Pimax VISION 8K X
- Thread starter Thuen88
- Start date
I don't own one myself, but I was reading about it the other day on the Overclockers uk forum. it's from October 9th...
There are other posts that mention the headsets are good but if you have a problem Pimax support is terrible. Just have a search around for user reviews (not those shills on YouTube) before you take the plunge.
Dont bother. You have to enable Parallel Projections for Elite and that just wrecks your frametimes.
Much better off with a Reverb for Elite.
Much better off with a Reverb for Elite.
I can buy it from a local supplyer so thats not an issue =)
With a 3080 as well ? I`ve read several other post saying it runs good as you dont have to do any SS
Always be cautious when people say a Pimax runs good. I havent used an 8K X but i have played Elite with a 3090 and a 5k+
1) What refresh rate are they using ?
2) What final render target are they using ?
3) Is Parallel Projections enabled ?
4) Is Smart Smoothing enabled ?
5) What FOV are they using ?
Even in dual engine mode with upscaling the 8K X is pushing the same render target as the 5k+ which struggles even with a 3090.
Last edited:
Im not sure, but going by this thread it should run decent with some tweeks etc ?
community.openmr.ai
Elite Dangerous at 1.5x Total SR in Pimax Vision 8kX
Just tested Elite Dangerous. Most quality settings at high, ultra, etc (will be posted later). Same stuff I was using with the Pimax 5k+ at something like 2.1 Total SR. Pimax Vision 8kX just works with Total SR 1.5x, at 75Hz. And I went a bunch of places to be sure, including planetary rings...
community.openmr.ai
It's a little hard to say...
I have one, and am utterly unable to get anywhere near tolerable results with it; But then there are plenty of others, some of whom I have no reason to doubt, and greatly respect, who say that they have none of my problems, and claim the p8kX to be the best HMD they have ever tried.
So the screens and the lenses point out to the sides a bit in the Pimax 8k/5k series of headsets, as opposed to sitting in-line, and both facing perfectly forwards, the way they usually do in smaller FOV ones -- this is fundamentally a good thing, making the most of several matters.
The Valve Index does the same, albeit by two times five degrees canting, where the Pimaxes do two times ten.
This wouldn't have been any problem what so ever (...and is indeed not a problem with the Index), if it hadn't been for an old enemy, in VR: The field curvature of the lens.
So the screen, that we look at through the lens, is flat, but the focal plane of the lens is not flat; It curves around the lens; So we tend to see a really sharp image through the portion of the lens that is right at its centre, but then things become progressively more blurry toward the periphery, as the "field curvature" -- the distance at which you have focus, across a cut section of the optical train-- pulls away from the flat plane of the display panel. This has been a problem with every consumer grade VR headset.
(Presumably, one of the main purposes of the two-element lenses in the Valve Index, is to "flatten" that field curvature, so that it better "hugs" the screen -- the resulting large radius of view in acceptable focus is what makes the canting much less of an issue with them, than with the Pimax's.)
Anyway: The canting means that when I look to the left, I am swivelling my left eyeball toward the centre of its lens, into its perfect sweet spot, while the right eyeball, which is swivelling along in the same direction, turns away from the sweet spot it has in front of its lens; So the the left eye goes into focus, getting a sharper view, but the right one goes out of focus. The radius of clear imagery (some, confusing cause and effect, misname this: "sweet spot") in each lens is not large enough that the two sharp areas overlap sufficiently in your view, the way they do in the Index. The effect can be very disturbing, although some appear less affected.
I really believe it is not just me; There appear to be many that try to ameliorate the issue of binocular rivaly, by moving the lenses closer than they should be, so that their centres sit right in front of each eye, albeit at a slant. Doing this, they get both eyes simultaneously in focus, as long as they look straight ahead, but it comes with a whole host of negative consequences, and strongly discourages actually using and enjoying that large FOV that was the whole point to begin with, leaving you still turning your whole head, just to read a line of text, as opposed to scanning it with your eyeballs. It gives a strong sense of tunnel vision.
Now... The basic opical solution of current headsets has the unfortunate limitation of showing us everything - the whole depth of field of the entirte view - in focus at a single virtual distance from the viewer -- you can not focus at something that is close up, and expect the background to blur; It is all or nothing, and the all does not budge from its depth.
Whilst e.g. the first Oculus developer kit headsets had that distance at infinity, most of the eventual consumer products have opted to place it one to two metres away, since it is a reasonable guess that most of the time, players will interact with in-game stuff at that range.
I am pretty sure I have sometime in the past seen some Pimax representative cite that same virtual focal distance, also for the Pimax 8k/5k series, but strongly suspect, myself, that the actual distance is a good bit less than a metre, but more than half one, because I am getting old enough that I need reading glasses, and really can. not. get. a sharp image in my p8kX. -I do get i tiny pinprick of really "screen-door-effect-jumps-out-at-me" crisp imagery right in the centre of each lens, but outside that, things begin to blur immediately, and rapidly -- trying to bring my reading glasses into the HMD just makes it worse, so is this is it, I would need less than one diopter to correct for it.
It COULD be that those who claim they have great focus - one guy even claimed his p8kX rivals the Index - has that much better eyesight than I do, and can easily resolve things at arms length, and that only us old stodgers with calcifying eyes are the unfortunate ones - I don't know.
I can share some simple little anecdote such as that I can look down at the daisies that grow at my feet in Skyrim, whilst wearing my Index, and easily count their petals, but in my still visibly much higher resolution Pimax 8kX, the optics blur the whole same flower into a grey blob.
I can't even do the "screw the lenses closer together" trick, even if I didn't think it a bad tradeoff anyway, because my IPD is at the lower end, at 59-60mm, and this is already bumping into the lower end stop of the HMD.
If you are on the more suitable end of these two aspects (good eyesight, close up, and not lower-percentile IPD), maybe it could be worth giving it a go, but I would quintuple my usual recommendation of trying to find somebody who has any headset you are thinking about, and is willing to let you have a test drive with their unit. :7
As for performance: Pimax's software has on option to render-, and put out only part of the horizontal field of view, in three steps, from 120°, thru 140°, to the full 160 degrees. Even at 120°, which is close to the rendered FOV for other headsets, you do have noteably more FOV than with those, and the peripheral edges of it does not become occluded by the limited size of the aperture, when you look toward it, the way it usually does in an HMD with lenses that at less wide.
(EDIT: Already 20° FOV reduced is a major performace saving, due to the way the projection stretches toward the edges when rendering high FOVs, with traditional rasterization techniques.)
I have one, and am utterly unable to get anywhere near tolerable results with it; But then there are plenty of others, some of whom I have no reason to doubt, and greatly respect, who say that they have none of my problems, and claim the p8kX to be the best HMD they have ever tried.
So the screens and the lenses point out to the sides a bit in the Pimax 8k/5k series of headsets, as opposed to sitting in-line, and both facing perfectly forwards, the way they usually do in smaller FOV ones -- this is fundamentally a good thing, making the most of several matters.
The Valve Index does the same, albeit by two times five degrees canting, where the Pimaxes do two times ten.
This wouldn't have been any problem what so ever (...and is indeed not a problem with the Index), if it hadn't been for an old enemy, in VR: The field curvature of the lens.
So the screen, that we look at through the lens, is flat, but the focal plane of the lens is not flat; It curves around the lens; So we tend to see a really sharp image through the portion of the lens that is right at its centre, but then things become progressively more blurry toward the periphery, as the "field curvature" -- the distance at which you have focus, across a cut section of the optical train-- pulls away from the flat plane of the display panel. This has been a problem with every consumer grade VR headset.
(Presumably, one of the main purposes of the two-element lenses in the Valve Index, is to "flatten" that field curvature, so that it better "hugs" the screen -- the resulting large radius of view in acceptable focus is what makes the canting much less of an issue with them, than with the Pimax's.)
Anyway: The canting means that when I look to the left, I am swivelling my left eyeball toward the centre of its lens, into its perfect sweet spot, while the right eyeball, which is swivelling along in the same direction, turns away from the sweet spot it has in front of its lens; So the the left eye goes into focus, getting a sharper view, but the right one goes out of focus. The radius of clear imagery (some, confusing cause and effect, misname this: "sweet spot") in each lens is not large enough that the two sharp areas overlap sufficiently in your view, the way they do in the Index. The effect can be very disturbing, although some appear less affected.
I really believe it is not just me; There appear to be many that try to ameliorate the issue of binocular rivaly, by moving the lenses closer than they should be, so that their centres sit right in front of each eye, albeit at a slant. Doing this, they get both eyes simultaneously in focus, as long as they look straight ahead, but it comes with a whole host of negative consequences, and strongly discourages actually using and enjoying that large FOV that was the whole point to begin with, leaving you still turning your whole head, just to read a line of text, as opposed to scanning it with your eyeballs. It gives a strong sense of tunnel vision.
Now... The basic opical solution of current headsets has the unfortunate limitation of showing us everything - the whole depth of field of the entirte view - in focus at a single virtual distance from the viewer -- you can not focus at something that is close up, and expect the background to blur; It is all or nothing, and the all does not budge from its depth.
Whilst e.g. the first Oculus developer kit headsets had that distance at infinity, most of the eventual consumer products have opted to place it one to two metres away, since it is a reasonable guess that most of the time, players will interact with in-game stuff at that range.
I am pretty sure I have sometime in the past seen some Pimax representative cite that same virtual focal distance, also for the Pimax 8k/5k series, but strongly suspect, myself, that the actual distance is a good bit less than a metre, but more than half one, because I am getting old enough that I need reading glasses, and really can. not. get. a sharp image in my p8kX. -I do get i tiny pinprick of really "screen-door-effect-jumps-out-at-me" crisp imagery right in the centre of each lens, but outside that, things begin to blur immediately, and rapidly -- trying to bring my reading glasses into the HMD just makes it worse, so is this is it, I would need less than one diopter to correct for it.
It COULD be that those who claim they have great focus - one guy even claimed his p8kX rivals the Index - has that much better eyesight than I do, and can easily resolve things at arms length, and that only us old stodgers with calcifying eyes are the unfortunate ones - I don't know.
I can share some simple little anecdote such as that I can look down at the daisies that grow at my feet in Skyrim, whilst wearing my Index, and easily count their petals, but in my still visibly much higher resolution Pimax 8kX, the optics blur the whole same flower into a grey blob.
I can't even do the "screw the lenses closer together" trick, even if I didn't think it a bad tradeoff anyway, because my IPD is at the lower end, at 59-60mm, and this is already bumping into the lower end stop of the HMD.
If you are on the more suitable end of these two aspects (good eyesight, close up, and not lower-percentile IPD), maybe it could be worth giving it a go, but I would quintuple my usual recommendation of trying to find somebody who has any headset you are thinking about, and is willing to let you have a test drive with their unit. :7
As for performance: Pimax's software has on option to render-, and put out only part of the horizontal field of view, in three steps, from 120°, thru 140°, to the full 160 degrees. Even at 120°, which is close to the rendered FOV for other headsets, you do have noteably more FOV than with those, and the peripheral edges of it does not become occluded by the limited size of the aperture, when you look toward it, the way it usually does in an HMD with lenses that at less wide.
(EDIT: Already 20° FOV reduced is a major performace saving, due to the way the projection stretches toward the edges when rendering high FOVs, with traditional rasterization techniques.)
Last edited:
Thank you for that detailed post Jojon=) Yeah the feedback is pretty mixed. As for my IPD is 66, and i do have 20/20 vision so i hope it will work decently.
I think i will give the HMD a go as i can purchase it from a local supplier with a 30 days refund option. If it doesnt work out i always have my good old Reverb G1 to fall back on. I also debated bying the G2, but the upgrade felt minimal, and its also not in stock.
When do you guys think we will have close to the perfect HMD with 200+ FOV, awesome black levels, high refresh rates, and good performance ?
I think i will give the HMD a go as i can purchase it from a local supplier with a 30 days refund option. If it doesnt work out i always have my good old Reverb G1 to fall back on. I also debated bying the G2, but the upgrade felt minimal, and its also not in stock.
When do you guys think we will have close to the perfect HMD with 200+ FOV, awesome black levels, high refresh rates, and good performance ?