Integrated OpenXR & Quadviews coming to Pimax Play

[jaapgrolleman]

Original post here.

Pimax is happy to announce it has been developing its own solution for OpenXR runtime as well as Quadviews foveated rendering, coming to Pimax Play in the near future. The beta test for this is starting soon, with a release later this year. This is yet another step in our aim to provide the ultimate virtual reality experience with our VR headsets, such as the Pimax Crystal Light.

What is the OpenXR Runtime?

OpenXR is an open standard developed by the Khronos Group — a crucial piece of software that manges the communciation between your VR/AR hardware and the OpenXR API. Essentially, when you use OpenXR, this runtime acts as a translator, converting your application's requests into a format that your hardware can understand and process.

In practical terms, the OpenXR runtime simplifies the management of multiple VR and AR devices. It allows applications to function seamlessly across different devices from various manufacturers, all while using the same codebase.

Why Pimax Play integration

Our decision to implement this feature comes with after user requests, as well as our wish to improve the Pimax Play experience. To have all software features integrated into Pimax Play greatly increases usability and adds to user convenience, without the need for having to download and install additional software. This new development also enables us to continue evolving the runtime. 

A shoutout to Mbucchia

PimaxXR has been developed by Mbucchia, the visionary behind OpenXR Toolkit and PimaxXR, including the Quadviews features — which enormously improves performance in supported VR-games. 

Mbucchia's contributions have been instrumental in advancing the Pimax ecosystem, and we're proud to build upon his ideas and contributions with our own Pimax OpenXR runtime. Mbucchia has done more for VR than anyone could reasonably expect, and brought software that has powered VR headsets from users all around the world.

[Nodak]

Thanks Mbucchia, your the man!

Hope you will put in the ability to save and share presets per game.

Edited September 10, 2024 by Nodak

[mbucchia]

14 hours ago, Nodak said:

Thanks Mbucchia, your the man!

Hope you will put in the ability to save and share presets per game.

 

Hey, just to be clear, I am not involved in this development. This is all Pimax.

I have retired from VR development entirely. 

[ldwater]

Will there be any sort of guide to help those who currently use PimaxXR and Quadviews separately to migrate over?

I would assume that the companion app (https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3332882/) would need to be re-configured to point to a new directory or would that functionality be included in the new Pimax play version?

Its a shame that Mbucchia isn't involved directly but at least they are giving him the credit he clearly deserves and taking it on 'in house' should hopefully give it the attention (and budget) to expand upon his excellent work.

 

[ldwater]

I'd also be interested in knowing at what level the DFR / eye tracking is handled, as at the moment Quadviews is dependant upon the GAME being able to handle the eye tracking, instead of the hardware.

So for example I would be playing two OpenXR games, DCS and Automobilista 2.

With the hardware enabled eye tracking, and the GAME enabled eye tracking Quadviews would run exactly as intended in DCS.

However with Automobilista 2, hardware eye tracking would be wasted because the GAME didn't support / use the eye tracking functionality, and therefore not be able to provide DFR.

It would be great if the Pimax Play app would be able to provide DFR as close to the hardware level as possible to ensure the maximum amount of compatibility and performance without having to rely on individual games providing eye tracking support in order for DFR to work.

[WipeUout]

On 9/11/2024 at 8:29 AM, mbucchia said:

Hey, just to be clear, I am not involved in this development. This is all Pimax.

I have retired from VR development entirely. 

I'm curious to hear what you think about this?  Do you think this could improve performance to have all of this (OpenXR runtime+Quadviews+Pimax Software) as one integrated software instead of three?

Even with no performance improvement, this will simplify things quite a bit anyway.

Edited September 14, 2024 by WipeUout
Typo

[mbucchia]

9 hours ago, WipeUout said:

I'm curious to hear what you think about this?  Do you think this could improve performance to have all of this (OpenXR runtime+Quadviews+Pimax Software) as one integrated software instead of three?

Even with no performance improvement, this will simplify things quite a bit anyway.

 

I doubt it will make a difference performance-wise. There's very little overhead in PimaxXR and QVFR. 

[Panzerlang]

On 9/11/2024 at 2:29 PM, mbucchia said:

Hey, just to be clear, I am not involved in this development. This is all Pimax.

I have retired from VR development entirely. 

Nah, it's you buddy. Pimax are just (very wisely) integrating it into their software. Your work has made a night & day difference to the quality and performance of VR useage, for which you are a largely unsung hero.

[Mainstay]

Agree @mbucchia credits for the person who deserves the credits. Thank you for your work in the VR space! Salute 

[Nodak]

Would it be possible to integrate a world scale slider as in the original toolkit directly into pimax play, not necessarily needed for DCS but it sure would be nice for other sims that don't have that option.   

Also can the app be made to show the current in game selected resolution such as 3456x3458 or whatever the selected games resolution currently is, without the toolkit or openXR app there is no other way to know the amount of pixels being generated for a given settings parameter in pimax play.

Than we can ditch the toolkit in it's entirety, it's rapidly becoming a nuisance and obsolete. 

[mbucchia]

38 minutes ago, Nodak said:

Would it be possible to integrate a world scale slider as in the original toolkit directly into pimax play

I'm pretty sure that already exists. There is an IPD slider in Pimax Play, that should basically do the same thing as world scale. Give it a try.

[Nodak]

15 minutes ago, mbucchia said:

I'm pretty sure that already exists. There is an IPD slider in Pimax Play, that should basically do the same thing as world scale. Give it a try.

Thank you, good to know.  Pimax really needs a manual for their play app.

[WipeUout]

On 10/26/2024 at 3:35 PM, Johnny Dioxin said:

I can't get the sim to work with Pimax OpenXR

 

Assuming you are using the crystal light (or a Pimax 8kX which has the same pixel count) and you want to maximize performance.

First, install Pimax Play 1.29, not 1.33 as it has poor performance with OpenXR.

Second, in this order:

1. install PimaxXR ( https://github.com/mbucchia/Pimax-OpenXR/wiki) and select the OpenXR button in the start screen to ensure it will no go to SteamVR.

2. Then OpenXRToolkit (https://mbucchia.github.io/OpenXR-Toolkit/) and enable CAS if you use any sharpening, CAS in OpenXKtoolkit is the most efficient compared to all other sharpening you can get through DCS settings or Quadviews.  Do not activate anything else maybe with the exception of Turbo mode, it might help.

3. Then install Quadviews (https://github.com/mbucchia/Quad-Views-Foveated/wiki) and read all instruction how to create the config file in order to maximize performance.

After that, you can check the box for quadviews in DCS VR settings.  You should get around 20-30% increase in performance over SteamVR.

 

Going to OpenXR you will not be able to use fpsVR anymore but OpenXRtoolkit has a similar feature to check performance.  Do not activate turbo mode in PimaxXR or Quadviews if you want to use this feature as it will not report GPU Frametime anymore.  Use turbo mode with OpenXRtoolkit only.

Good luck

[NAM]

Fully agreement with WipeUout..

With PImax 8kx Pimax play 1.29 has better performance than 1.33

I have same method and get similar boost in performance with fixed foveated quadview.

I found in DCS setting TAA + FSR give me best result.