Pimax previously said their upcoming “8K” VR headset was heading into the mass production phase. Kickstarter backers probably shouldn’t expect an imminent launch though, as the company today announced they’re sending out a second iteration on their pre-production ‘M1’ headset to their select group of independent beta testers. An alleged leak points to concerns over the headset’s build quality and software readiness.

Update (July 13, 2018 – 11:58AM PT): Two of the Pimax M1 beta testers, VoodooDE and SweViver, have chimed in on the Reddit thread with the leaked information saying that many of the issues highlighted by the testers in the leak have been addressed:

VoodooDE: Guys, don’t believe that. It’s a very old leak of my forum post and I can confirm that many of the issues have been fixed until now.

SweViver: I’m 100% confident Pimax 8K is replacing my other VR headets very soon :) In fact its the only headset Ive been using since I got the m1. The majority of these issues are now fixed btw. Don’t panic… A full review and daily testings will be soon up on my channel.

The statements also appear to confirm the authenticity of the initial leaked information. The original article continues below.

Original Article (July 13, 2018 – 6:03AM PT): Here’s Pimax’s announcement in full regarding the second iteration soon to land on testers’ door steps:

Hi Enthusiasts,

Thanks a lot for your passion about Pimax 8K!

As mentioned in the founder announcement (link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pimax8kvr/pimax-the-worlds-first-8k-vr-headset/posts/222575254), the obstacles that prevent us from mass production have been eliminated.

The team and the testers are working together to speed up the product iterations. We will ship the new hardware to some of the testers soon.

Only the beta tester reviews of the final hardware and software, and the official announcements, are the trustworthy sources of information.

Please stay tuned for the in-depth reviews of Pimax 5K and 8K from the testers when the closed beta ends!

Beta testers include Sebastian Ang of MixedRealityTV, Martin Lammi (aka ‘SweViver‘), Thomas Poersch of VooDooDE, Shanghai Fudan University Professor Yan Feng, Stephane Debus of ETR.fr, freelance journalist Kevin Carbotte, Oscar González of Real o Virtual, and YouTuber ‘Pactaco‘ with several others sharing a single unit.

Within a few hours of posting the update, an alleged leak anonymously surfaced on Reddit that points to a number of issues that caused some beta testers to not give the crucial go-ahead Pimax was initially looking for.

Pimax “8K” V5 prototype | Photo by Road to VR

If true, the supposed leak could represent a break of at least one of the beta tester’s non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with Pimax, which requires M1 testers to not report on, or publicly document their time with the pre-production hardware. Screenshots of internal comments contain damning messages from a number of beta testers mentioned above include criticisms on hardware build quality, ease of use with the company’s software, and issues involving overall performance, optical distortion, and display quality.

To Pimax’s credit, the beta tester program was meant to reveal these issues privately so the company could refine as they got closer to its full production model. Pimax’s Xunshu Li says in a forum post today that most of the improvements “are still on the software,” and that the company is also “taking the suggestions from testers and [improving] the hardware.”

SEE ALSO
Pimax Responds to Critical Reception of Latest "8K" Prototype at CES

Considering Pimax is sending out a second iteration of physical headsets to testers however, it’s clear the current M1 hardware somehow didn’t live up the company’s hopes despite CEO and Founder Robin Weng saying he was “happy with the hardware and progressively speeding up the software fine tuning process to improve visual quality.” Whatever the case may be, the road map to launch is definitely getting longer as the result of the headset’s redesign and tester feedback loop.

When we last got hands on a Pimax “8K” prototype at CES earlier this year, which features the headset’s dual 4K LCD display (hence the quotes around “8K”) and SteamVR room-scale tracking, we noted the overall experience still had some crucial kinks to iron out before it was ready for consumers. Supposing today’s leak is authentic, it may still be true.

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Ombra Alberto

    I’m sorry for those who believed or believed in this.
    For me Pimax is both old and premature before being born.

    • jj

      yeah i agree. Too ambitious without a proper sense of direction. Instead of someone saying I dont care our goal is 8k whether its possible or not they should have dropped the 8k res and invested the money in other aspects of their headset. They wanted to push the limits past whats actually possible to seam edgy and appear to be leading the industry but now that thats fallen through its just a waste of money

      • Jerald Doerr

        Yep… I said it months ago… they should have just worked on an HMD “upgrade” don’t start out getting to greedy with millions and think you can go from your garage to Sony in less than a year.. 1 step at a time… headsets would have sold out in no time… and they probably still will… but there going to be in a shit pile of fucked up HMD’s if half need RMAs back over seas and bankrupt in 1 million just in shipping! (Don’t even think of charging the customer for that)

        But after all this being said I truly hope they succeed…..

        • Heliosurge

          They have beem working a lot longer than 2 yesrs. Do your research. Your here at Road to VR after all. The 8k v1 was Demoed at Jan 2017 ces to show proof of concept long before they launched the kickstsrter.

          Ben covered it here.

          • Jerald Doerr

            What’s wrong with you? Who the fuck said anything about two years? Do my research? STFU …. I have…

          • Heliosurge

            Your silly garage comment with millions invested compare to Sony. Or did I misinterpet your ignorance of knowing history of this project’s development path & timeline?

            Not that your nay saying matters time will prove what you beleive is wrong.

          • Jerald Doerr

            And what am wrong about? And yes… You misinterpreted just about everything I was talking about.. I know the history of pimax as I almost ordered the “4k” unit.. I assume because I stated the Kickstarter timeline you believe I was also saying they started development after the got the cash… No dumb ass.. I know they had a prototype way before then.. Also everyone knows you can’t start a Kickstart project without a working prototype… So next time you decide to jump in and put someone in their place understand wtf your reading and don’t fill in the blanks in your head with ignorance..

    • I still have hope. Thank god for the testers and Pimax for listening to them.

  • NooYawker

    I’m shocked that Pimax couldn’t leapfrog corporations putting out VR devices. I mean they raised 4 million dollars. If you can’t develop cutting edge tech with 4 million then I just don’t know.

    • JJ

      yeah its tough beating companies at their own game, Pimax coming out as an underdog and not really having previous tech to build off of should have been an indicator to people that this would be a rough start.
      It appears money can only make up for so much experience.
      but thats just my opinion on pimax and vr/tech based kick starters. They try to go from scratch to leading the industry and try to beat out companies who have been there for years and have 5-10 year plans, its not impossible just usually ends in a fireball.

      • NooYawker

        And let me be clear, I’m all for competition. I’m am really looking forward to gen 2 hardware, I’m in no way loyal to HTC just because I chose the Vive. But Pimax was kind of bullshit campaign to start

        • JJ

          I agree!! the better product is what wins it for me I hate company fan boys that never try competitors yet think they understand the market.

        • Heliosurge

          It’s not competition as there not making a limited FoV headset & its for high end. Not the Low to med high Pcs.

          Facebook set a goal that needs every vr manufacturer from Daydream to Pimax to offer good experiences to bring the masses into vr. I think the goal was 2billion ppl in vr.

          • NooYawker

            Actually, it is a competition. A competition for the consumer dollar. They already announced the so called 8k won’t run at 90 fps needed for baseline VR.

          • Heliosurge

            If pimax was competing for every consumer dollar. They would have simply re released a new version of the 4k model with dual screens a new bridge chip with an upscaler supporting 1080p1440p & native 2160p all at 90hz input resolutions. Steam tracking & modular options. A version 2 pimax 4k. & priced within everyday consumer’s reach supporting a wide range of pc configs & graphics cards.

            But no they wanted to build something new & wirhin reach of those who buy &or build strong gaming computers. Drastic in crease in Resolution & FoV.

          • NooYawker

            So you think they have a higher cause aside from profits?

          • Heliosurge

            In terms of challenging current VR market? Sure. As for Profits? I’m sure when the consumer release happens they will make decent profits and likely be priced around the Vive Pro. So maybe they won’t make as high of a profit on the 8k as htc does on the Vive Pro.

      • Lucio Lima

        Rift and Vive are shit too!

        • Twa Corbies

          ROFL

      • Andrew Jakobs

        uhh, they already had at least the Pimax 4K headset before they started on this headset, so they did have experience..

      • Heliosurge

        I look forward to handing you paper towel for the egg. Lol

      • Nyco30

        Euh…Define “beat out” please.
        Otherwise, what about examples such as OnePlus, Xiaomi or Tesla? Heck, just staying in VR, you do remember where Rift comes from, right?
        Disrupting a market is not as impossible as you seem to believe.

    • Bob

      It’s quite simple really; lack of money ad resources. You have multi-billion dollar corporations working on solving and refining presence with virtual reality and if they can’t churn out “perfect” HMD’s with massive FOV and massive resolution at this moment in time then it’s very unlikely an extremely small company will crack the problem with a just a little bit of crowdfunded cash (bearing in mind that’s a fraction of the investment of major corporations dedicated to this emerging industry).

      People who crowdfund are asking too much and should expect little considering you’re comparing few millions of dollars to billions of dollars and a ton of brains and manpower(Facebook, HTC, Valve). There is no magic box.

      • Mike

        Actually, they had other major investors aside from Kickstarter.

      • Trenix

        Investment does not always equal innovation or development. For example, we give millions to the government and still they can’t fix our damn roads. It’s not how much money you have, but how you use it.

        • Bob

          No but here you’re comparing the public sector to the private sector which are two worlds apart. Obviously with the government they have no incentive to be as efficient as possible because they have near “infinite” resources from taxpayers so you can pump them with as much cash as you can and you won’t improve the results.

          We’re talking about the VR industry specifically here within the private sector and to that end money plays a huge role in it’s R&D especially with regards to recruitment and capital. Not to mention you’re against time here and time is always equal to money. Sure a smaller company may be able to crack a problem and innovate something but ceterus paribus the bigger company with more labour and capital, which comes from a bigger investment, will always solve the problem sooner before the funds run dry.

          • Trenix

            Not always true. Also lots of the innovations are coming from different companies, not just Facebook. You can invest millions and still not move forward in innovation. Innovation requires a new way of thinking, not resources.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Uhm, you really don’t know jack about what it costs to develop something cutting edge (to the full end). 4 million is nothing.. Yes it might seem like a large ammount of cash to you, but in reality it’s peanuts.. You really think a production line is cheap to setup? a machine to create good lenses (for mass production) also costs a lot of money.

      • NooYawker

        Yea that’s the joke. What kind of person would think they could pull this off with 4 million? Oh yea people that think two 4k tv’s side by side is “technically” a 8k TV.

        • Heliosurge

          Well Linus thinks 3 4k projectors sbs is 12k. Once aspect ratio is applied both are true to what they are. Proper “4k” is 4096*2160. 4k Uhd (TV) is 3840*2160.

          Pimax has been working on the 8k headset long before the kickstarter & has had investers inject funding after the kickstarter. Look at the kickstarter page for partnerships & you will see a clearer picture.

          • Jerald Doerr

            At least Linus is closer to correct vs Pimax whos also labeling a product. But just because you’re a penis Heliosurge I’m going to penis you right back. Proper 4k is 4000 horizontal pixels wide sniff sniff.. Do your research. Don’t get aspect mixed up with resolution.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          oh please you’re a real moron.. go F yourself please..

          • NooYawker

            Oh right, you’re the guy who said two 4k tv’s makes an 8k tv.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            As I said, you’re a moron, by reducing a full factual explanation to one misquoted line. but he, if that makes you happy, go ahead..

          • NooYawker

            Don’t lie asshole. I asked you if two 4k tv made an 8k tv and you said yes. You’re bullshit explanation as to why is complete idiocy. Own up to your stupidity.

    • Heliosurge

      There is a reason it is being beta tested by a team of experts in the field. The leak was designed to only show negatives. That should tell you the intent of the leak & as the testers stated themselves old posts. Hence why the screenshots have no date stamps as they were edited out. & placed out of sequence.

  • Nowry85

    This looks like it wont reach the market before CV2 comes or given specifications and a release date.

  • Mateusz Pawluczuk

    I wish them all the best :) It would be cool to have a new contender when reporting on SteamVR monthly surveys :)

  • Sandy Wich

    The important thing is this… Is that, “Leak”, confirmed? ~100%~?.. Because if it’s not, outside of a 2nd testing unit being shipped to testers, this isn’t really anything special.

    I understand the fun in drama, but it’s not good to damn something based entirely on a reddit post.

    How many times have we seen haters try to undermine what they hate online with fake news/documents/leaks?.. Too many if you ask me.

    • Niklas Fritzell

      If you read the posts from the testers themselves you can clearly see that everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. Pimax has always had their own definition of honesty.

      • Sandy Wich

        Editing is easy, i do it as my favorite hobby and online it can be used to fake anything. A picture of some word pad documents with pictures on top doesn’t mean it’s real. This kind of thing happens all the time.

        I’m not saying a leak can’t be real though of course, but without confirmation besides a random reddit post it’s crazy to take these things that seriously.

        I am going to keep a close eye though, because there’s always a chance. But too many times I’ve watched the internet get fooled off fake technology/video game leaks to damn a product before it gets released and has real reviews.

        • Did you read the article? or just the comments? It is a genuine article, even SweViver and Voodoo are commenting on it and they are testers.

          • Sandy Wich

            Yes I read the article. If you read the article and matched it with the time I posted my comment you’ll see it was updated after my post with their public statements. Before that it was just leaked pictures.

        • andrey3000

          “A ton of people” are approximately 12-13 people (avg weight 80 kg). Even “tons of people” are an understatement when talking about the total internet communities mental health. :D

      • Heliosurge

        In terms of a leak yes. Closed Betas often have a rough start. Hence why it’s closed to help weed out early problems while refining things as well. If HTC Vive pro closed testing had been leaked about the Pro Audio not working; that after release was reported they might not be able to fix it… Well you can imagine. I am not sure if they manage to fix it or not. But if unfixable then that’s a colossal mistake releasing it as a toted feature.

        Pimax is used to doing business as Chinese culture does. From our point of view it’s going to be off. But they are evolving learning new methods & we backers are evolving & understanding as a result as well. This is why the pimax forum didn’t react like other forums did.

        We trust our testers whom pimax chose not from a straw hat. But from doing research as to who among us can help them best in testing by their skill sets & reputations in the greater VR community. As a result the vast majority have faith & trust the Pimax team.

    • Trenix

      Yes, some of those testers have already confirmed that this is an actual leak.

  • sebrk

    It’s the classic Chinese merry-go-round once again. As much as I want VR to become everyday life, the hurry and first-to-market-with-vaporware can go do something else. This needs research and committed dev teams in multiple areas. No way, cheap-shot-China is going to be doing anything else than copying when it’s done.

    • victor

      there are companies in china that not only do not copy but are world leaders , like dji drone company.

  • Jay degaris

    What a bunch of whining , whinging fucks you lot are. What has Oculus, HTC done… jack shit.

    • Arashi

      Well they at least did what Pimax never has done: release a decent working headset + controllers. Or would you say the Pimax 4k is a decent VR headset? I’m going to laugh out very loud in your face in that case.

    • NooYawker

      Oculus and HTC brought VR to the consumer market and created the VR space. How is that jack shit??

    • Jerald Doerr

      And another dumb shit jumps in with his backward-ass comment…. You forgot to add Valve, Samsung, Microsoft and Sony to your shit list of dumb ass companies that have not forwarded VR!

  • gothicvillas

    We will have gen 2 oculus and vive before Pimax pulls its act together.

  • Adrian Meredith

    I think it’s telling that whoever leaked the information went to the effort of photoshopping out the dates. Any “honest” leaker wouldn’t have done that

  • Meow Smith

    Not surprising hopefully this causes them to up their game, the western market has much higher quality demands than what they often get away with in China.

  • NooYawker

    That’s not what the OP said, he said oculus and HTC did jack shit.

    • Heliosurge

      And I am agreeing he is down playing the significance. But people also often forget Google. For that matter although it failed to launch SegaVR way a head of it’s time. Almost went to market before they discovered VR sickness.

  • oompah

    Another box strapped to ur face [;-(
    the real tech is optical waveguide
    projected from sideways to specs like reflectors
    digilens

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Oh that’s why intel stopped working on the tech, because it’s the best there is…

      • JJ

        intell does that with all the best tech.

  • Jerald Doerr

    Guess what buddy. If I have a screen for any device and its 4000 pixels by 50 pixels it’s still a 4k display. Sure it sounds pointless but its still 4k.. So 3 4k projectors is actually 12k 12000 pixels wide.. But no… As for aspect your not going to fit a 16:9 move without stretching or losing some information (mostly black top and bottom bars) why add 3 more projectors just to project black? That’s just fucking stupid.
    How about this.. If you flip a 4k TV vertical is it all the sudden not 4k? No!

    Now I’m sure you’re a believer that your beloved pimax 8k is truly 8k… Not even going to get into the upscaling..

    So go do your research… God a simple google search gives you the basics..

    • Heliosurge

      You are quite wrong 3×3840 = 10520 is no where near 12k so really it should be 10.5k.

      https://www.zdnet.com/article/seagate-pays-out-over-gigabyte-definition/

      1k =1024
      Hard drive decimal 1k = 1000

      Read above article Lawsuit was a sucess

      Proper or Cinema 2k 2048*1080

      FHD 1920*1080 never called 2k

      Qhd 2560*1440 is by math truely 2.5k.

      Btw 6 4k projectors is still missing 3. If you use the corrupted 4k uhd as legit 4k you need 9 projectors to equal 12k. 3 projectors out of 9 equals 1/3. And your worried about my math?

      No I don’t believe 8k FUHD is legit 8k at 7640*4320 (so more like 7.6k)

      As legit Cinema 8k is 8196*4320. Now the wiki will also give you 8k @ 1:1 being 8196*8196. But you don’t accept aspect ratios so guess facts are moot.

      • Jerald Doerr

        Your all off on your math bro 3×3840 = 11,520 that’s 460 lines short of 12k… Just like your 4k TV 3840x 2,160 that’s 140 pixals short of 4k 4000 but its still accepted as 4k because they don’t want to call it a 3.84k TV. Also I absolutely accept aspect .. You can stretch/zoom an image all day long but it’s not like your changing resolution.

        As for the hard drive data is not the same as pixels that’s why they win the lawsuit 1KB is actully 1024 kilobytes not 1000 as they are skimming peoples data..

        Anyway..

        • Heliosurge

          Okay i missed calculated; next time will use a calculator. However it proves my point it wouldn’t be 12k but 11.5k

          As for 4k uhd your off by 20 its short 160 of 4000.

          Displays earlier followed the same specs as Kilobyte = 1024. Which is why 2k Cinema is 2048 & Cinema 4k is 4096 & 8k in the wiki also shows this trend of 8192 opposed to 8k8k FUHD.

          TV kept things legit when following standards they originally followed understood at 16:9 aspect.
          720p
          1080i (this one can be confusing)
          1080p
          2160p

          This has real legitimacy as each with the exception contains the numbers advertised save 1080i.

          Instead they created their own misleading classification using rounded up numbers. This is also why they were cautious in the past & didn’t call 1080p 2k. Why? Cinema 2k already existed following the pre existing binary standard.

          Hard drive mfgrs have used the idea of 1k = 1000 even back in the days of MFM & RLL drives even before that. Memory chips have followed the binary standard as we both know. I would need to do a search but if mem serves floppy disks followed the binary standard.

          What it comes down to any way you shake it is misleading consumers while trying to keep it legal.

          At the end if the day I would have simply defined the 8k as 2160p UltraWide. Or if using the TV standards. 8k Half Height. Like they called Hard drives when they could occupy 1 5.25″ slot instead of requiring 2.

          • Jerald Doerr

            Yeah, I’m not using a calculator but
            made the mistake of looking at the 60 in 2,160.. I absolutely agree with you as its misleading and most of this all comes from film and aspect black bars 16:9 added for editing of film so you can reframe your shot without degrading your image. Yes 1080i all the (i)’s look like crap because you’re taking 2 frames and interlacing every other line therefore you degrade 1080p to more like 540.

  • MW

    So, they still doesn’t have working prototype… Hahahaha!!!