Sony VR Headset/Project Morpheus/PlayStation VR

300€ would be an almost instant purchase for me, but I'd still prefer to get something more... multi-platform-able.
 
€300 is fine but they've yet to show me any games that would make me want to buy the headset to play. And this is speaking of someone who is very convinced of VR as a paradigm changing technology that will benefit games.
 
I think the VR will be the driving force for popularization of SuperMHL. The other currently available data transport standards can't provide enough bandwidth for VR headsets with 4K screens.
 
Given VR headsets are based on mobile tech, and mobile tech presses at a rate of knots, will there be a new variation of headset every year? Or will PlayStation VR be locked to 2015 spec as other headsets iterate annually? I don't see much room for cost reduction as it's not using bleeding edge parts, so unlike console versus PC where the lower power is matched with a lower price, it looks like PSVR could just get old and increasingly relatively pricey.
 
Are we really expecting other VR heasets to iterate annually though? That seems like an incredibly silly prospect given the time it takes for games to actually be developed for the HW. It would be even more daft for a PS VR headset to iterate annually or even biannually when the base HW driving the headset will only see an update every 5-8 years (read: generational change).

What's the point of updating the tech in PS VR if the PS4 will be the same until 2019 when PS5 releases?
 
Am I the only one still hoping for Morpheus to support a mode where 2 PS4s can be linked and each console renders one eye for enhanced visuals?
They could be linked using USB or a dedicated ethernet adapter, for example.
 
Am I the only one still hoping for Morpheus to support a mode where 2 PS4s can be linked and each console renders one eye for enhanced visuals?
They could be linked using USB or a dedicated ethernet adapter, for example.

I wonder how many people would be in a position to use such an option.....
 
I wonder how many people would be in a position to use such an option.....

Well, I think the PS4 is going to get dirt cheap in the long run (2017 forward). If Sony/AMD manage to switch the GDDR5 for HBM2 and change the SoC accordingly, on 14/16nm they'll manage to build a really small console (PS2 super-slim levels of small). Or maybe if some fab eventually makes 16Gbit GDDR5 chips they can make an equally small MCM with the SoC and the RAM, like they did with RSX+GDDR3 in the PS3 Slim.

Regardless, VR won't be a cheap venture during the first couple of years, so after the $300-400 on the VR set then spending a couple hundreds more on the second console might not be that exquisite.
 
Given VR headsets are based on mobile tech, and mobile tech presses at a rate of knots, will there be a new variation of headset every year?

I would be surprised if Sony aren't leveraging better technology and the costs don't reduce over time. Morpheus was last seen usign a 1920x1080 OLED display and OLED is still expensive so the panel itself has tremendous scope to cost reduce. Two years after release the OLED screen may be cheaper and have reduced latency and they may improve the optics and audio system. There are lost of components that can be cost reduced and/or improved.

What you probably won't see is a substantial change to the specifications, i.e. a 4k screen unless screens of that resolution become more common than the original 1080p screen and therefore cheaper by economics of scale.
 
If PC VR scene starts developing like mad, with better displays arriving each year, PS4 will still remain highly viable because higher PC system requirements will keep the games from aiming at higher visuals. With better displays [4K@90 or more], games will remain simpler to render, and therefore, PS4 will have a great shot to render everything because devs will aim "only" at 1080p60.

Epic talked about their process of porting that street firefight VR demo from PC to PS4. They integrated Morpheus SDK into UE4, optimised some shaders, and then had to change nothing asset wise. Game immediately worked great on PS4.
25:50 mark
 
Are we really expecting other VR heasets to iterate annually though? That seems like an incredibly silly prospect given the time it takes for games to actually be developed for the HW.
You can add improved screens without needing to change the games at all. Better fittings, perhaps. Many other devices get annual upgrades, from camcorders to cameras to phones to tablets. A higher res screen with lower latency, better colour reproduction, whatever, will be of value to PSVR still. However, the rate of progress may not be that fast, and might be more of a case of a 1.5 version 30 months later.
 
Sadly the Z5's 4K screen is an LCD, so it's not exactly a good choice for VR. It doesn't have a low enough persistence, and can't do 120Hz at 4K. :(

I'm wondering if during the remaining time of the PS4 generation, new revisions of Morpheus would only exploit the technological advances to lower the cost of entry, while the PS5 version will improve specs and features.
 
Headset is display tech, has no logic built in. So as such, there is no real issue in updating the model. The games will keep working. It's basically like putting bigger hard drives into a PS4 when those get cheaper than the original size eventually because the bigger ones become the most widely produced versions.
 
I didn't mean it as a technical decision, but as a business decision. The same applied to Vita. Sony could have upgraded the screen to a 1080p OLED and have a new revision of the display controller that would smoothly scale the games, or even add 1080p playback in the OS... instead they downgraded to an LCD to lower the cost.

The HDD makes sense, it's a no-brainer since the new model costs the same as the old ones, and the old models are discontinued. For a display, the controller (in the external box, or in the headset) needs to be improved, and there's scaling to be done in hardware, higher bandwidth, etc. So necessarily more cost than staying with the old resolution.
 
Are we really expecting other VR heasets to iterate annually though? That seems like an incredibly silly prospect given the time it takes for games to actually be developed for the HW. It would be even more daft for a PS VR headset to iterate annually or even biannually when the base HW driving the headset will only see an update every 5-8 years (read: generational change).

What's the point of updating the tech in PS VR if the PS4 will be the same until 2019 when PS5 releases?

If version 1.0 isn't up to par, then why not. Why not improve upon the design and fix issues that may make their initial product not as enticing of an experience. Accessories like the DS controllers have been improved upon mid gen.
 
Sadly the Z5's 4K screen is an LCD, so it's not exactly a good choice for VR. It doesn't have a low enough persistence, and can't do 120Hz at 4K. :(

As of now, only Display Port 1.3 can handle 4K120 with HBR3 standard [I don't know if there is some pixel color downsampling in that mode].
 
I didn't mean it as a technical decision, but as a business decision. The same applied to Vita. Sony could have upgraded the screen to a 1080p OLED and have a new revision of the display controller that would smoothly scale the games, or even add 1080p playback in the OS... instead they downgraded to an LCD to lower the cost.

The HDD makes sense, it's a no-brainer since the new model costs the same as the old ones, and the old models are discontinued. For a display, the controller (in the external box, or in the headset) needs to be improved, and there's scaling to be done in hardware, higher bandwidth, etc. So necessarily more cost than staying with the old resolution.

I meant as a business decision. For the Vita, a lot of content is native resolution, particularly a lot of the 2D graphics. For the VR, graphics will be 3D and with frame rate more important than resolution, native res is going to be rare anyway, with purposeful blurring to hide physical pixels on purpose.
 
I meant as a business decision. For the Vita, a lot of content is native resolution, particularly a lot of the 2D graphics. For the VR, graphics will be 3D and with frame rate more important than resolution, native res is going to be rare anyway, with purposeful blurring to hide physical pixels on purpose.

REALLY?!?!? :unsure:

The idea of smeared blurry images right up against your face doesn't fill me with much confidence that VR will be the game changer that many want it to be if this is true...

Do we know of any PSVR games already that are not native res?
 
Back
Top