Pimax 4K: Is there any way to set up higher VR-resolutions in Elite Dangerous?

[Cmdr Marc Hamilton]

Good morning,

I've started using my new Pimax 4K yesterday evening, and the experience considering image sharpness was far better than with Oculus CV1 one month ago.

But...:
Distant and far distant objects still lack some sharpness, HUD text around planets, suns etc. a bit out of focus. Whereas everything inside the cockpit is as focused as I've never seen before with CV1.

I've already toggled supersampling on, but its impact still isn't satisfying.

Since the Pimax 4K image itself lacks any screen door effect, I can clearly state without almost any doubt, that the last lack of image sharpness / lack must come from the game's internal VR resolution. Considering the ingame options, I'd suppose it must be something like 1280x768 (around that, perhaps a bit more, but not much), since that's the monitor window resolution I get when first opening the adapter resolution options after switching to VR/HMD.

So:
Is there any way to set up some custom VR resolution for my Pimax?
Either through any config-file, registry-key, or what-so-ever...

At least, InGame, there seems not to be any option. The only resolution option is related to the monitor mirror output only.


Thx
Cmdr Marc Hamilton

 

[stubbified]

There are two options ingame for rendering higher resolutions. If you use your mouse and click the + on the graphics settings, you get a bunch of different options. You'll want to look at Supersampling, and HMD Quality. Supersampling renders the imager larger resolution, then downsizes for better image quality & clarity. HMD seems to increase the overall resolution of the output. Bear in mind though, you will need a very beef PC to run them high.
With my VIVE, I set ingame supersampling and HMD quality to 1.0, then VIVE has it's own supersampling setting, that I set to 2.0. I have a GTX 1070, and it's able to run that pretty well, though probably just under the gold standard of 90fps per eye. The actual output with those settings is something like 1538 x 1538 per eye, so the GPU is actually rendering the equivalent of 3076 x 1538

 

[Cmdr Marc Hamilton]

Hello Laethagheal,

so far, quite good.

The installation was a bit of a pain since there's nowhere desribed, that it must be connected to the first HDMI on the graphics card - first, I connected it to one of my three display ports via adapter. And since it was recognized by the driver and software correctly, it took me about two hours to find out why I was not able to get any image on the googles... Simply had to connect it to the HDMI directly, and my TV now is connected via adapter...

At least the two of the 360° videos shared via Pimax software / page, I downloaded so far, do not have high enough resolution, too. So nice for testing the googles, but apart from this... better leave it [big grin]

But as soon as it comes to "serious" content, the Pimax' image quality is far superior to the Rift one's, without any doubt (in my eyes):

The image is REALLY crystal clear, there are no screen door effects or any other weird lines at all which destroy immersion. Simply great.
But - as written above: Now, it seems as if the games lower VR resolutions limit. I've tested Elite and Project Cars so far - both games appear far clearer and sharper than with the Rift, but still not perfect, mostly concerning farsight and background objects / textures. Menu and ingame text is almost as sharp and clear as in 2D without VR, even when looking at them from the side as it is the case with some Elite textes in system or galaxy map.

So here really a big big "well done" [up]


The headtracking via gyroscope worked rather well until now in Elite deep space and on deserted moon surface - not as good and smooth as the Rift's one, and probably not even as good as my TrackIR's one. But good enough, and that is still to be observed. Finally, if it fails, I'll try to switch off the googles headtracking and take my TrackIR (if it works in VR). Wanted to test that anyway.


Furthermore, I did not notice any major motion sickness or dizziness so far, not even while driving 15 minutes in my SRV this afternoon. I got a little dizziness in Project Cars yesterday when I had to turn my car => forward <> reverse gear and steering; and in sharp bends. But I think it was better, too, than with the Rift before.


I did and will not test the headphones, since I prefer putting on my headset with microphone instead; wouldn't know how to communicate with Aurora otherwise So I cannot say anything about the audio quality of the Pimax.


Yes, the Pimax does not have any positional tracking.
But since I play only sitting in front of my PC and simply don't have any room to stand up and move while gaming, I don't miss it at all, and it never has been a reason to buy or not to buy for me, anyway.


Finally, I still have to play around with the Pimax and see what works and how it works. I.e. switching from Pimax to Extended mode doesn't work any longer after I finally got everything else working (SteamVR, Elite, Project Cars, etc.). But since the Pimax mode works, which is essential for SteamVR, it's not really an issue for me. I can watch all the Pimax videos through SteamVR / Cmoar VR Cinema in Pimax mode if I want, so... a bit annoying but not mandatory.


So for pure PC players only sitting while playing, and even more Elite Dangerous players, or for watching videos/movies, I'd fully recommend the Pimax instead of the Rift so far. Installation is a bit tricky. But image quality and the lack of almost any dizziness make it worth every cent of the 350 € for me - especially when considering the fact, that the Rift almost costs the double of it.
Until now, as mentioned. It's still a bit too early to guarantee or exclude anything

But the odds are good that it was right to give it a chance - latest when the VR resolutions increase in the course of the time - and they will, one day or the other [big grin]

 

[Cmdr Marc Hamilton]

Hi stubbified,

thanks for your answer; didn't got it until now.

Well, as far as I noticed, Supersampling doesn’t have a major impact for me. Perhaps because the Pimax’ resolution is much higher than the Supersampling’s output – as you said, it downsizes again, which perhaps isn’t of any advantage for the Pimax.

I also played around with the HMD quality, but here again, I cannot see any major improvement on the googles – except a quite large impact on fps performance for every value beyond 1.25, especially when combined with Supersampling… So, once again not really satisfying.

Unfortunately I was not able to get any 2K or 4K native material so far, neither game, nor video, so I really could determine more precisely whether it’s the Pimax or the material’s resolution. Have to search again this evening; probably I might be able to find something at YouTube.

 

[VR Mr Teatime]

Thanks for that write up Marc, very useful.

Keep us updated if you can on the TrackIR for tracking and PIMAX for viewing, as that would seem to be almost Gen2 VR if that works.

Also would you mind posting your system specs?

I'm getting an itch in my wallet again

 

[Cmdr Marc Hamilton]

I've already tried TrackIR with the Pimax later in the evening, and unfortunately it didn't work. When I turn off the Pimax tracking sensor and switch on TrackIR, Elite doesn't show any headtracking at all so far (whereas TrackIR itself recognizes both ist reflector and the game correctly; both LED are green). Seems as if Elite VR mode overrides anything else.

But it was only a quick test trying with the two options that were most obvious - turning off Pimax and turning on TrackIR. I'll see in the course of the next days and weeks, whether I can find any workaround.

My system specs:

i5-3550 @stock
MSI Z77A-G43
2x 4 GB RAM @stock (Avexir)
Sapphire Fury Tri-X OC @stock
(so no OC at all)
Asus Xonar Phoebus
beyerdynamic MMX300
Win 10 64bit
Crimson 16.2.1
2 SSD's (128 + 750 GB)

 

[VR Mr Teatime]

Thanks Marc,

That's disappointing, but maybe not unexpected, as I doubt FDev would predict the use case above.

Thanks also for the specs - I'm not too familiar with the AMD GPUs, but iirc the Fury is an nVidia 9xx series GPU equivalent, which if so bodes quite well for 4K VR?

Hope you manage a workaround and I wonder if any FDev devs are watching whether there's an .ini/.cfg file option somewhere to help (or can there be in a future patch, if its not too deep into the drivers/DX display code to warrant it).

 

[Dread Lord]

The Pimax is garbage!

No positional tracking but worse: the headtrascking sucks BIG time!

But the kicker: its locked at 60hz for 1080p and locked at 30 for 4K

seriously stay away, really bad experience!

also: you gota Sapphire Fury Tri-X OC. that wouldn't even work properly with rift or vive! let alone 4K with Elite!

 

[Cmdr Marc Hamilton]

Great comment Dread Lord, very helpful. I suppose, you tried the Pimax as well and can rely on own experiences?
Or do you just copy&paste other people's opinions...?

1st: Yes, it has not positional tracking. But I don't need it really. I use my VR glasses sitting in front of my PC, playing Project Cars, Elite and Euro Truck Simulator 2. Yes - positional tracking could be nice to have; my TrackIR has it, so I know it. But in my eyes, it is not really of any awesome or even essential use when I am just sitting and driving or flying around. In real live, I don't fidge in my car while driving, either So, I'm totally glad with 360° view, up and down - for me and my actual use cases, that's more important for immersion than positional tracking.

2nd: I can't measure whether it's locked at 60 Hz or whether it goes up to 90 Hz as promoted. Don't know.
But: I already tried quite a lot of things as I did with the Rift five weeks ago. And know what: Whithin the Rift, I felt dizzy and naseous almost everytime within the first couple of minutes - especially when trying Skyrim via VorpX. Very bad experience - in total, it took me two days to recover ; and it might have been even longer if I wouldn't have eaten ginger the second day
Within the Pimax, almost nothing. I feel as comfortable as I never thought I might feel in VR. Even Skyrim via VorpX now works! Something I wouldn't have signed before.

3rd: My Fury is faster than a GTX 980 reference model and as fast as a GTX 980 OC. So it is perhaps not perfect and it is certainly far from being a GTX 1080, of course, so it reaches its limits quite early, ok. But it fulfills minimum specs easily and works as good as it works for others with a 970 or 980. And of course, I never expect it to run at 4K! I will upgrade sooner or later when Vega is launched, but this will still take a couple of months. Till then the Fury will perform quite well. Not perfect (neither would an GTX 1080 at even higher high-end quality settings), but good enough.

Last but not least, due to Skyrim-test via VorpX early this evening I was able to determine, that VR at a given resolution apparently needs more performance than standard 3D on my TV at the same given resolution or even above. I can render Skyrim at 3840x2160 @3D with 40-60 FPS fluently (city of Solitude) - but Skyrim-VR at 1280x1024 seems not to go beyond 30 FPS (and though the game run noticeably slower, I didn't feel dizzy at all, just to repeat it once again, concerning "really bad experience", and it wasn't faster in the Rift back then, neither)... So there seems to be more to VR than just resolution dependent calculations, though I cannot state what it might be...


But really:
Rift and Vive have their problems and critiques as well. There are aspects where they perform better than the Pimax, and the Pimax has aspects where it performs better than Rift and Vive. Considering the fact, that it costs only half the price, I think more and more from day to day, that the Pimax are quite good and recommandable VR glasses. Not perfect (neither are Rift or Vive), but quite good. And it might perform even better as soon as I own a better graphics card / Vega card by mid of this year hopefully.

In the end, everybody has to decide himself whether a 350€-glasses are sufficient or whether it is necessary to spend 700 or 800€... depends on personal preferences and use cases. In case of doubt, one should compare it oneself instead of simply believing short summary reviews on the internet. Rift and Vive reviews fill pages and pages on dozens of homepages - but there are just a couple of Pimax reviews which mainly summarize in one and a half page without going into details... curious...


This evening, I tried watching "The Martian" from my 3D-BD via Steam-BigScreen in Pimax - and it simply is great: You are sitting right in front of your personal cinema and watch your favorite movies in 3D and a perfect image quality [big grin]! Since the Pimax has no screen door effect.


I'll continue now watching this movie in VR [big grin]

 

[Dread Lord]

The pimax has exactly 2 usecases: watching movies and triple X movies

anything game related its garbage! Ther xpereince a Rift with Elite gives you is worlds apart from what pimax does!

And a graphics card that sruggles with the 1080p is useless with 4K resolution!
If you get dizzy in VR btw there are two reasons.. you have too low fps or/and you are sensitive to motion sickness!
Has ZERO to do with the Rift itself!

 

[Cmdr Marc Hamilton]

Yeah, you're completely right - since you tested both of them as I did, right?
And I'll tell my body that from now on it has got to get sick in the Pimax and not in the Rift - as it has to be! Foolish me!

 

[VR Mr Teatime]

Hi Marc,

Thanks for the further information.

As Dread is obviuosly sat on the fence about it, I think I'm going to get one as a "punt" and have a play if I can find my hibernating TrackIR. Whilst my Rift is awesome, I'm curious now to see what the resolution difference looks like.

I see on their site PIMAX are talking now about an 8K version :-o

 

[Cmdr Marc Hamilton]

Yes, saw it as well. With 200° FOV! Can't wait to see it launched and read the first reviews. 200° FOV will push immersion even further - no black borders to the left and right any more. Could be, my 4K won't stay too long with me [big grin]
Just wondering if any actual graphics card is able to power it... must be some kind of upscaling again, anyway. But 8K @200° FOV still would need a quite high base resolution in order to look sharp in the end.

Today I ordered a GTX 1080 which will arrive hopefully tomorrow already. I'm a bit curious to push the Pimax / Elite VR to its actual possible limits. That test should reveal as well, which component limits the visual appearance. Still not excluded that the Pimax' image quality / resolution in Elite VR won't increase any further due to some technical restrictions. But I'll see

 

[syngyne]

also: you gota Sapphire Fury Tri-X OC. that wouldn't even work properly with rift or vive! let alone 4K with Elite!

I'm running a 1080 now, but I used to have a Sapphire Fury Nitro, and it worked fine with my Vive if I cranked some details down. I think the only games I ran into a lot of issues on were Raw Data and Elite with supersampling cranked up.

 

[NMS]

@Cmdr Marc Hamilton

Thanks for the information about PIMAX. It was very useful.

Has anyone else here used this VR and could give their opinion? Thanks

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

Thanks Marc for the mini-review. Its good to see solid competition for the Rift/Vive like the PiMax 4K.

As a Rift owner, I'd love the extra resolution, but proper tracking is important for me - being able to look about is great, but leaning left/right and peering out of the sides of the fighters/ships/SRV is too good.

 

[Captain N]

You'd probably need a monster rig for 4K VR... but the tracking issue might be solvable with some hacking once the tracking pucks for the Lighthouse come out.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

The Pimax is garbage!

No positional tracking but worse: the headtrascking sucks BIG time!

But the kicker: its locked at 60hz for 1080p and locked at 30 for 4K

seriously stay away, really bad experience!

also: you gota Sapphire Fury Tri-X OC. that wouldn't even work properly with rift or vive! let alone 4K with Elite!

Hi Dread lord. You obviously don't know much about the AMD Fury cards. I have one, and using the Rift on VR High settings and have no issues.
Also the AMD Fury does not struggle at 1080p, not sure where you are getting you info from, but it is wrong.

 

[LukeB]

Hi,
Are you playing the Steam version of ED and are you using a HOTAS?
I have a Saitek X52Pro HOTAS but ED doesn't recognise it when launched via Steam Library.
Works ok if launched outside of steam but can't use VR (PimaxVR) if not launched via Steam.
Works OK if using XBox360 controller.
Any ideas?????

Cheers,
Luke
P.S. ED in Pimax (both pimax and pc res set to 2560 X 1440) VR is just Awesome

 

[dogbite]

I guess one could get away without having 1 to 1 head tracking for some sit down VR games. but I personally find being able to move my head around in proper scale indispensable in racing and flightsims. I loved my Trackir, but it pales when compared to full scale head tracking. Not surprised Trackir is over-ridden by a connected VR headset. Seems logical.