[PIMAX] All about the VR headsets

It reached the 2.5 millions and still 6 days to go. The reward for that goal was kinda lame. I am not even sure what it is.

If it reach the 3 millions, we get the eye tracking system. That's more like it.

I don’t remember where I saw it but I’m less worried about the stretch rewards slowing things down. The eye tracking is a module that secures in with magnets, same as the corrective lenses. Hopefully both will be able to be used together. I don’t need lenses but I got in on the VRLensLab lenses and got flat plate glass and have never had to worry at all about scratching my plastic lenses. It’s wonderful peace of mind and is justified every time I see posts from people who scratch their headset lenses either through cleaning or accidentally with glasses.

The point is that things like eye tracking may be able to ship late if not ready when headsets are. On the other hand, there isn’t much to eye tracking hardware. It’s a ring of near-IR illuminators around each lens and a tiny camera. As long as the add provision for the camera and LED connections, it should be pretty simple. But time will tell.

Good points about minimizing shipping cost and the starting point. But they would at least have the option of splitting shipments until eye tracking was ready. SMI had a complete solution ready to go and rumors were this last spring they were working with Valve, but then last June apparently Apple bought them. Not sure how available that solution still is with Apple looking at their own VR/AR headsets.

Another company (Tobii - https://www.tobii.com/tech/products/vr/) is making eye tracking kits for the Vive (https://blog.tobii.com/eye-tracking-vr-devkit-for-htc-vive-311cbca952df), have their own ASIC to process camera images, and might be a resource for Pimax, or maybe it’s yet another solution. I really don’t see Pimax doing it on their own, or if they are, then I agree completely - it could be a big time and resource sink and could even derail the project. For Pimax to include eye tracking for free would make whatever solution need to be inexpensive.

For me the biggest risk on foveated rendering is Nvidia. It takes them forever to get big new features in their drivers. But as long as the capability is in hardware, we're good. I’d like to see it used though.

It’s a gamble and the most I’ve invested in a Kickstarter. Fingers crossed it was a good one. That review was what put me over the top. I want the wide fov, better resolution, and less SDE.

All kick start backers should have got this info but for others ... Looks like the hardware IPD adjustment and upgraded interface has been implement in V3 . And they say that mass production will not begin before V5 .

10
Pimax 8K on DVT
Posted by Pimax 8K VR (Creator)
Hi Futurists,

We will move on to v4 and v5 prototype before mass production.

Here is the v3 prototype:







We have added hardware IPD adjustment and changed HDMI to DP interface.

Our goal is to create the best PC VR experience ever. Manufacturing is not an issue at all with our partners, many of those are public companies with hundred thousands of workers.






Regarding your Kickstarter package:

• We won't start to ship any more unit until we have fulfilled all your orders.
• The Kickstarter version will be the final consumer version.

Have a great weekend!

Best Regards,

The Pimax Team

Toot, Toot,




.

I don't expect to see mine until around the middle of next year as I ordered the 8K 'X' full package. But I'm happy with that, as I expect any teething issues should be sorted out by then and any hardware updates/fixes included in the 'X' version.

Edit: looks like $3,000,000 is about to happen. Way sooner than it looked earlier today.

At least for now, the Pimax is the only real hope for high display resolution and wide fov. The Acer/Starbreeze shows promise and the investment provides about $5 mil to get going, but any product might be a while to see market. Meanwhile, not a peep from HTC or LG.

Waiting is never easy for stuff like this...

Someone posted a through-the-lens video of DCS on the Chinese BiliBili video website. Looks a little blurry but hard to know if that’s poor camera work or what. They have to still lean in to read gauges. So this is a cap on the bottom end and I bet it’s better than this.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/av15570693/

I have tried to do though the lense videos of CV1 and PIMAX in the past to demonstrate the differences, but they always looked like crap irrespective of what type of camera I used .

Which sounds like it bodes well for how things will actually look for users. When that person was moving close to the gauges they looked fantastic!

5 days to go and less than 58k to reach the 3 millions. It's almost certain they will reach it.
I thought it was a bald move to put the eye tracking as the 3 millions goal, and they win their bet.
If they don't reach it, it would be even better for them, but I bet they will.

I think if all works out, this will be a watershed moment for the industry. Everything else has just been extensions to current technology with lighter headsets, wider fov, and higher resolution. Eye tracking is new for consumer VR and opens the door to foveated rendering and performance boosts that help keep hardware requirements down while making the experiences better. Now we just need support for it. Hopefully it doesn’t go unused and hopefully other high end headsets start including it as well to compete on features.

impossible became possible, internet network is scary

One [Early Bird] First 8K Full Package Ever set will come to me, i can't wait

Definitely. 75 Hz would be a disqualifier for me but I don’t know if that is something they can sort by the end of the Kickstarter. Might have to just risk it on the faith/hope they do fix before finalizing the design. But 90 Hz has been such a feature that they have in all their bullet points I can’t see them being able to back away from it or at least addressing the final spec they will guarantee.