During my testing of Crystal Super and 8KX side to side, I asked Pimax if they could send me a spare face mask to conduct a destructive modification experiment in attemtp to get eyes closer to lens and improve clarity on sides for people of similar head shape.
They did indeed and I tried that, reaching some succes, making some mistakes and obtaining some lessons to share.
Unlike Super UW, 8KX have more pronounced canted lenses design so the results cannot be measured in something as objective as focusable HFOV increase, but I made following notes regarding clarity vs blur:
Original Face mask thin cushion
Horizontal angle from center (eg. 60 = border of 120 HFOV) - description
30 - Slight blur
40 - Noticeable blur
50 - Strong blur
60 - Hard to read even big text
Modified face mask - 3-4mm + 15m cushion form Crystal Super
30 - Slight blur, improvement inconclusive
40 - Noticeable blur, improvement inconclusiove
50 slightly sharper, still quite blurry
60 Strong blur but a bit more readable
- Better comfort. Can be tightened a lot and still be comfortable, very secure with filling gaps by double velcro strips
Lessons learned
My mistake was I was too ambitious, expecting more material needs to be removed to make imact than in reality, especially in the bottom part. I removed about 3-4 mm along the mask, but in reality about 2mm in top should be enough for thin pad and I shouldn’t remove in tho bottom.
In any way I should have only remove 2-3 mm in the centre of the forehead part and gradually lessen it towards edges and let flexibility of the material do the work.
Now I have to use unnecessary amount of double velcro to prevent light leaks, especially at the bottom, where in the center the nose piece sets limit to how far it can be pushed in in.
Photodocumentation:
Original face mask in headset top
Modified face mask in headset top
Modified face mask cushion gap fill
Both masks headset interface from top (notice carving out the space for cable on left top)
Both masks headset interface from bottom
