i have the current FW and the latest Pi play, will jion up on the forum and seek help there is needed, cheers for help.
PiMax VR Group
- Thread starter LukeB
- Start date
I have to agree with Red River, I have used HTC Vive, Oculus and Pimax. (HTC and Oculus borrowed from friends to test) and i have to say there are good and bad points for all. Most of us already know the benefits of oculus and rift, including positional tracking, room scale, colour brightness etc. and there are definatly some downfalls when i used my Pimax.. but there are also some positives.
- ok, yes the colours seem a little washed out, but that can be fixed with some tweaking.. see here: http://forum.pimaxvr.com/t/color-settings-in-nvidia-control-panel/1394
- And yes there is no positional tracking to speak off.. but for those of us not needing it and are happy to sit in the chair and just look around .. in ED for instance, unless you want to get out of your chair and walk around your cockpit... yeah i know some of you do
me included when in the oculus. - I find that the type of lenses that are in the Pimax, although huge and are much clearer than in either of the Oculus or Vive seem to be slightly blurry around the edges of the lense, so looking at side panels (especially the right panel as the numbers on data/synthesis/cargo are on the FAR right of that panel ) are really hard to see clearly.
- i also experience a slight warping/distortion sensation when looking up and down while in the cockpit.. a bit like this but not as extreme : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lucbnavW780 (video is from another game but shows the distortion exaggerated)
- and the drift... jesus the drift .. have to reset it at least a couple of times a min. i use voice attack and have created a voice command called 'center' just to reset the HUD forward. but that damn gyro sensor is pants.
- and yes their piplay software is a bag of crap, but they are actively improving it on every release and that is very often!
ok the good points..
- Yes the resolution is clearer in the center of the lenses.. and yes i can read every word. even the small text in the info panel and comms panel... and even using the default Orange HUD colours that Oculus and Vive struggle to read.
- Yes the Piamx can run on older graphics cards.. personally i use a EVGA GTX1060 which is not a slouch by any means.. but its not the top dog either, but i cranked most of my settings to high or ultra except for things like shadows (we all know what an impact that has on performance) HUD Quality to .85 and Supersampling to .75 with steam vr supersampling to 1.0 the rest is on the highest settings.
- yes i get a tiny bit of ghosting (and i mean tiny) when flying close to planet surfaces, but it all renders fine and no lag. I cant even approach a planet with those settings using a Rift or Oculus, as it becomes a slideshow.
- Their tech support via skype and teamviewer are exceptional.. spending around 4 hours with me when i was getting setup and it not working properly.. no other tech company would do that..and would of passed me by in that time.
- headset is light weight.. very light indeed.. the earphones are comfortable and even after 4 hours of gameplay using the pimax i did not have 'VR face' as i do after 20 mins using the Oculus. although the headphones are good after a few hours i got sore ears and no matter where i tried to position them they were aching.. so i switched back to my logitech G35 headset as i needed the mic anyway for my voice attack
- the price.. well, here in NZ, the price of a PIMAX delivered from gearbest is around $450NZD. If i wanted to get a HTC from PBTech in NZ its $1400NZD - there is its market! those of you wanting to try VR for a fraction of the price..
Finally my conclusion, is it worth it.
for the price.. in honesty.. yes. but is it true VR. no.
that being said, the Pimax company are pushing forward and although are working on a 8K vr headset, they have not forgotten the 4K customers and are actively listening to our concerns and are trying to fix what they can (software side) obviously if the concerns are hardware side they cant do much about the customers that have bought already, but are speaking to the suppliers to improve the devices. If you want to try a cheaper form of VR that is PC based and not phone, then this might be a way forward, however i do feel that their piplay software has much to be desired and feel that it is a alpha release rather than consumer perfect.
feel free to send questions my way, will be happy to help where i can.
Eno.
Hi Popuptoaster.
tip to get started..
make sure you have the latest piplay installed.
this should install piplay, a .net runtime installer and directx redistributable.. make sure ALL of them install without issues.. i had an issue with the directx installer
if this goes in fine.. to launch..
plug in the pimax HMD (into your discrete graphics cards HDMI and a USB 3.0 port.
the light ont he top should be blue
start piplay software and choose PIMAX MODE (this essentially is direct mode for playing games, the other mode is video mode also called extended mode for watching movies)
once you have pimax mode selected, click in the piplay software launch SteamVR
this should open Steam VR and should detect the HMD headset.
now open STEAM on its own and in your VR games, choose ED and click PLAY..
that should get you going. note that you need to config your graphics setting based on your video card specs.. start off with VR Basic settings and move up . .you can then customise each of them.. biggest impacts for me on performance was HMD Quality and SuperSampling.
hope this helps
Eno
tip to get started..
make sure you have the latest piplay installed.
this should install piplay, a .net runtime installer and directx redistributable.. make sure ALL of them install without issues.. i had an issue with the directx installer
if this goes in fine.. to launch..
plug in the pimax HMD (into your discrete graphics cards HDMI and a USB 3.0 port.
the light ont he top should be blue
start piplay software and choose PIMAX MODE (this essentially is direct mode for playing games, the other mode is video mode also called extended mode for watching movies)
once you have pimax mode selected, click in the piplay software launch SteamVR
this should open Steam VR and should detect the HMD headset.
now open STEAM on its own and in your VR games, choose ED and click PLAY..
that should get you going. note that you need to config your graphics setting based on your video card specs.. start off with VR Basic settings and move up . .you can then customise each of them.. biggest impacts for me on performance was HMD Quality and SuperSampling.
hope this helps
Eno
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for those of you using Pimax and suffering from Lateral Drift i have found a potential fix. I have posted this fix in the Pimax support forums, you can access it here : http://forum.pimaxvr.com/t/is-drift-still-an-issue/1659/2
good luck to you all.
Eno
good luck to you all.
Eno
Hi
I got my Pimax 4K today and I'm having the expected struggle. It's recognising the headset finally though.
Quick question: do I have to activate and download Elite in Steam, even though I bought it from the Frontier store (and already have it installed) in order to play it in VR?
Thanks
I got my Pimax 4K today and I'm having the expected struggle. It's recognising the headset finally though.
Quick question: do I have to activate and download Elite in Steam, even though I bought it from the Frontier store (and already have it installed) in order to play it in VR?
Thanks
Hi MonkeyMagoo,
no you don't - assuming the elite dangerous game is in your steam games library already, you DO need to download steam vr from within steam, just search for it and then install it, you will also need this to play your games on pimax vr through steam as well..
Once this is installed it places all of the games that are vr compatible in your games list that you own and have installed. they will appear in the bottom of your list of games in your library under a small section called something like VR compatible.
what you then need to do (assuming you have the latest piplay installed and steamvr installed) is make sure your pimax is connecte and has a blue LED on top, then launch Piplay and choose Pimax Mode, wait for the message that your headset is detected, then on the front screen on piplay click 'Launch Steam VR'. Once that is done open Steam normally and click on Elite Dangerous at the bottom of your game library list under where is says VR Compatible and the prompt to start the game should now say Play In VR rather than Play
hit me up if you have any other questions.
Eno
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Hi No you don't need to launch via Steam.
You will need SteamVR installed and running, but you can start Elite Dangerous by making a shortcut to EDLaunch.exe and starting it that way.
That's what I do because although I bought my ED through Steam, it won't recognise my Saitek X52Pro if I launch through Steam.
No problems if launched directly via EDLaunch.exe.
Cheers,
Luke
Thanks for the detailed info Eno & Luke. I ran out of time last night but as soon as I'm free again tonight I'll give those suggestions a try.
Pretty sure this is going to lead to another graphics card purchase but I'll cross that bridge when my wife isn't looking ;-)
Update: since the headset was only 250 quid I have just purchased an 8GB 1070 which should arrive tomorrow. Seemed like the right thing to do haha
Pretty sure this is going to lead to another graphics card purchase but I'll cross that bridge when my wife isn't looking ;-)
Update: since the headset was only 250 quid I have just purchased an 8GB 1070 which should arrive tomorrow. Seemed like the right thing to do haha
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Little bit of feedback so far.
Its a bit of a pain to get set up because it has a few different 'modes' and you have to work out which mode to put it in depending on what you want to do. E.g. one mode for SteamVR, another to watch videos etc. And the new version of the software (PiPlay) seems to have different options to the recommended one (1.9 or something) so I'm still getting to grips with it.
I tried Elite, and my R9 290 sounded like it was going to explode. The colours were very washed out too, as if the contrast was way too low. It wasn't very nice at all.
However... I did get to play a thing called InMind on steam where you fly around a load of neurons shooting bad neurons and that was really good. The screen was very high resolution, the colours were very vibrant, the head tracking was spot on. It was pretty amazing actually. I have HyperX Cloud 2 headphones and the headphones that came with this seemed about the same really, very good anyway.
So, I can say that the headset definitely seems to be capable of really good things, and the negative things I mentioned earlier should be fixable by playing around with the settings a bit, rather than the hardware being at fault. After the InMind demo, I can imagine that once I get elite set up right it's going to be absolutely incredible. I tried google earth and you can look up at the night sky from a desert in that, and it was sooooo nice, so god knows what Elite will be like when I finally get it working just right with the new graphics card. I'm very excited now
Its dead comfy to wear too btw.
Its a bit of a pain to get set up because it has a few different 'modes' and you have to work out which mode to put it in depending on what you want to do. E.g. one mode for SteamVR, another to watch videos etc. And the new version of the software (PiPlay) seems to have different options to the recommended one (1.9 or something) so I'm still getting to grips with it.
I tried Elite, and my R9 290 sounded like it was going to explode. The colours were very washed out too, as if the contrast was way too low. It wasn't very nice at all.
However... I did get to play a thing called InMind on steam where you fly around a load of neurons shooting bad neurons and that was really good. The screen was very high resolution, the colours were very vibrant, the head tracking was spot on. It was pretty amazing actually. I have HyperX Cloud 2 headphones and the headphones that came with this seemed about the same really, very good anyway.
So, I can say that the headset definitely seems to be capable of really good things, and the negative things I mentioned earlier should be fixable by playing around with the settings a bit, rather than the hardware being at fault. After the InMind demo, I can imagine that once I get elite set up right it's going to be absolutely incredible. I tried google earth and you can look up at the night sky from a desert in that, and it was sooooo nice, so god knows what Elite will be like when I finally get it working just right with the new graphics card. I'm very excited now
Its dead comfy to wear too btw.
Hi again,
the washed out colour has always been a bit of a eyesore on the Pimax, This is down to the lenses they are using, however, they have tried to sort this via software improvements. this video shows how to change the brightness/contrast via a code you can apply to pimax debug options. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD1p5AOVCgA&t=236s this will make the colours pop a bit, and there is also a option in the settings (cog icon) top right of pimax > then click Device and there is a 'Turn on Cool Colours' usually used to watch movies (gives better definition) but it also works in Pimax mode for gaming.
If you are using the standard HUD colours from ED, they are never great in VR. I would recommend changing them to something that is easier to read. Personally i use a combination of slightly off white, with Blue and Green. just like the 4th one down from the top in this list: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...le-HUD-Colour-Color-Configs-(please-add-yours!)
regards
Eno
Thanks Eno, I'll give it a try.
The screen is amazing on other things though e.g. InMind. Not washed out at all, really bright, deep colours just like looking at a well calibrated monitor, which its why I'm not too worried.
Its clearly capable of really good image quality, just need to tweak the settings for ED to get that looking as good as the others looked. My Radeon really did sound like it was going to crack open after a couple of minutes so I'm going to wait for its replacement to arrive before I carry on!
The screen is amazing on other things though e.g. InMind. Not washed out at all, really bright, deep colours just like looking at a well calibrated monitor, which its why I'm not too worried.
Its clearly capable of really good image quality, just need to tweak the settings for ED to get that looking as good as the others looked. My Radeon really did sound like it was going to crack open after a couple of minutes so I'm going to wait for its replacement to arrive before I carry on!
no problem..
if you are getting a GTX1070, here are a few things you might want to do in your graphics settings in ED to improve on the quality.
1st off in Steamvr click on the drop down menu and go to settings. then into the developer item on the left, then down to supersampling and set it to 1.1 (default i believe is 1.0? - dont quote me on that
2. when VR is running and your in the menu screen for ED. click Graphics and then DISPLAY, change the resolution to 1920x1080 and if you have a screen that can run 60 hertz (it may default to 50.. change it) if it can run higher.. leave it at 60! as this is just the monitor screen not the HMD. also make sure that the display under 1920x1080 is in window NOT fullscreen.
3. for some reason the vr graphics templates in Graphics Settings seem to work better if you select one of them BEFORE you customize. I have tried setting the graphics setting manually and the fps is lower if i dont start with a base template?? go figure!!?
so... choose.. VR LOW as a base point. Then max out all of your settings EXCEPT 'shadows', 'HMD Quality' and 'Supersampling'
4. for Shadows, set to 'normal' to start off. using lots of shadows is a killer of graphics processing when in places like planets, asteroids, in stations etc. you can always turn them up if your card can handle them.
5. for supersampling set it to about .85 in game (dont forget you have already set supersampling to 1.1 on steamvr settings, but i have noticed that it blends really well when used like this.
6. for HMD quality.. the higher the number the clearer the cockpit will be.. i run mine at 1.1 and everything is crystal clear, items in the distance are a little blurry, but no where near as bad as on the oculus or vive. and it is still readable.
try those settings.. remember to try to put load on the graphics card.. fly across planet surfaces, through asteroid fields, Haz res etc.. if anything starts to lagg or stutter, just tweak HMD quality and supersampling in ED.. not steamvr.
good luck .. might see you in game. Player name CMDR Enopho.
Thanks for the additional tips Enopho, I've followed them and...
WOW.
Never experienced anything like that before to be honest! Colours are georgeous, no longer faded at all, really vivid. Display is very very clear. Just looking at my feet/joystick in game was awesome. When I lifted off from the launch pad and started rising into the station, just felt completely bonkers, like a real feeling that I was suddenly very high up off the ground haha. Totally crazy stuff.
The lenses did fog up slightly I have to admit but only once for a few seconds. So far my 1070 hasn't stuttered at all on pretty much ultra everything although I haven't been down to a planet yet.
Really impressed. Can't play anymore until tonight sadly, but I'm going straight back in as soon as I can.
Verdict: extremely happy with the Pimax (since this is a Pimax thread after all).
Thanks again!
WOW.
Never experienced anything like that before to be honest! Colours are georgeous, no longer faded at all, really vivid. Display is very very clear. Just looking at my feet/joystick in game was awesome. When I lifted off from the launch pad and started rising into the station, just felt completely bonkers, like a real feeling that I was suddenly very high up off the ground haha. Totally crazy stuff.
The lenses did fog up slightly I have to admit but only once for a few seconds. So far my 1070 hasn't stuttered at all on pretty much ultra everything although I haven't been down to a planet yet.
Really impressed. Can't play anymore until tonight sadly, but I'm going straight back in as soon as I can.
Verdict: extremely happy with the Pimax (since this is a Pimax thread after all
). Thanks again!
I had loads of trouble getting my Pimax to work with ED but the solution was pretty simple although not one i'm massively happy with!
I bought ED through FDs store and it wouldn't recognise any HMD as being plugged in, as soon as I claimed a Steam key, installed vis Steam and launched via the Steam VR option it worked perfectly with the Pimax.
Just thought that may help anyone else struggling.
I bought ED through FDs store and it wouldn't recognise any HMD as being plugged in, as soon as I claimed a Steam key, installed vis Steam and launched via the Steam VR option it worked perfectly with the Pimax.
Just thought that may help anyone else struggling.
Yup that's the version I'm using too after the recommendations here. Couldn't get the latest version too work at all
Err, could anyone tell me how to recenter it please? I've got a joystick button bound to it in the "Reset Headlook" setting in Elite but it doesn't do anything.
I'm not experiencing any drift, it's just the default position seems to make me want to swivel my chair around 180 degrees. Sure I saw a setting somewhere in PiPlay but possibly in the newer version, not in the stable 1.1.9 version that I'm currently using.
Thanks
Edit: restarting PC seems to work. Probably pressing the power button on the headset will do it to but I only just thought of that and I'm not at my pc anymore to try.
I'm not experiencing any drift, it's just the default position seems to make me want to swivel my chair around 180 degrees. Sure I saw a setting somewhere in PiPlay but possibly in the newer version, not in the stable 1.1.9 version that I'm currently using.
Thanks
Edit: restarting PC seems to work. Probably pressing the power button on the headset will do it to but I only just thought of that and I'm not at my pc anymore to try.
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Thanks