PSVR Owners Thread.

[hudson]

They have to sell it separately, and I think they will. Therefore, do they support current PSVR headset on PS5 and also look to upgrade the headset etc when the tech improves. How far advanced is the current best PC VR over PSVR? Is better tech on the horizon? I'm not up to date on the future of general VR. Maybe Sony are well already on it.

As you said [MENTION=16707]Cassius_Smoke[/MENTION], I can't see Sony forcing people into VR. It's not for everyone. Firstly, it's "inaccessible" to the under 12. Then there's the potential queezy factor.

Who knows, maybe they will.

[Leon Retro]

Do they double down on VR with the PS5, by packaging the headset and camera in the box at a considerable cost, thus losing the price war with the next Xbox?

I've heard that Sony plan on building all the things necessary for VR into the PS5. That will obviously make using VR even more attractive, because you won't have the separate breakout box and camera, and a headset on its own should be a more attractive price.

I think Sony are very much committed to VR, especially after the surge in sales over recent months because of the massive price drop. And there now great games for the tech.

I would also think that Sony are working on a higher resolution headset, as the current one is definitely too lo-res. You can really feel that it's a first gen product, despite being very impressive. I really hope the PS5 and a second generation VR headset will be a huge leap that makes VR far more attractive and comfortable.

[dataDave]

After skipping the PS3 and PS4 I'd be day one for a PS5 if it had confirmed VR support.

[Cassius_Smoke]

My gut says theyll sell it separately.
I'm not sure what the max potential of the current headset is, I know the ps4 Pro can dish out some HDR content to it. It could be reasonable to assume the PS5 could squeeze some more out of it.
If the PS5 also had VR built in, it would further reduce the cost of the headset because you could sell it without the breakout box.

[Brad]

Higher resolution and better controller tracking is all that’s needed I reckon. Frame rate, positional audio and headset tracking are all spot on already but they need inside out tracking for the controllers, like holo lens does it.

[CMcK]

I can't imagine Sony will use much of the silicon budget for the PS5 on VR features a lot of owners will never use. They've only shifted a few million headsets to 70 million PS4 owners. The breakout box is probably still the way to go. A higher resolution headset with superior tracking would be great but will likely bump the price up. Hopefully they can make the older titles work possibly with enhanced resolution on the newer headset so there is plenty of software at launch.
I have seen more advertising for the PSVR recently so hopefully this is a sign they are in it for the long term.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Another concern is that if the PS5 has a pick and choose approach to VR then developers won't be too invested in producing VR content. Unless Sony can make VR conversion costs cheap enough for it not to be a problem; Why would EA spend money making Fifa VR if they don't have to?

[Family Fry]

Hardware ain’t nothing without software unfortunately, Sony can big up PSVR all they like but if indies are dropping support and triple eh aren’t picking up support, who’s going to make the games and at who’s cost?

[Cassius_Smoke]

I don't know if this is a known side effect but after using VR for a few days I had some trippy dreams!

[Asura]

After skipping the PS3 and PS4 I'd be day one for a PS5 if it had confirmed VR support.

Yeah, me too. I'm probably nearing the end of my time with my PSVR; I've played all of the major experiences except for Firewall and Farpoint (waiting to get an Aim controller) and I've loved them, but it's clear that this is functional but early tech. A preview of things to come. I'll be getting rid while the kit still has a good sale price.

However I'm totally sold on the concept, and I'm really excited about where it could go next.

[CMcK]

I was trying to play Farpoint last night but the controller tracking kept drifting off to the left. He usual hold the options key only helped briefly and going into the menu to reset the tracking didn’t provide a proper fix either. In the end I gave up and went to play Tetris.
Looking this morning I suspect it may have been something to do with the bl**dy Christmas tree and the very shiny baubles located just left of where I was standing last night...

[Budge74]

I was trying to play Farpoint last night but the controller tracking kept drifting off to the left. He usual hold the options key only helped briefly and going into the menu to reset the tracking didn’t provide a proper fix either. In the end I gave up and went to play Tetris.
Looking this morning I suspect it may have been something to do with the bl**dy Christmas tree and the very shiny baubles located just left of where I was standing last night...

Exactly this.
99% of tracking issues are caused by other light-sources or reflections..

[Asura]

Thought you guys might like to hear about this; I decided to liven up the family visit at Christmas by bringing my PS4/VR setup to my parents' to see how they got along with it.

So to start, I hooked it all up, and had to twist their arm a bit to give it a go. On the first night, I started them each off with the basic ocean dive on the VRWorlds pack, just to be sure they wouldn't immediately develop motion sickness. To my surprise, both of them absolutely loved it! They honestly couldn't get enough, and wanted to play more, but I decided to be the bad guy and turn it off for the evening. Still, off to a good start.

So for evening two, my dad has always been a big fan of the Apollo program, having seen the landings live back in the 60s/70s, so I downloaded the Apollo 11 experience. He played it end-to-end and absolutely loved it; he just couldn't stop talking about how "real" the cockpit felt due to the 3D, doing all the usual things we've all seen people do - looking around things (over/under/sides), almost leaning on something and realising it isn't there, all of it. Afterwards he was quite quiet for a while, until he said that he felt the experience was "transformative" - had simply could not believe it was as good as it was. He was talking for ages about how powerful an educational tool it could be, and how after ~50 years of seeing documentaries, watching the event live, even seeing the remains of the spacecraft in the USA, he thought he had seen it all, but he felt that in one hour of VR he'd gained an insight that simply would not have been possible via any other means.

Then a bigger surprise. My mother has never really had any ability to play videogames. She used to try when I was a kid, and just never "got it", like she was always terrible at them and consequently never understood why they were fun. However, as is often the case with parents, she has an unusual party trick - my other is a crack shot with a rifle. I don't honestly know why this is; I think she maybe went rabbit hunting a few times with her dad when she was young. Still, at fairgrounds when you have those target shooting games (the novelty ones with the waxwork dioramas) she was always surprisingly good.

So, we put her on The Heist; specifically the shooting galleries, and she was actually very good, for a beginner. Certainly better than I've ever seen her at a videogame. This was interesting because in a normal videogame setting, she'd struggle to hit a single target. Her biggest struggle was actually the reloading aspect; she kept dropping the ammo clips. We realised after a while what the problem was - she was getting confused because you don't grip the trigger to hold the gun, but you do grip it to hold the clip. That was a real stumbling block for her, which in retrospect makes sense, as it's one element that breaks the immersion of the game, using a videogame-y abstraction to make up for some of the shortcomings of the Move controller.

This leads me to another insight from the whole experience; how the PSMove controllers really do need more development. I had completely forgotten that, for example, it's quite difficult for a non-gamer to remember where the buttons are on those controllers, and as you can't see them in VR... This also drives home how important the ability to see the joypad is during VRWorlds, and why that makes it one of the many reasons it's an effective demonstration of VR.

After this, my dad tried out the X-Wing experience on Battlefront, but said exactly what others here have said - it's a shame there isn't more. He then wanted to try out some of the more ambitious stuff, but felt a bit of eye-strain, so instead I put on Wipeout and Superhot, and he was blown away by watching me play them. There was this level in Superhot that went perfectly, where I just managed to fling a gun through the air at a guy while dodging bullets, and he was commenting on how fun it looked just to watch, never mind play.

Both of them loved it; he was even asking me where he could buy one and what was needed - though in truth, I advised him to hold off and wait a couple of years for the technology to mature just a bit more. Even so, it was great seeing how much fun it brought to people who are a bit out of the loop on this stuff, and it showed that this sort of thing has really wide-reaching implications.

[TonyDA]

That's such a fantastic post, and sums up what I feel about VR. It's staggering - especially to someone in their 40s who has been playing games since the Spectrum days. Although it's not perfect - imagine how it'd be if the screens were to 4K level, for starters (yes, I know they'd cost thousands...I just said 'imagine' - that immersive experience is incredible.

[hudson]

Yeah, great post.

I had both my boys working as mechanics and store clerks last night. They absolutely love Job Simulator and I really love watching them play it. They're so confident at it now they're like talking in character to the AI and stuff, it has me in stitches. I highly recommend it.