I’ve been around on these forums for a while and as some might recall, was a tester for Pimax in 2018.
This year has been quite full of changes in my personal life so the announcement of the newest Pimax HMDs kinda went by without me really taking notice.
I initially backed the 8K on KS (HMD only) and paid additionally for handtracking and the 10m DP cable. I then switched to the 5K+ when the choice became available but have been mostly using Index since it came out because of ease of use.
Until yesterday I was pretty sure I would not take any of the upgrade paths offered but instead set up my 5K+ with the MAS (stretch goal) as well as the Comfort Kit (separate purchase) and then use the funds available to get the eye tracking module (separate purchase) and the wireless kit.
Yet @SweViver‘s timeline for the wireless kit as well as @mixedrealityTV‘s excitement over the 8KX basically had me decide to go for the 8KX.
What plan should I choose if I want to not forgo my stretch goals yet still get a bit of a discount on the 8KX? I will get handtracking once available (already paid for as part of my KS pledge) and wireless, the DP cable I‘d be prepared to let go as it seems technically unreasonable to produce. I do want the 8KX including the deluxe MAS and comfort kit, though.
Thanks for your input and sorry for the somewhat long post.
If your wanting to keep stretch goals & backed items like controllers & lighthouses. There is no plan available to backers.
You might be able to get trade in credits by contacting support for 10m cable &/or hand tracking & also possibly use the $100 downgrade credit off reg retail price.
Otherwise best to wait & see for a promo sale. No Direct Backer discount. Only non backer owner’s received a discount of $200 off.
Ok in that case I‘ll have to reconsider if forgoing the pledges is worth not just buying when the 8KX hits retail.
If Pimax has in fact scaled up logistics as successfully as has been claimed then mass availability via amazon etc should be quick. If not having only until the end of the year to decide on the trade in (because that’s what it appears to be essentially) as well as uncertainty when the product will actually ship sounds unappealing for the asking price.
I guess this will be the release of a major HMD step forward that I won’t have front row seats for. I‘m counting on those who made the leap to report on what they received.
Christmas is just too close. Now had there been a backer discount without trading unshipped items might have struggled with the idea.
But also I have good fortune in being able to use my headsets without the eyestrain many have had or setup problems (though might change once have Lighthouses).
So while the newer improved 8k+ & 8kX would be nice. It comes down to is a real need or a want that can wait? If I went for either, I still be waiting on a complete package to fully enjoy a pimax xp.
Then if I want decent audio (above off ear is unlikely to keep immersion with muting real world) pay more.
Then need to factor Eyetracking for more added expense.
So for now. Buy eyetracking once sorted. Check out our now not deluxe on ear headstrap & maybe mod pimax 4k headphones for use on MAS.
Just a little more food for thought. The X has the MAS, and comfort kit (which you could consider instead of the free “foam”) and you can retain the eye tracking discount if you wish which would also get you the prescription lens adapter. That just leaves the 3 pieces of content, the cooling fan and the wireless coupon.
So the X upgrade as a backer gets you $200 discount to begin with (15.3% off), ($100 initially announced and an additional $100), then you get another $50 + $50 for upgrading prior to Dec. 31st for the stretch goals. You also get another $50 if you don’t want the $100 eye tracking discount. So you wind up saving $350 and another $300 + $50 if you did the full package - i.e. $700. Keep in mind we have not announced price for the wireless module and there is no guarantee it will be offered for the X (though we very much hope we can).
All of that and you get to KEEP your existing headset and items such as eye tracking, comfort kit, mas etc. on the 5k+ can be swapped back and forth if you wish. So in the future if you add further upgraded parts to your X you can slide the old ones to the 5k+.
Except we already receive the MAS ($119 value) so down to $80 credit(not discount) +$50 for comfort kit $130 - $100 wireless coupon = $30 credit - $20 - $30 face foam = $0 credit. 3 pieces of software -$30 to $40 - Cooling fan $10 - $20 value.
Then let’s not forget your plans factor in downgrade credit baked into deals.
Now if you mean there is now an option to get $200 off without trade awesome!
I know you are trying to be a salesman, but stop LYING!
No Backers DOES NOT get “$200 discount to begin with (15.3% off)”
You give up $219,95 - ~$300 in stretch goals (depending on how you value the non-confirmed prices) to get 300 off the retail price. That is not $200 in discount to begin with.
Not to mention that the $300 from the full package isn’t a “discount”, it’s just applying money already paid to Pimax towards another product (while incidentally releasing them from taking a big loss on basestations and controllers at that price).
This is completely false. There is no discount, many of us have explained why but clearly you want to continue with this farce.
A trade in of previously paid for goods is not a discount, a trade in of owed commitments is not a discount. Everything done previously is part of a completely separate arrangement and only giving backers the option to forfeit the stretch goals to reduce any further outlay is a very poor arrangement.
I’ve had enough of this rubbish you keep peddling.
To go wildly off on a tangent, if this can be forgiven…:
I had pretty much decided to order an 8kX, as soon as I get a $70 trade-in voucher for my 10m cable extra order (assuming no attempt is made to shirk that debt), but am experiencing some dampers on that resolve, after plugging my 5k+ back in, for a try, after having only used the Index for quite some time.
I had apparently forgotten just how bad the “yellow glare” in the Fresnel lenses is, and regular “content” glare, too. Things also appear just as comparatively “flat” as I do recall, and the distortion is of course there.
…but the biggest shock was discovering just how used I have apparently become to being able to read a line of text naturally, without having to scan back and forth by turning my head like were I spectating a tennis game from a front row seat along the long side.
The small radius of focal sharpness with the 8k/5k lenses was always a problem - especially given the canted design, which greatly increases the need for it to be large on at least the horizontal axis, and I hold it likely it is also largely responsible for the sense of a lack of depth on anything that is more than a pace away, that is inherent to the devices; The lack or sharp edges gives little disambiguity for the brain to work with, and things just become a fuzzy picture hung up a few steps in front of you.
In the index, my view of the room feels correct in front of me - it has proper depth, and everything appears just where it should be, and I am to a greater degree than with any previous HMD I have owned “there” - this with about the same angular resolution as the 5k+, which does not by far offer the same experience. This would, I believe, be a product of little distortion - even a short distance off-centre, in conjunction with the comparatively great edge-to-edge clarity just mentioned.
What I just wrote should not be confused with exaggerated stereo separation, which would stretch depth out, and make things look smaller, losing the geometric verity I so appreciate with the index.
The return from 144Hz to 90 was also vastly more apparent than I would have expected. Given how relatively “meh” I was about gaining the extra temporal resolution in the first place; I thought I wouldn’t care much, but it really made my experience quite uncomfortable, where looking around became a blurry, strobe-y mess, instead of a sense of a decently contiguous optical flow in response to user motion – much like sitting too close to that enormous cinema screen, off of which 24fps content is not only bounced, but triple-exposed.
(One shouldn’t need to turn one’s head from shoulder to shoulder, to take in the face of an actor in close-up :P)
I guess it’s like going to a new, larger resolution monitor, and then back to the old one – up is not that big a deal, but back down is unthinkable.
…so while I have not experienced an 8kX; After this re-experiencing the 5k+, I firmly think its lenses, which are known to be the same as in the 8k and 5k+, make a very encumbering millstone around the neck of the current and imminent lineup – they will enormously degrade the benefit of the higher resolution for everything other than what is right in a tiny “keyhole” area right in front of you.
I have often said that new lenses would entail a whole new optical path, with different lens-to-screen distance, different size screens, and so on, making drop-in replacement lenses a ludricrous prospect – and that’s before taking calibration into consideration, but if Pimax could make replacement lenses that have the same basic properties, but flatten the field curvature, maybe the situation can be saved…
(Probably still murdering my bank account with that 8kX, rube that I am, but… ho hum… )
(EDIT: …and I have, of course, missed the FOV. :7 )
I believe most of the people (who considers themselves VR users) are not even aware of that. It is not just the lenses but the whole “rendering” which is not “totally alright” on Pimax. The “flatness”, the canted views, the way the lenses are positioned, etc.
The current solution Pimax has however is apparently “good enough” so the youtubers may safely get excited about it.
I have been recently playing with “augmented FOV”, i.e. changing the rendered FOV, but letting the headset to display it in the same space/res as before and I noticed that by finetuning it, I can somewhat improve the geometry (and make the view less flat), but it seems it is pretty tricky, and also apparently very individual. So anyone else who is just left with what Pimax delivers might as well be out of the luck, or just simply accept the poor implementation.
On the other hand, it is not an easy problem, and others failed as well, so I am not particularly mad at Pimax, I just cannot justify the praise it receives from those superficial “reviews”.
Personally, I’m fairly ok with stretch goal trade-in values being closer based on their cost to Pimax, than to their predicted MSRP; That was the write-off they went into the deal with, and any margin flipping its sign would essentially come right out of their pocket.
Controller/base station bundles, and extras, need to be reimbursed in full, though.
I can not avoid wondering just what the balance is at Pimax, between doing actual solid engineering, and flying by the seat of their pants…
