Best HMD for Elite

Thanks both are ordered going to give it a go and see what I think. I like the headset itself and really no headset is going to make any difference for all the annoying bugs in elite. Appreciate the opinion.
 
Yes, i've upgraded from i5-8400@3.8Ghz to i5-9600k@5.0Ghz. Things are much smoother now, it usually runs at 90 fps most of the time. However in Res sites and in conflicts zones that are close to planets when lots of action going on fps drops and motion re-projection kicks in because of CPU (i use fpsVR to monitor frame times). It looks like (this is just an idea) that this is caused by huge amount of energy weapons/projectiles trajectories engine has to handle.

My point was that reprojections never caused by GPU. I've even tested it with 100% steamSS and 0.5HMD, motion re-projection still kicks in.


Good to know, just had to comment so I can find this again real quick!
 
OP should be updated to add all the quality control issues pimax is having, their forum is pretty much flooded with complaints of headset casing cracking for no good reason, HMD causing eyestrain, faulty cable causing "sparkles" in the display.. etc etc
 
Last edited:
Interesting responses. I have the following:

1. DK2 - not a serious headset, obviously, but certainly my first toe dipped and where experienced ED initially, and then knew there was no turning back. I didn't play properly as the resolution was too low, but what an effect. I've kept this headset because... retro?

2. Rift - Wonderful, easy to use, solid as a rock and a great performer. I still have it plugged in because the ecosystem is just so well screwed together.

3. Vive - I have one, boxed, as I'm using the base stations for my Pimax (more on that). A good performer, but not great in Elite (maybe the lenses). I've not spent time in ED simply as the Rift did the job and did it well. Cheap 2nd hand now.

4. Lenovo WMR - too cheap not to try, and inside-out meant my laptop could stand in for the full Rift set up. Unfortunately I'd been spoilt with mechanical IPD adjustment I can only get a clear eye at a time (my IPD is very low; sub 60mm). I've lent this to a friend as I can juuuust about get a picture I can live with by swapping the foam, but it's not really worth the hassle. I may sell and replace by a 2nd-gen headset since they are all sounding very promising. The good; display, comfort, easy of use. The bad? IPD ruins it.. no audio.

5. Pimax 8k - FoV is life. Well, okay, it's like the DK2 of "the future". It's a pain to get right, but when you do, ohhhhh boy. ED is a git to get this right with; It has it's own Quality sliders, on top of Steam's, on top of ED's.. so get that within the sliders and you get a GOOD experience. My i7 is a 3xxx series and I have a 1080Ti and I've had a solid 80fps (with brainwarp, so 40fps) and it's really really nice. But, there's too much to set up, and when tracking does go, it likes to take it's time to come back. But, I don't play ED with anything else now, so it can be done!

The future has to be 140degree FoV; will the Index do that? I really hope so as I'd love to see a plug-n-play Steam headset (or Oculus if they'd stop chuffing about with the S nonsense and give us v2) that "just works". The Rift did; the Pimax does not. It's sooo close though.

I still see myself with multiple headsets (cave/living room/travel), and they all can fill different uses, but for ED it's Pimax, and room scale? Jury's out for me. I think we'll see it soon enough.
 
As I only play Ed as an explorer with the rare nav point offline combat, I have no issue with my 5K+. For my play style, it is sharper at HMD 1.25 than my Rift at 1.5 and the fov is great. I do see it not being the choice for busy online and combat situations atm because of parallel projection'
As for many other games, I love the 5K+ for is clarity and the amazing fov.
For racing in Assetto Corsa, flying in DCS and Aerofly and the beautiful (when mods are applied) Skyrim VR the 5K+ is just what the doctor ordered.
It is not for the casual VR user though as a lot of tweaking and experimentation is called for, as well as, as a beefy computer-especially gpu.

This could all change as software and firmware are constantly changing. pimax is working quite closely with Nvidia (and AMD to some extent) as is evidenced by the latest Pitool needing the latest gpu driver. Fixed foveated rendering is happening (although early yet) and eye tracking is being worked on.

One thing that is cautionary is that because of the unique approach to the large fov, there are some who have had trouble locking down their focal point and this means some people won't be able to comfortably adjust to this tech. In the very least I would not advise anyone with IPDs nearing the outer limits of the Pimax range to buy without trying one with this thought in mind. This testing should not be done with the current headstrap supplied by pimax imo. Wait for them to release upcoming options or at least demo from someone who has added a Vive DAS and I would also recommend the StudioForm Creative top strap. Without these finding and holding a proper fit position is problematic for a lot of people right now.
For the faint of heart, other considerations would be my advice atm.
 
Last edited:
Personally I think 135-140Fov and great clarity are essential for the next VR HMD's. I have the vive pro with the lens mod and just the lack of the god rays from the non-fresnel lenses makes the clarity so much better... I also have a 5k+ but find it very very much an 'alpha' product... Great idea but far too many issues for most people.. I truly hope that the pitool software can make the required changes to make this headset better, but so far I am extremely disappointed with it as a whole.
 
Having upgraded through DIY Playstation 2 eye toy IR head tracker(maybe 200 hours) to
Google Cardboard(tested for maybe 20 hours, got excited and got real vr) to
Rift DK2 (multiple 100s of hours, mid 2015 to vive release) to
Vive (multiple 100s of hours more, all my elite from its release until i got my pimax in mid feb)to
Pimax5k+ (20 hours so far, been sorta out of elite)
ill say that out of the hardware ive used for elite, the last is without a doubt the best.

With the most recent version of Pitool we got options for brightness and contrast, these have really made space look a lot better, i turn the brightness down as far as it goes and bump contrast up one step, i used to play on night mode in the Vive.

I seem to have gotten lucky or have the perfectly shaped face/head because i get very little distortion and have comfortably worn my pimax for hundreds of hours now, no mods at all.

The main comfort thing i do is that i tie my hair into a knot on the back of my head and put it through the hole in the head strap, same as i did with my vive. This anchors the HMD very firmly and lets most of the weight of the HMD get carried by the top strap/top of my head so there is minimal pressure on my face and minimal movement of the hmd when looking about.

I had major comfort issues back when the vive was new for me, went through the hassle of ordering one of those recommended welding mask harnesses, 3d printing the adapters and unsatisfied with the result, switched back to the standard head strap, figured out my hair trick and didnt even look at the DAS when it came out, i saw no need for it at all.
 
Last edited:
Love the look of the Xtal... Time to start saving up again :) the Xtal is almost $8000 in Australian Dollars..... The Star VR one is around $5500 AUD...
 
The Xtal is a revelation in more ways than one. Up until now it seems all VR headsets give better visual quality using supersampling (up and down sampling). I've never understood this - why not native resolution with anti-aliasing like regular monitors?

Finally, here's a VR headset that should be used at native resolution for best visual quality, and ofc that means much better frame rates too. SweViver's vid shows this clearly. Finally, a VR headset that makes sense? Interested in other people's thoughts on this point.
 
Last edited:
Agree completely, the Xtal is truly 2nd gen VR, the Pimax is just a re-iteration of 1st gen technology... I too have always been bewildered why the panels have to be 'zoomed' at all.. In fact the best single mod to any VR headset for me has been the gear VR lens mod for the Vive pro... It has shown me what VR can be without the god awful <- see what I did there... God rays.... This in itself makes a major difference to the visual quality of a headset..
 
If you are about to enter the market place for a new VR HMD I think its also worth mentioning the soon to be released HP Reverb.
From what I've seen of it so far it ticks all the right boxes and is very close to how I imagined a Oculus CV-2 would be if that ever appears.
 
I really want the Xtal after watching that review. But I don't really want to get divorced either. :) Perfectly happy with my Samsung Odyssey+ for now. As per my previous post, my progression was DK2->Rift->HP WMR->Samgsung O+ and each step was a "step" up the ladder. The difference between my old DK2 and O+ is night and day! I'm sure in a few years with similar Xtal spec'd HMDs, it will only get better.
 
Hi all just wanted to chime in and say how much I'm enjoying my new odeccy plus, visuals are awesome. Comfort not so. Got the vr cover and head strap coming hopefully that fixes it if bit might remove front padding as mentioned here.
Big upgrade from rift and tracking is really good! Even played a bit of doom vfr and tracking was good!
Impressed!
 
The Xtal is looking extremely good, better screens and less zooming in the lens means it has performance to spare as there is no need for super sampling... Just need to come up with the $5000 euro to purchase lol... It does support all steam tracking and games however... so long as you have the base stations and controllers etc..
 
The Xtal is a revelation in more ways than one. Up until now it seems all VR headsets give better visual quality using supersampling (up and down sampling). I've never understood this - why not native resolution with anti-aliasing like regular monitors?

Finally, here's a VR headset that should be used at native resolution for best visual quality, and ofc that means much better frame rates too. SweViver's vid shows this clearly. Finally, a VR headset that makes sense? Interested in other people's thoughts on this point.

My thoughts are Scam. It is a revelation in too many ways
 
My thoughts are Scam. It is a revelation in too many ways
I don't see how it is a "scam"? If you are going to say something like that you really should elaborate your meaning.

Did you watch the video? Sweviver has no reason to scam anyone and he actually tried the headset. Like others have said though right now it's far out of mainstream reach in terms of price.
 
My thoughts are Scam. It is a revelation in too many ways

So you're saying they conned SweViver, MRTV and VoodooDE VR? That despite SweViver spending an entire weekend at the XTal offices and, in his words, "They basically gave me free hands to test whatever I wanted without restrictions", that it's still a scam?
 
Top Bottom