Best products from r/Pimax

Before I list my specs let me make a few points. I strongly suggest building a new PC with the sole intention of it being a VR / gaming only machine. This means no web surfing, no downloading of bit torrent, no you tube, no pron, and so forth. The only time your VR machine is to go online is for driver, bios, and software updates. I know this sounds hardcore, however you want you computer as " streamlined " as possible with out any crap running in the background eating up resources and hogging bandwidth. It also allows you to have a baseline reading for your computer, which will allow you to quickly " feel out " any performance changes. Trust me its worth it.

Of course the video card will be your main focus, but dont skimp on the motherboard and memory as they play an important part in the equation. Surprisingly, I dont believe you need to get the latest and greatest processor, as in my experience and tests, the load on the CPU isnt that heavy. I only run a stock ( not overclocked ) Ryzen 1700x and I never even get close to maxing it out. So you will be able to save money there.

Dont get hung up on the equipment to much though, because there are alot more things involved in getting a " magical " VR experience then that. Thats why always chuckle when I see people complain that they have a 2080ti and a the latest i7, but still dont get the result they think they should.

In my opinion, VR / AR will change the world, just like the home PC, the internet, and cellphones. Its up to each of us whether we want to be on the forefront of this revolution, or spend our money on other things. Now for the specs:

I know this card might to be to expensive for many people, however, its the best one on the market in my opinion. Having said that, I was getting excellent results with my previous Zotac 1080ti mini blower. Although if you have the money, get this beauty. Its amazing.

ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AMP Extreme 11GB GDDR6 352-bit Gaming

ZT-T20810B-10P

Once again pricey, but worth it. It is also future proof, as the speeds its capable of handling are faster then my current motherboard can handle.

2 of HyperX Predator DDR4 RGB 8GB 3600MHz CL17 DIMM XMP RAM Memory/Infrared Sync Technology Black (HX436C17PB3A/8)

And finally the rest of my system:

• ✔ AMD RYZEN 7 1700X 8-Core 3.4 GHz (3.8 GHz Turbo) CPU Processor | Blazing Fast 250GB SSD with 3D NAND Technology | 2 TB 7200RPM Secondary Hard Drive
  
• Arocks X370 Gaming Motherboard
  
• ✔ Wi-Fi Ready | 1 x DVI, 3 x Display Port (Version 1.4) | 1 x HDMI | 2 USB 3.1 Gen 2 with USB Type-A, 2 x USB 2.0 Ports, 6 x USB 3.0 Ports
  
• ✔ 7 x 120mm Red LED Fan with PVM Controller for Ultimate Airflow and Quietness | 120mm AIO Radiator Liquid / Water Cooling
  
• Powered by 80 Plus Certified 700 Watt Power Supply
  
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  I hope this helps you.

Weight for me is a big issue so thanks to clarifing this out, for this reason i'm not even using the VIVE DAS on pimax, and i've opted for earphones, i'm using this sony model https://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDRXB510AS-Headphones-Sweatproof-Comfortable/dp/B01MTEU4V9/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=MDR-XB510AS&qid=1572688667&sr=8-2 and sound is great, not even comparable to any other headphone/earphone/earbud i have, das or logitech G series you name it.

Also Pimax has a big problem that is the distance between your eyes and the lenses, it has to be perfect, if you are too near you will get distortions all over the borders (horrible tbh, was the first impact on first use with stock cover), while if you are too far you will get fisheye effect, btw there is a perfect spot where the edge distortion is unnoticeable and the fisheye is almost 0. as you can't move in/out the lenses like you do in vive you have to find the correct spot adding/removing covers. for my face i had to use 2x vrcover tiny + 1vr cover cotton made, see photo https://imgur.com/a/fO7gW2R.
This way view quality is great, i had to add some black tape on bottom as there is a big hole and the light comes in. Positive thing is also that as i am a regular beatsaber player i can wash almost everything easily when is wet.

I have to admit that PIMAX with the stock cover was very comfortable for my face, so the need to change cover was for quality reasons, not for comfort reasons, and with those covers is much less comfortable.

Maybe i just have to find another cover combination..

A little review on my 5K XR:

The headstrap is really s**t - cannot emphasise this enough. It is easily solved with the HTC Vive Deluxe Audio strap

HTC Vive Audio Strap

That requires a person with a 3D printer to make you three pieces, one for the top and one for each side.

Now we have something that works, but the faceplate is also s**t, so again, in steps HTC Vive:

Vive Cover

So now you want to know how it works, given that I am not experiencing pain just having the headset on?

I upgraded to the PIMAX from the Oculus CV1.

I have mainly used it for DCS, but have done a few sessions in IL2. I have an NVIDIA 2080TI, and I really would not spend the money on the headset if you cannot afford the graphics card, so that's about 2 grand american right there, net whatever pennies you can get for your Oculus and 1080.

So, now how does it work? - I got violently sick with the normal and wide FOV, just like in my parents' car as a child. The side view flashes past and made me sick.

I then changed to narrow view, and everything was fine, at least for me. I have friends who are happy in both normal and wide.

The cockpit is a lot clearer than with the Rift. With a reversed baseball cap under the straps, I can now tighten them enough that I can dogfight with no headset movement, even with a headset on top, which is an improvement on the Rift.

So my conclusion is, after a lot of farting around with both the strap and the graphics settings (PTool, DCS etc.), it is a huge improvement over the Rift and has made my DCS experience materially more immersive.

However, if you want a plug and play device, then this is definitely not for you, even if you have the two grand lying around.

[16AGR]Durham out.

Ive copied this from a reply i made in another post, i hope it helps you get sorted.

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"I had the same problem, dont panic, just 2 simple things and you will be good to go.

Get a much deeper face gasket

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XTBZBFN

The 18mm gasket works very well for me. IPD 68mm, medium sized head.

Get a Vive DAS and 3D print Dr.Cubes adapters

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3285729

Best to use the small ones as you have a lot of expansion adjustment but not so much contraction adjustment.

TLDR; received Pimax monday, freaked out at horrific distortion and was ready to sell it. Tuesday i ordered all the toys for the headstrap/gasket upgrade and started figuring out the positioning. Wednesday mounted gasket and things improved dramatically. Thursday attached DAS and that was it, i was all set.

Bottom line, stock headstrap and gasket are trash. The Pimax has to be located perfectly for the distortion correction profile to be effective and i was unable to achieve that without the mods."

I tried this one: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00FQLNLTU it is labeled as "activ" but as i said, it didn´t work. I think a better shot is a cable like this one: https://www.amazon.de/StarTech-com-aktives-USB-2-0-Verlängerungskabel/dp/B00K7YI7W2 where you can connect a dedicated power adapter.

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EDIT: I just saw in the description of the first cable, that there IS a port for a 5V power adapter :-D.... ok, i will try this!

Awesome, thank you. Another redditor also mentioned good luck with this one if someone is looking for a very compact option.

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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MQF5L7P/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A1ZWNP05VR80QB&psc=1

Yeah, you're gonna want 2 light houses, but 1 will work in a pinch for some stuff, seated sims etc. Looks like valve sells them now, the 2.0 versions, but they're $150 each which is painful. It's still possible to just buy a cheap used OG vive kit and use the light houses and even vice wands from that to get started. That's what I did and was lucky enough to find a like-new vive setup with a DAS on Craigslist for $300.

I have the index controllers, but might bust out the vive wands again and have them nearby since not many games support the index controllers yet. A lot of games are just unplayable with them, eg fallout 4, Thumper. Over time more games should hopefully support them though. And there are apps to do custom steamvr controller overrides, I just don't like having to dick around with that kind of stuff because it's tedious and seems like doesn't work half the time.

I'd say the DAS with thicker face foam (there's a cheap Amazon version of the foam that works) is a must for comfort. Mine literally hurt to wear until I did the DAS mod and thicker facial foam. Now it's very good.

Face foam I got:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FCHYD6T/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'd recommend an NVME drive over the regular SATA SSD you have there. Something like the WD Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07M64QXMN/ref=twister_B07XQXHPBC?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Don't do a laptop. To drive an 8k you need minimum an 8th gen i5 and 1080Ti. That'll set you back $1700 easy.

I strongly suggest you just build a desktop. It will be cheaper for the same components.

EDIT: Here's a laptop that will barely do the job at medium/low settings in most games. It's the cheapest gtx 1080 laptop on Amazon

ASUS ROG Zephyrus GX501 Ultra Slim Gaming Laptop, 15.6” FHD 144Hz 3ms IPS-Type G-SYNC, GeForce GTX 1080, Intel Core i7-8750H, 16GB DDR4, 512GB PCIe SSD, Win 10 Pro, GX501GI-XS74 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BP9LSVS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_0UkYCbEA7GHE8

How long is your extension?

I have tried multiple extensions and ran into issues with them all. Tried a 15ft active usb3, 15ft non active usb 3, 10ft non active usb3, 6ft non active usb3 and 3 ft non active usb3. All of these failed and had some issues. Either I would have issues with audio being choppy or tracking failing.

The solution to all of my issues and what let me use a 6ft usb was using a powered hub. I picked up one of these to extend the usb. I was also able to use a vive hub for the same thing.

One thing that no one seems to have mentioned, yet: the FOV of the Pimax. Personally, I hope to never have to put on my Vive Pro 'goggles' again!

Like all cutting edge tech, it needs extra. In this case, comfort mods. Once you've got the comfort mods dialed in, the fov makes everything else seem limited.

Have you been looking into motion simulators? SimRacingStudio makes some and so does Feel Three.

I notice that you say that you're new to VR. One of the more undesirable effects of VR is VR Sickness. Imagine the worst case of car sickness that you've ever had. Now multiply it by 10 and make it last 6-8 hours. It's not fun. If you are trying to put miscellaneous people in VR, you're going to have some problems. Keep a bowl of candied ginger handy and make every single one of your cadets eat at least 3 pieces (around 15g) before they try VR! In my experience, no one will admit to being susceptible and no one will admit to feeling ill. But they will complain to everyone AFTER!

Cadets, eh? It might be helpful to grab the biggest, most manly cadet that you've got and put him into VR with a Xbox game controller. Have him do something with 'smooth motion' and joystick turning. Keep a barf bag handy and expect him to hate you for life, but it should be a useful lesson for the others. Don't expect him to be able to even stand up for the rest of the day!

Good Luck!

The cable is definitely shorter than on the Vive.

Using Vive linkbox to fix USB issue which gives a tiny extension, and a DP extension cable myself.

Also tried USB-C -> 3.5mm adapter for audio with my first HMD that had a busted audio jack on day1, which worked fine as well (although it keeps slapping you in the face since it's nice and centered on the bottom.)

This.

Also this is what I bought and works pretty good. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HMZSRS7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L1K1KDE/

This one works fine for me, the amazon basics USB 3.0 extender seems ok as well.

I managed to get this working using a 10ft and 3ft version of this cableand chaining them together.

For USB, a friend of mine recommended this cable as it worked fine for him. However, I'm needing to use the Vive link box like others suggested here to get it working, whereas my friend did not. It could be that I needed a longer cable than they did. They mentioned only needing to extend by 10ft. Could also be that my motherboard is a few years old, right when USB 3.0 was coming out.

However, since getting it setup I've finally had to plug in headphones and have discovered that the headphone port on the headset if very loose and I'm getting no left channel audio out of it. So I need to get a replacement headset. :(

/u/tracercore8 /u/decapper /u/numbervive

Another german user is successfully using these, and recommended them to me:

3m USB: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00WHZ8NDW

3m Power: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0768ZMTSW

2x1,80m DP: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01KRLQG2M

You're going to spend a fortune on a laptop fast enough to drive the Pimax.

You could put a strap on your PC to make it more portable. https://www.amazon.com/ThinkGeek-108-0170-GearGrip-Pro/dp/B00021UJSK/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=pc+carrying+strap&qid=1556659217&s=gateway&sr=8-2

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A better option may be a standalone headset.

I ordered this 5m USB cable:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00MPMFKSI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It is the only cable connected to a USB 3 card on my PC. It's not totally reliable but it can work - I'll need to cycle the power on the headset a few times before it will connect properly, but once it's connected it seems reasonably reliable.

I'm using it with this 5m displayport cable which seems fine:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005CR1O1A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Selling my Pimax 5k+ for $550 if you like to buy it. Relatively NEW, just opened to confirm it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B07JZL5QK3/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=all

I used THIS, THIS and THIS to extend my Pimax. Works great, no problems.

https://www.amazon.com/Pimax-Plus-Virtual-Reality-Headset/dp/B07JZL5QK3/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=pimax&qid=1550080014&s=gateway&sr=8-10

I've been using Kiwi Design for Vive. The 18mm is very comfy.

https://www.amazon.com/KIWI-design-Cushion-Replacement-Packs/dp/B07FCHYD6T/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmrnull_3?keywords=kiwi+vive+foam&qid=1555432555&s=gateway&sr=8-3-fkmrnull

I'm not sure what he uses, but I use these....

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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L1K1KDE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FT9VW0O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1