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 LCD 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.

SEE ALSO
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.


Update (10/27/17): It was incorrectly reported earlier that the 5K headset will feature OLED panels. This is true in current prototypes, but the full production version is said to contain the same type of LCD offered in the 8K headset.

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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 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Firestorm185

    The “we passed 1 million” update on the kickstarter has the stretch goals posted in it now (at least the first 3)

  • Firestorm185

    Now just imagine trying to TPcast this. xD

  • In regards to the 8K X. at the price they are selling it at, I decided I can wait and see after launch next year what hands on reviews say.

    The GPU side for the 8K X is not a problem because at that resolution I personally would not game at native, SLI has never really taken off except for enthusiasts but DX12 may rectify that with their clever use of transparent GPU pooling, well, if developers start to move to it faster that is. Why it is taking so long for studios to migrate to DX12?

    If your main reason is the higher resolution for desktop apps where text, icons etc need to be crystal clear for professional use, then it could be a game changer in the business sector. I never have enough screen estate for day to day work.

    Anyway, main things that put me off:

    1. The marketing for the SDE Comparison image shows Pimax 4K. Why? This is a kickstarter for the 5K, the 8K and the 8KX. We want to see what these models look like in regards to SDE and not their old 4K model.

    2. The technical details on the resolution was buried deep in a Pimax Q&A forum. The marketing for the resolution on the Kickstarter page is confusing at first glance.

    3. The 8KX pledge states “Based on our tests, no obvious difference in VR gaming experiences between 8K and 8K X” – Eh? Text should be much much clearer at native
    input on the 8KX so why are they saying this? Does it mean that no game they have tried at that resolution would work?

    Still, looking forwards to the reviews.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      But text should already be clear to read on the 8K version.

      • Chucksta

        Yeah, the PPI is the best out of the current HMDs, I believe. Therefore, technically it should be very easy to read, and many, many people swear that it is the case.

        I had issues with the 4K (806 PPI – same as 8K and 8K X), but it turns out it’s eyesight related. I could read the text easily using a Vive, but the 4K does not use the same system/method as the Vive to aid focusing on something.

        I actually bought 2 4K HMDs, one after the other, in my attempt to figure out why I could not read the text and had visual issues.

        Okay, so the Vive was perfectly fine for me, and as it turns out, the 5K, 8K and 8K X all use the same thing as the Vive re the focusing, so that’s excellent news for me :)

        I’ve actually pledged twice – 5K Deluxe and 8K X

        If you want to see proof of the above, including my issues with the Pimax 4K, then you might be able to find my YT video on it:

        “Pimax 4K vs HTC Vive in Elite Dangerous and NoLimits Roller Coaster”
        on my ChuckE channel – see Timeline/Contents in the description
        Warning! It’s rough :)

        The 4K did not fare well at all, but I now know why that is – eyesight, plus the way the 4K deals with focusing.

        I also posted links to images of the Kickstarter pledges I made

        And there’s a better description of the focusing issue in there, and/or check the Pimax forum for more info on that.

      • Heliosurge

        Indeed the text on the 4k model is easy to read.

    • Heliosurge

      Easy the 4k has 1 4k panel the ppi of the single 4k panel is equal to 1 4k panel of the 8k. The 8k has the same ppi as the 4k headset (4Kx2).

  • Marcin Stachowiak

    As soon as they bring eye tracking to the table, they got my backing. I think I can achieve reasonable (native) 8k frame rates with foveated rendering from single GPU (developer here ;) )

    • Andrew Jakobs

      eye tracking is an option for the headset.

      • Marcin Stachowiak

        Yes, they have mentioned it, however it doesn’t seem to be available yet. No info regarding pricing or availability. It seems to be frequently requested in comments, so hopefully there will be some new soon.

        • El_MUERkO

          their system is going to be modular, so hopefully we’ll get more news closer to launch

      • doublefrag

        Eyetracking is the 3 Million goal now! For sure, it will be hard to reach this goal but it is not impossible! gogogo ;)

        • HybridEnergy

          The technology doesn’t exist yet in functional form.

      • HybridEnergy

        Eye tracking tech actually isn’t ready or exists in functional form. Luckey and Carmack at the Oculus keynote said it won’t be for months to years. You people seem to think Pimax is somehow from the future and has all of this ready, I hope this hype train derailment isn’t too painful come Q1 2018.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          I don’t think Pimax is the future, I just said, eye tracking will be an option (as in you have to buy it later as an addon).
          there are already eye tracking sets out there (maybe not cheap)..

    • CoffeeBuzz

      You should back now, the stetch goals are starting to include modules.. the modules they say may not be done until june but backers still get them.. look at stretch goals yourself first to see if it sways you.

  • brandon9271

    These people are lying. When it come to VR the only this that matters is per eye resolution and frame rate. So take everything they say and halve it. Pimax 8k is only 4k per eye and if they say it’s 150fps it’s 75 per eye. 4k @75hz is still decent but I don’t trust a company that would knowingly deceive people

    • Arashi

      How would you have named a headset with 7680*2160 resolution ? “Pimax half 8k” doesn’t sound very well :) Nor “Pimax 2*4k”. Maybe they should have chosen a totally different name though not mentioning the 8k.

      • brandon9271

        I’d name it 4k because that’s what it is. as I said, only per eye res matters because the two images are merged. Calling it 7680×2160 is deceptive. Pimax 2 or Pimax Ultramega OK. :)

        • Arashi

          It’s not 4k. It’s 4k per eye. It’s 2x4k in total. “Calling it 7680×2160 is deceptive” Ehh ? That’s what it IS mate. How would you call a Gear VR with a single 1440p panel by your logic then ? 1080p resolution ?

          • brandon9271

            When you look at a 4k TV you seen 4k per eye. Does that make it 8k? No, it doesn’t. Per eye resolution is the EFFECTIVE resolution. You can wish it were different but that doesn’t make it so.

          • Arashi

            When I look at an 4k TV there’s 3840*2160 pixels. When I look at the Pimax 8k there’s 7680*2160 pixels. When I look at gear VR with an Samsung Galaxy S8 in it there’s 1440p pixels. Yet per eye it’s 1080p. By your logic you’d call it 1080p then. That makes no sense to me at all. By your logic you wouldn’t call the Pimax 8k if it actually HAD 8k pixels, so 7680*4320.

          • Jerald Doerr

            There is definitely logic to it. Just because you don’t understand it does not make him wrong. The Samsung S8 runs at 2960×1440.. When I pop it into my Gear VR now both my eyes are still looking at what? Still a 2960×1440 screen, It is what it is… the resolution the screen can display is not cut in half, each eye just has less screen to look at. This also means the opposite because now I’m looking at separate screens even with different images its not going to double in resolution.

          • Fredrik Sjöborg

            I’ll never buy a Samsung phone until they stop lying and put eight S’s on the screen.

          • brandon9271

            The images overlap. How do you not understand this? When a Samsung phone is out of the gear VR you can see the whole screen. When it’s in the gear VR each eye sees HALF. There two halves are overlaid on top of each other. Nobody care what the resolution of the screen is OUTSIDE of the HMD. The only that matters is PER EYE. That is what we SEE. Why do you think Vive and Oculus list there specs as per eye and not the combined total? Because it’s bullshit spec that means nothing to the end user.

          • CoffeeBuzz

            Perhaps the spec sheet they list on the kickstarter means nothing then ? they list the detailed specs/pixels per panel etc. They are not exactly trying to hide the Panel data.. sheesh

          • CoffeeBuzz

            but the tv is not processing two screens, vr headsets have to process those pixels on both screens.. why not give them credit for that ? Pimax is not at fault either, as the industry standard started by other companies do this. You cannot expect them to name a display based on one side, while other companies spice it up.

          • Heliosurge

            In truth you don’t see real 4k on a 4k tv. Cinema or photography 4k is 4096 & not 3840.

            Now lets look long & hard. You can’t treat this as a standard headset. A standard headset is all binocular overlap averaging 100° Fov. Where as a 200° Fov headset has binocular overlap (stereo) & part of the screen is outside (peripheral/mono). So when Bob approaches you from the left side rear of you. The right eye is not able to see Bob. However the left can as Bob is in the left peripheral. So to calulate true stereo per eye you would need to know the percentage of the panel that is overlapped to create the stereo image. Whats left becomes per eye peripheral resolution.

        • Heliosurge

          The overall resolution is good for rendering needs.

        • CoffeeBuzz

          Thats not the trending standard though. They cannot be the only ones using technical names or they by name will look inferior to everyone else with equal or lesser displays. cannot blame Pimax here

        • Heliosurge

          Actually the combined resolution is also important. The per eye res is important for clarity & maybe the better method to compare headsets. However the overall resolution is important as it indicates an idea on GPU needed. Brainwarp is no more misleading than when Intel marketed their first Quadcore cpus which were not true quads but 2 dual cores sandwiched together. But if the idea works well it doesn’t truly matter if its a trick or not. Psvr for example is not a real 120hz headset. It uses a frame doubler to spin 60hz to appear as 120hz.

      • Heliosurge

        If you use desktop conventions then you would call it ultra wide 4k (32:9) 7680×2160. However this isn’t accurate either as the displays are viewed overlapped. As i said StarBreeze started this path with usingg the idea of panoramic equals 5k.

      • Jerald Doerr

        Thank you! some body gets it….

        • CoffeeBuzz

          Stop trying so hard to be upset about the title. read the specs they show on THE FRONT PAGE OF KICKSTATER CAMP. if you dont like it , dont get it. but the name is in line with other product naming practices in VR.

          • brandon9271

            No it isn’t. It’s marketing spin. People like Michael Abrash refer to an HMDs resolution as what ONE EYE sees. Vive and Rift specs are listed this way. Shysters might list them differently to confuse people but that doesn’t make it right

    • Heliosurge

      Yes per eye you are treated with 75 to 90hz. With brainwarp this doesn’t change. However the timing is slightly off example if panel response is say 10ms then left displays at 10 20 30 etc. The right displays shows image at 15 25 35 etc. This causes the brain to perceive 150 to 180. This is similar to Nvidia’s cascaded displays which layers 2 lcd panels on top of each other with 1 backlight.

      • brandon9271

        It’s no different than LCD shutter glasses from descades ago. Sure your monitor was running at 120hz but half of them were blanked per eye. Marketing spin does create frame from thin air. That’s how it reduces GPU load. It’s rendering half the frames.

    • CoffeeBuzz

      The 8k and 5k are 90hz. please make sure you check data before trying to turn ppl away. the old headset they made was lower refresh not these new ones.

      • brandon9271

        The article said 150/180hz alternating. That’s 75/90hz per eye effective refresh rate respectively. I expected the article to be accurate.

      • Jerald Doerr

        (Sorry I put this in the wrong spot!)

        Slow your roll dude because I was counting pixels when 640 by 480 was Hi-Resolution .. I’ve worked in the video game and film Industry for 15 years so when it comes to pixels trust me I know wtf I’m talking about, dont belive me? Google my name.. Im not hiding with some stuppid nick name with my post!

        Stop drinking coffeeeee! Then get some rest!

  • Jerald Doerr

    The sheer fact that a manufacture can’t even label their product correctly makes me tread slowly. Guess what people.. 4k per eye is just that 4k.. you run something at 8k your not going to see it at 8k! Your going to see it at 4k.
    I own a vive with 2 Evga 1080 FTWs .. not every vr game supports SLI so the attractive parts of this protect to me is a HMD that support vive tracking plus the duel HDMI support (1 video card per eye) there calming and of course the higher resolution per eye. I would be happy to keep my money now and pay a extra $50 – $100 for the HMD after everone checks it out :)

    • Heliosurge

      Hey in truth you can blame Starbreeze studio of which marketed their non consumer StarVR as 5k panoramic & it is like the PiMax 5k… You guessed it 2xqhd panels with FOV 210°. Keep in mind your Vive is also restricted by hdmi 1.4 bandwidth. As for sli & cf games created in Unreal 4 & unity 5.4+ these engines have built in support. And finally the controllers & base stations used with Vive are Valve’s just with the Vive brand. Good news though you could even just buy the 5k model & upgrade your experience by benching your SDE Vive. Lol

      • Jerald Doerr

        Yes I perfectly understand! That’s the plan if it all works out… can’t wait… I’m just saying I don’t trust them enough to drop $400 on a Kickstarter..
        and as for placing blame I don’t care… I watched the Tested hands on and for the life of me I can not understand why out of all the questions they asked nothing was asked as to why or how there are marketing it as 4k when in fact its a tad bit more than 2k do the math.

        I’m sure everyone would be bitching if vive said there HMD runs at 2k instead of 1k.

        • Heliosurge

          Ah now here is the real misconception. 1080p FHD is 2k. Which is why 1440p Qhd is often called 2.5k. But it makes you wonder why Vive/Rift chose to use such low res panels when there was better available on phones already.

          • Jerald Doerr

            Yes and people get even more mixed up when they see the 1080 and assume the vive runs at 1080 by 1920 when it actually runs at 1080 by 1200 per eye..
            As to why the othere HMDs used such low rez screens I can only think cost. Using my S8 in a Gear VR OMG!! The resolution and colors are amazing compared to the vive and rift.. Zero god rays high pixel density but it lacks the FOV and cpu power and of course Room scale.

          • chuan_l

            They chose the CHIMEI 7″ screen —
            For the DK1 as it was already being manufactured at scale for Google’s ” Nexus 7 ” tablet. People were already having issues with 60 / 75 Hz rendering at that resolution. Remember this was before instanced stereo , stencil masks and nice graphic cards we have now.

    • CoffeeBuzz

      They list the resolutions of the headset. So anyone who puts down money
      knows what they are getting, including myself (pledged) The 8k takes
      in input from a single DP (1440 per eye ) and upscales it to the panel
      native res. So you get the benefit of increased pixel density from the
      5k and 4k models without any additional GPU overhead, as the scaler is
      internal hardware to the headset.

    • El_MUERkO

      I read past the name and ordered the 8kx, with a DP connector for each eye, i’ll get two graphics cards, one per eye, I know what I’ll be getting and look forward to it.

    • victor

      yes it’s just a name and it’s called marketing! So what everyone does it. You just need to go to the spec’s page to find the exact info. The spec’s at least are not lies!
      And naming conventions aside, the fact remains none the less that it is way ahead of the present day hmd’s in res/sde/fov–
      I’m in!

    • HybridEnergy

      The hype train is insane. People are thinking they are about to get foveated rendering with eye tracking, when the big boys in the industry have said only a week ago this technology DOES NOT EXIST in functional form.

  • Arashi

    First of all if a device has 8k in pixels it wouldn’t be deceptive to call it 8k. It would simply refer to the pixel amount. Secondly the brain would have 8k pixels to construct an image. That is why your TV analogy is wrong. A 4k TV only can feed the brain with 4k pixels. Ever tried to watch a 3d movie on a 4k TV? Your brain perceives it at half of that. So by your analogy you could not call a 4k 3d TV an 4k TV. You would claim that is deception lol

    • brandon9271

      No. Just no. lol. Seriously. Each eye sees a 4k TV. That’s 4k. Each eye sees half a display, it’s…wait for it… half the display.

      “the first generation of consumer-priced VR head-mounted displays is likely to top out at 960×1080 resolution, for the simple reason that that’s what you get when you split a 1080p screen across two eyes, and 1080p is probably going to be the highest-resolution panel available in the near future that’s small enough to fit in a head-mounted display.”

      A quote from Michael Abrash in 2012. Notice he said SPLIT a screen across two eyes. I thought a lot of software developers frequent this site. Seems more like a lot of non tech savvy folk or maybe Pimax employees…

    • Jerald Doerr

      Wrong!!! end of story.. You obviously don’t get it… so dont try to feed people your I kinda know bs as facts…

  • theonlyrealconan

    Just wait to the hear people complaining when they find out at the “8k” is not even “4k”. It is 1440 upscaled. It is confirmed on the chat/forum on their kickstarter page that the lenses are 1440. And the advertised 2160 is not native. To get native 2160, you have to order the pimax 8k x, which is still in the deisgn phase and will not come out until at least May of next year and costs $699.

    • Heliosurge

      There are 2 8k models. The 8k is 1440p per eye upscaled to 2160p (uhd/4k). The 8K-X is native 4k per eye. Eye tracking & inside out are just a couple of modular upgrades.

      • dk

        so the native 4k per eye is using dp1.4 right

        • Dan DeMontmorency

          The 8k-X will have dual dp1.4

          • dk

            hmm that’s weird dp1.4 can do 8k at 60hz …..and this is half the res of 8k……probably some cheap display driver

          • Heliosurge

            The 8k basic upscales 2 x 2560*1440 to 2 x 3840*2160 & has 1 DP 1.4.

            The 8k-X however has dual DP 1.4 to allow for native 2 x 3840*2160.

            With DP 1.4 will allow 75 to 90 hz per eye.

  • Facts

    Vr isn’t ready yet. For me the ideal headset is 200 to 220 fov, 8k resolution per eye, light weight- lighter than current headsets and less bulkier. Eye tracking, inside out position tracking, and it need to be in the price range where the masses can afford an adopt it 200$ 300$ price range.

    • Master E

      I absolutely love VR, but have to agree with your view on that what will make it acceptable to the masses it’ll need to be nearer to that uncanny valley. Also perhaps headsets that allow for VR/AR, fit more like a pair of sunglasses, wireless, and the other bells and whistles. It’s closer than it’s ever been, but not at a wow level that enters the general masses daily existence like an iPhone or something.

      • Caven

        That sort of observation is obvious and quite pointless, to be honest. Back in 1993 people could have easily said something similar about Doom versus “ideal” 3D rendering technology. But the fact of the matter is that games like Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Half-Life, and more all made significant contributions to 3D technology as applies to FPS games. If everyone decided to wait 20 years because Doom didn’t have 4K 144Hz HDR widescreen support, CD quality audio, full mouselook, support for large open worlds, unified real-time lighting with proper shadows, and high-polygon models with full physics support and procedural skeletal animation, 3D games wouldn’t have gone anywhere.

        Yes, VR tech still has a long way to go. But right now I consider VR to be in the Doom phase–that point where VR is finally starting to get good. Before the era of the Rift and Vive, VR was too crude and/or way too expensive for public interest. But right now, this is the point where VR is starting to build momentum–at least so long as people looking for disappointment don’t manage to kill it somehow.

        • Hyomoto

          The first part, yes: things take time, VR is very much in it’s infancy and it’s definitely on the cusp of being awesome. Doom awesome? Hardly. Doom was a genre-defining title that swept across PCs in the 90s and set a new bar for standards of 3d gaming. This is the very tentpole VR lacks, which is why I do not agree with your closing sentence:

          VR won’t be killed by people looking for disappointment. In fact, it’s entirely silly to blame failure on the customer as if it’s our fault for not spending enough money on it. Corporate scheming, poor product planing, lackluster applications, etc… are the things that could ‘kill’ VR. VR won’t die because ‘we didn’t like it enough’.

          The fact that VR has made it this far strongly suggests it has a future: the real issue is no one knows what that future is. It’s still to expensive, too new. What can VR do that a monitor can’t? You might even believe we’ve seen it already, as if VR will replace even ‘legacy’ gaming experiences. But we haven’t and until the hurdles of cost and application are overcome, VR will be in the holding pattern it is now with sets like the PIMAX aimed at not just the converted, but the faithful and hopeful disciples who eagerly dream of that exact future.

          • Caven

            You’re reading too much into my comment about Doom. I’m not saying that current VR has an equal commercial impact as Doom did. We are talking about different types of products after all.

            All I was saying is that from a technical standpoint, Doom was the game that got people taking FPS games seriously. Previous FPS games were just too crude to get the kind of attention Doom did. Translating that to VR, we’re seeing a similar effect. Prior to the Oculus Rift, VR was just too crude to end up on the shelves of major retailers, too crude to get the attention of major publications, and too crude to see support from big-name developers. VR has technically been around for a much longer time than FPS games have, but it’s only now with the current headsets that VR is finally at a point where it could be considered a “first generation” consumer product.

          • Hyomoto

            I definitely don’t disagree.

        • Master E

          I don’t think it’s pointless for someone to say it isn’t worthwhile for them unless it’s better quality at all. Some folks don’t have the money, time interest or desire to fuel a tech until it’s fueling them back with expectations closer to what makes them happy.

          I own multiple HMDs and at this point I’d probably only fork over the cash for something making a much higher jump technically or if a lower jump equaled more content.

          In regards to those old games there is a difference in that 4k wasn’t a blip in consumers radar in the days of Doom, wolfenstein, duke nukem etc. or even 1080p for that matter. I think people know it’s not a matter of creating tech as much as it is combining what’s out there and that leads to their expectations being high.

          I don’t understand all the hate or pessimism that this tech is going to fail however. I’ve been digging it even in its Doom form and am stoked to see what comes out next. My pockets won’t be able to take every step however.

          • Caven

            As a personal opinion, I agree with your point. After all, I’ve been in a similar situation in the past. I’ve looked at VR headsets many times in the past and found myself thoroughly underwhelmed by their specs and software support. I didn’t have a particular “minimum spec” in mind at the time, but I could already tell that the headsets of the time weren’t anywhere close to meeting it. And when I saw the Oculus DK1, that’s when I realized I had found my threshold. But there’s a difference between my own personal threshold for VR and a perceived minimum requirement for mass adoption.

            My issue is when the opinion is extended to the public as a whole. Arguing that the price and features need to improve for mass adoption is quite obvious, because that’s how it works with just about everything. And I take exception to choosing an arbitrary milestone, because that’s not how mass adoption works. On a practical level, as features and price improve, more people start to adopt, which encourages further improvements, and ultimately increases the momentum associated with mass adoption. There are still intermediate steps (potentially several of them) between current VR and the hypothetical “mass market” headset, and each of those steps is what will build the market far enough to justify building that hypothetical mass-market headset. No manufacturer is going to skip directly to that milestone–especially when it requires video technology that doesn’t even exist yet. DisplayPort can’t run one 8K display at more than 60Hz, let alone two of them. The next version of DisplayPort might barely be able to do it, but good luck making an inexpensive headset that requires video cards that don’t exist yet and can’t begin to exist until the next DisplayPort spec is finalized. And that’s just one piece of the puzzle.

            The hypothetical mass market headset can’t exist in isolation. For it to become a reality, it requires building upon all the lesser headsets that came before. If some people choose to wait for that mass market product, that’s perfectly fine and understandable. But those people won’t ever get that product unless other products pave the way first. Focusing on the destination doesn’t do away with the need for the journey, and with all the active development in various VR technologies, it’s not as if the industry needs to be reminded of what they’re aiming for.

            By the way, it’s true 4K wasn’t on anybody’s radar back in 1993, but 640×480 was already a thing back then, with higher resolutions available or on the way. People still had to accept video compromises back then for cutting edge FPS gaming.

    • Dan DeMontmorency

      That price range would be awesome with those specs! See you in 3 to 5 years!

  • Master E

    If Pimax is coming up with this I’d like to thing HTC, Oculus, or Google have something just as special or better right around the corner. I’m hesitant to invest when I know there are leading companies, with exponentially larger budgets and an established market behind them.

    Guess I just want a reason to support this, but my hope resides in these other companies right now.

  • Konchu

    I’m excited I just wish the difference in the 8K and the 8K X was a breakout box or module. realistically I dont know I would want to pay the hardware tax to run the x all the time but would be nice to have the option.

  • Torben Bojer Christensen

    If the input is 2560×1440 per eye and there will be a version with 2560×1440 OLED panels pr eye, why then even bother to make a upscaling 3840×2160 version with inferior dynamic range and panel technology?!? …I am sure as hell getting the 2560×1440 OLED version og the two if I am to choose from the specs.

  • chuan_l

    Thanks for pointing out the 8K upscaling —
    Managed to change my pledge from 3K to native input !

  • Hyomoto

    I personally just have trouble believing the claims. It’s not that this fledgling industry couldn’t be shaken up by a newcomer, I just wonder how Pimax has supposedly overcome all the hurdles of cost, performance and reliability that Valve and Oculus are apparently unable to.

    I understand status quo and to be blunt: the fact neither Valve nor Oculus have updated their base headsets since launch suggests at some level these challenges must be real. There’s literally profit to be had in launching an updated headset/sensor/controller/whatever and if they had them, it certainly begs the question what would keep them from launching it.

    Pimax on the other hand has basically claimed to solve all the problems of VR, that alone deserves taking it with a grain of salt. Not saying no one should take a chance on it, just surprised this isn’t the question dominating every single discussion.

  • Fredrik Sjöborg

    Scott, the PiMax does not stretch the rendered image, this has been confirmed both by screenshots provided by them and by people demoing the device after the fact. Not sure why Tested felt there was stretching going on but it doesn’t seem to be true.

  • Lucidfeuer

    Was disappointed by the previous one, will wait for the 8KX to see if well upscaled and screen-lense alignment is done well to avoid stretches.

  • brubble

    Made in China huh? I can see the patent infringement lawsuits piling up already. Still though, Id give a look to this before the Rift or Vive.

    • VRdeluxe

      You should look into it. Checkout their new V3 prototype, It’s solid. Also keep an eye out for reviews from NYVR this weekend. They are demoing the improvements

  • Adrian Meredith

    For the those of you moaning that its not 8K, it actually is by the definition of it. the ‘K’ aspect merely comes from the largest resolution in a particular direction and full HD is now referred to as 2K. Yes I appreciate that when tv marketers settled on this definition they weren’t taking superwide/dual screens into account PiMax aren’t being dishonest, just playing the system

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Yes, 8K only refers to the horizontal resolution, what people refer to as 4K is actually ‘4k UHD’, the UHD also specifies the vertical resolution.

    • theonlyrealconan

      The 5k model is 2560×1440. The 8k model is 2560×1440 upscaled to 4k per eye. The 8kx (which will be native 4k per eye) is not being released until at least May of 2018 and is not even built yet.

      So they are not even right about 4k, much less 8k.

  • FireAndTheVoid

    Fresh review out from Tom’s Hardware: “We’ve seen a lot of discussion online about the image in the Pimax headset being stretched, with people suggesting that games are rendered at the same FOV as the Vive and then stretched. We did not observe such characteristics, and the Pimax representative told us that SteamVR handles the native FOV of the headset.”
    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/pimax-8k-vr-headset-trial,35745.html

  • JesperL

    2x4K or whatever – I am just curious about what kind of PC and graphics card is needed to run this beast at 90 FPS?
    Is it even possible to run a game like Fallout4 in these resolutions, without having your PC break in half?

    • Sofian

      While the panels are 2x4k, It’s rendered at 2(2560×1440) then upscaled to 2x4k. So far all the demo were running on a laptop gtx1080.

    • theonlyrealconan

      The 5k model is 2560×1440. The 8k model is 2560×1440 upscaled to 4k per eye. The 8kx is not being released until at least May of 2018 and they warn that even a 1080ti might not be able to run it.

    • Jerald Doerr

      No!! Lol

  • gothicvillas

    My GPU is Titan X (2015 old one). I wonder would this be enough?

  • HybridEnergy

    Choo chooooo ! here comes the hype train choo choooo! tatatatatatatatatatatata choo chooooo! 200 fov, tech from the future that doesn’t exist yet such as eye tracking, free everything for kickstarter backers, coming in only a few months, runs on current hardware perfectly, makes coffee, and will cure cancer if we reach 3.5 million. Choo choooo!

    • VRdeluxe

      You clearly don’t know anything about this product

    • FireAndTheVoid

      It can also make coffee!? That’s awesome! But yeah, they are promising quite a lot. I only have confidence that they can deliver what they are currently demo’ing. On the other hand, technology is only “tech from the future” until it isn’t.

  • Jerald Doerr

    If anyone is intesrested I stubbaled over some new videos of the Pimax 8k headset. As it looks or they clame the videos are running on a 1070. BUT I specifically put the last video in its spot becouse I personal dont belive a 1070 is running 2x 4k screens natively at 80hz. Even if it is the fps must be around 40 fps.. I’m sorry I just still feel a little bit of trickery is going on.

    “Projectcars 2”
    https://youtu.be/xjkGcX-GeJ8

    “Vangaurd V”
    https://youtu.be/mb2I7IhrZW8

    “DCS”
    https://youtu.be/MxwsL64GhSU

    “Adventure Time”
    https://youtu.be/7pmsUqWq2RQ

    Now this last one perplexes me just a little bit..
    “Pimax 8k Refresh Rate Test 10/30”
    https://youtu.be/ijlzO4L4L8c