Pimax is wanting to upgrade the home VR HMD market with its upcoming ultra-high-resolution headset. They have launched a Kickstarter campaign to offer pre-orders for its upcoming 8K VR headset, and it plans to ship the first run of them in December.
The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive offer 2140×1200 pixels, but the Rift and Vive but have narrow fields of view that restrict your peripheral vision. That is not the case with the Pimax. Pimax sports two OLED displays that offer independent 4K visuals for each eye. The Rift and Vive also offer two-screen setups, but their 1920 x 1200 display resolution pales in comparison to the 3840 x 2160 pixels that Pimax offers per eye. Pimax is also offering a 5K version of the headset that includes two 2560×1440 displays rather than two 4K displays, which is still a big upgrade from the first-generation VR HMDs.
Since the displays feature a 16×9 aspect ratio, the two side-by-side panels give a wide 200-degree field of view.
The displays found in the Pimax headsets can operate at 75Hz or at 90Hz, which should provide sub-15ms motion to photon latency. Pimax claimed that a GTX 980 or an R9 Nano can deliver the framerate necessary to power the headset.
Pimax developed a single camera tracking system called PiTracking, which the company said offers 360-degree tracking fidelity. The headset is also compatible with Valve’s SteamVR Lighthouse tracking system, including SteamVR-compatible peripherals such as the Vive wand controllers or Valve’s Knuckles controllers.
Pimax’s Kickstarter campaign started today, and it’s offering a selection of discounted bundles to choose from, starting at $399.
The first batch of Pimax 5K and 8K VR HMDs should ship in December.
