Pimax VR 4K - Menu Issue - Please Help

you are welcome wormeaten!!:thumbup:

You are right about posting this issue in the pimax forums...right now I dont have an account there but will try to make one and post this there. The problem is right now I dont have many time and also have a new "problem": As my 29UM58 monitor only has HDMI port and my 1070 (as all:P) only has 1 HDMI I had to buy a DP to HDMI adapter to be hable to use pimax and monitor at the same time...

At first I bought a non-active adapter which worked fine but only at 1080p max res :mad:...then I bought another one, this time an active one to 4k 60Hz but for some reason, pimax refuses to work with it and as soon as I move my head the screen goes totally black and I cant do anything...tried using the adapter for the monitor but randomly it make the display to make some lines that I dont like one bit so not sure if the adapter is broken or what but Im tired of spendind money and time on this :mad: so basically I have the pimax disconnected right now until I find a fix for all this...

About the opentrack thing, I tried several options in input like steam vr but didnt work...anyway, there are several threads in the pimax forum about this an as far as Im concerned there is no way (or easy way) to make this work. I think the best thing we can do is wait until Nolos get released and see if they work fine and post about the vertical DCS menu issue. :thumbup:

EDIT: I registered and posted this issue in the pimax forums so you guys can post there and comment your experiences with this problem...lets hope they fix it if we are many :thumbup::

http://forum.pimaxvr.com/t/screen-in-portrait-mode-when-in-pimax-direct-mode-problem-dcs-world/1163

 

EDIT: I registered and posted this issue in the pimax forums so you guys can post there and comment your experiences with this problem...lets hope they fix it if we are many :thumbup::

 

http://forum.pimaxvr.com/t/screen-in-portrait-mode-when-in-pimax-direct-mode-problem-dcs-world/1163

I post something there to support you will be good if others join us even just to make growing numbers to rais problem and get higher priority.

Come on guys support us! thanks. :pilotfly:

I post something there to support you will be good if others join us even just to make growing numbers to rais problem and get higher priority.

 

Come on guys support us! thanks. :pilotfly:

Yes, all of you guys with pimax vr should post in that thread :thumbup:

There is some activity on Pimax forum on this issue, also new Piplay version but for DCS do not upgrade because in new version DCS is not working.

Peoples post some trick how to enter in game and in game everything is working OK.

Thats not true...in game you cant see comms menu nor anything involved with menus so the game is far from usable right now...

Thats not true...in game you cant see comms menu nor anything involved with menus so the game is far from usable right now...

My bed. So that means everything actually present all the time same way?

I saw someone mentioned in the thread that disabling direct mode in steam(which enables extended mode) fixes the menu issue. I can confirm that it works but performance is a lot worse as stated. Watch these videos carefully and then start trying out which settings work best for you.

Being that this is the first VR device that has the resolution i look for, has ED given any indication that they will develop this for DCS ? With the add-on tracking it can be my threshold system.

And how is the current experience in DCS ?

I would purchase this in a second if it was supported, but the issue I am seeing is that the pimax

is acting like a dual monitor. That is something that is new to game designers ect.

It will take some doing to get it working well.

I would fork out the cash for a 4k VR @60hz. BUT the other issue I see....

WHY the heck DCS will NOT SUPPORT CROSSFIRE and SLI!!!!!!!!!!

2-GPU's will make running 4k a NON ISSUE.... Yes my single can do 4k pretty well.. BUT not as good as the fury 9x in CROSSFIRE!....

I vote to have these 2 issues solved.... I will then purchase a VR headset....

I sent my ACER ultrawide 38" back due to the screen issues.... so I am back to 1080..... I can't tell you How much better it is to be in 3340X1480 Ultrawide. !!!

I don't have to zoom it to see things like I do in 1920X1080 29" monitor things just look AWSOME.... battlefield 1 is fantastic to play....

and yes... it supports crossfire... and wow... it is fun!

will this improve in near future?

i will order this PIMAX vr as soon as it is fully compatible with DCS (and Xplane)

I would purchase this in a second if it was supported, but the issue I am seeing is that the pimax

is acting like a dual monitor. That is something that is new to game designers ect.

 

It will take some doing to get it working well.

I would fork out the cash for a 4k VR @60hz. BUT the other issue I see....

WHY the heck DCS will NOT SUPPORT CROSSFIRE and SLI!!!!!!!!!!

 

2-GPU's will make running 4k a NON ISSUE.... Yes my single can do 4k pretty well.. BUT not as good as the fury 9x in CROSSFIRE!....

 

I vote to have these 2 issues solved.... I will then purchase a VR headset....

 

I sent my ACER ultrawide 38" back due to the screen issues.... so I am back to 1080..... I can't tell you How much better it is to be in 3340X1480 Ultrawide. !!!

 

I don't have to zoom it to see things like I do in 1920X1080 29" monitor things just look AWSOME.... battlefield 1 is fantastic to play....

and yes... it supports crossfire... and wow... it is fun!

Crossfire and SLi will cause Frame Latency in VR... Especially in AFR Modes.

Which is Why it's not integrated in SteamVR nor Oculus VR Libraries.

As for PiMax 4K, it's not officially Supported. and the problem is the Unit is Reporting Portrait Orientation instead of Landscape, That is something that needs to be addressed on the hardware end, and nothing can be done about it, when running PiPlay in Oculus/SteamVR Direct Emulation modes

And isn't the headset locked to 30Hz @4k resolution, because of HDMI1.4?

If so, you can actually only use 2k for playing games and that's not better than the Rift/Vive.

Crossfire and SLi will cause Frame Latency in VR... Especially in AFR Modes.

 

Which is Why it's not integrated in SteamVR nor Oculus VR Libraries.

 

 

As for PiMax 4K, it's not officially Supported. and the problem is the Unit is Reporting Portrait Orientation instead of Landscape, That is something that needs to be addressed on the hardware end, and nothing can be done about it, when running PiPlay in Oculus/SteamVR Direct Emulation modes

Thanks for the heads up on the Pimax, looks like i have to put it behind me. Now to my question, what are your plans for supporting the Microsoft AR/VR platform ?

I am looking to buy a VR headset to coincide with the F/A-18 release, hoping to get something with better resolution than Vive/Rift, and a Microsoft supported headset is destined to be a major player.

I bought the Pimax 4k 3 days ago, and have just got it working with TrackIR and full menus and full comms menus.

I have seen several posts here and elsewhere about how TrackIR doesn't work in 6DOF with the Pimax. I just got TrackIR working in 6 DOF with the Pimax 4K (ver 1.2.53 and F/W 1.0.0.248 ) and the NON Steam version of DCS World 1.5.

The trick that worked for me is to be in "Pimax Mode". Then open the SteamVR settings, go to the "Developer" section, and uncheck "Start SteamVR when an application starts". Then close SteamVR before opening DCS from the desktop DCS icon. The HMD still tracks in the menu screens, but the TrackIR over rides it in game.

So now as well as pitch and yaw, we can move horizontally, vertically, and forward/back.

Also, just for reference, the menu screens can be seen fully (no cutting off of the menus).

I bought the Pimax 4k 3 days ago, and have just got it working with TrackIR....

Sounds great! What about a full review Pimax/DCS..?

And isn't the headset locked to 30Hz @4k resolution, because of HDMI1.4?

 

If so, you can actually only use 2k for playing games and that's not better than the Rift/Vive.

No it is locked on 1440p 60Hz but point of 4K is 806 PPI so there is no SDE even without any blurring filter like on CV1 and extremely sharp picture. It is LCD so color is not that vivid like OLED or PSI but clearitiy is so good and compensate that detail.

Sounds great! What about a full review Pimax/DCS..?

Yea with Youtube video and music wish from Jukebox. :smartass:

Sounds great! What about a full review Pimax/DCS..?

Well, this is not a full review as such, but a copy/paste from a post I made in a Facebook group - I haven't pasted any in game pictures since the screenshots you get are not at the same resolution you see in the HMD.

TLDR: It was well worth the £239 I paid in the Gearbest flash sale for the Pimax HMD.

OK first, I am using the NON Steam version of DCS World. Pimax does talk to SteamVR, but I can't say how it works with the Steam version of DCS. I have only had the Pimax 4k for less than a week, so I'm still very much new to the whole VR with DCS thing. All I can do is tell you about my experience so far.

I didn't do anything special to get it to work with DCS - just set up the Pimax with the latest 1.2.53 drivers, left it in "Pimax Mode", and started DCS from the desktop icon as usual. DCS simultaneously started in the center of my monitor in what I would guess is 875 x 1080 resolution (this is not related to Pimax resolution), as well as in my HMD in an unknown, but clear resolution. There have been several discussions on the Pimax forums about how to capture the actual resolution you see in the headset, but I haven't seen a definitive answer on how to get a reading of the actual HMD resolution yet. While the Pimax does say it is 4K on the box, the max resolution it can be is limited by the HDMI cable that connects the Pimax to your graphics card.

The first cool surprise was that when you put the headset on and see the DCS main menu, you are not looking at a flat screen, but you're in the middle of a 3D a hangar with an SU-27 - the game menu floats in the air in front of you. I'm sure Oculus and Vive folks knew all about that, but it was new to me! I don't have any VR controllers with the HMD. No problem for DCS, but somewhat problematic for most SteamVR games. You can either look directly at the menu choice you want, and then click the mouse when you have the HMD's cursor over it, or there's a setting in the DCS options that allows you to use the mouse as normal to navigate and click the menus, rather than having to look directly at the menu choice before clicking it.

Once you get into game, I use the "Pause" key to start the sim, since the Fly button is sometimes obscured by bits of cockpit. I found it important to have the IPD (inter-pupillary distance) set correctly in the Pimax software to keep all the gauges in sharpest focus. Of the aircraft I have tried, the A-10C HUD is least "in focus" due in part to the font they are using, but even that is still readable depending on what is in front of the aircraft - green fields good - hazy horizon more challenging to read). Other HUDs seem very readable no matter what the background. I tried an early build Oculus Rift at the Farnborough airshow a couple years ago when VEAO had a Hawk setup in a tent there, and I was not impressed with the low resolution of the Rift (perhaps the Rift has increased its resolution since then - I don't know). So, DCS in the Pimax displays at some resolution that I can only guess is something higher than the Oculus. By default the Pimax has "head tracking" for viewing in the pitch & yaw axes, but as I posted above, you can get TrackIR to work in 6 DOF if you prefer. With most DCS aircraft, you can use the Ctrl-Shift + keypad keys to move in the "missing" axes if you don't hook up the TrackIR. i.e. up/down/left/right/forward/back. I haven't done it yet, but you could bind those to a hat switch or two if you wanted to. If the view drifts away from center (like the TrackIR does every so often), the keypad 5 key centers the view in the Pimax.

But when you sit back and just look at the view, it is the most immersive experience I have had since flying a real military jet. The HUD is focused at infinity - a visual effect I have only ever seen in a real jet before, the view over your shoulder in a bank gives the real impression of height, and the wings look awesome (I spent 10 minutes trying to describe what I mean by "awesome", but I don't have the words - know that it's nothing like looking at them on a 2D monitor, or through Nvidia 3D glasses)! Also, if you turn the pilot body on, it's a thing watching your arms move even though they are not your real arms. It is REALLY tempting to want to reach down and flip all the switches on the consoles - one time I actually tried to rest my hand on the canopy rail! Luckily I had nothing anywhere near my hand to knock off the desk at the time. On the ground, the F2 view makes the aircraft look life size if you move your head to where it would be if you were standing next to the jet.

There's also a slider in the DCS menu that allows you to increase the pixel density from a default of 1 to a max of 2.5. The 2.5 setting did look a bit sharper, but brought my computer to it's knees, so I set it back to 1.0 with my system: i7 2600k CPU, 16GB RAM, MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G, running on Win 10. So, my computer is not that high end by today's standards, but it still runs the Pimax at between 20 fps (looking at a city) to 60fps (looking at an aircraft in flight from underneath).

However, it's definitely not all plain sailing...

1) The Pimax wants to take over my desktop's sound output and route everything through its "optional to wear" speakers - I have to go into the control panel to send the sound back through my speakers every time after booting up the HMD.

2) My "no controllers" Pimax option makes many SteamVR games unplayable (they require hand motion controllers).

3) Some part of the Pimax software load has caused one of my two MSI GTX 970 Gaming X cooling fans to run at about 50% speed all the time instead of only when it is needed for cooling (this fan will only run properly now in the BIOS menu or if I load Win 10 into safe mode). I suspect it could be because I clicked "install" when the Pimax install wanted me to load what appears to be DirectX 9, but I'm not sure.

4) The A-10C cockpit does not seem to respond to Ctrl-Shift + keypad view shift controls, but that's not a Pimax issue.

5) It can be a bit hit and miss changing settings in the Pimax software - sometimes they take, and sometimes they don't.

So that's what I know after a couple days. Hopefully I'll learn more in the days to come. I'll post if I come across anything that changes anything I have said.

Mini FAQ:

Is the Pimax 4k real: Yes!

I've never heard of Pimax - do they actually send you something in the mail if you give them money?: Yes!

Is it easy to set up for DCS: A little fiddly at first - read the instructions in the Pimax forum. It's not as "Plug and Play" as, say, a TrackIR, but I have found that with persistence I can get where I want to go.

Does it really run at 4K?: No, but it does run at 2560 x 1440 in extended mode ("Video Mode") - I can't tell the actual headset resolution in DCS.

What about the speakers?: The headset speakers are removable, and I have never used them since I either want to hear my high quality surround speakers driving the jet noise, or I'm using a headset to talk to buddies.

Can you wear glasses with them?: Yes, if they are not too big.

Is it comfortable?: Yes, the big foam surround is comfortable on my face, and the head straps are adjustable.

How do you change the IPD (Inter-pupillary distance)?: In the Pimax software

Can it be used with SteamVR?: Yes, but you need hand controllers for most VR games and the SteamVR setup, an option I did not purchase.

Have you tried it with any other games other than DCS?: Yes, Project Cars and Elite Dangerous, but I have not yet been able to get it to work properly with the NON Steam version of ED. I bought the Pimax based on an excellent review from a guy using it on Steam's version of ED, so I imagine I'll figure it out eventually! It also has Oculus Home compatibility, but I haven't tested that yet.

Does it work in both DCS 1.5 and 2.0?: Yes

Are you a spokesperson for Pimax?: Absolutely not - I'd never even heard of them 2 weeks ago!

In summary, it is a less expensive way to get into VR (around £245 / $300 including shipping insurance in my case), and overall my experience and immersion has been very positive. Bottom line is that I love it - your mileage may vary!

Thank you for the review!

Thank you for the review!

You're welcome!

Thanks for the info there Kato, it's very helpful, as there isn't a great deal of detailed information out there. Simply answering 'does it exist and will I get something for sending money?' is a big question, as this thing seems to have landed from nowhere. Half the price, twice the res? too good to be true is the first thought.

Would you mind if I posted this text on the pCARS2 forum please? There is discussion going on about VR support and I think it would contribute.

Sounds like it's worth a go if you like tinkering, don't have a rift, and are happy to accept the limitations of a first gen product. I think the main attraction of the PiMAX is the resolution over rift/vive.

Is the picture clarity impressive? Can you see the screen door effect and the gaps between the pixels or is it more like a regular monitor?

hello,

following your review, I tried to use trackIR with DCS and my OSVR HDK2 (using steamVR)

It works : when the trackIR is enabled it override the HDK2 input, and when I disabled the HDK2 drive the POV. But the trackIR tracking made me sick almost immediatly. I tried some settings (like 1:1) for trackIR but without much improvment. What did you use for trackIR settings ? Didn't you feel a shift between your head move and the POV diplayed in DCS ?

Another question : can you read all parts of the A10C HUD with the Pimax ?

Thanks for the info there Kato, it's very helpful. Simply answering 'does it exist and will I get something for sending money?' is a big question

You're welcome - yea, will I get something for sending money was my first concern!

Would you mind if I posted this text on the pCARS2 forum please? There is discussion going on about VR support and I think it would contribute.

Go right ahead - I have tried it in pCars1, and it worked straight out of the box in that sim. Slight caveat... I didn't have my steering wheel hooked up at the time, so I couldn't steer, and only got as far as turn 2 at the Nurburgring - But it looked really good! Also, make sure you adjust the eye height off the floor correctly in the SteamVR setup, or your head will be sticking out of the roof, or you won't be able to see over the steering wheel.

Is the picture clarity impressive? Can you see the screen door effect and the gaps between the pixels or is it more like a regular monitor?

There is a minor screen door effect in some circumstances, but I haven't noticed it much in DCS. Regarding the pixels, I would not say it is like looking at a monitor, but it is so immersive, you forget you are not actually in that sim world anyway! One thing I would add to that is that even with the IPD set correctly, the focus is sharp directly ahead, but a little blurry if you move your eyes left or right to look at something not in the middle of your view. It makes you turn your head directly in the direction of the thing you want in sharp focus (like a gauge). I didn't notice this when looking at the terrain, since apparently, you don't need to focus on every detail.

For sure, it's not perfect, but for me it is a way better overall experience than looking at a high quality monitor. If your goal is to see the sharpest picture, I would recommend a good monitor. If your goal is to feel like you're really in the airplane, this headset wins hands down.

But the trackIR tracking made me sick almost immediatly. I tried some settings (like 1:1) for trackIR but without much improvment. What did you use for trackIR settings ? Didn't you feel a shift between your head move and the POV diplayed in DCS ?

Hi lefuneste - If you use the Pimax in extended mode (now called "Video Mode" in the latest software update), I got the same bad effects you talk about with TrackIR. If you use the Pimax in "Pimax Mode", and stop SteamVR from staring like I mentioned here https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3088944&postcount=39 there are no such bad effects, and it moves exactly like it does when you are looking at the monitor with no headset.

To try and translate these terms, with the Pimax in "Video Mode" (extended mode), you can see a second "display" in the Windows 10 Display Settings at 2560 x 1440 resolution which is the headset. To use this, you have to move the program over to the new window to see it in the HMD. This is the mode that gives the bad effects you mentioned.

If you have the Pimax in "Pimax Mode", there will be no extra display in "Display Settings", and the program is seen on both your monitor screen and in your headset at the same time. This is the mode I need to be in to get TrackIR working properly with no bad effects using the instructions in that link above. I did not change any TrackIR settings from when I use it with my monitor.

I am afraid I am not familiar with the OSVR HDK2, so I don't know if it works the same way.

Another question : can you read all parts of the A10C HUD with the Pimax ?

As I mentioned in my long review earlier in this thread, you cannot always see all of the A-10C HUD clearly. I believe this is due to the font that is being used for the A-10C, since the HUD is perfectly readable on the other jet aircraft I have tried.

Thanks Kato, I have posted your review over on the Project Cars 2 development forum, so it might create some interest. The VR support in version 2 is much improved over version 1.

Sorry for bringing in another game to the DCS forum, but I have plugged DCS many, many times over there, so hopefully it's ok.