Samsung Odyssey VR headset (Microsoft Mixed Reality)

No. Just that the 8K kit come sin two variations, and the lower-grade version of it currently seems to suffer from a lower frequency of 85 or even 80Hz. During the closed Beta in May they want to learn what players say about their experience with that. It could mean another delay after May is over, who knows. But these are struggles that I read Oculus went through, too.

Currently they use Vive handsticks, and will release an own design soon, too. Its looks reminded me of the Oculus' handpieces a bit.

Personally I am not in any hurry to already buy another VR headset again. I own my Oculus since just five months. My use is now quite specifically limited to racing, Skyrim and Google Earth. To replace such expensive hardwaree more often than just every 2 or 3 years, imo is madness, a waste. A complete PC I demand to last at least twice this long - at minimum.

 

I read a German article some days ago, where testers at some show were given the opporutnity to try it out. They said it worked, they said they were ewn thusiastic about it, they said the wide FOV was a drm ataic game chnager and altered the way they playxed the game, sincei t changes the way you see into the world, you turn your head less.

Do you think that the first shots, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, already were "perfect shots"...? Had all what is to be known and can be known about how to do it best, already used? They were first shots only! If in the second wave of new VR kits there would not be some dramatic improvements, then they do something wrong.

I expect some more delays, yes. But I think they will end up with something absolutely usable later this year, and then will have a game changer to sell. Anyhow, as I explained, I do not plan to already by another VR kits this ealry anyway, my position is that of an interested observer only. I aloso am curious about how it goes with Oculus, as I see it, they are in troubled water with their data policies and linking to Facebook, and I have read too many criticla remarks of this mess in the past months as if I would ignore that anymore. Zuckerbergs explanations at the congress hearing was evasive and distracting, and I understand that I am not alone with this impression. To me, Oculus' future outlook is shifting towards "in doubt". The discomfort with this hardware being linked to a company that is tied to facebook, is growing. And lets remember: they had to cut their prices much earlier than they wanted to compensate the low selling numbers last year. While the numbers have caught up since then it shows that many customers were not convinced by the technical quality, but by the aggressive pricing only.

 

I think it’s important to explain that there will be 3 versions of the Pimax 8K. A 5K versions, a 8K version and a 8KX Version.

The base 8K model shares the same system specs as the 5K model.
Both accept a maximal input resolution of dual 1440p. The 8K however uses a hardware scaler to upscale the 1440 per eye to 4k per eye. Only the 8KX will natively display dual 4K.

The minimum specs for the 5K/8K are a GTX1070 as Pimax said. They also showed some demos on a gaming notebook with this GPU, though not that demanding games. The 8KX is kind of „a vision for the future“, as Pimax told that right now even two GTX1080Ti couldn’t push this amount of pixels.

I’m a backer of the 8K model and I’m positive. I’m really looking forward to the FOV the most and the nearly not noteable SDE. I guess even with SS set to 0.8 or whatever it will be quiet a step forward for me, actually using the DK2 and enjoying it a lot. Pimax is a chinese company and communication is often not so ‚ideal‘, but the progression of the project keeps up the faith in me. I think by the end of the year we all will sure know if Pimax can keep up with the expectations... I’m confident they will, not without flaws and there will be a lot of nit pickers, but I don’t care, as long it’s a VR step forward for me. Besides that, everyone should hope for a success... imagine racing with a FOV of 200 degrees. Another thing is, that if Pimax is successful, this would put some serious pressure on htc and Oculus pushing there tech forward fast. Would be a win/win for everyone.

 

It sounds like I have misinterpreted this part here. It seems "5k", "8K", and "8KX" are product names... and dont have any relation to screen resolution at all. Is this correct?

Since '5k' and '8k' are resolutions, I seem to have been thrown off by some unconventional naming scheme

 

How do you go off on such an unrelated tangent when I was solely talking about screen resolution? Like, Zuckerberg and Congress have literally nothing to do with what I said.

You've got problems man.

 

The naming from Pimax is not ideal, to put it in a nice way... actually it’s misleading, wrong. This has been discussed many times all over the internet and nearly all articles on news platforms start with something like ‚The Pimax 8K, that is not a 8K HMD, in the best regards a dual 4K one... bla bla...‘

 

Haha alright, thanks for the explanation above. Much more clear now... and I was pretty far off with my comment about resolution.

Bit of an odd naming scheme then for obvious reasons. But hey, weird product names exist in any industry.

 

>>But in simulated autosport, I personally first of all need high FOV. <<
It is interesting that you feel that way. Especially in simulated autosport the FOV was really never an area of concern to me as IRL you wear a helmet anyway. So for me the limited FOV and the HMD always appeared to be an excellent simulation of the helmet situation.

 

I think the FOV of the current HMDs are too narrow, even with me wearing a helmet when driving my motorbike, I have more peripheral view and see (blurred) objects further on the edges. So a wider FOV will be an improvement for the overview in my opinion... even a shadow or a glance of an unsharp hood when being overtaken or overtaking will be a great help for spacial awareness, I think.

 

I made some research and I correct myself. There is actually a FIA standard for car racing helmets that requires horizontal clearance of a minimum of 180 degrees. So you are correct Thomas.

 

I can relate to that, just check my avatar However, it is not 110 degree, peripheral vision is wider in a helmet, but I agree it is somewhat restricted. Having higher FOV will allow move away from cheats like spotter.

Good to know about FIA regulations.

BTW folks, does Pimax plan to have its own lighthouses, or own tracking solution, or only Vive lighthouses? I was not clear on this by searching the internet.

 

Pimax uses the htc tech. You can use the lighthouses v1 or v2, also the htc controllers. Besides that Pimax wants to distribute their own base stations and controllers, somewhat later this year.

 

BTW as this thread is about the Odyssey: There is software out now that allows you to use the lighthouses and the Vive controllers with the Odyssey as well. The setup is a little complicated but once it is done it seems to work flawlessly. I for once do not care a lot about controller tracking as I am using VR almost exclusively for sim racing.

 

Sorry for the OT... and yes, the Odyssey would be the HMD for me too, if I wouldn’t have backed the Pimax.

 

This is where I don't understand a lot of people who complain. Maybe it's because I have done jobs with my hands all my life? In any project, the part that is not 100% is usually the part that took the most time to get as good as it is and was most likely the most painful to do.
So when I find something interesting like sims and VR, I don't mind supporting them. Nobody knows exactly what the finished product will be, not even the creaters, you just try your best. We all have a lot of fun testing this stuff and they need our support in the mean time.
I would rather pay someone to try and fail then to just wonder what it could have been.
So all this "he said", "they promised", "it isn't what they said", gets a bit old sometimes.
I say to these people "build something better and I will buy it!!"
Also, even a failure has value to everyone else producing a similar product.
What a fun time to be in sim racing!!
Over all its a safe and cheap hobby!

 

„[...]cheap hobby!“

 

It is, compared to participating in autosport in real life

 

Cheaper than a set of slicks!

 

To add to this, I think this would only be worth it for some extreme case, the windowsMR controller tracking is pretty darn good right now. For instance in Beat Sabre, basically flailing your arms all over the place, out of sight, etc, they just work.

Maybe a game where you have to perform specific actions behind your back or something.

 

The head tracking with the HP Mixed Reality I had demoed was 100% and it was more comfortable then the CV1 but I couldn't see the extra pixels at all and it had a lot less field of view. When comparing the HP lens physical size to the CV1 I noticed the HP to have smaller lenes.
This is why I'm still leaning toward the Vive Pro. Also the new Vive uses Display Port instead of HDMI. I think even the Samsung Mixed Reality uses HDMI still? But I guess the lenses are suppose to better?
Hopefully I'll get a chance to demo the Samsung Mixed Reality.