Sony PlayStation VR (formerly Project Morpheus)
Sony PlayStation VR is a virtual reality (VR) headset, made by Sony, for its PlayStation 4 console. In case you were wondering.
Until September 15 2015, PlayStation VR was called Project Morpheus, which sounds more mysterious and fun, but is less descriptive and a bit harder to spell. The change of name did not bring with it any material change to the device, however.
Sony PlayStation VR: the key facts
• It's a virtual reality headset for PlayStation 4. You can't use it without a PS4 and chances of backwards compatibility with PS3 are zero.
• Release date: this should be 2016 and hopefully early 2016. However, no official date has been announced yet.
• Price: TBC. If Sony expects to sell a lot of PlayStation VR units we'd hope to see it at about £300/$400 or perhaps bundled with PS4 for about £550/$750.
Its main rivals are Oculus Rift and HTC Vive made in association with Valve.
• You can read our hands on review of the PlayStation VR here.
• Our rundown of the ten best games demoed so far for PlayStation VR is here.
PlayStation VR screen
The PlayStation VR uses a 1920x1080 pixel, 5.7-inch OLED display, giving the equivalent of 960x1080 pixels per eye and a quoted 100 degree field of vision. The maximum refresh rate supported is 120fps.
As well as the VR screen, PlayStation VR can output to a television via what Sony is currently calling Social Screen. This allows other gamers, not wearing headsets, to view gameplay and even join in, with compatible titles.
PlayStation VR controller
The PS VR games demoed so far use the Sony Move controllers, as shown here, or the standard PlayStation DualShock 4 controller. Your head movements and orientation are tracked via the PlayStation Camera, which tracks the nine LEDs placed strategically on the headset.
Sony's acquisition of 3D gesture recognition expert SoftKinetic suggests that further input methods may be developed for PlayStation VR, although we doubt they'll arrive in time for version 1.
Comfort, motion sickness, connectivity, games
announced
PlayStation VR comfort
We love how comfortable the headset is. It's easy to put on and take off, even if you wear glasses, and weight distribution is excellent.
There is no doubt that some people will suffer motion sickness from PlayStation VR. The reasonably high definition of the screen and its high, 120fps refresh rate should minimise this but there will still be people who'll suffer from it regardless.
From our discussions with hardcore gamers (hat-tip to Sparkles here) it seems to be the case that repeated, regular use of other VR headsets (though not PlayStation VR specifically, as none of these headsets are in the wild yet) helps you get used to them.
As a result, problems such as nausea and tiredness recede, allowing for longer and longer periods wearing the headsets. We see no reason why this wouldn't be the case with PlayStation VR, too.
PlayStation VR connectivity
The PlayStation VR in its current state is wired to your PlayStation 4 via a hub that also has HDMI for outputting to Social Screen. Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity may be theoretically possible at some point in the future but in our view the retail version 1 of PlayStation VR is likely to be a wired accessory.
We don't have any other tech details of the headset. Most, if not all, of the processing will obviously be handled by the PS4 it's tethered to.
PlayStation VR games
You can read Guy Cocker's expert rundown of the best PlayStation VR demos so far here. This is the full list of games in development (or, in certain cases, rumoured to be). It includes everything from space shooters to puzzle games, sports sims and the more experiential likes of Kitchen.
Albino Lullaby (Ape Law)
Atom Universe (Atom Republic)
Adrift (Three One Zero)
Ark: Survival Evolved (Studio Wildcard)
The Assembly (nDreams)
Battlezone (Rebellion)
Bedroom Robots / The Toybox (SCE Japan Studio)
The Castle (SCEA R&D)
The Deep (SCE London Studio)
Crystal Rift (Psytec Games)
Cult County (Renegade Kid)
Cyber Danganronpa VR (Spike Chunsoft)
Eve Valkyrie (CCP Games)
Fated (Frima Studios)
Futuridium VR (MixedBag Games)
The Gallery: Six Elements (Cloudhead Games)
Get Even (The Farm 51)
GNOG (KO-OP)
Godling (Solfar Studios)
Hatsune Miku (Sega
Harmonix Music VR (Harmonix Music Systems)
Headmaster (Frame Interactive)
The Hum: Abductions (Totwise Studios)
Hyper Void (IN Framez Technology)
The Idolmaster One For All (Bandai Namco Games)
Joysound VR (SCEE)
Jurassic Encounter (Supermassive Games)
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate)
Kitchen (Capcom)
Loading Human (Untold Games)
The London Heist (SCEE)
Magic Controller (SCEE)
Mind: Path to Thalamus (Carlos Coronado)
Nighttime Terror 2 (VR Bits)
Omega Agent (Fireproof Games)
Paranormal Activity VR (VRwerx)
Playroom VR (SCEE)
Pollen (Mindfield Games)
Project CARS (Slightly Mad Studios)
Q.U.B.E. (Toxic Games)
RIGS (Guerrilla Cambridge)
Shadow of the Beast (Heavy Spectrum Ent Labs)
Street Luge (SCEE)
Summer Lesson (Bandai Namco Games)
SuperHyperCube (Kokoromi)
Surgeon Simulator (Bossa Studios)
Synthesis Universe (Olivier JT)
Technolust (IRIS VR)
Thief (Eidos Montréal)
Trackmania Turbo (Ubisoft Nadeo)
Vanguard V (Zero Transform)
VizionEck (VizionEck)
War Thunder (Gaijin Entertainment)
Wayward Sky (Uber Entertainment)
World of Diving (Vertigo Games)
World War Toons (Reload Studio)
Untitled (Beatshapers)
Untitled (Just Add Water)
from www.techradar.com/
