Pimax zeigt Controller-Entwicklung für 8K-VR-Headset

Wenn Pimax die ersten 8K-Brillen im Januar 2018 ausliefert, müssen Anwender noch auf die Touch Controller der HTC Vive zurückgreifen. Im Februar soll dann das komplette Set mit zwei Base Stations und zwei eigenen Controllern folgen. Diese befinden sich allerdings noch in der Entwicklung. Pimax hat nun Bilder veröffentlicht, die den Entwicklungsprozess zeigen, und bittet die Unterstützer um Rückmeldung.

Pimax: Erste Bilder des Controllers

Noch ist das Design der Controller von Pimax nicht final. Der chinesische Hersteller zeigt aber das derzeit angedachte Design und bittet die Unterstützer um Kommentare und Gedanken. Neben Trackpad und Trigger sollen die Controller einen Button für den Mittelfinger sowie zwei Sensorflächen für Ringfinger und den kleinen Finger erhalten.

Pimax 8K VR Brille

Die Kickstarter-Kampagne läuft weiterhin gut für den chinesischen Hersteller, der inzwischen über 2 Milllionen US-Dollar einsammeln konnte. Damit ist das nächste Ziel freigeschaltet und Unterstützer der VR-Headsets erhalten einen Gutschein über 100 Dollar für das Modul, das eine kabellose Übertragung vom PC zur Pimax-Brille ermöglicht. Was der chinesische Hersteller als nächstes Ziel vorsieht und ab welcher Höhe, ist derzeit noch offen.

Das Pimax 8K Headset ist teilweise modular aufgebaut und kann beispielsweise Tracker und Controller der HTC Vive nutzen. Durch die hohe Auflösung und das weite Sichtfeld von 200 Grad hebt sie sich von allen aktuell erhältlichen Consumer-Headsets ab. Die hohe Pixelzahl soll unter anderem den Fliegengittereffekt verhindern – die „kleinere“ 8K-Brille verwendet nicht die native Auflösung, sondern rechnet intern das Bild hoch. In einem Hands-on rechnete ein Notebook das Spiel lediglich mit 2560 x 1440 Pixeln. Das Headset besitzt zwei Displays mit je 3840 x 2160 Pixeln.

Die Kampagne läuft noch 11 Tage. In Europa kann man den Prototypen der aktuellen VR-Brille vorher live ausprobieren: Pimax präsentiert das Headset am Donnerstag, den 26. und Freitag, den 27. Oktober auf den VR Days in Amsterdam. Ebenfalls auf der Messe sind wir VR-Nerds anwesend und werden im Rahmen des Basefunds unseren Arcade-VR-Titel Tower Tag vorführen.

Der Beitrag Pimax zeigt Controller-Entwicklung für 8K-VR-Headset zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

Pimax 8K Brille zeigt Project Cars 2, Arizona Sunshine und Elite Dangerous

Noch 15 Tage läuft die Kickstarter-Kampagne zur Pimax-8K-Brille und die Entwickler konnten mit dem System bereits extrem viel Aufmerksamkeit generieren. Nicht verwunderlich: Immerhin möchte das chinesische Start-up Virtual Reality auf eine neue Stufe heben, das Field of View enorm vergrößern und die Auflösung in bisher unbekannte Dimensionen schrauben. Doch was soll man mit der Brille spielen?

Pimax 8K Brille zeigt Project Cars 2, Arizona Sunshine und Elite Dangerous

Theoretisch sollte die Pimax-8K-Brille per SteamVR-Support schnell Zugriff auf tausende Spiele erhalten. Das Problem ist jedoch, dass die Spiele derzeit nicht auf ein Field of View von 200 Grad ausgelegt sind. Dies kann zu einem gestreckten Bild an den Rändern führen beziehungsweise zu einer geringeren Auflösung am Rand des Sichtbereichs. Es ist also möglich, dass einige Spiele direkt perfekt funktionieren werden, während andere eventuell kleinere Anpassungen durch die Entwickler benötigen. Immerhin hat das Team jetzt aber auf YouTube gezeigt, dass drei sehr interessante Titel sich bereits problemlos starten lassen: Project Cars 2, Arizona Sunshine und Elite Dangerous.

Falls ihr Interesse an dem Produkt habt, dann seid ihr in guter Gesellschaft. Ursprünglich fragte Pimax nur nach 200.000 US-Dollar auf Kickstarter, aber schon bald wird das Unternehmen die zehnfache Summe erreichen.

Aktuell bleiben euch noch 15 Tage, um das Projekt zu unterstützen. Die 8K-Brille erhaltet ihr für 499 US-Dollar und eine Auslieferung ist bereits für Januar 2018 geplant. Für das Tracking benötigt man jedoch noch die Lighthouse-Stationen der HTC Vive. Hier geht es zur Kickstarter-Kampagne.

Wer den Prototypen der aktuellen Pimax VR-Brille live ausprobieren möchte, hat dazu beispielsweise am Donnerstag, den 26. und Freitag, den 27. Oktober auf den VR Days in Amsterdam dazu die Gelegenheit. Auch wir VR-Nerds werden da sein und im Rahmen des Basefunds unseren Arcade-VR-Titel Tower Tag präsentieren.

(Quelle: Youtube)

Der Beitrag Pimax 8K Brille zeigt Project Cars 2, Arizona Sunshine und Elite Dangerous zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

Pimax Stretch Goals Include Prescription VR Visor

A few days ago, Pimax launched a crowd funding effort for its 8K-capable virtual reality (VR) headset. The offered specifications of the device clearly struck a chord with the Kickstarter community, as the campaign blasted past its $200,000 (USD) goal within a few hours and is now seeking to fund its stretch goals.

The campaign has already picked up over $1.1 million in pledges, and the campaign still has over a month still to run. The Pimax company who organised the campaign are understandable delighted, and the amount pledged so far has unlocked three of the five potential stretch goals.

The first stretch goal was a padded face cushion, unlocked at $500,000, a total reach only a few hours after the campaign launched. $1million unlocked the upgraded headstrap and integrated headphones for immersive audio. The next milestone is $1.5m, which will let backers get hold of a customised prescription VR frame and a integrated cooling fan.

Using VR headsets when you wear glasses can be a problem, depending on the user’s prescription, glasses type and the design of the headset itself. As such, the prospect of a prescription VR visor could be very tempting to some.

The Pimax 8K headset is promising 200 degree field of vision, a resolution of 3840×2160 per eyes, compatibility with Steam VR and Oculus Store and the option to use ‘inside out’ tracking or used with the HTC Vive lighthouse system.

VRFocus will continue to bring you news on the Pimax VR headset as it becomes available.

Pimax Kickstarter Blasts Past $2M Funding Mark, Revealing $2.5M Stretch Goals

Pimax, the China-based VR headset manufacturer known for their ‘4K’ headset, have hit Kickstarter with their newest devices last month, the Pimax ‘8K’ and ‘5K’ VR headsets. Surpassing their initial goal of $200,000 within the first few hours, Pimax has recently blasted past the $2 million mark in funding with 10 days remaining in the crowdfunding campaign. To that, the company has also included some interesting new goodies if they hit $2.5 million.

Update (10/24/17): The Pimax Kickstarter recently surpassed $2 million in funding, and today announced an additional set of stretch goals to go along with the previously reached goals which already include an extra facial interface, integrated audio, cooling fan, prescription eyeglasses frame, and wireless transmitter. Now, the company says the $2.5 million mark will allow them to do three specific things.

  • to use the budget to create a conference for VR content developers
  • to further integrate Pimax SDK so gamers can open games/apps from Steam VR/Oculus Home directly with PiHome
  • to enable direct support of user-requested programs like vorpx. Favorite apps can be requested both on the Kickstarter comments area or in the Pimax forum.

Original Article (9/25/17): Despite the namesake, Pimax headsets aren’t actually 8K or 5K resolution, as they respectively feature dual 3,840 × 2,160 LCD panels and dual 2,560 × 1,440 OLED panels. These display resolutions are however higher than your standard Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, which is where some of the fanfare is coming from.

image courtesy Pimax

Arguably the biggest attraction is the headsets’ claimed 200 degree field of view (FOV), which proved to be both impressive and helpful for peripheral awareness in our hands-on with an early prototype.

As one of the first adopters of Valve’s SteamVR Tracking standard, both 8K and 5K headsets will also hook into existing Vive tracking basestations and Vive motion controllers—although some funding tiers provide their own Pimax-built basestations and motion controllers.

Pimax VR Headset Kickstarter

All of these factors no doubt led to the funding campaign’s overall success, which is still going strong with over three weeks to go before its conclusion.

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Pimax Teases 'Next Generation' Accessories for Its 8K VR Headset

On the less positive side, the actual input for the 8K headset is only 2,560 × 1,440 per eye, which is then upscaled to 3,840 × 2,160 per eye, so it’s not truly rendering at the display’s full resolution. The company however offers a version of the headset that does away with the integrated upscaler and renders at full display resolution, but suggests at very least a GTX 1080 Ti to power it. There’s also concerns about how games can actually render the headsets’ 200 degree FOV, with Norm from Tested saying in his hands-on that he felt that Pimax was noticeably stretching FOV to fit—something that isn’t exactly ideal for spatial awareness or immersion.

Despite its misgivings, Pimax seems to be squeezing everything out of current gen GPUs and display tech, which is why the company is using a software technique they call ‘Brainwarp’ that renders an image only on a single display at time, doing it 150/180 times per second. Pimax says users “perceive a complete 8K at 150/180 Hz with high frame rate,” and that it “boosts refresh rate, reduces latency and decreases GPU pressure for Pimax 8K.”

“We are so honored to be in the presence of such a passionate VR community,” the company said. “This makes us more than certain that we are striving for the same goals!”

With the $1.5 million milestone, the campaign hits a new stretch goal: a cooling fan for the headset and optional prescription lens add-on. Prior stretch goals unlocked at $1 million and $500,000 include an upgrade head-mount and an additional face cushion, respectively.

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Pimax 8K Headset Smashes Past Funding Goal in Under 2 Hours

Current virtual reality (VR) headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive certainly do a good job when it comes to immersing users in virtual worlds, but they are still first generation consumer headsets that can be improved upon. Yesterday, Pimax launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund its 8K resolution headset – and its little 5K brother – and judging by the reaction so far better resolution certainly seems to be the way to go.

Pimax was looking to raise $200,000 USD in just over a month. Well it certainly smashed that quickly and easily achieving its funding goal within one hour and 13 minutes, Twitter user Nick Morey spotted. As many hours have passed since then, Pimax has so far secured almost $600,000, tripling its funding target is less than 24 hours and with 44 days still to go.

Those with long/good memories may remember Oculus Rift’s Kickstarter back in 2012, which saw the company look for $250,000, achieve that in under 24 hours, and go onto achieve $2.4 million by the end of the campaign. Will Pimax replicate Oculus Rift’s Kickstarter success? That’s hard to say as the market is very different now. The Oculus Rift DK1 was only a developer kit with no competition, while the Pimax 8K costs more whilst fighting for customers in a small but expanding market.

What has gained people’s attention are Pimax’s specs. With a 200-degree field of view (FoV), a resolution of 3840 x 2160 per eye, Steam VR and Oculus compatibility for loads of content, and the headset can be bought with its own tracking solution or used with HTC Vive’s Lighthouse base stations and controllers.

There’s certainly plenty of interest around the Pimax system, as the campaign continues VRFocus will bring you further updates.

Pimax Launches Kickstarter Today For 8K & 5K VR Headsets

Pimax, the China-based VR headset manufacturer, just launched their Kickstarter for the hotly anticipated 8K and 5K VR headsets.

Update (09/19/17): The rumors were true; Pimax has launched their Kickstarter today. The company is aiming to reach $200,000 in funding, with prices starting at $349 for the 5K, and $449 for the 8K headset. Unlike the Kickstarter preview page that was published earlier this month, the live page quotes a January 2018 delivery for Early Bird headsets instead of the previous December 2017 shipping date.

Original article (09/11/17): To be frank, the Pimax headsets aren’t actually 8K or 5K resolution, instead integrating dual 3840×2160 LCD panels and dual 2560×1440 OLED panels respectively. Both are still higher resolution than consumer VR headsets today though, and have a much higher field of view (FOV) at 200 degrees horizontal, almost the entire 220 degree natural range of human eyes.

There’s no tier pricing on the Kickstarter preview page yet, but the first 8K/5K headsets are said to roll out to backers starting December 2017, with normal tiers delivering in February 2018.

Pimax 8K prototype showing wide FOV fresnel lenses

We had a chance to play with a prototype of Pimax 8K at this year’s CES before the company integrated Valve’s Lighthouse tracking solution—one of the first to do so outside of HTC. Road to VR’s Frank He, who tried the headset, said its 200 degree FOV was “impressive,” and that resolution-wise, he couldn’t discern sub-pixels “no matter how hard [he] looked.” To He, the screen door effect (SDE) was also diminished to the amount of “looking at a slightly textured surface or film.” The prototype did however suffer from a dim display and some geometric warping that made the experience less than perfect.

Since CES, the makers have added support for SteamVR, giving it access to a full catalog of games originally developed for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

image courtesy Pimax

You may be asking yourself how a VR-ready gaming computer could possibly drive these sorts of graphically demanding resolutions. Pimax’s answer is a software technique they call ‘Brainwarp’, which renders a 4K image only on a single display at time, doing it 150/180 times per second. Pimax says users “perceive a complete 8K at 150/180 Hz with high frame rate,” and that it “boosts refresh rate, reduces latency and decreases GPU pressure for Pimax 8K.”

What’s noticeably missing from Kickstarter page is any substantial info about the ‘next generation’ modular add-ons we reported on recently, with the page simply saying that the headset is just a starting point for DIY enthusiasts.

image courtesy Pimax

“With modular design in mind, we made Pimax 8K an extendable device that not only works with your current accessories, but also new technologies. e.g. hand motion, inside-out tracking, wireless, eye tracking, etc,” the company says. At the time of this writing, no funding tiers appear to include any of the teased add-ons.

We’ll check back in when the campaign goes live, so stay tuned.

Pimax 8K VR Specs

image courtesy Pimax

The post Pimax Launches Kickstarter Today For 8K & 5K VR Headsets appeared first on Road to VR.

Pimax Teases ‘Next Generation’ Accessories for Its 8K VR Headset

Pimax, the Chinese VR headset manufacturer, released a teaser video showing a number of high-tech accessories that clip onto the company’s upcoming 8K VR headset—a headset that boasts a staggering 200 degree field of view (FOV) at 3840×2160 per eye resolution via its dual LCD displays.

In the video, we see some pretty ‘next generation’ clip-on (and screw-on) modules; eye-tracking, inside-out hand-tracking, scent enabling module, wireless transmitter, prescription glasses frame, cooling fan, and both a halo-style headband with integrated audio and traditional headstrap—everything you might consider ‘the future’ of VR.

image courtesy Pimax

The video doesn’t go exactly how some of the less obvious, and decidedly more exotic accessories work, the most curious being the scent module, which if like others on the market, acts essentially as an oil diffuser with built-in fan. If it works like the similarly-sized scent unit from Japanese startup Vaqso, it contains a small number of ‘scent cartridges’ that activate during specific points during the VR experience, including an integrated battery and Bluetooth radio. This is uncertain however.

What’s also striking is how thin the wireless transmitter appears. It remains to be seen whether the company’s transmitter features an integrated battery like industry stalwart DisplayLink, or requires an external powerbank like TPCast.

image courtesy Pimax

Pimax is staying mum on any of the specifics, and only currently offers an info signup sheet. We can only speculate at this point how good both the eye and hand-tracking are (so we won’t).

Road to VR’s Frank He went hands-on with a prototype of the 8K headset at this year’s CES, saying the headset’s 200 degree FOV was “impressive,” and that resolution-wise, he couldn’t discern sub-pixels “no matter how hard [he] looked.”

In the following months since CES, Pimax has also integrated Valve’s Lighthouse positional tracking to go along with its own optically-tracked system, making it one of the first headsets outside of HTC to do so. A pair of Lighthouse-enabled controllers come in the package, which look like a mashup of the Vive’s own motion controllers and Oculus’ Touch contollers.

image courtesy Pimax

There’s no launch date in sight for the company’s 8K VR headset Kickstarter, but we’re hoping the headset delivers on everything its promised so far in the video.

8K VR Headset Specs

image courtesy Pimax

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