PSVR2: Next-Gen Boogaloo

[Neon Ignition]

Horizons totally getting a PC release

[Lebowski]

Horizons totally getting a PC release

Zero dawn is already on the PC my brother has been glued to it on his steam deck, been telling him how good Forbidden West is.

Oh you mean Call of the Mountain, careful now we don't want to turn this into last week's Xbox thread

What certification? SteamVR is open source.

you need to put drivers up on steam to make it work and you need to submit that softeware to steam for aproval, you can't just plug the thing in to your pc and say "your open source now work you stupid psvr2 headset"

[huxley]

oh well, it’s coming one way or another, so it’s all good

[MartyG]

you need to put drivers up on steam to make it work and you need to submit that softeware to steam for aproval, you can't just plug the thing in to your pc and say "your open source now work you stupid psvr2 headset"

Hmm, this post appears to lack knowledge.

[Lebowski]

Hmm, this post appears to lack knowledge.

Yeah, because things just work on steam without software support

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/719950/view/2449343774283714111

For example, the WMR software never came out of beta on steam

[MartyG]

When you're in a hole. Stop digging.

[Lebowski]

Take your own advice, Morty

[MartyG]

The only thing you've gotten right here, is that hardware requires drivers.

[Asura]

Interesting. People who are knowledgeable about VR, how does the PSVR2 match up as a PCVR headset against the Quest 3?

This depends a bit on whether you own one of them already; like for people who own the PSVR2 and a gaming PC, then this is an awesome development. Bit murkier if people are looking to buy something.

The PSVR2's main advantages are having an OLED screen (better colour gamut, dark scenes can be genuinely black) and eye-tracking (the Quest 3 does not have this), and being physically bit lighter (fit/feel is personal but objectively it is lighter). The main disadvantages being that it's cabled and I don't think it supports hand-tracking without controllers (that last one is highly variable; most won't care at all, for some it's a total deal-breaker).

The Quest 3's main advantage is that it has pancake optics (which makes everything just much, much clearer when things are not dead-centre of the frame) and it's wireless. Speaking personally those two things are of such overwhelming difference to me that I could never recommend the PSVR2 on PC, but again, this is very much a matter of personal taste - if you predominantly play racing games/space games/flight sims then really a cable doesn't matter as you're going to be seated.

As is often the case, the best thing to buy depends on what you're going to do with it. For instance, right now, if you're a VR streamer, VR DJ or VTuber, the headset you really need to own is the Quest Pro, because of the open form factor and full facial & eye tracking. But the QPro is a really poor headset for numerous market segments that aren't those things.

[MartyG]

This depends a bit on whether you own one of them already; like for people who own the PSVR2 and a gaming PC, then this is an awesome development. Bit murkier if people are looking to buy something.

Undoubtedly - if you didn't already own a VR headset, PSVR2 wouldn't be at the top of my list of headsets to buy for PCVR.

[Lebowski]

The only thing you've gotten right here, is that hardware requires drivers.

lol I can feel the snark coming out the monitor love ya

[MartyG]

And Sony doesn't need to write any.

Edit: Well that's a shame, I thought someone might challenge this, I'll have to explain anyway then

Sony was very deliberate with their wording:

Also, we’re pleased to share that we are currently testing the ability for PS VR2 players to access additional games on PC to offer even more game variety in addition to the PS VR2 titles available through PS5

They did not say "use PSVR2 on PC".

Now, if you understand how the VR Software Stack works, and you understand the difference between drivers and APIs, and understand where SteamVR sits in this stack and how it works, and have over thirty years of working as a software engineer, you will realise that the easiest and quickest way of providing access to PCVR is through an app running on PlayStation 5 that interfaces to the SteamVR API via a local network through SteamLink (or another consumer service installable on PC). Exactly the same way it's done on Quest 3 through the Steam app.

SteamVR is on open API and is hardware agnostic, and virtually no PC graphics cards have a VirtualLink socket (because this standard died a death several years ago). Doing it this way means you eliminate people thinking they can plug the headset directly into a USB-C port (you can't). Make it an app on PS5, you remove the numpty factor, the need to write an OS driver (which has nothing to do with Steam), have no need for people to buy additional adapters, and can simply put the app on the PS Store.

Faster, cheaper, and simpler, and the solution I would architect if I was asked to make it.

[Brad]

Makes sense. So this will be of no use of you don't have a ps5.

[Neon Ignition]

If it's an app for PS5 to stream your games from your PC then... yeah, Sony's definitely washing their hands of supporting PSVR2. It'd be like using Steam Link only you need three devices running at once. If you're in that tiny niche that this sounds useful to it really gets to the point where you have to be very tied to Switchback and Call of the Mountain to invest in PCVR titles to play via a headset that is still dependent on the console to operate especially when said console will only have 3 years left in it.

It's serves so few that way whilst still guiding them out of PSN for their game purchases that the only way I can mentally square it is that it's a 'nice' way of making the niche audience more palatable to the idea that Sony's done investing in it themselves.

[Asura]

If it's an app for PS5 to stream your games from your PC then... yeah, Sony's definitely washing their hands of supporting PSVR2. It'd be like using Steam Link only you need three devices running at once.

This actually makes me wonder if it's been coming for a while, as the Quest also now has native Steam Link support. And in a sense, that's the same - you're running an app on your Quest which is connecting to Steam VR. It's not like you're directly connecting your Quest - hardware-wise - to your PC.