So I picked up my headset like two hours ago and have been playing Rez Infinite and Thumper since then. I'm blown away by this thing so far. It seems to be tracking my head and controller fine so far, but then, I haven't played any of the move-controller games. I'm just flabbergasted by how nicely it fits my head and how awesome it feels when you have this gigantic world in front of you. I'm sold! But then, I've only played like, 1 hour and 30 minutes of games.
Has anyone else been playing during the night / since you picked it up? How are you feeling about it?
Your first impressions of Playstation VR
It's solid so far, no significant tracking issues. The only problem I've had is a slight stutter when using the Playstation menu -- never happened in-game. I've been working my way through all the free content, though the Australian demo disc only comes with half of the titles. There's a downloadable version on the PS store that claims to have all sixteen? Haven't tried that yet; all very confusing. Highlights so far have been Tumble VR, which felt super tactile, and oddly enough Driveclub VR. I know the racing isn't great, but I really dig the feeling of driving in VR, I hope we get better games in the genre soon.
@purpleoddity said:
There's a downloadable version on the PS store that claims to have all sixteen? Haven't tried that yet; all very confusing.
Huh, you're right. I had no idea at all that there was a downloadable demo disc, but that's very nice of them to provide that as well. Started downloading it now! Europe got a limited amount of demos on the published disc as well, so I guess it's nice of Sony to actually put out a second one online.
It doesn't like tracking my controller when I've got a USB lead on it to charge it up. It really doesn't like tracking it. The moment I unplugged then it was completely happy with the tracking and I was even flipping the thing over (so it couldn't see the light bar) and moving between my head and the camera. All fine. So whatever you do, charge your DS4 before your headset arrives.
So far, I'm very impressed. Whoever designed this built something a class above the CK1 and Vive (which I have access to but don't own) and the way you attach the band, lock it in place low down on the back of your head (looking forward to see exactly where you need it lined up to avoid any optical smearing), and then slide in the actual headset bit is every bit the delight it seemed during pre-release demos. Consumer version totally work as advertised. I can't get it quite as close to my eyes as I want but that's an issue I have with all the headsets. The soft rubber surrounds here are great for covering the slight gap.
There's no visible pixelation of the screen itself that I can see (for anyone curious, the difference between the PenTile DK2's 960x1080 per eye and this RGB is pure night and day - that 50% extra subpixels turns it from a sea of dots you can resolve to their individual colour if you focus wrong to a complete display in front of you that you simply can't pick out discrete dots of light in), although I can just about focus on some roughness when looking at darker solid colours which shows where the screen is.
So far the head tracking has been excellent. No depth issues, no swimming accuracy. Still working my way through various demos and so on but I had been slightly concerned that I would be sending it back due to the tracking issues some have been having but so far it has exceeded all my expectations. I usually travel with a 24" monitor to play console games on when visiting family for Christmas but experiencing the virtual display in PSVR, I'm tempted to just bring the headset this year. It's not quite the fidelity (I mean, it's rendering onto a 960x1080 panel for each eye so it couldn't be a full 1080p sharpness) you get from carrying a monitor with you but it certainly gives you a big virtual display to look at. When playing a VR game then you quickly forget the resolution issues if the game is tuned right (shoutout to Super Hyper Cube for being really great in making you completely forget about many of the technicalities of rendering due to the final image quality).
More first impressions now I've jumped out of Rez to watch the GB stream: this hardware is pretty amazing and for the price is shocking. This is the headset I'd want to use on my PC if that was possible (don't own a CV1 or Vive yet but we have them at work and friends have them) as it's just perfect for slipping on and getting the alignment perfect on every time. The FoV is slightly narrower (more binocular effect) and if you slide it all the way to you are going to see the edges when looking forward (when your eyes rotate to look at the edge then the sub-inch movement is enough to obscure the visible edges). As I mentioned above, there is a slight texture to the screen surface and you can see it in some situations (solid colours, especially black) which basically looks like a very light dusting of a window to the goggles through which you're looking into the virtual world. I don't think it's dust but rather the matt surface of the panel that's used or some other artefact. Be interesting to hear if others can see it too. It's minor but it is there and it's the only thing that even makes me aware I'm looking at a screen and not in a world where I'm surrounded by the VR environment.
However... a lot of the demos and experiences indicate that this is going to possibly sell a lot of PS4 Pro hardware. The Invasion VR movie is a great example. I ran that (before an upgrade) on a GTX760 on my DK2 at home. DK2 so bad subpixel visibility on the headset but my GPU could render at a resolution that was good. So I got annoying visible dots of light if I stopped moving my head or focused to much on the screen but the actual rendered scene behind it was good. On PS4 it is exactly the opposite issue. The headset is amazing but the scene is being rendered in lower res than is ideal and certainly without anti-aliasing so the pixel edge around the characters is distractingly visible. Not an issue I've had with this demo before, even on not a great GPU. And at least half the demos I've sampled have been the same (the Resi Kitchen demo is terrible for this, as if they went out of their way to draw attention to the aliasing with their art/scene direction). If a PS4 Pro will pump the internal resolution being rendered and enable anti-aliasing for the titles the it'll be a much better match for what is an incredible VR headset.
Not saying the PS4 can't do VR. It clearly can and experiences like Rez and SuperHyperCube really show it off. But it's not a universal greatness from everything on display at launch. If you hear someone talking about pixelisation on PS VR then they're not complaining about the resolution of the headset (RGB vs PenTile means this is the most dots of light in a headset of any of the headsets and it really does look amazing) but the games being played. The easy way to show this is to just hold down the PS button in the pixelated game and a lovely high-res floating menu appears with no pixelisation issues with it at all. It's the game being rendered without enough antialiasing and resolution for the lovely headset, not the headset being worse than the Vive or CK1.
Booted up via the VR headset (not turning the TV on) and jumped into the Netflix app (not updated for VR, just using the standard virtual screen thing you can do for any PS4 app/game) and watched a bit of TV on it.
You can pick 3 different screen sizes. Small is a floating window in front of you that's no good (it can't be using even half the pixels of the screen to display so effectively you're looking at a virtual TV using 540x480 or something as the resolution), Medium is the default and a pretty big screen that you can basically see all of without excessive eye movement and may be giving you a decent chunk of the res (and you do resolve a bit of added detail because each eye sees a different sub-sampling of the original 1080p source image as each eye has it's own warp/viewing angle on the virtual screen), and Large is basically filling your vision so you're possibly getting close to the original res (vertically) in the middle where the pixel density is highest. Large does feel like you're pretty damn close to the screen at the cinema. Possibly too close.
I did a quick bit of gaming in the Large mode and I had to move my head to look up at the edges of the screen for the UI information there. It's that big. But it is sharp enough that I could comfortably read the streaming info in the Netflix app (when you push in the thumbstick and it gives you some small white text in the top left telling you the streaming res / data rates being used).
I will probably be spending a week with just the PS4 and PS VR over the Christmas so I don't need to take a monitor with me. It's not perfect but it's pretty good and if you've ever sat back and watched something on an old 720p projector (modern enough that they'd fixed the screen door effect, old enough that 1080p wasn't even really a thing) then you're getting something roughly like that.
So is anyone having any of the big issues that the giant bomb duders had during their stream? That really stopped me in my tracks and told me to wait till next year before getting a headset.
However, if impressions are this good I may just spoil myself this Christmas and pick this one up. Still, I wanna wait and hear more impressions, I may still wait just to get the psvr2 or whatever the next headset will be called
So is there any nonbelievers of VR that decided to buy it or try it has your opinion on VR change? I got my Rift this year and I want basically every game in VR to be honest it has spoiled me it's hard to going back to normal gaming seriously.
Any tips on making it look a little less pixelated? I feel like mine looks a little TOO pixelated at times.
I bring it up because I see everyone here saying it looks fantastic but I feel like I'm missing out on it looking a little sharper
@frostyryan: That's my question/concern as well. In Batman VR, for example, the texts on the bat computer were quite hard to read and from reading the impressions other people have I get the feeling that it shouldn't be this(!) blurry, although of course it's blurrier than what you see on the social screen when watching other people play. I'm constantly asking myself: How blurry is too blurry? Have I not found my sweet spot yet or is there a problem with my unit?
[edit] My biggest surprise so far: Wayward Sky and Tumble VR. My biggest disappointment is probably Driveclub VR. Boy, this looked so(!) much worse in VR than on the social screen that I can barely believe it.
@knurrunkulus: Have you done the IPD configuration where you stand 70cm from the camera and let it take a photo to work out the distance between your pupils? That's sounding like the fix for blur. It needs that number to configure the shader that warps the images for the lenses (it need to know where your pupils will be to project back through the lenses and work out how it distorts the image).
If the issue is the image looks like it is smearing (so blur in a direction) then you may need to move the band around to get the alignment just right. I find it best do to with the headset is fully pushes out (look in the centre of the lenses for the best alignment, then tighten the band to fix position on your forehead and push in the headset towards your eyes using the smooth slide to keep the alignment the same).
@shivoa: I tried the IPD configuration already, but don't seem to get any results from it. The most obvious issue with the blur is when you just look at text, for example in the main menu of the PS4. I tried to shop two games from the store with the headset on and my eyes were hurting because everything seemed so blurry. On the contrary, I had absolutely no issues with blurry vision in the demos of Tumble VR and Wayward Sky. I however had some issues with it in Batman VR (as already detailed above), Driveclub VR (which generally looked terrible) and in the demo for Here They Lie, where everything seemed pixelated and blurry way too much. This all leaves me really confused. I tried repositioning the headset a lot already, but I can't seem to get rid of the blur completely. I actually don't know if anything changes or if I'm just getting used to it. So yeah... not sure what to do at this point. Maybe I'm just very sensitive to this? Or maybe something's wrong? Or maybe I yet have to find the sweet spot? (but how difficult can it be?) It definitely dampens my excitement right now. I'm fascinated by what Playstation VR can do, but when people in here are talking about "no visible pixellation" and stuff like that, I can't help but think that I must be missing out on sth. And not knowing why is... not cool. But enough tinkering for today. Here in Europe it's 2 am by now. :)
So I got home from work early due to dental surgery, and my core unit had arrived. With that in mind, I set it up while the guys were streaming. Despite it being a terrible idea, I decided to try it while I was on super vicodin from the surgery (Some sort of Hydrocodone+another super strong painkiller).
I didn't get RIGS installed in time to try and join the guys while they were playing (it was patching), but I did get a chance to try Batman VR before the stream ended.
I tried everything I could, but could not reproduce the sweeping/jittering they were getting. It's frustrating because A: I wish I could help the guys figure out what it was, and B: it's so inconsistent. I'm seeing some reviews/streams where it is perfect (like mine), and some where it is even worse than the GB streams. I let the guys know (for what it's worth), but the inconsistency makes me worried for other people's first experiences.
That said, RIGS is pretty cool, Batman is awesome so far, and Thumper is INTENSE. No motion sickness here, but the painkillers are making me so tired that I had to stop for a while.
@knurrunkulus: So, the one thing I noticed is that there is definitely a sweet spot, but the thing you would think it would be (pressed against your face) is not where it should be. you want the goggles to actually be hanging infront of your face, like a visor. Give it a shot moving it forward/backward with the button under the goggles. That fixed everything for me. I don't see any obvious pixels (although you see jaggies on some polys, obviously).
Also, to figure out if your IPD stuff is set up right, go into any eye doctor (even walmart/target) and ask them to measure your Pupillary distance. They should do it for free. I already know what mine is because I recently started wearing glasses in the last ~12 months, and have my prescription including PD.
@shivoa: I'm fascinated by what Playstation VR can do, but when people in here are talking about "no visible pixellation" and stuff like that, I can't help but think that I must be missing out
Couldn't agree more.
I definitely have visible pixelation which I'm just kind of getting used to. I don't want to HAVE to get used to it though.
@frostyryan: What are the instances where you see pixellation the most? The same that I outlined?
@frostyryan said:
@shivoa: I'm fascinated by what Playstation VR can do, but when people in here are talking about "no visible pixellation" and stuff like that, I can't help but think that I must be missing out
Couldn't agree more.
I definitely have visible pixelation which I'm just kind of getting used to. I don't want to HAVE to get used to it though.
I think with this you kinda have to. In a couple years when the next one comes out (if sales are good enough) then you wont but I think some saying this is early adopter kinda thing might be right.
I dont have thousands of dollars to get a pc that will run a vive and a vive itself so this is gonna be my experiance . I think im mostly fine with taking that plunge.
most of giant bombs complaints are "its not as good as the others" but I dont think its trying to be
So I have an illness and can't help myself from checking to see if they have new hardware in stock and then immediately buying it when they always do. I had absolutely no interest in VR until about 3:00 this afternoon.
So $800 later and I now have a headset and silly wands and ended up spending most of my time trying to finish Gears 2. That giant TV mode is pretty cool.
I just went back to try to find my "sweet spot" one more time, but... well... I'm still having issues, especially when it comes to looking at things that are far away in virtual reality. In the short film "Invasion", for example, I could barely see the rabbit when it first appeared at the back of the scene. As soon as it came near me, the picture quality was perfect. Same with Allumette. Things far away from where I was sitting were very blurry and pixellated, but things right next to my face looked very nice and easily recognizable. At this point I'm questioning myself and am wondering if my glasses could be the issue and if I might need new ones. But then again: Why don't I realize this in real life, but in virtual reality? That somehow would make no sense to me. I LOVE what I experienced in VR today, but I really need to come to grips with the graphics quality and figure out if it's supposed to be like this or not.
In some forum I read that someone said that the image quality inside the headset is somehow comparable to what the image looked like when you played PS3 games on a TV other than an HD TV. Would you say that that is an apt comparison? Because if memory serves me right, that is kind of the quality that I am experiencing in most of the games (again, especially when looking at things in the distance).
I've only played job simulator for about an hour. It's been pretty smooth but there are some tracking issues.
When I hold the Move controller still, the in game hands still move a little, though not as bad as when Jeff was holding the mouse in the office scenario. Also the tracking freaks out when the Move gets in front of the headset.
I also have a floor lamp that is behind to my right and when I look right the tracking becomes "wobbly," but that issue is on me for keeping that light on.
Here is my two cents after a couple hours of messing around (was not able to hook stuff up in my hotel room until around 7:00 or so):
Man this headset is spiffy. Super comfortable, easy to adjust, and just plain feels fancy. From a hardware standpoint the Sony team should be applauded.
Rigs is the first game I tried out and boy howdy it is a good time. Have not played online yet as I am Being extra careful motion sickness wise so I took a break to download and install some stuff. My little bro has had an oculus since the DK2 (and now had the final version as well) and he suggested breaks and not "trying to be a hero" with crazy long play sessions.
The only part I am not super thrilled with is the regular PS UI looks a bit rough. I also most wish they fed a different UI into the headset that was optimized for that view. Fingers crossed for an updated that does just that. For a goof I loaded up CNN and yowzers, Trump looks worse in VR, just kidding...sort of.
Have not tried a move game yet, but I am going to load up VR worlds now and see how it goes. Once more into the breach!
@yakov456: it's totally fine. I can see why those spoiled by Vive's precision would be bummed out, but as someone who has only ever used an Oculus before this, I am very pleased. Every once and a while the drift thing will happen, but all it takes is to hold a button for a couple of seconds and it corrects itself. Definitely seems to be the type of stuff that will be improved by patches over time.
I've only played 3 games with PSVR so far: Bound, SUPERHYPERCUBE, and Job Simulator. The first two have worked just fine for me. The only oddity was with Bound. When I played it in 2D mode (basically a 'tv screen' in the headset), the screen kept drifting slowly to the left. Every few minutes I would need to reset the orientation to face where I wanted it. In VR mode I didn't notice any drifting.
Job Simulator is where everything went wrong for me. Right from the main menu I had the issue that GB had of the world jittering. It felt as if I were shivering, but actually was not moving at all. It was slight, but perceptible enough to cause the beginnings of motion sickness in me after just two minutes. I promptly turned Job Simulator off.
Soon I'll try about messing with lighting or what have you (was in a relatively dark room, but it could be darker - or lighter?) to see if that helps with Job Simulator. The weird thing to me is that some games are apparently running fine while others have the jittering effect. Well, this was a Move game while the others aren't, so it seems that may also be a factor.
Driveclub VR is cool. Nothing like cruising around Japan at night. Jeff's graphical nitpicking is accurate, but you aren't paying attention to that when you're speeding along. Wish they had left in the weather effects though. All in all, it seems like anyone who came to the PSVR from a Vive will be disappointed. Those of us for which this is our first VR headset, however, are likely enthusiastic.
I got mine today (after ALSO having a dental procedure like @silver-streakbut with no drugs above novocaine and...I really really like it. I wasn't actually expecting to. I was expecting to be "meh" after the reviews and the GB guys reactions, but Superhypercube was pretty neat (that got me thinking it wasn't a total waste of money) and then Harmonix Music VR blew my freaking mind. The beach mode was...fine...but the Easel mode was exactly what I was looking for. A VR tech demo that shows what the tech can do and really immersed me in the experience. I literally said "Wow" and "Holy crap" out loud several times while playing despite being alone. Creating 3D pulsing neon shapes while some pretty neat tunes throb and you can create whatever you want and toss it around within the virtual space? Just incredible. It is definitely my favorite technology moment of the year and it gave me a sense of wonder and joy that I frankly thought might be dead in me. That sounds hyperbolic but it's not.
I definitely see the flaws others see. The screen is pixelated for me and the tracking on the move controllers isn't perfect (Though I am not getting Giant Bomb style jittering) but as an intro to VR it was spectacular. I am super excited about this tech now and can't wait to see where it goes from here. And I have a feeling that my PS VR is going to get a lot more use than I originally thought.
@bigsocrates: Post-Dental Surgery VR unite? *High--fives?*
Psvr was my first time in vr and my first thought totally was ' oh damn you can see every pixel from the screen super clearly'. Vr luge looks exceptionally bad but with the other vr worlds demos(not gonna call them games) I barely cared anymore after being in there for a while , and no tracking issues yet with the headset. I thought my view started to drift a few times only to find out I'd apparently managed to slightly turn my chair irl while playing( Its not a swivel chair)
I also think invasion looks really pixilated and jagged to the point of being rough to look at.
I LOVED the innitiation thingie in scavengers odysee with the things going in your arms, it felt really surreal. Had to recentre a couple times at the start of the game before my ingame body felt in the right place though. I thought it looked pretty boring from footage I had seen upfront but actually being there is really something else.
I also keep trying to lean against /touch stuff in vr hahaha I feel like such a dumbass when I do it but it just goes automatically for me.
I have the us demodisc downloaded and this afternoon I'll try all of em to see what I can stomach in vr and what I'd want to buy. Despite the resoluion shocking me a little at first I'd say Im very happy with my experience so far.
EDIT:LeStephans Tracking Tip#1: The tracking on my dualshock started to work way better when I lowered my sunscreens, I noticed the light from outside being very white/blue now that its getting colder here. After lowering the sunscreen the outside light coming in is more yellow/orange and it seems the ps camera likes that way better.
@silver-streak said:
@bigsocrates: Post-Dental Surgery VR unite? *High--fives?*
Definitely.
Also, because I'm me I had to play some Centipede (2600 version) from the Atari Flashback Volume 1 on my VR headset just because it was a ridiculous thing to do.
Centipede 2600 is not the ideal game to show off the power of PSVR but it's actually kind of cool to play it on a big virtual screen.
And the resolution is not a problem!
Just tried Thumper and that thing is the the Devil Daggers of rhythm games. Will probably be my first purchase.
@joshth: In my experience, the distance from the camera has been the biggest factor. 150cm(5 ft) has been ideal for me. This requires that I place my camera on the coffee table and tilt it up. The only game that hasn't worked with my setup is job simulator. It more or less demands that you stand up, which works poorly when the camera is at seated-level. I suspect I'd need to move the coffee table for the best experience in that case.
My living room has two ceiling lights and a lamp, which I'll usually switch off. The room has a lot of ambient light but no sources of bright light -- I keep the curtains closed as well. It has worked acceptably for me, though I really don't know how well it compares to a Vive setup.
If a setup similar to mine is realistic for you, I imagine you'd be fine. I respect what the GB guys are saying, but they might lack a little perspective given their exposure to VR tech. For something that's proven an unobtrusive addition to my living room, I'm having a great deal of fun.
@purpleoddity: Thank you so much for your detailed response.
Your setup does sound similar to what mine would be, and I know I could change some things around if need be. I do think I have the slight advantage of having never done VR before, so I wouldn't really have the Vive as a baseline like many others would. As long as I can make it work with my finances I think I may take the plunge on this very soon.
Another one chiming in here today after the first night of PSVR. I'm in the UK.
As a bit of PI history I've also had a Rift since launch on my trusty 970 PC too so have got used to a lot of the sensations of VR and what the feeling of nausea is as it comes up. (the sweaty heat and whatnot) Free movement on Technolust gave me a bit of a hot n' heavy feeling for sure.. that's controller stick locomotion game.
Again, I'm not dismissing the problems the GB folks have had but in my setup (spinny office chair plonked within 5ft of the 50in TV and the launch model camera mounted to the top looking down a bit) the PSVR is largely comparable to the Rift. It's tracking volume seems tighter but the actual tracking in that volume has been fine; for the headset, the moves and the controller. (The controller seems to have the hardest time mind and can lose its' orientation tracking quite easily int he Playroom platformer game I found. )
I've certainly had similar phasing (moving backwards and forwards slightly) issues that you see in the GB stream in the Rift when it has had issues. It seems to be bad when I am too far away from the Rift's sensor or sitting where it can't easily see the entire front of the Rift. I have heard that this problem largely disappears when the second sensor is on that comes with the Touch controllers.
On PSVR night one I had a great time, multi hours, no nausea at all. Started off in the first 3 levels of Rez (great sense of being 'in' Rez and the new level still to come!), level 1 of Thumper (sooo intense and the VR effect of the pulses arriving at your chest was great!), some perfectly Move accurate and crisp stuff in the first world of Tumble VR and a host of other games and demos. I enjoyed Driveclub when it came out originally and the VR version is an excellent addition. I think if Drew got in there and spent some time it may be a different story? Turn the handling model back up to sim mode (I don't know if Jeff did this as the auto everything mode is very intrusive and almost drives the car round the track with very little input required) and start nailing some TTs and some MP races. It reminds me a lot of going to the big arcade in London (the Trocadero for those of us Londoners) and paying a daft amount of money to play Ridge in the full sized MX5 with the mahoosive wrap around screen that filled your entire vision... but better again as your're more in the world. I will be going back to that and will also be diving back into Project Cars and Dirt Rally on my Rift. I've always enjoyed racers from both the arcadey end and the drier TT side of a good driving game whereby you're learning tracks, nailing apexes and just watching times tumble. I know that a lot of folks don't find this type all that much fun.
Again, the problems the GB crew had were very bad and I'm not entirely sure of what you could suggest to get them to have a better time. I've done a lot of VR through the months of owning the Rift, Jeff has too.. I trust the duders to know their business.
My setup has the camera is at least 5ft high looking down, my chair is pretty close (within 5ft) for the controller stuff. I ran all the setup from that position.
I know they seemed to end up with them all saying it was junk and they wouldn't turn it on again (Brad maybe the exception?) until some super fix from Sony but I've had a different experience so far.
Day 2 could be a different story but a fresh morning of Headmasters has gone pretty well so far too..
It's weird hearing that the bunny in Invasion is hard to see due to blurring, that definitely sounds like an issue that needs to be fixed before you can enjoy the potential of PS VR. For me, it's not only easily to see the bunny in this moment when watching in VR but it immediately made me realise the PS VR version was rendering without anti-aliasing on the PS4 (this is not how it looks on my PC). So it was so blur-free that I immediately got annoyed that I could see the lack of rendering effort of the PS4 on display (because of the sharp aliased edges). When the spaceship arrived and before that with the bunny up close, I call those press shots from the Sony store bullshots. That bunny is not rendered with that feathered edge in that shot/artists' drawing of the game - the bunny has really crisp aliased edges (on PC then MSAA removes those defects and so it all looks more cohesive). It's not the PS VR's panel but the PS4's GPU rendering that's causing that aliasing. But to hear someone though it was all too blurry to see properly is the opposite issue I have: the headset is great but shows the flaws in the PS4's output (which is bad for VR as aliasing is way worse when stuff is all around you scaled up to life-size rather than a small version shrunk onto a screen).
Just to loop back round to something earlier in the thread: The PS VR headset (vs the machine driving it) isn't a budget edition of the Vive or CK1. When talking about pixelation of the actual screen, if you can see it in this headset then the others will look worse. While they are driven by a higher res native input, their PenTile layout means each pixel the screen is fed is only activating either a Red & Green sub-pixel or a Blue and Green sub-pixel. It's a big Red or Blue diamond with a smaller Green blob next to it that is considered a pixel. That's why you can sometimes (and this way way worse in the lower res DK2) see the red dots breaking the cohesive view of the screen at times. The Vive/CV1 are far better than the DK2 and I genuinely don't notice it now (I do VR sans-glasses so I have a slight blur at distance applied but the DK2 is like dot-city at times when using it until you start moving your head and your eyes counter-move to give you a stable vision, therefor basically using motion-blur to get you to stop seeing the individual pixels).
The PS VR uses a Red, Green, and Blue sub-pixel for every pixel in the native input. It therefor actually has 20% more individual dots of light in the display and my experience is the foV is slightly narrower so those dots are more tightly packed. If the sub-pixels are something you see in this headset, do not buy a Vive or CK1 thinking they're premium and will fix that. They have larger and more spaced out dots of coloured lights inside the headset so you should see them more clearly. It won't be until next gen units (with likely higher GPU requirement - although the low-res AAA PS VR games show that driving a screen at a lower internal render resolution is already happening and a higher res panel can do that too - but every time the GB crew started on a low internal render res game they immediately called it out as various muddy or couldn't read the text properly) that we see increases in panel resolution (either with the Vive 2/CK2 moving to RGB and the same res so 50% more sub-pixels or they look at Samsung's new 4K PenTile phone screen as the next panel).
Throwing in my two cents worth after spending about 2.5 hours with it last night - it's pretty amazing. Headset is most comfortable of I've tried (I wear glasses under the visor, this one they mostly fit, it was pretty awkward with the Vive, haven't tried the Rift.) At certain moments you definitely see 'something' (it's not pixelation, not 100% sure how to describe it) but it's definitely not bad. (You can tell it's not Full HD, but definitely better than the old CRT days. I was certainly fine with it.)
No motion sickness issues, but, I'm one of those people who it takes a lot to get sick.
Played Geometry Wars 3 in Cinematic mode, that felt really cool, because the screen is massive in the headset and I "only" have a 47" LCD TV at home. I'm not that great a Geometry Wars players, so I don't know if the loss of resolution would materially affect the way you play the game at higher levels.
Tried a bunch of the demos (Headlander IS funny, need to pick that one up), and Playroom VR, and they looked fine. My wife and I then played Thumper and WHOA there's a rainbow of evil intent driving by my shoulder, and that was great. Only once did I have a major tracking problem, and that's because somebody walked in front of the camera. My wife did have a jitter problem at one point, but we turned off the lights in the living room, and we didn't have a problem from that point on. We also did notice that we had to be somewhat careful about staying focused on the camera - if I got lazy and slumped down, sometimes things would get jittery, but if I sat back up again, it was fine.
Long story short: I know Jeff and gang swear up and down and sideways there must be something wrong with the hardware, but in a normal living room setup, at least at the moment, it was great. It might be that since they've played so many VR games in higher fidelity setups they're more sensitive to things - like, I'm expecting jenk, so a little bit of jenk I don't even notice. (Like, I've played with Wiimote controllers - these are WAY better.) So far, as an intro to VR, I have no regrets on this purchase, and I'm planning on buying stuff for the PS4. (I come from the PC side of gaming - the 2.5 hours I spent last night with the PS4 was longer than the total time I've spent with the PS4 in the last two weeks.) Friend of my wife and I might be coming over for dinner on Saturday, she barely plays video games -- I'm interested in seeing her reaction.
Played with it for about 4ish hours last night. I could never reproduce the tracking problems seen on the Giant Bomb stream, there was one time where the controller was swimming around on it's own while my hand was still, but I held down the option button and it immediately corrected that with no problem. So... I have no clue why Giant Bomb is having their problems?
Anyways, Rez is absolutely incredible. There's no other way to play that game now that I have played it in VR. It really makes me wish that a deal with Ubisoft can happen and we get Child of Eden down the road.
Didn't play too much of thumper, seemed real cool. Looking forward to playing more tonight.
Nobody is talking about how amazing Playroom VR is and it kind of freaks me out. Holy shit that game looks great in VR.
Will play some more Rigs and will probably buy Headmaster over the weekend.
@ghoti221: I think it's mostly just sensitivity to the weaker tracking after playing quite a bit with the Oculus and the Vive like @quarterssaid. Like some people get mad about tearing and some freak out about frame rate drops etc. I think for many people small tracking issues are completely fine concidering the much more reasonable price.
@quarters: TBH, I was very concerned by the initial coverage. It's impossible to not see the issues with the sensor fusion (taking gyros, accelerometers, camera data, and so on and fusing it into a precise sub-mm tracking of the headset without lag is required for VR to work at all) failing to work in their footage. The swimming motion for fixed object, the strobing depth inaccuracies. If their units are not defective in some way then something incredibly weird is happening (as reported, these unit behave like this in other environments too) and has been seen elsewhere (at other outlets). To be clear, even tracking issues small enough that we'd be unable to see them on the streams can totally destroy VR so the way it was clearly visible at some points in the streams indicates it was so broken as to be impossible to consider it working VR. These GB units have been demonstrated as failing to provide a VR environment.
I was considering cancelling my pre-order and certainly was already mentally going over the returns process with Amazon (luckily they're really keen on customer service so it's painless and free) when I got the dispatch notice. Sometimes my DS4 tracks a bit off but I also hold it at the very bottom of the camera's tracked area so it often drops off the bottom of it. Also 99% of my issues with the DS4 tracking were fixed when I realised the USB charging cable does not play nice with the camera tracking so you have to charge the DS4 and then play. The headset can occasionally glitch a frame or two (typically a jump down and to the left by a few mm) when I'm in cinema mode but then returns. But I've had no issue with drifting tracking (certainly never fell through the bottom of a car) or the strobing depth or swimming motions. I've had a simulator sickness sweats free experience so far and have put in enough hours that I'm not expecting to suddenly find my unit is failing to track accurately. I've not got Move controllers yet but they seem to track basically like a DS4 does so I expect the same "not quite Vive but also not Oculus Touch expensive" experience from them if I move (no pun intended) into hand motion games.
If it's not faulty headsets (with a range of quality coming off the production lines for both cameras and headset units) then I'm not sure what it is. As they say, pre-release hardware had always been fine for them in the studio. I don't think that's because Sony made really expensive pre-release dev units and slashed quality and costs for the retail production, but I do expect every dev unit was given a full test before it arrived at the GB offices that the retail units (due to scaling) would not get. Bit weird for Sony's PR team not to individually check every PS VR unit they were sending to the press to make sure they were working at the peak of their quality window.
Still no idea why I can't find the sweet spot that everyone mentions. I don't even know how much time I've spent on the "Adjust the VR headset position" screen by now, but I just can't seem to get the text really smooth and clear as it wants me to. You can always see the edges of each letter clearly. I also tried the Batcave in Arkham again, where on the screen before you it says "Forensics" and other things. Should this be easily readable? In my case I can see enough to understand that it says "Forensics", but it's cleary not "smooth and clear", not by a long shot. And when I then go the batcomputer and look at the profiles of Robin and Nightwing on there, the blurriness of the text is really hurting my eyes. That can't(!) be normal, right? I mean: That's the game nearly everyone praises the most in the launch line-up.
And I'm always coming back to the short film Invasion that's free to download from the PSN store (and quite nice, despite my problems with it). Shivoa mentioned that the rabbit is easy to see in the distance at the beginning. Well, I tried again, for me it isn't. It's a mix of blurriness and jagged edges and when he starts sprinting in my direction there are even one or two frames where one of his pointy ears cannot be seen fully, like if some part of it was erased. Same with the eagle that's swooping in shortly afterwards, for one or two frames he was missing nearly his entire right wing. I hope I'm making myself clear enough, because English is not my mother tongue and when it comes to tech talk that often shows. I'm just really unsure what to do by now, because there is no frame of reference/easy way to compare with others. Is it supposed to be like this? Is my eyesight bad and I'm just now, in VR, realising that I need new glasses? My wife is going to try Invasion out later today. If she's having the same problems I'm thinking it's safe to assume that something is wrong with my headset, or what's your take on this?
[edit] Tried measuring eye-to-eye distance several times, recalibrated camera, recalibrated headset tracking, no protective layer on my lenses anymore. I've been through it all, I think.
[edit 2] Here I am, talking about no easy way to compare with others, and then I find a gameplay video of Invasion on YouTube a minute later that comes very(!) close to the picture quality I am experiencing. Is this the quality it's supposed to be? Am I the only one being really put of by that? Shivoa, is that the quality you experienced on VR as well? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0ldI0tQVvM
@knurrunkulus: Ye, the low resolution (& lack of anti-aliasing techniques) of the render (so not the headset but the PS4 - like how an XB1 can have a 720p internal res but still upscale to a 1080p TV output) in Invasion causes stuff to appear and vanish and the jaggies at the edge of everything (eg the rock, the white rabbit coming out from behind the rock). The most visible bit I see is when the rabbit is far away the entire of the large black eye pupils can just vanish. One frame the bunny has two black dots for eyes and the next one has vanished (because it's not drawing over the centre of a pixel in the low res source render that end up covering lots of pixels on the final output display in the headset). So that's a side effect of the issues with that demo/real-time movie rendering.
The blurring, OTOH, is not. So the Demo disc: as it boots up there's a splash screen. The screen has white text at the very bottom of it. You should be able to read that text. At least I don't find it challenging to read and I think that, if you're looking at a blurred image, it will likely to be hard to make out what is says. It probably won't look perfect (as good as looking at it on a 1080p TV) but it should be readable.
@shivoa: Okay, I'll try that out once more.
@ every VR user around: But there's one more thing I'm a bit worried about: I just read the Polygon review of PS VR and in there it says about the social screen that "[...]the company has also pointed out that the streamed or captured video is a lower-quality version of what you see in the headset — indeed, you can tell the resolution is rather low, and small text can be a bit hard to read." If the image on my TV that others can see is really supposed to be worse(!) than what I'm seeing in the headset, something can't be right at all with my headset. I had a friend over last night, we tried several demos back to back and the difference between what you could see on the TV and in the headset was very recognizable. Of course: With the headset the immersion was the big plus, but just looking at the picture quality, the social screen looked recognizably better. That was especially clear when we tried the Driveclub VR demo. When my friend was just watching me play, he was of the opinion that the graphics looked at least okay and was a bit surprised why I was so shocked by the visual quality I experienced in the headset, but then he put it on to try it out himself and let out an audible gasp because of the difference. TLDR: Quality on my social screen is better than in the headset, not the other way round. Text on social screen is easily readable, text in the headset often not. Can that be right?
By the way: Sorry for bombarding you all with these questions, but I'm finding it helps. So thank you! :)
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