.
I think it’s just the limitation of current lens designs. Arthur had an interesting video about that some time ago that I posted here, where they indeed explained that it’s hard to go beyond 120 degrees.
The MeganeX looks awesome but I couldn’t spend that much on a new HMD and go backwards on FoV.
Really feel bad for the guys at Shiftall because it looks like an awesome HMD and I really want one but the FoV is a killer. In 2025 the minimum FoV should be 120 degrees.
We really need 2-3" Micro-OLED not these 1.3" displays we have now.
But it’s great to see Shiftall deliver a quality HMD, they really have done a great job and hopefully they’re still around for another generation in 2 years time.
I generally pay attention to vrflightsimguy as he tends to go into finer details of all aspects and and really highlights any shortcomings. His first impression was quite positive so I’ll wait to see his final review.
No one who has been following pimax all this time should be surprised.
It is interesting that they are now prioritizing the 50ppd lenses. While still not releasing the Crystal WFoV lenses that were demoed on YouTube years ago. (Well a bit over a year).
The Dream Air I had suspected would be more of a summer launch then the projected May idea.
Pimax has too many things mia and they need to work on completing things. Like the Crystal Controllers finger sense as well as revisit sword and enable it as well. The non local dimming panel models I don’t think released except for on Portal.
Until pimax actually commits to finishing something. They will simply continue the saga from their first pre Kickstarter Headsets. And that will be a shame
I do think the Super itself is a real step forward by more finalizing the frame and moving the headsets over to “Optic Engine Modules”. This direction can make it easier for upgrading to different modules vs buying a whole new headset each time.
However this only will work if pimax gets serious in finishing products instead of constantly moving on; leaving things unfinished. Pimax is like a cat chasing after anything new and shiny while forgetting the previous shiny thing.
The Mura was confirmed to vary more with the units they had at CES. In theory by what they said the consumer released headsets will have greater scrutiny on Mura. But that will remain to be seen until it is or isn’t followed through.
It is interesting there now focussing on lenses they didn’t demo. But maybe the 57 is being viewed by pimax similar to the promised 42ppd lenses+which makes very little sense as they are around 120widw legit).
Pimax opting to cover the tariffs for the US customers though is decent as it will save them between $100-$200 in additional cost. Though the way pimax prime is designed also makes that impact less as the Tariff is only in the base price & not the prime fee.
It should be possible to control panel variation of mura using software but on per headset using calibration tools at higher cost than applying uniform correction
I seriously doubt any of these companies look at Pimax as competition. It’s been a circus for years and i’m sure these companies know by now the playbook Pimax uses. Wait for someone to announce/launch something new and exciting. Ride that wave with Pimax announcements which scream of “look at me!!” while failing to deliver everytime. Maybe it still works on the occasional newcomer to the VR market but the hobby is pretty seasoned by now and companies have well established histories. Pimax certainly at the bottom of the tier compared to those still alive.
It is strange Pimax moved away from lens swapping to whole optical engine swapping when they failed to release different lenses. I think the Super will be the same.
I think Pimax now prioritise the 50PPD lenses to move away from MeganeX and give people a reason to spend more on a bulkier headset. Even with a 30% reduction the Super is still super large and super heavy.
I really think we are one generation away from a super small 120FoV Micro-OLED HMD. With 50PPD in the bag the only place to go next is wide.
Yeah, I’m defintely happy to see that relatively high price, especially in combination with the rumour that they’re going to sell it at a loss at that price. That indeed indicates micro OLED.
I would hope the same but I think it would only have uOLED if they are selling pretty much at cost (similar to SteamDeck business model so definitely not out of the question) or they have managed to get a good cheaper supply of those panels than other manufacturers, which is also possible if they went with a sizable order from BOE or such. Although there was all those rumours for years of them working with that specific uOLED company that got bought by Samsung I believe and they had that “steam boat” prototype. So who knows.
The most exciting part for me personally is the idea of a linux computer on my face, I’ve switched entirely to linux except for my windows partition that is just for VR games. Would absolutely love to leave windows behind entirely.
I keep getting that feeling Valve are going to go huge on FOV.
If all these other companies are making standard 4k per eye HMDs with narrow FOV like the vision Pro, MeganeX, Dream Air I’m not sure why Valve would bother with just another also ran.
If Valve want to be know as the innovator and want to make that generational leaps then 1.3” Micro-OLED is not the way to go. Unless they’re using 2 panels per eye and do the thing we’ve seen Hyper-vision do.
Now I’m sure Hyper-vision went to Valve and the other big Corps before being bought by VRgineers so it make me wonder if Valve already had a wide FOV solution in development. We know Meta does.
VR and PCR is desperate for a wide FOV HMD that works. A HMD that breaks away from the limitations of the Qualcomms XR2 chip.
With 4 panels you could have 2 or 4 panel modes depending on your renderer. For example 2 panel of 2880x2880 x2 for SteamDeck and mobile then 4 panel of 2880x2880 to PCVR giving 9k horizontal resolution. Not over the top like the Pimax 12k.
Turning off panels turns of pixels, turns off power draw, turns off heat. At the same time you could have 2 panels for perfect flat stereo overlap and 2 panels canted for the periphery, the point beyond the iris focal point.
Well keep in mind that Valve was NOT an innovator when it came to the index. Purely based on specs, the index was actually a bit boring, even back then. But they perfected the tech. I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re going to do again this time. I’m guessing that their plan is to make a Quest 3 type of headset but then just with better specs, more highend. I’m HOPING that they’ll offer 4k per eye but honestly wouldnt be surprised if they’d even be below that. And with regards to FoV I’m expecting something quite similar to the original Index. I don’t think at this point in time it would make much sense for them to release wider FoV when current GPU’s already have a hard time delivering 4k per eye with ‘standard’ FoV.
Unfortunately I have the same gut feeling here. The Index in fact was so unspectacular on what was the absolutely no.1 desired spec improvement at the time, resolution, and still probably is (while not having the same relative importance any more due to a good level having been achieved by now) that I sold off the pre-ordered Index right away, and when I got me another one a year later and compared it to my Reverb G2 and 8KX, it was the one which had to go just weeks after having been bought. It was fighting above its weight class, the difference wasn’t as big as I expected - yet it was noticeably softer, and that killed it for me.
@Atmos On the wide FoV: errr, they clearly position it as a virtual screen for flat PC games. In that case you want high PPD in the central area, in order to compete with a higher definition monitor. It will be worse than a 4K monitor in any case, because even if they use 4K panels, there will be more than just the screen being shown, and even if not, you’d have barrel distortion to take care of.
So I am not that hopeful to see any substantial increase in FoV.
Thats not true is it? Because Quest the most used VR headset on Steam is much much lower. This is why PCVR has not taken off and Standalone has to a certain degree. Sure more PPD is better, but more FoV is better too. Now whe it comes to games like flight sims yes more PPD is more attractive and you have several choices for that but for FPS or open world FoV is much more desirable. My best VR experiences have been in the 5K+. I just dont see Valve wanting to be high end when Steam deck wants mid level resolution.
It could be Valve go 4k per eye, eye tracking 100FoV but then why both if Pimax are releasing Dream Air? It’s litterally at £1200 going to kill those headsets stone dead.
Valve will do something no one else has the capacity to do. Or why bother?
Pimax can slam some panels into a headset and call it a day. But that doesn’t make for a great headset. Valve has shown that they truely understand how to make a good headset. I don’t think they care much about Pimax at all.
I think until a new lens type gets developed that solves problems like distortion, companies will still push towards higher PPD, it’s just the easy route. Alhough 60PPD will be really the end there since that’s human vision of course.