Pimax, the China-based VR headset manufacturer known for their 4K headset, have recently hit Kickstarter with their newest devices, the Pimax 8K and 5K VR headsets. Surpassing their initial goal of $200,000 within the first few hours, Pimax went on to gather a staggering $1 million in funding after only 5 days on the crowdfunding platform.
Despite the namesake, Pimax headsets aren’t actually 8K or 5K resolution, as they respectively feature dual 3840×2160 LCD panels and dual 2560×1440 OLED panels. These display resolutions are however higher than your standard Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, which is where some of the fanfare is coming from.
Arguably the biggest attraction is the headsets’ 200 degree field of view (FOV), which proved to be both impressive and helpful for peripheral awareness in our hands-on with an early prototype.
As one of the first adopters of Valve’s Lighthouse tracking standard, both 8K and 5K headsets will also hook into existing Vive tracking basestations and Vive motion controllers—although some funding tiers provide their own Pimax-built basestations and motion controllers.
All of these factors no doubt led to the funding campaign’s overall success, which is still going strong with over a month to go before its conclusion.
On the less positive side, the actual input for the 8K headset is only 2560×1440 per eye, which is then upscaled to 3840×2160 per eye, so it’s not truly rendering at the display’s full resolution. The company however offers a version of the headset that does away with the integrated upscaler and renders at full display resolution, but suggests at very least a GTX 1080ti. There’s also concerns about how games can actually render the headsets’ 200 degree FOV, with Norm from Tested saying in his hands-on that he felt that Pimax was noticeably stretching FOV to fit—something that isn’t exactly great for spatial awareness.
Despite its misgivings, Pimax seems to be squeezing everything out of current gen GPUs and display tech, which is why the company is using a software technique they call ‘Brainwarp’ that renders an image only on a single display at time, doing it 150/180 times per second. Pimax says users “perceive a complete 8K at 150/180 Hz with high frame rate,” and that it “boosts refresh rate, reduces latency and decreases GPU pressure for Pimax 8K.”
“We are so honored to be in the presence of such a passionate VR community,” the company said. “This makes us more than certain that we are striving for the same goals!”
The company hasn’t posted any stretch goals yet, but has said they’ll be adding “more little gifts in your Kickstarter package,” today at some point. We’ll be updating, so check back for more.
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Source: Pimax VR Headsets Pass $1M in Funding After 5 Days on Kickstarter
