Super-Detailed Review Of Pimax Sword Controllers!

Rob Cole is back. The author of the much-appreciated XR Caliper controllers and of many tricks to improve the ergonomics of the Valve Index has just tested for me the Pimax Sword controllers, writing the most detailed review about them you will ever find on the web. More than an article, with its 10,000+ words, this is a short book on the Pimax Sword, featuring everything you may need to know about them (what is Pimax, what are the Sword controllers, how do they work… even an interview with the COO of the company!). Take a sit, and read this super-interesting article written by Rob (who I thank a lot for this gift he is making to all of us).

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Pimax Sword Controllers – review by Rob Cole for Skarredghost

Introduction

On the 11^th of May, I received an email from Pimax about their new “Sword” virtual reality motion controllers, which had finally become available to purchase, following a reveal way back in January 2019 at CES.

The World had since gone through the initial shock of the Covid Pandemic whilst dealing with the aftershocks; many manufacturers were still suffering component shortages and rising costs, shipping delays, factory shutdowns caused by covid lockdowns, and power shortages.

Getting electronics built at volume on time and at acceptable cost was proving difficult, and a number of development projects had sunk without trace or were seemingly stuck in perpetual Kickstarter mode. The Sword controllers were something I’d certainly heard of but had somewhat forgotten about, until now. Kevin from Pimax explains where the name came from:

During the development of the new controllers we joked the most popular prototype resembled a swashbuckling sword and the name stuck.

The email from Pimax about their Sword controllers was welcome, especially because I’d recently been wondering if we’d ever see a new SteamVR motion controller.

Much as I’d enjoyed many experiences and games with the Vive and Index controllers, both had their own issues. Perhaps a new SteamVR controller would finally be “just right”. 

Vividly presented images showed their striking new design with huge tracking rings and fabric hand straps, finished with a special blue coating advertised as being resistant to environmental contaminants.

Immediately noticeable was that it had large trackpads, but no joysticks. (?!) With many games now catering for the popular free locomotion movement style, the lack of joysticks seemed an odd choice for a new controller in 2022.

There also seemed to be a button missing, compared to the ‘Touch-like’ 3 button face input (A/B/Menu) used by many controllers to ensure parity with Meta’s now dominant control layout.

    “Variations on a theme…with input parity: 3 face buttons, joystick, side grip, trigger.”

Similarly to Touch though, Sword featured side mounted grip buttons and large triggers up front.

Despite some misgivings about the lack of joysticks and going against the current 3-button layout, the release of Sword is genuinely good news for the SteamVR ecosystem and this shouldn’t be understated! 

Users finally have a third choice of SteamVR motion controllers, as it’s been 6 years since the release of Vive “Wand” controllers and over 3 years since the launch of the Index “Knuckles” controllers.

As someone who has spent a lot of time using different PCVR controllers like Wands, Index, Windows MR, and different versions of Oculus Touch, I wondered: how would these Sword controllers compare?

Questions

Could this new controller from Pimax provide a more affordable alternative to the robust but somewhat limited Vive controller?

This is the current SteamVR controller pricing in GBP (shipping to UK) at the time the article was written:

•  HTC Vive controller (2018) single £193 includes free shipping and tax
• HTC Vive controller (2018) pair £386.00 includes free shipping and tax
• Pimax Sword controller pair £313 includes paid shipping and tax
• Valve Index controller pair £259 includes free shipping and tax
• Valve Index controller single £139 includes free shipping and tax

Could these provide a more robust alternative to the affordable, but relatively fragile Index controllers?

I went through an unfortunate number of Index controllers during 2 years of warranty coverage as an EU customer, and whilst the RMAs were always handled as quickly as possible, this often meant weeks of downtime. Bought some spare controllers, but these then required RMA, too…

More questions…

Why did Pimax ship their controller with Touchpads?

Where was the Joystick version I’d previously seen?

Would those big tracking rings hit my hands?

Would the hand straps be comfortable?

What would the tracking be like?

How would they work with current VR software?

Straight after receiving the email I reached out to Pimax expressing my interest in testing their new Sword controllers, and provided references to some of my previous articles for Skarredghost. 

Pimax quickly replied, and after establishing that I had a SteamVR headset (Valve Index) and lighthouse base stations (2.0) they offered the loan of a pair of their Sword controllers for me to review. As these were shipping directly from Shanghai, I made sure to double-check my UK delivery details,  after which Pimax provided an email with all the tracking information.

Because of ongoing Covid lockdowns in China, Pimax were unsure if the controllers would ship with batteries (held at another warehouse location), so advised me to purchase them on Amazon and provided a link. A pair of “Sony type NP-BX1” compatible Li-Ion batteries and a USB charging cradle cost less than £20. 

The controllers did end up arriving with batteries included, but I just left those in the packaging and used the batteries I’d already bought and charged in anticipation of the controllers arriving. 

Thanks to David at Pimax for quickly arranging the test controllers, answering my questions and being super helpful.  Also, thanks to the Skarredghost for offering to host my article on his influential blog [You’re welcome, Rob, always happy to host your amazing articles!].

Very soon, a mysterious package arrived at my work premises, but before opening the box, I wanted to know a little more about the sender.

Who is Pimax?

Pimax Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd was founded by Robin Weng and associates in Shanghai, China in 2015. From the China.cn online trade portal (the information appears a little dated):

Business Information

• Company Name: Pimax Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd
• Business Type: Distributor/Wholesaler
• We Provide: VR Technology, VR virtual reality, VR Headset, VR glasses
• Year Established: 2015

Trade & Market

• Main Markets Domestic Market , North America

Factory Information*

• Factory Location: No. 3000 Longdong Avenue, Pudong New District, City area, Shanghai, China Shanghai
• Number of Workers: 100 – 200 People

*This seems to have changed as the manufacturing address on the controller box was the “New Generation Information Technology Park in Rizhao, Shandong”. The headquarters are still located in Shanghai, though.

From reading some of the trade information for Shandong, there are multiple parks of high-technology companies undertaking research and development, and high-tech manufacturing. These technology parks have been partly funded as part of a Government-backed initative to increase development and production of XR equipment in key regions across China. 

Pimax has mentioned in the past using industry-leading vendors with the ability to scale, but it’s unclear whether Pimax operates its own facility or uses a partner vendor. But the Sword controllers seem to be coming from one of these high-tech factories in Rizhao.

Pimax quickly established a name for its VR headsets which pushed the limits of display technology with high resolutions and high frame rates combined with the widest field of view available in readily available consumer headsets.

Following the successful development of 2K and 4K prototypes, the product launches of 4K and 5K headsets, by November of 2016 Pimax had built its ambitious 8K prototype. This rapid iteration is something that Pimax is known for, not uncommon in on-shore tech business culture with access to specialist manufacturing facilities, experienced engineers, and samples of the very latest components. Things move very quickly, competition is always pressuring, there is no time to hang about…

September 2017 saw the launch of its 8K Kickstarter campaign with numerous bonus tiers including three headset models, lighthouse base stations, knuckle style controllers with trackpads or joysticks, different head straps with audio options, cooling fans, wireless transmitter, eye-tracking module, and hand tracking module to name some of the bewildering options.

Following an extremely successful campaign, the project reached $4,236,618 from 5,946 backers (the initial funding goal was $200,000) but as with many Kickstarter projects, there were some delays and other issues.

Some backers complained about long delays, problems getting tracking numbers, headsets shipping without base stations (during manufacturing drought), long waits for controllers, and reports of headset casings cracking, amongst the usual QA problems with early production. There were also reports of slow warranty support, some miscommunication problems, software glitches, compatibility issues with certain graphics card, etc.

Customer service and QA issues aren’t uncommon when a smaller company suddenly finds itself facing a huge challenge, backed by the money of many different customers from all over the World.

Its unclear ultimately how many of the backer goals were ever fully delivered, but from reading online feedback following the Kickstarter, generally the customers seemed happy with their headsets and other accessories. 

It takes a lot of hard work to build a good reputation, and Pimax seems to be making strides forward but there will remain a good number of people who remain unconvinced either from direct experience or having read too much negative press around the Kickstarter.

For various reasons, Pimax had never had much favourable coverage from the mainstream VR press. Some testers had tried earlier models, experiencing distortion or sickness, putting them off trying again despite big improvements being made in later models.

To be fair to Pimax, growing pains are typical when scaling up any company. Add to it the Kickstarter campaign; mix with a group of enthusiastic testers and a very vocal community keen to go ultra-wide as soon as possible… it’s not surprising that Pimax forums were often noisy and the mods busy.

Also, there really isn’t anyone else pushing the ultra-wide PCVR technology so hard, whilst making it available for consumer purchase, unlike previous ultra-wide enterprise-only equipment that few ever got to try.

And let’s give them some credit, Pimax 8K was an ambitious project that they did end up pretty much pulling off; delivering 8K headsets to many backers, fibre optic cables, audio head straps, face cushions, etc. followed by Valve supplied base stations, some Valve Index controllers and now their own Sword controllers.

Pimax has persevered with improving their manufacturing, with their latest kit actually looking pretty good in terms of features, materials and finishing.

New “Vision Series” blue headset casings are proving robust, general quality control improvements have been made, together with ongoing software updates, new face cushions, head straps, and audio solutions. Pimax has been super busy whilst other PCVR vendors have somewhat stagnated: Valve never released a wireless adapter for the Index, and HTC shoe-horned the Focus 3’s lenses and displays into the old Vive Pro body with mixed results.

Newer Vision 8K headset models have already arrived with their latest extra-aural audio solution, whilst the next generation of “Crystal” and “12K” are now being heavily promoted, with exciting promotional materials showing some great future potential. Once again, the community is getting excited, and people will be looking to trade-in their current headsets with a special voucher offer that Pimax has made available.

However, this constant cycle of development can be a double edge sword (pun intended) making it more confusing for consumers to understand key product differences, whilst previous issues are perhaps never fully resolved, as progress keeps pushing forward at a relentless pace.

It’s also a different type of business culture that can alienate some Western customers, but with Pimax targeting the super high-end VR enthusiasts, this pace of change and sales approach was less of a concern, and more something the community seems to actually welcome.

But for many VR users, even the long time PCVR gamers, it’s still a brand at the more extreme end, and one that many seem reluctant to even try; is it a fear of the unknown perhaps combined with the previous online drama that played out around the Kickstarter? Google searches are very revealing..

However, their recent partnership with Amazon should remove any concerns related to performance, fitting, or quality with a free return policy allowing you to buy and try without the risk of getting stuck with hardware that doesn’t work for you. As with any wearable equipment, you won’t know until you try, and your chance of getting a good fit will vary.

Amazon offered a hassle free return for my Vive Pro 2 headset back when I just couldn’t get it to fit properly without making what would have been warranty-busting modifications. Having used this mechanism to buy with confidence, I’d be more than happy to use Amazon to buy any Pimax equipment.

So despite what I’d read and heard over the past couple of years, my interaction with Pimax has been very positive, finding them much more responsive than the bigger VR players.  From reading some of their backstory it seems that they’ve brought new staff on board, heavily invested in customer service opened warehouses on each continent, and have a new manufacturing facility.

They even have customer support phone numbers, which is very unusual in these days of chatbots and emails, a great move to boost customer confidence. The link up with Amazon is also great for confidence when making what is an expensive product purchase with no chance to demo at a store. Amazon also seems to be handling Pimax returns as I found out later in the test.  

Pimax are looking set to become a serious VR player, their reputation can only further improve with new management and new products. During the writing of this article, Pimax has even relaunched its website www.pimax.com which is a big improvement with regard to the previous version, and features a much cleaner design with less “colourful” pop-up special offers and deals.

If the website is any indication of their new direction, good things are happening at Pimax.  I was fortunate enough to ask some questions of their COO Kevin Henderson, with our interview featured at the end of this article. 

Welcome to Sword

What’s in the box? A pair of Sword controllers, a pair of Li-ion batteries in plastic cases, and a pair of USB leads so that the batteries can be charged whilst inserted in the controllers, or the controllers given firmware updates by plugging into the PC.

The box itself was very sturdy with a thick foam core containing cut-outs that did their best to prevent the controllers from being removed. This box should also survive any transit impacts, making sure your Sword controllers arrive in the best condition. 

The new design was certainly different, a first glance a mutant offspring of the new PSVR2 controller and an Oculus Touch. However, as I was soon to discover, this was an unfair assumption as Pimax had worked through a considerable number of iterations to reach their production design. Shown below are prototype controllers from the 8K kickstarter compaign, which look like a joystick modified Vive wand.

Sword is essentially an updated Vive “Wand” controller with some key improvements including the hand strap and side grip buttons, although the number of inputs and input types is limited by the Vive Wand driver that it’s using in SteamVR.

The Vive controller was never designed to provide analog joystick support or additional control face buttons, a problem that Pimax ran into during development, and is mentioned in the interview at the end of this article.

The image below shows the key features that Pimax have listed. I weighed each controller to double-check the accuracy of their 230g claim and found that the Left controller was 237g whilst the right was 234g, which is a normal variation seen in manufacturing.

This weight is with batteries fitted, coming in a little heavier than my Index controllers which weigh 222g for left, and 223g for right, including 3D printed “palm boosters” (standard Index controller is around 195g).

Battery

Pimax chose removable and replaceable batteries for the Sword. These are a common “Sony type” called BXP-01 used in many digital cameras. 

Lithium ion Type X rechargeable battery

• Approx. capacity: 3.6V / 4.5Wh (1240mAh)
• Approx. dimensions (mm): W29.9 x H9.2 x D42.7
• Approx weight: 25g

The batteries can be charged whilst mounted in the controllers, or charged externally using a mains charger. It took around 1 hour to charge both batteries I had bought from Amazon in the included charging cradle, which was plugged into a mains-powered smartphone charger I had spare at home.

Its very easy to insert the batteries incorrectly (check the contact pins): my batteries had the text facing outwards, if you do insert the wrong way around (or back to front) you just won’t get any power (obviously) but I’ve seen a few Youtubers make this mistake and initally assume the controllers wouldn’t work because of a fault.

Battery life was around 3 hours, with the light on the Sword controllers eventually turning red and then turning off. Battery life seemed dependent on the application’s use of haptics, with games like Beat Saber draining the batteries more quickly than a relaxing meditation app.  The batteries are retained inside the body with a small sprung clip, and the body sealed with magnetic grip covers – these worked really well and never came loose unlike Oculus second generation of Touch controlllers.

The battery removal requires a slight re-design, because there is nothing to assist the user in removing the batteries. Typically, manufacturers include a small fabric strap that sits underneath the battery and by grasping the end can be used to pull the battery up for removal.

With Sword, there is a small sprung tab, but this needs working whilst the battery is being lifted. I ended up using the handle of a small kitchen spoon to gently prise the battery out whilst trying to release the sprung tab at the same time. I can see this tab becoming damaged over time, Pimax would benefit from having a fabric strip under the battery on future models of Sword. 

Battery life was definitely shorter than for Vive and Index controllers which both have non-removable batteries: this is the trade-off of using a removable common type battery as the BXP battery itself is a fixed size / shape, and requires a retention crade inside the controller body.

This cradle reduces internal volume, whilst the rectangular battery is more awkward to package inside a controller; a custom “pouch” battery can be designed to fit a smaller or odd shape internal space, giving a useful increase in capacity for longer play sessions.

Pimax mention a battery “hot swap” feature with a small fixed battery (or capacitor?) inside each controller allowing the main battery to be removed without the controller losing power and disconnecting from the session. Considering I just used the controllers until the batteries ran flat, and then removed the batteries to quick charge, this wasn’t a feature I tested or used.

The use of removable batteries is an overall big bonus because it prevents the controller becoming useless after repeated use. It’s not uncommon to see Redditors talking about how to replace depleted Index controller batteries, whilst Meta stuck with removeable batteries from the first Touch controller onwards. So whilst the play time per charge is shorter, overall the removable battery is a good thing, especially for the environment as prevents otherwise workable controllers from being scrapped (the E-Waste issue).

Finally whilst in SteamVR I noticed that the render model of the Sword didn’t show any battery life (Index controllers show this clearly) but the data is available as the application FPS VR shows battery life for each controller. It would be worth Pimax implementing this feature as it’s useful for quickly gauging power without having to go into FPS VR each time.

Pairing to SteamVR

Pairing the controller is very easy. Just pair in steamVR, no need for PiTools (though this is needed for updates). SteamVR recognized both the Index and Pimax controllers and was happy to work with either simply by turning off the controllers and turning on the alternative set. I didn’t need to pair them each time, which was very useful when comparing the different controllers against each other in games.

However, SteamVR was its glitchy self from time to time: during my last play session, I was using Index controllers, which seemed to have the Sword render models still associated. After turning off the controllers and turning back on, these updated to Index render models, though I could see the render model for the right Pimax controller sitting about 10 feet to the right side of my playspace. Using the “unpair all” command in Lighthouse console should cure this, though the controllers would need pairing again afterwards.

Render Model

As soon as I started SteamVR and went into the steamVR home environment, the Pimax render models were visible. These looked quite simple without detailed textures or animations.

The render models do not feature battery indicators (as previously mentioned) but also contain no animation for control inputs. After 3 years of Index controllers, this seems like a step back, when you push a button you see a corresponding animation movement which is neat and adds to feelings of hand presence.

With the Sword controllers there is no reaction, but ultimately this doesn’t really matter, and since the render model is generally only seen in steamVR home (or when pausing an application), it’s arguable Pimax wisely spent their development resources elsewhere.  A more polished render model with textures and animations is ideal, but perhaps not necessary (think of it as a “polish”). Let’s say that it does the job, but could be more polished.

So what is going on here then? Quick overview of ergonomics

The Sword controller has a shaped body to hold comfortably in the hands, combined with a soft wrist strap to allow the controllers to be strapped to the hands. This seems to combine the feel of a Touch controller with the strapped-in sensation of the Index Controllers. At first, the straps felt a little stiff, but soon softened and became more comfortable.

To put the controllers on, you slide your hands into them and find the hand straps. Once you are gripping the controllers you can easily adjust the strap tension using an adjuster built into the base of the controller body and tracking ring.

At the top of the strap is a pivot mounted on a sprung, sliding piece that moves back and forth inside the edge of the controller body. This pivot allow the angle of the strap to be set, it’s quite firm so will hold the angle you set despite hand movement. 

The lower strap uses a pull-through clamp in the base of the tracking ring. It’s a bit stiff to use but works and maintains a firm grip once set, so it never came accidentally loose. Next to the adjuster can be seen the USB port for doing firmware updates or charging the batteries whilst inside the controllers.

The shape of the Sword controller and the unique shape of its hand strap with its own adjustment range means that it feels very different to the Index controller.

Index was the first VR controller to ship with a dorsal retaining strap that many are now turned onto, including companies making grips with straps for Meta controllers, and those making new controllers like the Pimax Sword.

As the ergonomics are very different, the controller acts differently to Index when strapped onto the hands. For my medium-sized hands, it’s less stable when ungripped: for example, if throwing something like a grenade in a game, it will wobble slightly whilst Index would stay stuck to my hand.

The image above shows the difference between the two controllers, if focusing on the difference in the palmer (palm) and dorsal (back of hand) support of the hands. In both cases the palm rests against the plastic body (Index fitted with Palm booster here), and the back of hand against the fabric strap.

But the bodies and straps have a very different shape and orientation, Sword has a much smaller and shorter body and this seems to be allowing my hand to move slightly as the lower portion of my palm isn’t supported at the same depth as across the middle of the body. Index’s support runs straight, underneath the end of the fabric strap, whilst the lower third of Sword quickly curves away

I found this part of my palm and medial border (side of little finger) regularly came into contact with the lower tube part of the Sword body, letting my hand press against the inside of the tracking ring which was actually quite comfortable. The dorsal strap is not bad at all, it generally works in most games and its much better than having no straps in terms of comfort and immersion. 

I’ve found that with some software applications it felt more comfortable and immersive to run the straps loose with my hand holding the controller in the regular way where it feels similar to Touch. This isn’t uncommon, many players have their own preference and often hold controllers in a slightly different way to what was intended by the designer. Many Index players don’t like playing Beat Saber strapped in, but run the straps looser and have their own hand pose.

Something that was noticeable was not really having anywhere to rest your thumb as you don’t always want to be contacting the trackpad, and trying to support your thumb diagonally hits the Menu button. This was quickly experienced in Beat Saber with its high acceleration and stress loading as players spin their arms around: if I left my thumb on the trackpad, it constantly clicked due to controller movement as I swung my arms.

A natural solution seemed to be wrapping my fingers around the side of the controller head and below the trigger for fast-moving games like Beat Saber where there is no in-game interaction apart from physically moving the controller themselves. Later during my weeks of testing, I found an issue that developed perhaps related to constant hand and tracking ring interaction… you will read more on this later in the article.

Once strapped into Sword, immediate notice is given to the Trackpad, as your thumb falls naturally into place across the middle of its surface, giving a natural resting place as long as trackpad interaction isn’t required.

The trackpad

The most immediate feature I examined after the tracking rings was the trackpads. These have a mildly concave face that is approximately 37mm in diameter, and a firm click when depressed anywhere across the face. 

Without pulling the controllers apart I couldn’t easily tell where this had been sourced from, though it felt similar to the trackpad used in the Vive controller and Steam controller. The Sword trackpad had a pleasant coating (not sure if it’s the same coating used on the body and ring) which provided slight friction but also allowed smooth movement, and worked well with sweaty hands.

As with many trackpads, there is a click when depressed, which is used for additional input: whilst playing “In Death”, pressing down on the left trackpad brings up arrow selection whilst the trackpad itself can be used for slow free locomotion.

Overall I found the trackpad comfortable, easy to use, very intuitive, and a great fit for my medium-sized hands. However, its performance and useful function were very software dependent.

The Trackpad issue

This brings up a much bigger issue, going back to the argument around free locomotion versus teleport, with joystick and trackpad sitting in opposing conerns.  I’m not here to take sides in this debate, but to note it as a genuine concern for many players.

Free movement with the trackpad in many newer games wasn’t ideal, it felt unreliable in terms of speed and direction, and certainly got me killed more frequently in Compound and Pavlov compared to using a joystick based controller. Used as teleport it was no problem, but this changes gameplay, immersion, etc.

For older SteamVR applications (many from the earlier days of Vive PCVR), the touchpad is usually the best choice, as a number of these apps just don’t work as well with joysticks when it comes to teleportation. The short range of thumb movement on trackpad to activate teleport movement, compared to pushing the taller index stick forward, was more efficient and accurate.

This was the biggest take away about the touchpad, for teleportation it’s much easier to use and more accurate. The small joystick on Index isn’t correctly aligned with the natural forward reach of the hand, which can cause teleportation (and free locomotion) to feel misaligned with the intended direction of travel.

The Index stick is also a bit small and mushy giving less accurate feedback compared to a firm movement on the trackpad. Should Pimax have built a trackpad controller in 2022? A question I hope to answer a bit later.

Face Buttons

As mentioned earlier, Pimax has shipped the Sword with a “missing button” from the controller face, they have followed the Vive controller template, so we have just two buttons: the “Menu” button and “Home” button. The buttons themselves feel good, the menu button is prominent whilst the home button is recessed to prevent accidental engagement.

The buttons do not have capacitive sensors, unlike the Meta and Index controllers, but this has limited use in game so it’s not a big loss.  I found this interesting information on Pimax’s blog from September 2021:

In our efforts to optimize Capsense (individual finger tracking) capability for our Sword of VR controllers we have determined we will not be able to achieve the level of compatibility we set out to accomplish and will not include a Capsense capability in our Sword Controllers. Other prominent requests are to add a “B” button and a version with a joystick. We have decided not to create alternate versions of the Sword controller and will only release the trackpad version. We understand some of you may be disappointed with this decision and we sincerely apologize to those of you interested in a joystick version.

The Menu button feels more stable than the buttons on the Index which were always a bit ‘wobbly’ with feeling of too much lateral float. It’s also very easy to slide your thumb off the trackpad and onto the Menu button, reducing effort in the game.

The lack of the third button is something that is noticed in more recent VR applications, and despite SteamVR’s fully customizable controller input system, a missing button is still a missing button and therefore a missed opportunity for further inputs. However, this was a limitation of using the Vive driver in SteamVR and something outside of Pimax’s immediate control.

Trigger

The triggers are large moulded pieces with a curved shape designed to help the user locate and retain the trigger against the trigger finger. The action of the triggers is perhaps a little too deep before activation, as it’s a simple switch unlike the dual-stage action of the Index triggers. Whilst the trigger generally works as intended, there were 3 issues I found that hindered gameplay:

• Free float. there seems to be excess travel before activation. Whilst this allows the user to float the trigger without activation, it also makes for a slower pull action, and can make the “trigger point” less reliable in terms of hitting the same depth each time. I’d like to see this float reduced, or the inclusion of a travel adjuster to allow the user to setup the trigger to suit their hands and preferred style of play.

• Sensitivity. This could be related to excess travel, but I found the trigger overly sensitive in some applications, shooting off multiple rounds with a single pull. This caused problems in shooters where ammo and accuracy is king. For applications where the trigger is used to activate a feature or trigger activity, this wasn’t an issue. A later set of controllers exhibited less of this behaviour, suggesting the software is being improved.

• Shape. Depending on the game, frequency of trigger use, length of your trigger finger and pose the controller is held in, I noticed a slightly sharp edge across the vertical face of the trigger, especially toward each side and the lower edge. Whilst this wasn’t uncomfortable in terms of causing pain, it was noticeable in games like Space Pirate Trainer and the Gunman Chronicles mod for Half Life Alyx where I was doing lots of shooting. The ongoing sensation was of my finger resting against a slight edge, rather than the smooth face of a typical trigger blade.

Grip Button

One of the big problems with the old Vive controller was the side grip buttons, which were really difficult to definitely use, but all too easy to accidentally use. I had some leg buckling, and stomach-wrenching drops playing “Blue Shift” in 2016 on the Vive where an accidental press of the grip would cause your pilot’s wings to retract, often leading to a crash into the floor.

Pimax has moved away from this, and followed a similar style of side grip button to Meta’s popular Touch controllers, amongst others. This grip button is a simple on/off mechanism: for example, in Compound the controllers will stay stuck to my hands until I click the grip button. It’s also not capacitive, unlike the Meta Touch controllers.

Using Index controllers, the squeeze to grip wasn’t as reliable in Compound, and if weapons were not firmly gripped when transitioning levels I’d lose them and start the next level weaponless! The Sword feels better in this respect, less immersive but more accurate causing less cognitive load when the combat gets intense.

Overall the Sword grip buttons feel good to use with their simple on/off action and slight float before activation (not as deep as the triggers). Grip buttons feel very different from Index’s grip sensors, will work better for some applications and not as well for others. 

Regarding grip, the controllers have finger tracking hardware already built in. This has not been activated because Pimax had issues getting the SteamVR driver for Vive to work properly. More on this later…

Haptics

From my experience using other controllers, it appears the Sword are using a high-quality ERM (eccentric rotating mass) motors. It feels suitably punchy for applications Beat Saber and shooters, though not the most subtle in terms of range or fast response.

Having a good strong haptic motor is important, some applications allow tuning of haptic strength to let the player set their comfort or feedback level.

Haptics drain battery power, as is evident when playing Beat Saber where the controllers are constantly firing their motors rewarding the player with a good, solid experience. This is in stark contrast to the weak haptics that were found on the WMR controllers, so anemic that made Beat Saber feel like a shadow of its usual self.

Colored light in front

The “breathing light” is a long strip at the front edge of the controller, and gives the 3 pairing states of red, blue, and green.

This light will drain the battery slightly quicker than a single LED, and does cause some local “light pollution”. If you play in a fully darkened room, and your headset has a gap around the nose or gasket edge, it can be a little distracting.

But otherwise, the colored light looks quite cool (it sets the Pimax apart) and is useful when pairing at arm’s length (or with the headset on) rather than looking for the small LED on the Index controllers. 

Capacitive sensing

As mentioned in the buttons section, there is no “cap” sense or capacitive sensing on Sword. This means that holding a finger close to the button or trigger doesn’t register as on Index and Meta controllers. It usually is a nice touch for hand presence but doesn’t really affect gameplay or provide additional functions. The touchpad will register a very light touch due to its sensitivity, but it’s not cap-equipped like the other buttons, either.

Tracking

After getting to grips with the fit and the control setup, I wanted a closer look at the tracking setup hidden in those big rings. 

Pimax has mentioned using an unprecedented 26 optical sensors for each Sword.  SteamVR previously had a hard limit of 32 sensors per processor, to use more you have to run an additional processor which just adds another layer of complication, cost, and increased power budget. Pimax also mentions using a higher specification IMU with a faster data capture rate.

What this all meant was very performant tracking at all angles, which was very impressive. Reducing the possibility of occlusion is the big benefit that the vertical height and width of the tracking rings provide. I tried holding a pistol in Pavlov with my right hand and bringing up the left controller to steady the piston with my left hand, and I still had no issues with tracking occlusion.

There was also no physical contact between the tracking rings of both hands at any point, which was surprising considering the size of the rings. Pimax said they tried many iterations of the tracking ring, and it shows because it works well, it feels very balanced with the weight of the controller body and the tracking ring felt around the wrist area and not onto the hands.

During my weeks of testing, I had no issues with tracking, it was super reliable and accurate (Pimax claim 0.3mm)… the typical SteamVR lighthouse performance. Was the tracking better than Index? Yes in terms of occlusion, but otherwise no difference in performance when ‘on beam’.

The JSON

Taking a closer look under the hood, I downloaded “the JSON” from one of the Sword controllers and inspected it closer. If you understand SteamVR devices, this will make immediate sense, otherwise think of it as the driver containing what type of device it is, a calibrated digital representation of the physical geometry of the device and its optical sensors, the IMU orientation, calibration, and firmware references. This is what I found in the file:

{
   "device_class" : "controller",
   "device_pid" : 8960,
   "device_serial_number" : "LHR-3AAFE550",
   "device_vid" : 10462,
   "firmware_config" : {
      "mode" : "controller",
      "radio" : true,
      "spi_flash" : true,
      "trackpad" : true,
      "trigger" : true,
      "vrc" : true
   },
   "head" : {
      "plus_x" : [ 1, 0, 0 ],
      "plus_z" : [ 0, 0, 1 ],
      "position" : [ 0, 0.014999999664723873, -0.039999999105930328 ]
   },
   "imu" : {
      "acc_bias" : [ -0.00695100008, 0.0625400022, 0.1074 ],
      "acc_scale" : [ 0.989000022, 1.01199996, 0.995199978 ],
      "gyro_bias" : [ -0.0315000005, -0.00493799988, 0.0119500002 ],
      "plus_x" : [ 0.21935559694180662, -0.10911204939182584, 0.9695244382583178 ],
      "plus_z" : [ -0.97563917749450069, -0.02111220658916535, 0.21836305462256833 ],
      "position" : [ 0.0017470000311732292, -0.00031425998895429075, 0.049129698425531387 ]
   },
   "lighthouse_config" : {
      "channelMap" : [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 ],
      "modelNormals" : [
         [ -0.0380270146, -0.700318217, -0.712817252 ],
         [ 0.0247669965, -0.783519864, 0.620872915 ],
         [ -0.470197946, -0.682181954, 0.559947968 ],
         [ -0.823689103, -0.40073207, 0.401186049 ],
         [ 0.258702964, -0.635018945, -0.727889955 ],
         [ -0.9494645, 0.259356886, 0.176779911 ],
         [ 0.183486015, -0.198414028, -0.962790132 ],
         [ -0.774320185, 0.613231122, 0.156128034 ],
         [ -0.0412880108, 0.336935103, 0.940622211 ],
         [ -0.205230892, 0.746753633, 0.632644713 ],
         [ 0.497776866, -0.663111806, 0.559017897 ],
         [ 0.811035693, 0.584931791, -0.0087095676 ],
         [ -0.155315056, -0.113550037, -0.981317341 ],
         [ 0.410959989, 0.910741985, 0.0407560989 ],
         [ -0.446696937, 0.891022861, 0.0808706954 ],
         [ 0.315415144, 0.0470154211, -0.947788477 ],
         [ 0.886287987, -0.28452, 0.365433991 ],
         [ -0.364768982, -0.40288493, -0.839420855 ],
         [ 0.960236669, 0.249453917, 0.125372961 ],
         [ -0.183747053, 0.393173158, 0.900917292 ],
         [ -0.0172920022, 0.721602082, 0.692092061 ],
         [ -0.80495429, 0.470315188, -0.361735106 ],
         [ -0.82476598, -0.53570801, -0.181047007 ],
         [ 0.350825042, 0.221277028, -0.909922123 ],
         [ 0.819256008, 0.453711003, -0.350665003 ],
         [ 0.693582177, -0.608478129, 0.385614097 ]
      ],
      "modelPoints" : [
         [ -0.00322245085, -0.0423639342, 0.110276416 ],
         [ -0.0212385692, -0.0436412469, 0.121922232 ],
         [ -0.0512818396, -0.0405346937, 0.114965484 ],
         [ -0.0770718157, -0.0266842265, 0.0934347287 ],
         [ -0.0750427023, -0.0283354167, 0.0858111829 ],
         [ -0.0918799266, 0.0155795487, 0.0543927103 ],
         [ -0.0837710872, 0.0318264626, 0.0459391288 ],
         [ -0.0727503449, 0.0511742942, 0.0497174636 ],
         [ -0.0838254765, 0.0228967052, 0.0657553971 ],
         [ -0.0589980558, -0.0263176728, 0.113080822 ],
         [ 0.0107006812, -0.0333019644, 0.121234082 ],
         [ 0.0305221658, 0.0621658713, 0.0640221015 ],
         [ 0.0237923265, 0.0585589409, 0.0588182583 ],
         [ 0.00169629336, 0.0878300071, 0.0609984286 ],
         [ -0.0308794323, 0.0856003016, 0.0576769523 ],
         [ -0.0480047278, 0.0697084963, 0.0494043864 ],
         [ 0.0450265184, -0.0139670018, 0.0896124169 ],
         [ 0.0480728894, 0.00653656898, 0.0723890886 ],
         [ 0.0495340265, 0.0231161006, 0.0745737925 ],
         [ 0.0440835729, 0.0192563497, 0.0851787925 ],
         [ 0.0298181251, -0.0146432128, 0.107967824 ],
         [ -0.0288773328, -0.00125610933, -0.0075312932 ],
         [ -0.0265464336, -0.0105262389, -0.0109835137 ],
         [ 0.0107968682, -0.00717549631, -0.0275005642 ],
         [ 0.029771477, 0.000665576779, -0.00721752411 ],
         [ 0.0224537514, -0.0124576362, 0.00857212581 ]
      ]
   },
   "manufacturer" : "HTC",
   "model_number" : "Pimax Left",
   "render_model" : "{aapvr}sword_handler_1_0_left",
   "resource_root" : "aapvr",
   "revision" : 2,
   "tracked_controller_role" : "left_hand"
}

Testing with popular software

To put Sword through their paces I did lots of testing in popular software I’ve been previously using with Index controllers. I was interested to try the trackpads in older software and current software which is targeting joystick-based users.

SteamVR Home of course felt great still being a teleportation-based environment, and I had much more fun moving about fluidly and accurately with the Sword’s trackpads. The Index sticks don’t always align with your intended direction of teleport placement, whereas the trackpads just worked great as always.

Straight away these controllers felt like a great match for Beat Saber, so I played a lot more Beat Saber than I have in months, despite the 2 heatwaves that hit the UK during the testing period. I never found the Index controllers great for Beat Saber, always preferring the older Vive controllers with their “simple held tool” shape.

Despite my best efforts to frantically wave my arms around, Sword never lost tracking in Beat Saber, just felt very precise and reliable like most SteamVR equipment.

Testing included hanging out and moving around in SteamVR home environments, using VR Chat, intense gunfights in “Pavlov”, fighting ever upwards through the corporate world of “Compound”…

… lots of firing fast arrows “In Death”, wandering through different levels of “Half Life Alyx” and the excellent chapter 1 of the “Gunman Chronicles” mod. Classic Space Pirate Trainer regularly featured, the room-scale nature and frantic gameplay working well with Sword. In “Pistol Whip”, though, that slight edge to the trigger made longer sessions less comfortable on my trigger finger.

Shockingly, I preferred HLA with the touchpad and teleportation. I wasn’t a big fan of the free locomotion mode which was obviously integrated at a later stage of development and didn’t work so great with the Index’s underbaked joystick and slow locomotion pace. The use of teleport to clear gaps or drops forced free locomotion users to teleport, which left the whole thing feel a bit mixed up and less immersive for me.  

With Sword, I could quickly move through an area with accurate teleportation and then focus on close detail and combat using roomscale. The teleport felt much more accurate with the trackpad, whilst Valve’s support of different controllers meant no problem assigning inputs as required.

My favorite single-player game “In Death” is always a brutal test of tracking accuracy, controller durability, and input options, and the Sword handled themselves well. The arrow driven teleport mechanism means no trackpad or stick movement is required for distance travel, though the trackpad’s free locomotion movement wasn’t as accurate as the Index’s joystick in this particular game, making creeping about less fun as it was a bit stop and start. Vertical arrow shots in the second level were handled with no loss in tracking accuracy.  Haptics felt strong and punchy, making for great feeling “shield bash” melée action.

And of course, I played lots and lots of “Beat Saber” where I started getting higher scores whilst progressing through a number of Expert+ levels I’d not be able to clear with Index controllers.

The Pimax controllers felt really good in Beat Saber, and I found myself really enjoying the experience a lot more than using my Index controllers. The Sword controllers have a really neutral balance point, punchy haptics, and a good solid feel in the hands, even when run with looser straps.

After some intensive testing, I started to notice a slight movement somewhere in the lower part of the controller. Ignoring this as it was very slight, I had another Beat Saber session before noticing the movement was becoming more pronounced. Stopping, I checked out the controllers and noticed that the mechanical fitting / interface between the tracking ring and the controller body had developed some free play, or slop. Carefully holding the controllers, I could move the long base of the body back and forth against the tracking ring.

I immediately contacted Pimax, and was sent a replacement set of Sword controllers as an advanced replacement, and provided with free return shipping which is fulfilled by Amazon in the UK. The replacement controllers arrived before I’d even had a chance to find a local UPS office for the return, for an overall very impressive customer service!

Since getting the replacement controllers I have continued testing as quickly as possible to see if I could replicate the issue. After two weeks of testing, the problem hasn’t reoccurred, but I’d been playing a lot less Beat Saber which seemed to be the culprit with its high velocities and stresses.

As an example, Valve had to rework their tracking software when they found players were using motion controllers at much higher speeds than was ever anticipated, which demonstrates what a good test the game is for hardware.

Pimax is aware of the issue I found, and has received my damaged controllers for inspection. I’m not a mechanical engineer but it seems to make sense to reinforce this area to prevent loosening in the future. The pressure from my lower hand against the tracking ring wasn’t helping.

Pimax Sword are different in that the controller ring and body are 2 pieces fixed with a mechanical connection, whereas most controllers use a 1 piece design. My suggestion involved reinforcing this area to preempt any future problems as stronger or more aggressive players may encounter this issue sooner. 

I was impressed with Pimax’s response, and their willingness to improve their equipment bodes well for their future! As the king of Index controllers’ RMAs, I’m keen to see how my new Sword controllers hold up, and whether the problem will re-occur.

Interview with Kevin Henderson

After spending some weeks with Sword, and before making my conclusions, I wanted to know more about them, so I managed to grab a short interview with Kevin Henderson, Pimax’s COO.

From LinkedIn: “Senior executive with over 29 years of experience in international business, product development, and development of exceptional sales channels. An excellent track record and often referred to as a jack of all trades for conceptualizing new advanced products, developing the manufacturing, packaging, distribution channels, and legal work. My current position is COO and company spokesperson for Pimax VR.”

I want to thank a lot Kevin for the time he has dedicated to answering my questions and giving me more details about the Sword controllers.

Final thoughts and thanks

This has been one of the most interesting reviews for me, because I’d heard so much about Pimax but not had the confidence to try their hardware partly due to all the previous noise around the Kickstarter, and partly a reluctance to buy hardware directly from manufacturers.

The retail partnership with Amazon would alleviate my latter concern, as a regular Amazon customer, this fills me with confidence. I have already used this mechanism to buy and return an expensive Vive Pro 2 headset last year.

It’s very easy to follow the popular opinion and dismiss Pimax as less than credible, but that’s not been my experience here either from initial contact, responsiveness to questions, super slick RMA process, and willingness to take on my findings and improve the product (others could learn from this!)

The Sword controllers are actually a good effort, they feel good in the hands, despite lacking joysticks and the extra button. For compatible software (older teleportation titles, mainly) they are a great choice, often better than Index. For more recent titles, many have different movement options so it’s possible to tweak things to your liking.

The buttons worked and continued to work during my testing. The trigger developed no squeaking or graunching (I’m looking at my Index controllers here!), the trackpad just worked, and kept working, although my test wasn’t long enough to determine if it could develop the same issue that plagued my Vive controllers.

The tracking is excellent, occlusion is minimized at all angles and hand poses I could maneuver myself into. Battery life is workmanlike at 3 hours, and since those batteries are removable they can be swapped in seconds for a fresh pair. If the batteries become depleted through repeated use it’s no issue, just swap in some new batteries and start again.

I’m seeing increasing numbers of Index owners with depleted batteries, and some creative solutions from the community to solve this problem, including one user who strapped a battery to the outside of the body with wires running inside.

Opening up an Index controller to replace a battery is very tricky, it wasn’t designed to be rebuildable. Pimax scores in this respect with its removable battery design. The only downside is a shorter run time, but 3 hours is still plenty, and as I’ve said, a quick swap out and you’ve got another 3 hours of playtime.

Going back to my early questions

Could this new controller from Pimax provide a more affordable alternative to the simple yet solid Vive controllers?

Yes, they provide the same functionality in terms of software parity, but with better grip buttons, comfortable hand straps, a great trackpad, and excellent tracking. I didn’t get to test them for long enough to find out if the trackpad might degrade like used to happen on the Vive controller requiring users to open them up and shim them.

The Sword controllers are also more affordable than the Vive controllers, though only available as a pair (Pimax could look at supplying individual left/right controllers like HTC and Valve).

Could these provide a more robust alternative to the affordable, but relatively fragile Index controllers?

Initially, I would have said yes, but now I suspend my judgment because of the issue with the mechanical connection between the tracking ring and controller body. However, this should be quite easy to resolve, and with Pimax’s engineers already looking into this, I’m sure it will be resolved before many more players get their hands on Sword controllers.

In terms of input durability, the Sword controllers didn’t start to degrade like many of my Index controllers had, although a common problem for Index was joystick drift, and obviously not having joysticks means Sword avoids this particular issue, at the expense of free locomotion support.

Also, not having a joystick means nothing to snag on pockets of pants and snap off, and this is good for Beat Saber again…

It was pleasantly quiet without squeaking triggers (Index) and neither the trigger blades on Sword nor the buttons started to wobble (Index) ,so that’s a big bonus.

So should I buy them?

This really comes down to the games you play, and how you like to play them. With SteamVR having a highly configurable input setup, there are many ways to configure your controllers.

People also have their own preferences, I am one of the lesser few that still like the Vive wand and think it’s great choice for location-based venues where onboarding is minimal or sometimes non-existent.

The Vive controller has a “here hold this, press here” simplicity which Sword in some ways loses in simply by having the large tracking rings and hand straps which can be a little confusing for first-timers.  But once fitted, they are easy to use with a much better grip button which after the issue of trackpad durability, was the biggest complaint about the original Vive “wand”.

With Sword lacking the extra face button, you are missing another input element, but that highly configurable setup in SteamVR means there are workarounds to get it set up in a favorable way.

The issue of joysticks, finger tracking support, and even that “missing button” is a direct result of using the Vive driver in SteamVR, and there isn’t a way around that until the system architect (Valve) provides additional support. If you study “the JSON” of an Index controller, you see that Index is very different from Vive, with Index controllers using a wealth of custom firmware developed by Valve themselves.

SteamVR developers might tell you that it’s a bit of a “black box”, so developing new controllers isn’t anywhere as straightforward as players might think, the Vive and Index templates are available plus some open source drivers which can be adapted if you have the skill. 

Personally, I like these controllers and enjoyed playing games like Beat Saber, Pistol Whip, Space Pirate Trainer, and Half-Life Alyx with them. The biggest strength of SteamVR is the ecosystem, letting you mix and match controllers. There’s nothing to stop you from using Vive, Sword, and Index controllers on your system. You can even choose a different controller for each hand if you like.

My feeling with Sword is that Pimax will continue to improve them, the trigger shape (slightly sharp) is an easy fix, if I had bought them myself I’d have just taken some fine wet and dry sandpaper to them to smooth out the trigger blade shape. Pimax is aware of sensitivity issues with the trigger, and the excess trigger travel: these are improvements that aren’t difficult to implement when you have onshore manufacturing facilities.

My takeaway? A good first effort, that can only get better with further development. And yes, I plan to get a pair to complement my Index controllers, that’s about the best endorsement I can make here. There might be an issue with the mechanical connection between the body and ring, but it hasn’t happened again, yet. However, Pimax’s warranty backup was very quick and hassle-free, providing new controllers before I’d even shipped my originals back, top marks for customer service.

However, I won’t be playing some games with them (mainly the ones based on free locomotion), but there is plenty of good software that works better with trackpads, and for that, Sword is well worth looking at. It’s lso the best choice for people who just prefer teleport/blink movement.

For Beat Saber fanatics this is a great choice, better than Vive controller in terms of tracking and weight balance, but let’s see how Pimax reinforce that mechanical connection as Beat Saber is known to push controllers (and players) to their limits.

I’m very interested to see what Pimax does next, both in terms of refining Sword, and manufacturing their new Crystal and 12K headsets. They’ve already offered me a Crystal headset to test, once the self-assembly kit is released… so look forward to a future test here on Skarredghost.com.

Thanks for reading! Rob Cole

(Header image provided by Rob Cole)