Welcome to the Oasis, my name's Mike and this
week my Pimax 5K Plus headset finally arrived
here in the office.
Now, I'm a Kickstarter backer of this product
and although I've been skeptical about this
headset in the past, I've been really looking
forward to getting my hands on it and testing
testing it out thoroughly myself.
So in today's video, I'm going to be talking
about the history of Pimax and how this headset
separates itself from the crowd in
the VR marketspace.
I'll also do a brief unboxing, show you how easy
or maybe not so easy it is to setup.
I'll be testing it out with some games and then
finally give you my first impressions at the
end of the video.
Of course, as always I'll put timestamps to
everything in the description down below.
I hope you guys and girls enjoy this one and
without further ado, lets dive in...
Ok, so first up if you're not familiar with Pimax,
they're a chinese virtual reality company.
They launched their first headset back in
2016 called the Pimax 4K.
Then in November 2017 Pimax set out their
Kickstarter campaign for their new flagship
VR headsets.
The Pimax 5K and Pimax 8K.
These headsets were pushing the boundaries
back then and still are even today. The Pimax
is the only consumer available headset right
now that sports such a wide field of view.
Most headsets like the Oculus Rift, HTC 
 Vive and PSVR have around 100 degrees field of view.
Both Pimax 5K and 8K sport around 200 degrees field of view which is close to our natural eye field of
view of around 210 degrees
I was really intrigued about what Pimax were
offering so I pledged $799 of my own money
for the full 8K package which included the
Pimax 8K headset, controllers and basestations.
I'm backer number 4,416 out of 5,946 backers.
The kickstarter campaign was really successful
the company raised over 4 million dollars,
almost double what the Oculus Rift raised
during its kickstarter campaign.
I later switched my backing to the 5K+ after
seeing many reviews stating they prefered
it over the 8K.
My headset was due to arrive in February 2018
and arrived almost exactly a year late without
the controllers or basestations.
These are still being developed by Pimax so
if you're thinking about picking up a headset
right now, you're going to need the Vive basestations
and controllers to use it.
As you can see, In the box you get the Pimax
headset with a cable over 15ft long which
has a Displayport and USB to connect to your
PC.
In the box you also get a power adapter and
a very basic headstrap.
lets compare the specs of this headset
Pimax 5k+ 2x 2560x1440 pixels per eye resolution
LCD panels at 90hz
HTC Vive Pro 2x 1600x1440 pixels per eye resolution
OLED at 90hz
Oculus Rift 2x 1200x1080 pixels per eye resolution
OLD at 90hz
Before the Pimax arrived I was advised that
investing in a Vive deluxe audio strap for
the Pimax would be a good idea so I ordered
one in advance and 3D printed the necessary
adapters.
I'll put a link to the adapters design from
Thingiverse in the description below if you
want to 3D print them yourself.
I also replaced the standard foam face cushion with a thick perforated pleather pad from VR Cover.
So now we've got the Pimax out of the box and already modded with a fresh Vive Deluxe Audio Strap and a VR Cover face pad, it's now time to see how easy it is to setup.
First thing I had to do is to download the
PiTool from Pimax which is the software you
need to run your headset.
Unfortunately the PiTool wasn't available
to download through the website.
Not a particulary good start.
I headed over to the official Pimax forums
and I was able to download the latest beta
version of the PiTool from one of the forums
moderators who had uploaded the latest version
to his google drive.
Once I had downloaded PiTool, I plugged the
Pimax 5k plus into a display port and usb
port on my PC and provided it power using
the power adapter.
Installation and setup from this point was
a breeze.
PiTool recognised the headset and updated
the firmware.
I just needed to pair my Vive controllers
and run through the room setup and I was good
to go.
I had already previously setup the Vive Basestations
from when I was using the Htc Vive Pro.
Now It was time to try it out with a few games.
It's worth noting it can play games from SteamVR
or Oculus Home out of the box although just
like using Revive with HTC Vive, button mapping
on the controllers is totally off in some
games.
I found when playing Beat Saber on the Pimax,
something just wasn't right.
It felt like a part of the scene was displayed
in a strange way.
Almost like I had double vision or something.
This was more apparent in the menu and looking
at the background during a game.
However when I enabled 'compatible with parallel
projections' in the PiTool menu, this completely
fixed the problem and the game looked great.
Contractors looked bright and vivid and having
the game fill the wide field of view was really
nice.
It got me thinking.
I wonder if using a wide field of view headset
like this one would be beneficial to competative
players and if it would give them an advantage
over other players?
Let me know what you think in the comments.
This game looked downright incredible but
was very graphically demanding and even struggled
to run smoothly on an overclocked RTX 2080ti.
Ok, so now lets talk about my first impressions,
Setup was much easier than expected however
not having the PiTool available to download
from the website wasn't a particularly good
start.
But once I got a copy of the latest version,
the PiTool was easy to use.
The headset is surprisingly light despite
it looking big and bulky and I was also pleased
to see such a long cable included in the box.
I also didn't have any issues with dead pixels
and my headset was fully working when it arrived.
The deluxe audio strap mod is essential until
pimax release updated straps themselves.
it's so much more comfortable than the strap
supplied in the box and has built in audio
which makes getting in and out of VR much
much easier.
The display on the Pimax 5K+ looks nice and
sharp with reduced screen door effect and
having an ultra wide field of view is really
cool however this comes with the tradeoff
of having distortion and blurryness on the
edges of your vision.
It can be quite distracting particularly when
moving my head, I would describe like having
a fishbowl effect on the edges.
This is my biggest concern about this headset
so far and wondering if this can be fixed
with software or its a result of the huge
lenses.
I also found when experimenting with the FOV
on large in the settings I would have objects
pop in and out of my view as shown here in
SteamVR Home so for the most part I kept the
FOV on normal.
Another issue is because my IPD is very low,
the two lenses actually sit on the bridge
of my nose which also makes the headset a
bit uncomfortable to use for long periods
of time.
I would also say if you wear glasses in VR
you're going to struggle with this headset
is there's very little room between your eyes
and the lenses and unlike other headsets you
can't adjust the lenses to be further away
from your eyes.
Personally I won't be wearing glasses in the
Pimax as I would be concerned about scratching
the lenses.
Overall, I think what Pimax have achieved
is extremely impressive and they've delivered
on their promise.
The big question is, will it replace my Oculus
Rift, in some applications yeah I actually
think it will but it won't be replacing it
as my daily driver due to the comfort, ease
of use, controllers and game library of the
Rift.
Would I recommend it others, if you're a high
end level enthusiast that wants the best and
has deep pockets, if racing sims or flight
sims are your bag sure, if you're the average
consumer.
No, although the wide field of view is nice,
for half the price of this headset alone you
can get everything you need for a great and
immersive PCVR experience in a Rift, Vive
or Windows Mixed Reality headsets.
Another thing to remember here is that you'll
need a powerful graphics card to run this
headset.
I heard some people say that now that Pimax
has Brainwarp motion smoothing technology
integrated you'll be able to use a GTX1060,
that's just nonsense, a GTX1080ti is really
the bare minimum.
Let me know what you think of the Pimax, are
you interested in this headset?
Maybe you have one yourself and have some
practical advice for me, I'd love to know.
Leave a like if you liked the video, make
sure you're subscribed for all my future content
and as always, I'll see you on the next one.
Cheers.
