Pimax, the Chinese VR startup honing in on a consumer headset with a huge field of view, is said to soon be shipping the first Pimax "8K" headsets to Kickstarter backers. While the company executed a very successful Kickstarted and parlayed that into a healthy investment, it remains to be seen if Pimax can go the final mile to meet the fevered expectations set upon it by the West's high-end VR community. We go hands-on with the company's latest prototype headset at CES 2018 to see where things stand. Update (1/12/18): Following our hands-on with the latest "8K" prototype, Pimax responded to acknowledge some of the issues and explain their plans going forward. Original Article (1/10/18): Though Pimax has successfully developed and brought to market the Pimax 4K headset, the company piqued the attention of the hardcore VR community in the West when they set their eyes toward making the "8K," a VR headset with a purported 200 degree field of view—far beyond anything from incumbents in the consumer VR space. The name "8K," as we've explained, is a misnomer bordering on false advertisement; though the headset features a pair of 4K displays, you need the resolution equivalent of four 4K displays to reach what most would call 8K resolution. We've tried the company's various "8K" prototypes over the course of development. With the headset soon to begin shipping to Kickstarter backers, we've gone hands-on with the very latest prototype, including the unique near-final lenses, this week at CES 2018. Field of View Envy Let's talk first about the claimed 200 degree field of view. Yes, it's very wide. Much wider than you've ever experienced on a Rift or a Vive. The world almost feels like it wraps around the sides of your head when you put it on. We won't be able to verify the accuracy of the 200 degree claim until we have our hands on our own headset for independent testing, but whatever the actual FOV measurement turns out to be, it's a huge leap forward over today's consumer headsets regardless. Unique Lenses [caption id="attachment_73551" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] The super wide field of view is achieved thanks to a unique, custom designed lens which appears to be a hybrid of the typical circular Fresnel lens that you would find in a VR headset, but with a segment of a larger lens fused into one side, creating the overall profile of an oval with a flat top and bottom. The feeling of being enraptured with such a wide field of view is promising, but there's some kinks in the optics that are a drag on the headset's potential for deep immersion. Distortions Improved but Artifacts Remain The good news is that for the latest lenses, Pimax seems to have come a long way with their distortion profile (which distorts the rendered image to counteract the lens' inherent distortions). Prior prototypes that I used showed clear stretching and warping that was apparent as you moved your head around. That's mostly gone, but in its place are some other unmistakable artifacts. Looking through the headset, a few degrees at the top and bottom of my view were small sections that almost appeared to be reflecting what was being shown on the display. As I moved my head, the image in these areas moved to, but in a way not consistent with the rest of the image. The same holds true for the extreme periphery on the left and right of my view, though instead of an apparently reflected image, these sections appeared highly blurred. The result is that around the perimeter of your vision you see slivers of moving imagery that isn't consistent with the rest of the scene—something which your peripheral vision is very sensitive too. It seems that these areas might be an effort to push the field of view just a little bit further, but in practice they are distracting and immersion defying. I would far rather pull the field of view in by a few degrees if it meant eliminating these distracting areas. Hungry for Pixels When it comes to sharpness, you'll definitely see a bump over headsets like the Rift and Vive, but maybe not as much as you'd expect if relying on a simple on-paper resolution comparison. While it's tempting to think that the Pimax's 3,840 × 2,160 per-display resolution will knock your socks off compared to the Rift or Vive's 1080 × 1,200 per-display resolution, it's important to remember that the resolution of the Pimax "8K" is stretched over a much wider field of view, which means that the increase in pixel density isn't as drastic it might seem from the resolution figures alone. [caption id="attachment_73552" align="alignright" width="325"] The latest Pimax "8K" prototype has a functional IPD adjuster | Photo by Road to VR[/caption] You will see an increase in sharpness, but it isn't the end of the screen door effect and aliasing, counter to the claim on Pimax's website: "the graininess and 'screen door' will never disturb you again." Individual pixels are too small to make out, but you'll be able to see clumps of them revealed by the structure of the screen door effect which appears a bit like a diagonal grid in the Pimax "8K". Unexpected Mura There's also visible mura, which is odd. Most VR headsets I've seen with LCD panels have almost no issue with mura (color and brightness inconsistency between pixels, resulting in a faint 'cloudy' look over your view). Pimax is using LCD displays, and I therefore expected little to no mura, but it was apparent, especially because it seemed to be concentrated into long horizontal rows of pixels that appeared slightly lighter than those above or below them. Pimax is surely still tweaking their screens, and I would very much hope to see the mura cleaned up ahead of launch. Pimax told me that the panels are running currently at 80Hz, and they're hoping to be able to push that up to the 90Hz they've been advertising. In my time with the headset I didn't spot any obvious color smearing or overt persistence blurring, but I also wasn't in an ideal testing environment to spot those artifacts, so I'll want to give them a closer look at the next opportunity. As for god rays, they're there too, owing to the Fresnel optics. As ever, they're most noticeable in high contrast scenes. - - — - - Overall clarity is harder to assess without a direct side-by-side with various headsets. The screen door is definitely reduced compared to first-gen PC headsets, but the "8K's" LCD displays don't appear to have as rich contrast or color than competitors with OLED displays. The mura also works against the benefits brought by sheer pixel density. I also felt at times like my eyes were straining a bit to keep the images fused; this could have been due to a mismatched IPD. Thankfully is an IPD adjustment on the headset, but there's at present no way to tell what the IPD of the headset is set to since it doesn't presently report the setting back to the user as most other headsets do. Continued on Page 2: Tracking Trouble » Tracking Trouble [caption id="attachment_73554" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] At the moment, tracking on the Pimax "8K" is a mess. The tracking is powered by SteamVR Tracking, the same as the Vive—which we know is capable of very good tracking—but it seems Pimax has yet to master it. Latency is far above acceptable levels for a shipping headset, which is very noticeable as you rotate your head. Positional tracking is... there... but it's choppy as you move through the world. It isn't clear to me which part of the motion-to-photon pipeline is causing the bottleneck; what is clear is that the tracking quality and latency isn't yet where it needs to be. On this particular hands-on with the Pimax "8K" they weren't demoing their VR controllers, but when I tried them with a prior prototype in November their tracking performance didn't instill any more confidence than what I saw today. A Question Mark on Ergonomics [caption id="attachment_73553" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] Assuming they can hone in on and fix up the issues above, there's still a big question about ergonomics and long-term comfort. For now the headset is using a soft strap similar to what shipped originally with the Vive. To get the headset in the prime viewing position, you really need to crank the side straps tight, using the headstrap and the headset like a vice for your face. The Pimax "8K" is lighter than it looks, but still, having almost 100% of the weight simply pushed against the front of your face is not a recipe for long term comfort, as HTC discovered and eventually remedied with the Vive's Deluxe Audio Strap. [caption id="attachment_73561" align="aligncenter" width="640"] We've seen mockups of Pimax's rigid head mount, but never seen it in action | Image courtesy Pimax[/caption] Pimax is planning to upgrade to a rigid headstrap with a 'halo' design that rests much of the display enclosure's weight on the forehead, and grips around the back of the head with a ratcheting strap. That stands to be more comfortable than the face-vice approach, but we've yet to see the company demo the headset with the upgraded strap, so it remains an unknown. Ergonomics aren't easy. - - — - - Above is a lot of detail about what ultimately boils down to this: the Pimax "8K" has potential, but it's still up in the air whether or not the company can sufficiently tune up the headset to please consumers who are pitting the small startup against expectations set by the top companies and headsets in the industry. There doesn't seem to be any unproven hurdles in their way, but it's going to take careful execution to get there.