Category: pimax

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UploadVR CES 2020: Best Of Show And People’s Choice Award

CES 2020 is coming to an end. We’ve been in Las Vegas, NV all week trying out cutting-edge hardware and software demos from companies all over the world trying to push the boundaries of VR and AR technology. As a result, we’ve collected our list of the best and most exciting things we saw for you right here.

Just like we did at E3 2019, we’re giving out two awards: Best of Show and People’s Choice. The Best of Show award winner and its nominees are all selected by UploadVR Editorial staff and the People’s Choice award winner is picked by you, our readers! We looked at our website traffic and social media engagement to determine the four nominees for that award and are using social media polls to pick the winner. This was done across two Facebook polls (Part 1 and Part 2) and a Twitter poll.

And if you want the full rundown on our impressions and all of the top news stories of the week from CES 2020, we chatted about it all live in our VR studio for a special episode of The VR Download this week, embedded above!

 

panasonic vr eyeglasses

UploadVR People’s Choice Award For CES 2020: The Nominees

NVIDIA’s Variable Rate Supersampling

Panasonic VR Glasses

Pimax Artisan VR Headset

Rebuff Reality’s VR Ears and VR Power for Quest

nvidia ces 2020 people's choice award winner booth pic

UploadVR People’s Choice Award For CES 2020: The Winner

NVIDIA’s Variable Rate Supersampling

The votes are in and the winner of our People’s Choice Award for CES 2020 is NVIDIA’s new Variable Rate Supersampling feature. Just released this week for RTX GPUs, it will dynamically apply up to 8x supersampling in the center of the view only, the area you usually look at the most in VR, to improve fidelity. It’s sort of like the inverse of foveated rendering, which downgrades the quality of the areas in your peripheral vision to allow for a sharper center.

nvidia ces 2020 peoples choice winner.png

Read more about the new feature here.

 

ces 2020 best of show nominee haptx panasonic vr glasses ces 2020 best of show nominee rebuff reality ces 2020 best of show nominee ces 2020 best of show nominee atraxa spatial ar vr ces 2020 best of show nominee xtal

UploadVR Best Of Show Award For CES 2020: The Nominees

HaptX VR Gloves and Robotic Telepresence

NDI’s Atraxa 6DoF Electromagnetic Tracking

Panasonic’s VR Glasses

Spatial’s Cross-Device Multi-User VR/AR Communication Platform

VRgineers XTAL Dual 4K Military-Grade Headset

Rebuff Reality’s VR Ears and VR Power for Quest

 

haptx ces 2020 best of show winner

UploadVR Best Of Show Award For CES 2020: The Winner

HaptX VR Gloves and Robotic Telepresence

At CES 2020 the company that impressed us the most in terms of the technology feeling groundbreaking and truly impactful for the future of the VR/AR landscape, was definitely HaptX. Their haptic feedback gloves worked great and the telepresence robot demo was surprisingly articulated. It will be a long time before this technology is consumer-ready, but the future looks bright for haptics (and HaptX) in VR.

For more on HaptX, check out the demo and interview we conducted at CES 2020.

And for more on CES 2020, check out our Coverage Hub or our news roundup to see what you might have missed.

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Join Us On YouTube LIVE To Discuss The VR/AR Of CES 2020!

It’s been another big year for virtual reality at CES 2020, with lots of announcements and showcases. Join us at 10:30am PST (18:30 UTC) LIVE on YouTube to discuss it all!

This is a special episode of The VR Download, our weekly podcast broadcast from a virtual studio.

Unlike regular video podcasts, The VR Download is broadcast from virtual reality! Our team are together in a virtual space, giving us many of the benefits of a studio even though we live on different continents.

This won’t follow our normal show structure, and we won’t have a guest. You’ll get our opinions, insights, and hopes about everything shown at CES 2020.

Since we’re live, you can give your view by commenting in the YouTube live chat. Our team will be able to see your comments and may even read them out on air.

The post Join Us On YouTube LIVE To Discuss The VR/AR Of CES 2020! appeared first on UploadVR.

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Pimax’s Full VR Headset Lineup Compared

Pimax announced some new additions to its line of wide field of view VR headsets recently. With the constantly growing number of headset variations and mind-boggling additional prefixes to account for, you’re certainly not alone if you can’t keep all of their headsets straight.

Thankfully the company provided a comprehensive spec sheet at CES that puts all of the company’s headset offerings in one place. Here’s the company’s six headsets, including all of the most important specs:

Note: Both the 5K Super and Artisan aren’t for sale just yet, however we’ve included links below for those that are. All of the headsets below are priced without SteamVR tracking base stations and controllers.

Vision 8KX Vision 8K Plus 5K Super
Resolution (per lens) 3,840 x 2,160 3,840 x 2,160 2,560 x 1,440
Display type LCD, RGB stripe LCD, RGB stripe LCD, RGB stripe
Rendering Native 4K per eye Upscale 1440p to 4K
Native 2,560 x 1,440
FOV 200° (D), 170° (H), 115° (V) 200° (D), 170° (H), 115° (V)
200° (D), 170° (H), 115° (V)
Refresh rate 75/120 Hz 110/90 Hz 180/160 Hz
Included headstrap Modular Audio Strap (MAS) Modular Audio Strap (MAS)
Modular Audio Strap (MAS)
Price $1,299 $999 ???
SEE ALSO
New Pimax Artisan Headset to Include Optional NOLO VR Tracking & Controllers
5K Plus 5K XR Artisan
Resolution (per lens) 2,560 x 1,440 2,560 x 1,440 1,700 x 1,440
Display type
LCD, RGB stripe
 OLED
LCD, RGB stripe
Rendering Native 2,560 x 1,440 Native 2,560 x 1,440
Native 1,700 x 1,440
FOV 200° (D), 170° (H), 115° (V) 200° (D), 170° (H), 115° (V)
170° (D), 140° (H), 115° (V)
Refresh rate 120/90 Hz 85 Hz 120/90 Hz
Included headstrap Flexible (MAS optional) Flexible (MAS optional)
Flexible (MAS optional)
Price $699 $899
$449 (basic), $??? (Nolo VR version)

– – — – –

We had a chance to visit Pimax’s booth at CES, so we should have our hands-on impressions with their latest tech out soon. We’re here for the entirety of CES, so check back for all things AR/VR to come from one of the world’s biggest consumer electronics show.

The post Pimax’s Full VR Headset Lineup Compared appeared first on Road to VR.

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CES 2020: Pimax Announces 180Hz ‘5K SUPER’ Headset

At CES 2020, Pimax announced a new entry in its lineup which offers a higher refresh rate than any other headset on the market.

Pimax is a China-based company which offers wide field of view PC VR headsets to enthusiasts.

5K SUPER is an enhanced version of Pimax’s main seller, the 5K Plus. Like the 5K Plus, it offers a field of view of 170 degrees and dual 1440p LCD panels.

But unlike any other headset on the market, the 5K SUPER offers a max refresh rate of 180 Hz.

This is higher than even the Valve Index, which offers a max refresh rate of 144 Hz. Facebook actually reduced refresh rate in its Oculus lineup, from 90 Hz to 80 Hz and 72 Hz.

A higher refresh rate will make the VR world feel more solid as you move through it, as well as making objects in motion look more smooth. It also seems to reduce eye strain and may even help towards reducing VR sickness.

pimax booth at ces 2019 in dreams we live

No price has been provided for the 5K SUPER, but the regular 5K Plus headset is priced at $699 (headset only) so expect higher than that. Pimax headsets currently do not ship with controllers or base stations, so you’ll need to add on base stations and Index controllers from Valve for around $577 extra.

5K SUPER adds to a long list of headsets available from Pimax. We should note though that Pimax has a long history of shipping delays with its new products and repeatedly failing to hit its own self-imposed deadlines. As such, we recommend caution when ordering. To avoid disappointment, we recommend treating it more like backing a Kickstarter than ordering a product.

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Pimax Vision 8K X Goes Into Production as Series Takes to CES 2020

A couple of months ago Pimax began taking pre-orders for its next-generation virtual reality (VR) headsets, dubbed the Vision series. Two models were revealed, the Vision 8K X and Vision 8K Plus. With CES 2020 taking place this week in Las Vegas, Pimax has made several announcements including mass production of the flagship Vision 8K X and two new head-mounted displays (HMD).

Pimax VISION 8K X w_ deluxe modular audio head strap
Pimax Vision 8K X with optional Deluxe Headphone Strap

As VRFocus has previously reported the Pimax Vision 8K X will come with dual native 4K displays with a claimed 3840×2160 per-eye resolution. It’ll still feature the company’s standard 200° field of view (FoV), as well as a new ‘Dual Engine Modes’ capability, which works in either ‘Native mode’ offering 3840×2160 per eye at 75Hz or ‘Upscale mode’  where a max input signal of 2560×1440 per eye at 120Hz can be changed to 3840×2160 per eye at 120Hz (max). While those that have pre-ordered the $1299.00 USD headset will likely be pleased to hear it has gone into mass production, Pimax has yet to issue a launch date.

Then there are the two new headset models, the Vision 5K Super and the Pimax Artisan. The Vision 5K Super will offer a resolution of 2560×1440 per eye alongside refresh rates at 90/120/160/180 Hz. Price and availability have yet to be revealed. While the Pimax Artisan is the baby of the bunch, priced from $449. Offering refresh rates of 72/90/120Hz at 170° FOV diagonally with 1700×1440 per eye resolution, the Artisan is designed to work with graphics cards like Nvidia’s  GTX 1050T, for entry-level VR gamers. It’ll still work with SteamVR 1.0 and 2.0 tracking like its siblings.

“We are blessed with a hardcore and supportive VR community, together with whom we learn lessons and push the industry to the next VR Era. It’s a story of challenge to tell developing VISION 8K X, but eventually we made it! We are very proud of VISION 8K X and believe it is a standard next-generation headset, and are extremely excited for the refresh rate improvement for the entire P2 headset line and Brainwarp 2.0,” said Pimax founder Robin Weng in a statement.

As well as all the new hardware Pimax has revealed the release of Brainwarp 2.0 for CES 2020. A collection of software tech, Brainwarp 2.0 is all about lowering hardware requirements, reducing latency and boosting the refresh rates of Pimax headsets.

Pimax now has quite the lineup of VR headsets – when they are all eventually available – to cover every user price bracket. As further details are released, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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CES 2020: Artisan Is A Lower Cost Pimax Headset With 140° Field Of View

If you’ve been wanting a wide field of view PC VR headset but can’t afford or justify the price of Pimax, the company is now offering a lower cost option: the Pimax Artisan.

Pimax Artisan promises a 140 degree field of view, 1600×1440 per eye resolution, and three supported refresh rates: 72Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz. It uses LCD panels.

Pimax tells us the headset “starts” at $449. A separate document the company provided claims that the Nolo positional tracking system is bundled, but we doubt that refers to the $449 offering. We’ve reached out to Pimax to find out and will update this article when we get a clear answer.

Nolo adds positional tracking and tracked controllers to almost any VR headset for around $200. However, it is a front-facing tracking system like PlayStation VR so it likely lacks the robustness of Oculus Insight or SteamVR Tracking. We should have updated impressions of Nolo’s technology from CES this week.

Artisan has full support for SteamVR Tracking though, so you should be able to add positional tracking and Index controllers from Valve for around $577 extra. Or if you already own an HTC Vive, you should be able to upgrade just the headset by buying an Artisan and using your existing base stations and controllers.

Pimax has been planning to launch its own controllers for quite some time. At last year’s CES, we interviewed the company’s Head of US Operations who told us they would likely ship at scale in summer 2019. This has not yet happened.

pimax booth at ces 2019 in dreams we live

This would bring the total cost of an Artisan, base stations, and Index controllers to around $1026, almost the same as the Index full kit. Artisan seems intended as direct competition to Index, while claiming a wider field of view. Index horizontal FoV has been measured to be somewhere between 115° and 120°. However, Index has a higher maximum refresh rate (144Hz) and significantly better built in audio.

Pimax claims the minimum requirement for Artisan is a GTX 1050 Ti — the same as the minimum spec for the Oculus Rift S. This likely applies to using the headset in 72Hz mode or with Brainwarp- Pimax’s algorithm to extrapolate 60 FPS into 120 Hz (similar to Facebook’s ASW and Valve’s Motion Smoothing).

Artisan adds to a long list of headsets available from Pimax. We should note though that Pimax has a long history of shipping delays with its new products and repeatedly failing to hit its own self-imposed deadlines. As such, we recommend caution when ordering. To avoid disappointment, we recommending treating it more like backing a Kickstarter than ordering a product.

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New Pimax Artisan Headset to Include Optional NOLO VR Tracking & Controllers

Before the holiday season, Pimax announced a new VR headset called Artisan that looks to fill the low-price gap in the company’s product offerings. Although the headset is able to use Valve’s SteamVR tracking standard, a model is set to arrive with a NOLO VR tracking and controller kit, a move that’s meant to appeal to entry-level users without SteamVR base stations or controllers.

The Artisan headset itself is said to reduce costs by including less expensive RGB stripe LCD panels, which features dual 1,600 × 1,440 displays clocked at 120Hz refresh, and a diagonal 140 degree horizontal (170 diagonal) field of view.

Talking to MRTV’s Sebastian Ang, Pimax COO Kevin Henderson detailed the company’s two upcoming versions of Artisan: a standard model without accessories or integrated audio, and a version with Nolo VR tracking base station, Nolo controllers, head tracking marker, and a flexible head strap with integrated audio—the later of which Henderson compares to the company’s previous “4K” headset in function.

Pimax “4K” with integrated audio, Image courtesy Pimax

Both versions of Artisan feature compatibility with SteamVR tracking, however Henderson explains the move to include Nolo VR tracking was a way of letting users play 6DOF PC VR games out of the box at a cheaper all-in price than something like Valve Index whilst simultaneously leaving an upgrade path for users looking to adopt Valve’s tracking standard later down the line. When purchased separately a pair of SteamVR 2.0 base stations and Index controllers alone costs $580.

While Pimax is couching Artisan as an entry-level solution, it’s still unclear what either Artisan versions will cost, or when they’re slated to arrive. Pimax is showing Artisan at CES 2020, so we’re hoping to find out more when we stop by their booth on our haunt through the convention’s massive halls.

SEE ALSO
Oculus Quest Sells Out at Major Retailers, Availability Slips into Late February

Nolo VR Tracking

Nolo VR, a Beijing-based company, offers its $200 6DOF tracking kit which is typically paired with 3DOF headsets such as Oculus Go or Samsung Gear VR in order to ‘convert’ them into 6DOF headsets, replete with 6DOF head and controller tracking.

Image courtesy NOLO VR

Nolo VR does this wirelessly by way of its PolarTraq technology, which is based on an optic-acoustic-radio-signal tracking technology developed by the company.

Henderson tells MRTV that support for Nolo VR is also going to be baked into Pi Tool, Pimax’s compatibility layer for their range of “8K” and “5K” wide field of view headsets.

Nolo VR’s solution is by no means perfect, as it suffers from the same sort of occlusion issues that any single base station tracking standard might, however it seems to be popular enough to garner the company with continued investments, the latest of which arrived to the tune of $15 million in June 2019. We’re looking forward to find out just how far Nolo VR has come in terms of reliability and latency, two sticking points for the system when it was first introduced in 2017.

We have feet on the ground in Las Vegas for CES 2020, which takes place January 7 – 10. Check back soon for all things AR/VR to come from one of the world’s biggest consumer electronics shows.

The post New Pimax Artisan Headset to Include Optional NOLO VR Tracking & Controllers appeared first on Road to VR.

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New Pimax ‘Artisan’ Headset Mysteriously Unveiled Ahead of CES

Pimax unveiled a new VR headset called ‘Artisan’ yesterday that, according to Pimax European Marketing Director Martin “SweViver” Lammi, shouldn’t have been revealed until CES 2020.

Pimax tweeted this cryptic image yesterday, and also published it to their website:

The headset is lower resolution than their other “8K” headset offerings, quoted as including a 3,200 × 1,440 display; it isn’t clear whether this is a single display, making it effectively dual 1,600 × 1,440 displays for each eye, or if it’s indeed two 3,200 × 1,440 displays. Considering it also has a lower advertised field of view (FOV) at 140 degrees (“8K” and “5K” variants are advertised with a 200 degree FOV) it very likely could be a single panel, divided in two for each eyes. Artisan boasts the same 120 refresh rate of the Pimax “5K” Plus, a $700 headset—so all things considered, Pimax may be positioning Artisan as its newest low-cost headset.

There’s still too little to go on for now, so it’s hard to guess what Pimax is aiming for with its mysterious “?49.00” pricing. The company is however still lagging behind in fulfilling “8K” headset orders for Kickstarter backers and regular customers alike, so the Christmas imagery may be simply be hollow marketing, and likely doesn’t indicate a pre-Christmas 2019 launch at all.

SEE ALSO
Pimax "8K" Headsets & Accessories Delayed Again, Now Estimated for Late 2019 & Early 2020

Martin “SweViver” Lammi certainly was taken by surprise by the announcement, as he took to the Pimax forums to explain that the big reveal would come to CES 2020, which takes place in early January:

“If anyone asks me what’s going on here, well I don’t know. Or I know, but I’m not allowed to talk about it. Im [sic] not allowed to talk about this unit at all. Officially it doesn’t exist. This was supposed to be announced and demoed on CES, but obviously someone didn’t agree.”

Lammi further admits even he doesn’t know about the release date, and that he’s unsure why Artisan has the same large body as the company’s “8K” and “5K” variants, which feature a larger advertised FOV.

“Tooling [a] new design from scratch is super-expensive and time consuming. [A new body design] [m]ight happen in the future (who knows), but surely not at this point,” Lammi hypothesizes.

Whatever the case may be, it appears we’ll be getting a look at CES 2020. We’ll have feet on the ground in Las Vegas for the show, which goes from January 7th – 10th, 2020, so make sure to follow us then for all things VR/AR to come from one of the world’s largest consumer tech shows.

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Boneworks Launch Day Livestream: Intense Physics-Based VR Gameplay

For today’s livestream we’re going to dive into the weird, wonderful world of Boneworks, the newest release from Stress Level Zero that puts physics-first in this VR sandbox meets beefy FPS campaign. If you’re curious about how we livestream the way we do then look no further than this handy guide for general tips and this guide specific to our Oculus Quest setup.

Today is finally the release date for Boneworks! Starting at around 10AM PT people will have been able to download the game from Steam and dive in. Even though it is designed to take full advantage of the Valve Index controllers with finger interactions and intricate physics, the game works just fine on any SteamVR headset.

I didn’t actually do our review at UploadVR, so I’m going to dive into the game for the very first time blindly to give my first impressions and reactions as I play. The Boneworks stream is planned to start at around 11:15AM PT and will last for about two hours. We’ll be hitting just our YouTube. You can see the full stream embedded via YouTube right here down below once it’s up, or find it here on this page:

Embedded video coming soon 

You can see lots of our past archived streams over in our YouTube playlist and various other gameplay highlights. There’s lots of good stuff there so make sure and subscribe to us on YouTube to stay up-to-date on gameplay videos, video reviews, interviews, and more original content!

And please let us know which games or discussions you want us to livestream next other than Boneworks! We have lots of VR games in the queue that we would love to show off more completely.

The post Boneworks Launch Day Livestream: Intense Physics-Based VR Gameplay appeared first on UploadVR.