To be honest, I hadn't considered the local asynchronous multiplayer. You might well be right. I think I need to do some more research

I'd be eager to hear anything you find out. What they are managing to get out of existing hardware is pretty special and very clever.

You may have seen these two articles already.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/di...it-actually-do

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/di...essor-revealed

Key points:

- The initial breakout box we saw took the warped output produced by VR, zeroed in on one eye view and then stretched the image back into shape. This produced the effect of higher resolution in the centre of the social screen image, with progressively lower resolution on the edges.

- it displays the social screen - undistorting the VR output for display on TV. Quality is lost in this process, so it scales the image up and crops it so you don't see edges

- "Separate mode" - a completely separate audio and video stream you can send over to TV, as opposed to the mirrored social screen. It's sent compressed to the PU and then uncompressed by the device and sent to the screen. We're told that this was "an innovation that came quite late" in the development of the system.

- This appears to be using the PS4's hardware h.264 encoder used for streaming and Remote Play, running at 720p30. Obviously, creating another entirely separate framebuffer in addition to the already challenging VR viewpoint adds significantly to the computational load on PlayStation 4, so expect limited adoption.

Whilst the last point doesn't say it uses the USB port I would think this would be more likely that utilising bandwidth from the HDMI. So I would have to agree with you on that point

Interesting to note that the separate mode came late in the development cycle. I think that bodes well for PS5 and VR2

Yeah. There's loads of other interesting titbits about as well. Sony said they could have technically managed without the external box, but decided they wanted to add the social screen as it was important to the living room environment. Seeing as it's there, they've moved the 3D audio to it, freeing up resources on the PS4.

They are also developing a technique where they can have more pixels in the centre of the VR screens than the edges, allowing them to reduce the GPU load by 25%.

They've even managed to get global illumination running on it. I think all the naysayers predicting PS2 type games are going to be eating their words. Some of the early stuff is already looking impressive, so should get to see some really nice looking games on PSVR.

Well some of the dinasaur games look stunning.

And it will only get better.

I'm going to continue to be devils advocate with this even though I really want it to be great.

I've seen no actual gameplay videos that look any better than the best gfx the Wii can offer, not even close to Wii U gfx. Plenty of trailers out there trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes though.

This is apparently the 'best' that PS VR can do at the moment, it's rendering hardly anything and yet it's all happening very slowly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIFSt0YSDls

^^ To me that video looks pretty good. Given the choice I'd rather have VR with a sense of presence than prettier but flat graphics. I'm nor sure how closely the in-game sword was tracking the controller, but it still looked more intuitive than pushing buttons. (I suspect if they track too closely, the game will be impossible to play well for average gamers.)

That video doesn't do VR any favours, what were IGN thinking putting that guy in the chair, he looked lifeless.

To me, I think this will be the first properly playable VR technology (alongside Hive and OR) that actually comes close to providing a real sense of immersion.

I do, however, also firmly believe that none of the tech is fully developed or functioning at the level envisaged when it was first announced.

I don't think we will see mass adoption or it working at a high level until the PlayStation 5.

Driveclub VR has been rated by the American ratings board. Hopefully this means the game is still happening.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.p...bstory_index=0

Yep, that good news on the DC VR front. I was wondering if it might have been abandoned after Evolution closed but yay, we can still look forward to it

FromSoftware (Bloodborne, Dead Souls) will be bringing their big 2017 game to PSVR.

World War Toons will now be released as a free to play title.

The German PlayStation press site has PlayStation VR listed for a 12th October release, alongside Gran Turismo Sport.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.p...33099600116438

Who says this? Looks cr@p compared to some of the rest of the demoed games IMO

Many of the people who've tried VR.

I'd love to see those videos, it's not easy to find any genuine game play videos.
Loads of 'trailers' though.

Lots of gameplay vid for Rigs combat league

EA have confirmed Star Wars Battlefront VR is coming this year. Hopefully we'll see some footage at E3. That should really show what PSVR is capable of.

I suppose gameplay videos are tricky to find as they are hard to record in decent quality. The splitter box outputs in 720p30 (Shareplay quality). That's hardly representative of what you'll see in 1080p/120 through the headset.

There's plenty of over-the-shoulder off screen footage of you have a look online.

It's obvious we're not going to see Uncharted 4 level visuals on PSVR but what you loose in detail you more than make back in "presence". You don't need first class visuals for a compelling VR experience.

Some VR news from the last couple of weeks -

Following on from Trackmania and Eagle Flight, Activision will be announcing another PSVR game at E3.

Gran Turismo Sport developers plan to have full VR support in the game from launch.

Crytek have vowed Robinson: The Journey will push PSVR to its limits, boasting they will set a graphical benchmark for the system.

Eve Valkyrie will have cross platform play with Rift and Vive users.

Hellgate is back and coming to PSVR.
https://a.pomf.cat/zwzqkr.mp4

Mortal Blitz will be a launch title.
https://youtu.be/k9HgY6sG-xs

Futuristic racer Radial-G will arrive near to launch.
https://youtu.be/V3Vk25D5NHQ

ITV are bringing a Thunderbirds Are Go experience to PSVR

It won't be the first, because the Vive achieves that, and it probably won't even equal the Vive. The Vive delivers proper 360-degree room scale. To do that you need two cameras at opposite corners of the space. PSVR only has one, which means you have to always be facing the same way. No zombies sneaking up behind you. No free moving about in a virtual space.

I have a Vive. What it can do is amazing. However, at the moment it is limited by the software. You can get experiences like The Blu which are close to photo-realistic but very short, and you can get larger interactive worlds like Budget Cuts, which have weak graphics. I've not yet seen a world which is both large and realistic. I suspect we won't for a long time because they are just too expensive to produce and the market isn't there. And we may well see it on PSVR first.

The Oculus Rift also doesn't deliver what the Vive delivers. It doesn't do room scale yet, and when it does, it will probably be front-facing only, like the PSVR. So the Vive is in a class of its own and likely to remain so. What's not clear is whether it matters; whether people actually want 360-degree room scale in significant numbers. Not everyone has the space for it in their homes.

Vive is undeniably an impressive piece of kit. Problem is, its price and complexity puts it out of reach of most consumers so it may well remain a device for enthusiasts only, at least in the short term. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing - it's a passionate market with a lot of money to spend, so it has the potential to be very successful. But it's PlayStation with its low(er) price, established branding and ease of use that is best positioned to bring VR to the masses.

While PSVR lacks room-scale capabilities it can do 360 degree movement to an extent, albeit in a 3m x 3m square. It has tracking LEDs on the sides and rear of the headset, so it's not limited to facing forwards all of the time. Sony are actively encouraging developers to create seated experiences though, as that will fit in best with most people's set ups. Plus, they probably don't want a "Wii controller through the TV" style PR mess to mop up, particularly in the early days as they are trying to sell the concept.

I mostly agree. Although its complexity has been over-stated in reviews; it's probably simpler than a 5.1 surround sound system, for example. It is more expensive, and it also benefits from having a lot of space. I have an entire room devoted to mine, and most people can't do that. Having to move furniture out of the way before you use it, adds a lot of friction.

What's weird is that I think that room-scale with tracked controllers may appeal more to "casual gamers", in the way that the Wii did. You're standing up waving your arms around with big gestures. Hard core gamers prefer more efficient controls: keyboard and mouse, or gamepad, where you are moving your fingers mere millimetres to get a result. "Casual" doesn't really fit with the level of commitment the Vive needs.

However, it is a new thing and I don't think it should be classed with the Wii (or the Kinect). I'd consider myself a serious, if occasional, gamer, and I find it compelling. (I just bought Vanishing Realms, which is much closer to the large and rich game whose absence I was bemoaning earlier, and it felt like the game I had been waiting my life for.)


That's fine for the headset, but the tracked controllers will get occluded by your body when you turn your back to the camera, if you only have one camera. But they can add more cameras later. I gather the tracking doesn't need a lot of CPU power so it's just the cost of the hardware (consoles being very price-sensitive).


Yes, Oculus are doing the same even though I gather they will have two cameras when their tracked Touch controllers finally arrive. In their case it's partly so the controllers don't occlude each other when you are doing complex 2-handed manipulation of VR objects, but it's also to reduce the space and complexity needed.

It may be that front-facing is a phase VR has to go through on the way to room-scale; that people will be more willing to commit to room-scale after they'd experienced front-facing for a while. And most people will stay with front-facing, of course, just as most people don't have 5.1 surround sound or a home cinema room or a £2,000 multi-monitor gaming rig. I just hope enough people do go for it to justify developers producing good room-scale games.

I probably should say I think (and hope) that PSVR will be a huge success, both short-term and long term. It's Oculus I really wonder about. I doubt they can compete with PSVR at that level, and I think the Vive with its full 360 room-scale will remain the premium kit, so where does that leave Oculus? It looks like they are Facebook money to force themselves onto the market with exclusive deals and DRM.

Yeah, there's a weird relationship between "hardcore" (yuk) gamers and motion controls. I've heard a few people instantly dismiss VR because they feel it's more of that "wavy hands bullshit" when the reality is there's so much more to it than that.

You're right, PSVR's room scale stuff (if you can call it that) is going to be limited compared to other systems. Occlusion of the Move controllers being the biggest drawback. (Not so much a problem with traditionally controlled games). The developers of Job Simulator are actually reformatting the game for PSVR to get around the issue. That's the price you pay for a being first-gen entry level system, so I can forgive that. As tech improved and prices fall future systems should be much more capable

Oculus Rift is starting to feel like a compromise. If you're going to go all out for a high-end PC experience, Vive seems the logical choice. Meanwhile, Sony are going to dominate the mainstream, at least in the short term. PS Neo seems to suggest they won't be letting go of their early advantage either. I think the Rift's biggest chance of success would be to team up with the next-gen Xbox. That's when things could get real interesting.

^^ Rift on the new upgraded XBox is the current rumour, but it's probably 18 months away.

http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/ps4...ps4-neo-specs/

Interesting article with a source claiming that the main reason for the PS NEO is that the standard PS4 is going to struggle to run PSVR.

That's deeply worrying - I really hope I don't have to fork out another £350 to get the PS NEO just to experience PSVR.