Pimax 12k reality series - my thoughts

Hmm, not so sure about this one - they are not really competing in the same space. I would of course super happy if Oculus released a high end headset for say $800 or $1,000 but it is unlikely, given their focus on casual mass appeal. The highest being expected at current seems to be approx. $600 for their new Quest 3 or Pro. The overlap would likely lie in the tracking of eyes, face and body, but I fear that’s about it, otherwise Oculus will aim lower than Pimax (but polish their offering to way higher standards than Pimax, completely different level of professionalism given the budget Facebook is providing).

I have been wondering what drove Pimax to burst out with this wonder specs so early - but I guess the answer simply is, because they are Pimax and not much has changed, it’s still more or less the same characters at the top (what happened to Nordic ? Don’t hear much of him these days). They are just so eager to show what they have planned & tried. While others cover their R&D in shrouds until the production is ramped up, Pimax gives away their road map early.

At the end, it may have been a plan to protect the sales of the 8KX & co… But less related to Oculus, more towards Varjo (and Valve some day) - these plus the G2 are their competitors in the higher end class. Imagine, the 12K doesn’t arrive on schedule, but 1, 2 years late. You know it’s supposed to come, with all the goodies Pimax announced. Now you want to upgrade your VR experience today, not in an uncertain future - but at the same time the 12K has more exciting specs than the Aero. So what do you do ? Hey, Pimax said grab an 8KX today, and send it back when the 12K releases - so you get an upgrade over your Rift S or whatever you are using today and at the same time don’t miss out on the new holy grail of VR, the 12K. And like that - snatch - the customer has been lured away from Varjo…
(and if Pimax never release a 12K, they lured a number of users into buying a headset from their current line-up :see_no_evil: Okay, I’m sure that’s not their thinking but it could even work out that way if they completely mess up the development of the 12K)

The point is, the 12K sounds way more complex than the 8K/8KX did. And certainly than the DMAS did; yet they had to delay the releases of both considerably.

So many different components to integrate into one headset; a whole range of critical paths I see with the tech they are aiming to bring in. Frankly I am afraid it could end up as a device which technically possesses all the advertised specs yet doesn’t deliver a substantial part of them properly (like the eye-tracking module, DMAS - yes, both were released and delivered, but underwhelmed a fair portion of the recipients).

Due to this much greater complexity I foresee a big chance for them to not meet the targeted date. When I said earlier that I expected them to be 6-12 months late, that actually is what I consider an optimistic prognosis because that is what I would likely even think if this was Varjo who had announced that kind of wild specs.

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The Hmd sounds incredible. Great marketing also. Vast improvement.

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@PimaxUSA @PimaxQuorra @PimaxVR

Enjoyed the presentation. If the quality of the new headsets shows the same advancement and polish as it then, confidence is high. Nice job. :smiley:

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I think Pimax wants to create really good products, but trying doesn’t always mean succeeding, sometimes you have to make compromises. Audio headphones, wireless module, and controllers can be part of those tradeoffs. However, I’m happy that 8KX is a significantly better headset than what was promised at the Kickstarter, so I think this 12K will be a great product as well, even if compromises will need to be made that are currently unforeseeable.

But I completely agree on white text over white background :neutral_face:

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I know you guys have the fixed foveated prototype using a micro led display for a fixed foveated display (which is dope AF BTW) but I was wondering something.

With those 6k LCD’s, if they were run in a cascaded configuration (2 panels stacked with a pixel offset) per eye you could potentially get retina level resolution/PPD across the whole FOV, and just use the tobi eye tracking to save on rendering, and have the foveated region move with your gaze as opposed to being fixed in one position.

I know that would probably cost double, but, it may work for enterprise.

now let them finish the planned thing first. :joy:

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I only mentioned it cause it seemed like less work along the lines of what they are already testing, (the 4 screens) but with better functionality.

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We didn’t really talk about this but there’s more to it. So there are 2 types of FR, there is DFR (dynamic foveated rendering) that helps with the frame rate and there is FT (foveated transport) which reduces the bandwidth. This assembly supports both so it can really have dramatic affects. Numerous techniques are used to make the high resolution, high refresh rate combo happen.

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If anybody is interested you can read more about some of the magic that makes this all possible here:

Just imagine the possibilities this new combination of technology offers. In the past when we push new firmware it was things like selectable FOV and base refresh with other improvements around the edges. Now we can push much more fundamental improvements.

The integrated xr2 does a lot for PCVR such as audio processing, sub processing for the high speed tracking and a lot of other internal functions. This makes the implementation far more consistent between computers.

My hope is that a lot of people out there share the vision of truly immersive VR and at least appreciate that Pimax is trying every way possible to get there.

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Hey thanks for the link Kevin, really interresting reading :slight_smile:

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When I mention thoughts to you guys it is never meant to be unappreciative, or unaware of the awesome steps you guys have made in VR.

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Is this the magic that allows two 6K frames to be sent at 120Hz from DP1.4?

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I wasn’t going there about your comment, was just speaking in general that it’s my hope that there are a lot of us who really are rooting for great VR that is a lot more immersive and realistic than what we see today. Hopefully a lot of companies feel that way too and work towards amazing things we haven’t even thought of yet.

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Can we all agree Pimaxians should be known as Pimaxers? Sounds loads less janky.

Thanks for the details, some interesting stuff for sure.

Defo props for listening to feedback and trying to push the boundaries.

I don’t know the direction of what Pimax is going to take but this announcement about the 12K sounds to good to be true. If they want to meet their target of Q4 2022 consumer able to buy a fully working 12K on release date, then they should focus entirely on the 12K. They should of named it the Frontier 1, instead of every K resolution there is.

It’s great that Pimax is pushing the advancements in VR tech and making it available to consumers. There’s a variety of VR users out there and not all of them are enthusiasts. Pimax from here on in should have just have the 12K model and if they want to compete with say Ouest 2, Pimax should develop and release a standalone VR headset designed for the masses with Pimax’s own Eco content system as Facebook is controlling that currently but Pimax’s is more developer friendly to create content. I just hope Pimax do some proper troubleshooting, quality testing and iron out all the bugs that have the plagued existing models. Just my thoughts.

I hope Pimax can deliver this unbelievable HMD, time will tell.

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Unrelated, but will this new headset still have the same “Near IPD, Far IPD” problem as last time? IE, the distance between the center of the lenses is not what the headset actually displays? I really am excited for this headset, but this has me quite worried if it is not fixed. I read a measurement that the distance between the center fresnel rings on the lenses of a current Pimax is actually 70mm on the lowest IPD setting. Is this still the case, or have you guys shifted to the standard reading? :sweat_smile:

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Pimaxians are beings inhibit planet Pimax, Pimaxers are just ordinary ppl using a pimax headset.

Pimax 12k has so much wow, wearers are transported to a galaxy far far away on planet Pimax and become Pimaxians.

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@PimaxUSA
Will the new QLED Mini back-lit displays be capable of HDR? I really hope so, that would be epic and a must have headset for sure!

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Indeed they are. In fact we licensed a special algorithm that processes HDR on these panels.

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