Pimax Vision 8K Plus

[Waxer]

FYI Tyriel Wood recommends this for simulator users with a large budget.

 

$1,300 without base stations

$1,830 with base stations

+$100 for audio upgrade.

 

Looks good, but personally I'll wait an see. Don't really want to spend that much money on a technology that is currently advancing very quickly. I imagine that a significant number of people on here will be interested.

 

[dburne]

I will take a pass.

[Waxer]

Pretty funny... the 3 people on this thread looks like the battle of the extreme motherboards: X299 Dark, Z390 Dark, X299 Rampage VI Extreme Omega. I suppose we all know our hardware. LOL. All we need is someone with a X570 / TRX40 Aorus Xtreme to complete the collection.

 

And GPUs... good point Jay. This headset can do 90 fps, but even on low settings the best GPUs will not be able to average 90 fps. I've seen people use SLI configurations with DCS with 70-80% scaling (which is great), but apparently SLI does not work with VR. Can anyone confirm or refute?

[SkipCarey]

Those prices are for 8Kx which BTw havent hit mass production yet(supposedly mid april)8K+ is(supposedly available now)it is upscale resolution not native 4K it is $900 US https://www.pimax.com/products/vision-8k-plus-withoutmas

Edited April 11, 2020 by SkipCarey

[Euan Emblin]

In order to acquire smooth gameplay the Pimax does not need to drag 90 Hz out of your pc hardware. Smart Smoothing, which is equivalent to ASW from my CV1 days, works with as low as 32 fps to give an operating spec of 64 Hz in the headset and from my experience with Pimax 5K Plus, that is sufficient to provide for a very satisfactory flying environment.

 

The 8KX and 8K are powered sufficiently well by an RTX 2080Ti. Pimax software is developing rapidly and does not require super high frequencies in order to provide for smooth framerates.

[Callsign.Vega]

SLI does not work with VR and DCS World, ... period.

 

In order to work, it would need a proper SLI profile from Nvidia, and substantial development from ED and VR manufacturers. About 18 months back, I put some time into it and got two 2080 Ti cards to work in VR but it was jangy and stuttered in places badly. It was not something I could have released to the wider DCS community, especially bc it induced nausea at times. I abandoned the project bc it was turning into a time suck and moved me away from getting real shit down in the lab. I sent in developer requests to the DCS team and did not hear back. Oculus and HTC both sent me back emails indicating that in their opinion, the market was not there for VR gamers who would spend for two or more graphics cards, so they never invested time in it.

 

SLI is dead. No one will support it. It's a shame too, as VR with two different displays is almost made for two GPUs.

 

In order to acquire smooth gameplay the Pimax does not need to drag 90 Hz out of your pc hardware. Smart Smoothing, which is equivalent to ASW from my CV1 days, works with as low as 32 fps to give an operating spec of 64 Hz in the headset and from my experience with Pimax 5K Plus, that is sufficient to provide for a very satisfactory flying environment.

 

The 8KX and 8K are powered sufficiently well by an RTX 2080Ti. Pimax software is developing rapidly and does not require super high frequencies in order to provide for smooth framerates.

 

I would largely disagree. As someone who has been playing high refresh sims/games for a large portion of my life where motion clarity is paramount, nothing can compete with real frames. Frame interpolation adds lag and visual artifacts. On the Valve Index, I can easily notice the bump in real frames from 90 to 120. Going down to 45 FPS frame interpolated/smoothed to 90 feels absolutely terrible in comparison.

[Euan Emblin]

Each system is different and each user is different. You find that lower frame rates feel absolutely terrible. I fly in only 2 sims, IL-2 and DCS. The latter currently has terrible performance issues in VR with the OpenBeta as it stands but the former for me is a butter smooth flying experience at the very highest of game settings and very high Pimax HMD software settings. You might not enjoy ASW/Smart Smoothing and clearly there is a great deal of subjectivity involved. I do not purport to provide a blanket panacea but merely report on findings within my own practical experience. With the Pimax 5K Plus on my system IL-2 is beautifully smooth at very high resolution running at 64 Hz, the sim frame rate being 32 fps.

[Rosebud47]

Each system is different and each user is different. You find that lower frame rates feel absolutely terrible. I fly in only 2 sims, IL-2 and DCS. The latter currently has terrible performance issues in VR with the OpenBeta as it stands but the former for me is a butter smooth flying experience at the very highest of game settings and very high Pimax HMD software settings. You might not enjoy ASW/Smart Smoothing and clearly there is a great deal of subjectivity involved. I do not purport to provide a blanket panacea but merely report on findings within my own practical experience. With the Pimax 5K Plus on my system IL-2 is beautifully smooth at very high resolution running at 64 Hz, the sim frame rate being 32 fps.

 

With regard to VR the problem in DCS is it´s respectively old graphics engine and meanhwile high workload for CPU and GPU through high demanding effects which are constantly added to the engine, what might be an explanation, why IL-2 runs much better in VR than DCS.

 

For the Pimax 5k+ I enjoy much more the higher Hz option of displays, which gives a much more clearer and calmer image to me. For 110 Hz or 120 Hz surely the graphical options in DCS need to be reduced, like no shadows or no mirrors etc. pp. but overall I feel the experience in VR much better.

 

In anyway on every VR headset Reprojection or ASW kicks in in DCS. It works with a minimum value of Hz, which has to be undergoing to enable reprojection or ASW. I don´t know the current value of each API, but it´s something around 70 - 80 FPS, below, reprojection or ASW is automatically enabled.

If the Hz of the Pimax is raised through the options to 110 Hz ( for the first 5k+ batches ) or 120 Hz for the later product batches, the value to enable reprojection is as well raised which causes reprojection to be enabled always and there is no situation which causes stutter, because of reprojection get automatically enabled or disabled because the System is running around the border value, sometime above, sometime below the threshold.

[captflyby]

I am currently using the PIMAX 5k plus. Just upgraded to the latest PiTool software that gave me more options.

 

I am comfortable with running the headset at 60Hz, but usually use 90Hz. With the new PiTool option of 120Hz, I find the experience very smooth.

 

Using a few tweaks that pass integrity check in DCS from a fellow pilot, I found my FPS jump from 29fps to 60fps.

 

For me this would be a perfectly acceptable VR experience, were it not for the visual clarity.

 

I watched an exhaustive review of the PIMAX 8k X, almost 2 hours, and the reviewers conclusion was, now with native dual 4k, a person could substitute their 4k monitor for the headset and still be comfortable using the desktop.

 

Although I do wish the price were lower, the PIMAX 8k X for me, is promising to be the most affordable solution for the very best available visual clarity, at this point in time. That seems to be the word from several reviewers.

 

So in review, for me at least:

 

VR has the refresh rate nailed down.

VR seems to be affording more acceptable fps rates, 60 and above.

VR seems to be moving into the visual clarity where I don't have to use my glasses, squint, or rub my eyes constantly.

 

I am waiting for a true eyepiece, made of optometric quality material, like my current glasses, not an add on over the fernel lenses.

 

Fernel lenses were a good starting point, but now its time to mature.

 

 

This is my mileage, yours may vary.