The G2 only got such a high share because of the massive indirect advertising. Flight simmers, whose first headset is the G2, recommend it to everyone without comparison as the ultimate. Funnily enough, no one was interested in the G1, which is almost identical in terms of optics.
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You make a good point, flight simmers do recommend the G2 but i think the G2 has better tracking than the G1 and also the launch of msfs 2020 vr came shortly after the launch of the G2 so the market for it was created, msfs vr market didn’t exist when the G1 was on sale.
I’ve had a G2 and indeed it is a good hmd for msfs with its high clarity. In the price range I’d recommend it over a quest 2 for msfs. Still prefer the 8kx though over a G2 for msfs because of the fov whilst being close on clarity. If only pp were not needed.
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The tracking is hardly worse with the G1. Only the headphones and the thinner cable make the big difference.
But the G1 has a larger sharpness range again. (I know some who prefer the G1)
What the G2 benefitted from was the daily, or hourly “not” ads via youtube for over 3 months until release.
The total broadcast time was definitely as much as you can find for all other HMDs together 
@PimaxUSA you have to hurry up. If BTC continues to fall like the last 4 months, I’ll soon run out of money for the 12k!
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I did not claim that users value fov above all else. My remarks are specifically about FOV vs clarity. And more specifically about the direct trade off between FOV vs clarity when resolution is fixed. Every VR headset design has to make a decision about that compromise.
Clarity is important, but FOV is even more important for most VR usage.
So why doesn’t Pimax pick up more market share than it does? Because their headsets come with substantial other drawbacks. Much of that is a direct result of the technical difficulty in achieving such wide FOV. It makes them the largest and bulkiest headsets on the consumer market just to begin with. If Pimax could market a product that had the same wide FOV but with the usability of an Index, it would make a killing.
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Speaking of which…
One little piece of infomercial curio Pimax could pop out in the mean time, would be a PPI map of the per-eye FOV, showing how the optics distribute the screen density to produce 35PPI (presumably in the centre of each lens), how it tapers, and how it separates in stereo.
Just doing the simple linear division, which is a fundamentally flawed thing to do, 5760/159 (horizontal per eye) is indeed ca.36, but on the other hand 3240/135 (vertical) is only 24.
In the first case, you typically lose a lot of pixels to the far periphery due to the oblique angle (presumably a good bit less so, with the dual element lenses giving that angle a sharp bend), but on the other hand, the pincushion distortion of typical lenses compresses things around the centre, which would push the density up there, in both axes.
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Honestly the first HMD that pairs a good display with asperical lenses AND wide fov (about 150 like normal fov on Pimax 8kx) and 30+ppd will win it for me. The big hurdle is: Display port. The 12k showed 2 of them in use. That’s the only way to do the resolution they promise as they were already at the max for display port 1.4: 90hz38402160*2. Sadly just found from heliosurge that new 8kXs no longer support 60hz and 75hz, which I enjoy. They were relying in DSC compression to achieve 90hz, hence why it blinked on everyone’s HMD? The 12k can be only 2x as sharp overall with 2 display ports. I mean lenses and supersampling aside of course. The varjo also tapped out display port 1.4 with its resolution at 90hz. So effectively the 12k is the only one in the works showing the capability of providing higher bandwidth thus far. I doubt meta or Apple will make that jump and will either go wide fov (unlikely) or go high res, but not beat the 12k in a dead heat for bandwidth. Display port 2.0 is 3x as wide bandwidth but would need to be supported by both you GPU and the HMD. I simply doubt they would cut themselves out of older GPUs (again) to provide the connections. I have concerns that Pimax will brute force this and have a heavier unit and and/or a thicker cable. Which could be a deal breaker. Also they want to cram SO many features in the 12k that weight may be an issue. I think their decision to make their own SORTA PC is a bad move. They should have stuck to displays. They are trying to do TOO much and they were the big boys on display tech. Maybe they’ll make a limited version that is all about the display and drops the baggage, but with it all installed how much will it weigh? Why do inside out tracking when you make sword controllers. Why do Wigig when it is spotty and you need three transceivers to achieve line of sight (and even then not enough bandwidth to cast 12ks full potential. Much of what I say is of course speculation but we don’t have much to go on otherwise. Honestly I love Pimax but they are reaching far bigger than their funding at this point they will be outmatched by Meta and Apple. PSVR2 will phone it in with a affordable model and Apple will make an OLED 6k or something too pretty, light, and expensive and thus won’t be wide FOV, which I can’t live without…I have a feeling I’ll be rocking my 8kX for a LONG time since I want a 4090 just to power it pretty as it is! If I had to say what my next purchase would be I’d hope its a 4090, not a new HMD. I’m so happy with my 8KX (minus the weight and technical glitches). Just let me supersample and I’ll be happiest. Which got me wondering: could Nvidia make and HMD? AMD/intel make and HMD?
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The 12KX sounds really intriguing to me but I could also see myself being content with my 8KX if I had a 4090 to really push it. I’ve seen how good it can look with higher settings on my 1080ti but obviously can’t actually play at those levels. I just have no reason to believe that a 40 series card will be any easier to get than the 30 series has been. If that turns out to be the case…and IF it turns out that the 12K can even run on a 1080ti…and IF it turns out to be as good as advertised… then I could still see myself taking advantage of the trade-in program to get one just in preparation for whenever I am able to get a new gpu.
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The big hurdle would be distortion. Varjo can’t even get it right on such a small FoV. Imagine how the 12k would look with Asphalt lenses?
Distortions not a problem if you keep it in then periphery. In fact when using ffr is smooth out the low resolution perfectly to make it so you peripheral vision is not distracted by juggles while you look ahead.
Presumably they will lean rather heavily on foveated transport, as well as on-device motion smoothing. How far that can carry them, and how much of advertised specs they can achieve all at the same time, and at what varieties of quality penalties, remains to be seen. :7
12k won’t be wireless. The wigig standard offers 7GBps bandwidth. Thats not even enough for 4k at 60hz. Forget two 6k screens by 200hz. Thats where the two DP cables are needed.
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I assumed it would be WiGiG 2. That said, they could use original WiGiG with lossless compression (seeing as the 12k has a builtin chipset, unlike the Vive wireless adapter which required just a straight signal).
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I’ll be very disappointed if it isn’t wireless.
If you’re looking at it as transmitting straight uncompressed raster data, then wireless can’t work. Not for the 12K, not for the Vive Pro, and not for the Quest 2 either.
The 12K wireless scheme will doubtless employ compression of some kind just as every other wireless solution does. It will probably use foveated transport as well.
The variables here are how much latency will its wireless have and how much loss of visual fidelity vs wired. I don’t think there’s any question about wireless being possible on the 12K. The question is how good will it be.
By the numbers, it’s possible for it to be very good. So it’s really just a matter of Pimax’s implementation.
Wigig 2 got approved mid last year and it actually has even more bandwidth than wired DP 1.4 does. That’s how wireless without massive compression hell is gonna be possible, not using the same old standard as the Vive Pro did. They’ll have 6E but that’s likely to be a lot more compressed and limited.
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I posted my thoughts about bandwidth and wireless for the 12k just a bit ago.
Would be great to get confirmation if the 12k is Wigig 1 or 2, I would be shocked if it was Wigig 1 tbh.
Is 12K oled? If so I dont think another hmd with same or better IPD will matter if they are still on lcd.
Besides its definetly not about one spec. To me its the hires + fov + blacklevels that will be untouchable for many years.
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12k is QLED, with is afaik a normal LCD panel but with a quantum layer dot. It’s definitely not OLED. Pimax claim that it’s HDR, if that’s true then it should look better in terms of colour than any headset on the market currently.
Current OLED panels on the market don’t have true black, iirc, it’s because they can’t fully turn off a pixel without causing persistence issues. That said, current OLED still obviously have much much better blacks than current LCD. The PSVR2 will be the first headset with true black, it is also HDR. There’s no HDR headsets on the market currently, I’m pretty sure.
Take everything I’m saying with a pinch of salt, hopefully someone more knowledgeable can chime in. If the 12K is like they claim then it will look better in terms of colour than any headset out currently, although I’d imagine the PSVR2 will have it beat.
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Yeah so its still lcd, but are they utilizing mini led for the backlight so they can do local area dimming?
Im also banking on psvr2 getting hacked to work on pc.
Theres alot of smart people out there and its just a usbc signal they need to contend with.
Theres a small possibility down the line they could even officially announce compatibility with pc. But for that to happen they would really be desparate to sell more headsets than ps5’s.
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