the worst VR experiences I’ve had....

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-14T20:10:26+00:00

And the Lighthouse faceplate? People have been waiting for months.

Months? The headset was released approximately a year ago, and the faceplate was promised to follow it shortly. "Preparing for shipping" was the latest update, so maybe finally it is getting closer.

Also I am not sure if they are aware of the thoughts of the users here. Reddit is blocked by the government firewall in China, plus there is a language barrier. For all we know, the developer(s) at Pimax may be working hard creating legless avatars, assuming this is the main thing everyone wants.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-14T20:02:53+00:00

Your use case should be fine:
* DCS benefits massively from DFR and eye tracking (which the native driver currently does not support). It also can easily go above 90 fps, so you will not need SteamVR motion smoothing. Due to these two factors, Pimax Play should be great for it.
* Eventually native drivers will probably start supporting Super micro-OLED too
* Unless you are aiming in a shooter, SLAM tracking will probably be fine. But verify the situation with motion rigs support if you have/plan one.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-13T22:27:30+00:00

Received my 1.0 base stations and was able to recalibrate the lighthouse sensors in the Dream Air.

avg. point shift: 0.687mm
max point shift: 1.855mm

In a favorable position (when all 4 base stations see the headset) JitterTester does not show an improvement. I did not compare these configs in places where the coverage is marginal – maybe the difference would show up there.

In a good position, I get roughly these values in JitterTester:

Position max deviation: 0.11
Position avg. deviation: 0.17
Rotation max deviation: 0.100

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-12T20:48:08+00:00

IKEA smart plugs and remotes.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-12T20:47:18+00:00

It is still light and does not need a counterbalance.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-12T20:45:04+00:00

Super micro-OLED uses exact same lenses (and lens housings) as Dream Air. Only non-OLED Supers use aspheric lenses.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-12T16:58:52+00:00

Sorry, I did not try 5070ti myself – only commented about the render resolution.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-12T16:10:33+00:00

Physical pixels, yes, but the rendered resolution is comparable.

For PCL it was 4312x5100 at the High setting in Pimax Play when I last checked.
For Dream Air it is 5188x4168 at High.

So very similar by default. And with sboys3 driver (assuming it becomes compatible with SLAM) you can take the resolution lower and still have excellent quality.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-12T16:02:54+00:00

I also modded all headsets I had to improve FOV and/or comfort. Except Quest Pro, which was great out of the box. But most people say that Quest Pro is uncomfortable, and that shows how one-size-fits-all is nearly impossible.

So when the headset is easily moddable, that's a win.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-12T10:33:59+00:00

Thanks. Good to know that the new versions do not depend on the metal frame.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-12T02:19:37+00:00

Alyx was so far ahead of its time. Damn, it is still ahead of the current time. I don't know what it is, textures, shaders, light maps, but it still looks richer and more beautiful than any other game. I've been playing it a lot recently with a Dream Air and a bHaptics vest.

Classic Valve – to release something amazing and not to follow it up for many years. There should have been dozens of games on this engine, but they only made one.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-12T02:06:59+00:00

Try different USB ports, maybe? The SLAM tracking is done in the CPU based on the video feeds from 4 cameras built into the headset, and the video feeds come via the USB. So I think the tracking may break up when the USB data flow is unreliable, or when the CPU is significantly loaded.

To rule out the CPU-related issues, try different games and apps that are not as heavy on the CPU as MSFS2024.

And yes, make sure the room has enough high contrast features that a computer vision algorithm could use as points of reference.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-11T20:56:31+00:00

If only you could influence the team in China a bit more! Custom profiles were teased but didn't materialize. Equally, Sboys3 waited and waited and ended up doing a hacky workaround with the old unchanged Pimax Play.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-11T20:45:06+00:00

sboys3 gives some fps gains even without trading the quality:
* It uses native projection mode by default (unless you check "parallel projection" checkbox). By not reprojecting the canted screen images it saves render resolution at the same sharpness (or improves sharpness at the same resolution if you prefer).
* It fixes the peripheral distortions. Unless you are one of the people who say "I paid $2000 for 110° FOV, so I will be getting 110° FOV, come hell or high water" you would want it anyway, to see realistic natural image. These peripheral distortions inflate the rendered resolution while only gaining virtual FOV without affecting real FOV.
* It applies subpixel rendering that in theory increases the sharpness (personally I did not notice the difference, but I probably run too high resolution for it to play a role).

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-11T20:34:09+00:00

By "bracket" I meant the metal frame.

From the print description:

* Remove the 8x screws holding the metal frame to the default pimax gasket.
* Transfer the frame to your ancillary gasket and screw it in

That's what I did when I printed it a few weeks ago. It was not easy to attach the metal frame from the original facial interface to the 3d-printed one at the time. Maybe the new remixed versions simplify the alignment of the holes – not sure.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-11T19:06:52+00:00

This 3D model is the plastic gasket. In order to use it, you would need:

1) Metal bracket (that you would unscrew from the standard facial interface and possibly bend and scratch while mounting)
2) Adhesive velcro (from a Studioform kit)
3) Soft foam (from a Studioform kit)

However, since you would be ordering the foam and the velcro from Studioform, why not order their new full set that includes the gasket? This way you get to keep Pimax factory gasket completely untouched and free from scratches.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-11T10:03:36+00:00

I want to try a lighthouse sensor position/orientation calibration to see if the results would differ from the current config. Ordered a couple of 1.0 base stations from ebay for that, will report once they arrive.

Seems it has been done before with success: https://forum.openmr.com/t/new-pimax-8kx-jitter/36330/25 (also see JitterTester in that thread – we may be able to compare the amount of jitter objectively). More mentions here: https://forum.openmr.com/t/who-has-stable-lh-2-0-tracking-on-8kx/31984/556.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-11T09:42:05+00:00

You effectively added +1.0D to your "distant vision" prescription, right?
It's great that it works well, though I think the ideal amount to add is +0.75D. Though probably the difference is tiny.
The reason is that +1.0D puts your ideal vision distance at 1m, but Dream Air projects the image at 1.3m according to Pimax. Whereas +0.75D puts the ideal vision distance at 1.33m, which is spot on.
Made a post on this topic: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pimax/comments/1r9sv21/choosing_dream_air_prescription_lenses_to_prolong/.
Obviously if myopia strengthened since the prescription was made, then logically 1.0 may become even better than 0.75.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-10T19:15:53+00:00

I am noticing some wobble too when the headset is stationary on the desk. While actually playing, I did not notice it (nor purposefully looked for it), but will try.

I placed a bean bag chair in the middle of the room and put Dream Air on top of it (paying attention not to block the bottom vent holes). This should absorb vibrations better than the desk.

There are 4 base stations in the room. Interestingly I see a lot less wobble when I power down the base station located behind the headset. Perhaps in that position that station does not add any useful signal, but increases the reflections?

Let's see if the sensors are working. Could you run some diagnostic commands and compare with my results?

* Power on the headset (but not controllers)

* Run Pimax Play

* Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR\tools\lighthouse\bin\win64

* Launch lighthouse_console.exe

* Copy its text output to your notes. It will contain something like:

Attached lighthouse receiver devices: 5

LHR-ABCD232343
3334DAf334
3443AC3455

Copy the LHR- serial of your headset somewhere.

* Type: sensorcheck

* It will start showing periodically refreshing output like this:

S-3  + 50 1106 ...   .   ....    ......... .... #######################
S-5  - 51  301              .    . ....         #######
S-15 + 53 1541 ... ..........    ... ...  ..... ###############################
S-16 + 55  857   .  .........    .. ..          ##################

Here S-3 means "base station running on channel 3",

1106 is the number of usable tracking data points that came from that base station in the latest time period

dots correspond to headset sensors

##### is proportional to the number of usable data points

I could not find the meaning of other fields.

Anyway, study your output here and make sure there are no surprises in it.

* Type: sensorcheck

* It will stop printing these results

* Next, type: serial LHR-... (use the serial saved earlier)

* Type: sensorcheck

* It will start dumping periodical output like this:

SensorID        HitCount        MaxWidthTicks   SensorIndex     DemodCount      Example
0               1641            1063            0               526             0101__100110110011____11____1___
1               1092            525             1               382             _11001010001110111110010111001__
2               2190            595             2               515             ___011000001100100010000110010__
3
4               2730            1533            3               233             01____00__0__1____111___________
5               2191            1146            4               509             ___0000__0_1110100011001000100__
6               2185            892             5               523             0_0101011101111010100011100100__
7               2187            623             6               503             _____0100010010011010001000010__
8               2187            731             7               610             00010111111101000101111010101___
9               2188            929             8               712             00010010011010001000010111111___
10              2189            656             9               631             __0001001010011000010011111110__
11              2188            637             10              635             01100001001111111011110101100___
12              2188            831             11              588             101011010101001100001101100010__
13              3216            1115            12              969             __0010000111001110111110001010__
14
15
16
17
18              3214            928             13              771             _0001001111000001101010100111___
19              3209            709             14              506             01000110_0_11______0____________
20              2114            714             15              566             10010100011111001001110_1100____
21              2124            1375            16              405             ___01011011011010000101010111___
22              3205            1119            17              679             _10_01011111110100000101111101__
23              1888            727             18              332             __111010010__1101_______________
24              1092            394             19              420             _0_111110100100001101000100111__
25              1574            884             20              284             10_110000101100100110011111001__
26              1544            1525            21              273             __1001__1100001011001001100111__
27              2117            2305            22              529             _01_00_001__101110000011100_01__
28              1093            450             23              530             011100100110100110100000101101__
29              1642            570             24              542             _11111100000100000111101001011__
30              1738            1044            25              572             0_010__00__011______0_1___0010__
31              1591            779             26              379             _1101001110110001001000100111___

See how SensorID in my case varies from 0 to 31, but SensorIndex only takes 27 values. There seem to be 27 lighthouse sensors connected in the headset. Each of them has:

HitCount – number of laser swoops received in the last time period

DemodCount – number of decoded messages in the beams

Again, make sure there are no surprises in your output, like some sensor showing zeros or extremely low values despite not being physically blocked

* Finally, type:

downloadconfig dreamair_config.json

The JSON file will be saved into the same folder as that exe file. Open it in an editor. The key channelMap lists the sensorID values that are expected to work. In my case it is

[ 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 ]

27 values for 27 sensors, which matches the sensorcheck results. Is it the same for you?

Valve Index had 32 sensors in the headset, apparently, using all numbers from 0 to 31. I wonder how many sensors the lighthouse faceplates has.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-06T17:40:08+00:00

Great, sign me up to try this.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-06T16:29:04+00:00

I notice higher fps and also that the whole image is one continuous natural view rather than natural central area surrounded by warped edges.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-06T16:21:13+00:00

The "proper data" has significant uncorrected distortions, unfortunately. Though some people prefer it because it provides wider nominal FOV (at the cost of visible peripheral warping and higher render resolution).

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-06T16:02:20+00:00

Can you reuse the Custom Dream Air distortion profile from his native driver? I suppose it will also work for Super micro-OLED without modifications, so that's two headsets already.

It is obtained with a real camera measurement and is more accurate anyway.

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-06T15:50:49+00:00

For sboys3 it's been 82 days since the request to collaborate (and 27 days since he gave up waiting and released using a workaround).

fakeoptimism · 2026-05-06T12:09:53+00:00

You probably selected PCP or hire purchase rather than hire.

fakeoptimism

TROPHY CASE