PSVR2: Next-Gen Boogaloo

[Asura]

I do really hope that PSVR1 games work on it. There's so much I'd like to play from gen 1. I have no clue what technical challenges that might present though considering the switch to inside out tracking.

Honestly, I'll be absolutely flabbergasted if they don't. Realistically the tracking shouldn't be a problem if they do their job; they need to make drivers that transpose the information - so unpatched PSVR1 games just think they're using the same tracking data.

Honestly though most VR developers are pretty active, I think all the successful games will get patched to have better support.

It'd actually be nice to see Sony resurrect some titles. They had this game called Starblood Arena which was an Overwatch-style hero shooter, played in ships in a manner of the classic PC FPS Descent. By the time I played it, the service had already shut down.

Honestly I really liked RIGS too.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Plus on ps5 you already get a boost in fidelity, so on a 4k headset something like Resi7 will look even better.

Edit: All this talk has got me charging up my Wands for play...

[Asura]

Edit: All this talk has got me charging up my Wands for play...

but are you also gonna do some PSVR or

[QualityChimp]

Arizona Sunshine (regret not playing more of this with the @QualityChimp before selling up to go PCVR).

That was an absolutely brilliant session, mate!

[Family Fry]

Still no news about backward compatibility, which isn’t a good thing, with the new headset screen and resolution older games would have got a significant boost, so would be nice to be able to replay them.
Also compatibility could be an issue if the new headset doesn’t have any lights on it for tracking or camera compatibility, since the new headset is inside/out tracking with cameras on the actual headset and wands.

Embedded Tweet

[Asura]

Still no news about backward compatibility, which isn’t a good thing, with the new headset screen and resolution older games would have got a significant boost, so would be nice to be able to replay them.
Also compatibility could be an issue if the new headset doesn’t have any lights on it for tracking or camera compatibility, since the new headset is inside/out tracking with cameras on the actual headset and wands.

Embedded Tweet

It really shouldn't be a problem.

If Sony are on-the-ball, and they're usually good at this stuff - the PSVR2 will ask you to set up your area like the Quest etc. does, then, once you've done that, it'll ask you to "place your camera" to emulate the functionality for PSVR1 games. Then, it can transpose all of the inside-out tracking data into the format used by the drivers for the regular PSVR.

PSVR's tracking might be camera-based, but it's effectively the same as used for other VR platforms. The camera defines a frustum (you can actually see this frustum in the config step for Farpoint) and then places the controllers and headset inside the world, using a combination of cameras and internal sensors for the position and orientation. There's no reason you couldn't transpose that data on-the-fly.

I'm not saying there's no work to do, far from it. But rather, if Sony don't do it, then that's a conscious decision; it isn't because they can't.

The only potential problem here, in theory, is that the PSVR's tracking has one advantage over the Quest - it can track controllers you're not looking at, as long as they're in the camera FoV. That being said, in practice this is unlikely to be a problem; very few games depend on this functionality.

[Neon Ignition]

Presumably PSVR2 will be like other modern VR sets and mitigate out of FOV tracking using the motion sensors in the controllers too. Given where we're now at with B/C I can't imagine PSVR2 won't be backward compatible. Seems like Sony's just being very fixed in their PR for it. It's 100% getting a 2022 release though, it'd make no sense to even be mentioning it if it weren't.

[Asura]

Presumably PSVR2 will be like other modern VR sets and mitigate out of FOV tracking using the motion sensors in the controllers too. Given where we're now at with B/C I can't imagine PSVR2 won't be backward compatible. Seems like Sony's just being very fixed in their PR for it. It's 100% getting a 2022 release though, it'd make no sense to even be mentioning it if it weren't.

The PSVR1 did that too; the controllers had accelerometers and gyros in them (the camera tracking the for wands can only see position & distance from the camera, rotation is supplied by the controllers themselves).

This is one of the reasons the experience of using the tilt keyboard with the PSCamera on PS4 was so good - both the controller and the camera (due to the controller's triangular light) could see the rotation, so the pointer position was averaging out a lot of information.

I don't think they'll go as far as Oculus seem to be suggesting with the Cambria leaks, where the controllers themselves each have a camera to do their own independent tracking, but leaks of the PSVR2 showed designs with a wide-angle camera on the rear-band of the headset, so potentially Sony are going to do this too.

EDIT: Lemme walk that back, the leaks do show a camera on each controller. That'd be fantastic if they're first-to-market with that. They'll be able to do some really good stuff.

[Neon Ignition]

I'm curious about the tech push too on it, for me that Quest 2 bar of £299 is the roof they should be pushing for with PSVR2 as it's ultimately still a niche accessory for a hard to get hold of £450 recently launched console. If they lose sight of pricing on it that will heavily limit its sales, PSVR1 sold pretty well but a lot of that was regular accumulating price drops maintaining momentum for it.

Also, given how Blood and Truth came out in 2019 and London Studio hasn't released anything in three years... we're totally getting the sequel early on aren't we?

[QualityChimp]

EDIT: Lemme walk that back, the leaks do show a camera on each controller. That'd be fantastic if they're first-to-market with that. They'll be able to do some really good stuff.

Hopefully they'll stop me punching the wall in Superhot. That hurt.

[wakka]

Asura and NI's posts are getting me really hyped for this machine, now. I'm feeling reassured in particular regarding BC - good to hear that it's aat least technologically feasible. London Studio quietly toiling on Blood and Truth 2 for launch makes complete sense too.

I have nothing actually useful to add so I'm just going to repeat my post further up the thread: give it to meeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, London Studio has always been pretty matter of fact about wanting to continue that series and the original is one of the PSVR titles that has stayed most prominently in my mind. I'm all in on a sequel.

In an ideal world Sony, MS etc would just have adapters and we could just plug in any VR headset to maximise software sales. It'd be great to hook up the Quest 2 rather than have to own a second VR headset which is why the exclusives support will be critical for this for me. I'm definitely interested though

[Atticus]

I love a bit of VR but I still have no interest in playing full length proper games that way. I like to have my mind blown for half an hour and then move on ... it's all my senses can take

[Asura]

I love a bit of VR but I still have no interest in playing full length proper games that way. I like to have my mind blown for half an hour and then move on ... it's all my senses can take

Yeah, I think I said this in the other VR thread but it's one of the reasons I've always been hesitant with VR Skyrim. I think it's a fun idea in theory but with the durations you play (and I feel you kinda have to play standing, or you miss half the experience)... I mean in RPGs in years gone by I've played for 6 hour sessions where you spend most of the time walking. My feet would probably drop off if I just stood up for 6 ours straight.

[Neon Ignition]

PSVR2 support - that might make the Last of Us Remake worth some attention if it happens