The end result is a presentation that's somewhat blurrier and a touch more constricted than the competition, but curiously, PlayStation VR actually has less of an issue with the off-putting screendoor effect seen on other headsets. Discerning and focusing on individual pixels is actually rather difficult
Sony also deserves kudos for a design that is best-in-class in terms of comfort for those wearing glasses...In terms of overall fit and finish, build quality and comfort level, Sony's efforts here put them at the head of the pack - a great reminder of just how good quality Japanese design can be. I wore the PSVR headset for almost 12 hours straight during one day in putting together this review and felt no kind of stress, pressure or headache at all from the hardware.
The idea is that the timewarp adds a slight distortion effect to the image based on the latest motion data from the headset, giving a smoother image...We can confirm that this is indeed the case, but there's still some perceptible ghosting - as you can see by looking to your side when driving at speed in DriveClub...However, if your head is moving, the captures do look eerily like a native 120fps. It's quite fascinating to see the effect broken down on a frame by frame basis. The distortion effect does create artefacts, but only on the very edges of the rendered screen - tucked away in the furthest reaches of peripheral vision and totally invisible in gameplay.
It's an impressive effect overall and it does work, but it does rely strongly on games sustaining 60fps and never dropping...I've played a lot of the launch line-up at this point and frame-rate is solid on every title I've tested. It suggests that Sony's QA team really is strictly enforcing the require frame-rate lock - a good sign.
Any title that exhibits fast in-game motion that isn't reflected in the real world eventually leads to VR fatigue and a distinctly upset stomach.
Bearing in mind its price in relation to the competition, PlayStation VR is a remarkable achievement - especially bearing in mind that it manages to outscore its much more expensive rivals in key respects, principally in terms of comfort, fit and finish. In accommodating a (relatively) fixed platform, Sony had to get this hardware right first time and by and large, it's done an excellent job.
