Sony Playstation VR: Hands On

[FritzEiv]

At Sony's PSVR showcase event during GDC, we had some time to experience the console VR technology for the first time. Here are our observations.

Sony Playstation VR: Hands On : Read more

 

[nitrium]

Wow, absolutely nothing about how the experience compares with the competition. Is it better, worse, the same? Screen-door? Input lag? Performance? Graphics quality? There is so much stuff you COULD have told have told us, but instead you chose to "review" 3 games, ignoring the experience ENTIRELY!!??? Well done.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

The zombie game sounds fun.

 

[FritzEiv]

Wow, absolutely nothing about how the experience compares with the competition. Is it better, worse, the same? Screen-door? Input lag? Performance? Graphics quality? There is so much stuff you COULD have told have told us, but instead you chose to "review" 3 games, ignoring the experience ENTIRELY!!??? Well done.

Wow, absolutely nothing about how the experience compares with the competition. Is it better, worse, the same? Screen-door? Input lag? Performance? Graphics quality? There is so much stuff you COULD have told have told us, but instead you chose to "review" 3 games, ignoring the experience ENTIRELY!!??? Well done.

Fair enough. I think that it's awfully difficult not having these things side by side, with similar games, and in environments where there are too many people and not nearly enough time to understand the game, the game interaction, feel the hardware to start making

 

[FritzEiv]

OK that was strange. Sorry for the extra post there. My computer froze up mid typing and in my hunting for an escape I must have hit the publish button. To continue:

Fair enough. I think that it's awfully difficult not having these things side by side, with similar games, and in environments where there are too many people and not nearly enough time to understand the game, the game interaction, feel the hardware to start making such comparisons meaningful. As I noted in the racing game the resolution in THAT game was pretty poor and I found various artifacts and pixelation issues throughout. The Rush of Blood game was much cleaner without any input lag that I could detect at all, but at one point I was able to see through the image to the material behind the displays. In the Waltz experience I found some lag, especially in the head/positional tracking, and dropping some of the potions into the cauldron didn't quite work and I was told to raise my hand just a little bit higher, so the hand tracking/controller tracking wasn't quite right. There were little things like this, which may just be part of the game development work that needs improvement, or it could be because of some latency issues. Hopefully that gives a little bit more color on some of the issues I saw, and why I didn't include them. By the way, I've seen many of these issues appear in VR games in various stages of development on other platforms.

 

[nitrium]

Fair enough. I think that it's awfully difficult not having these things side by side, with similar games, and in environments where there are too many people and not nearly enough time to understand the game, the game interaction, feel the hardware to start making

So despite "I’ve been playing VR games on the Oculus Rift for almost two years, and on the HTC Vive for the past year", you couldn't really notice any tangible differences with those headsets and the PSVR? That is, you found the experience was, subjectively, effectively indistinguishable at first blush (i.e. you'd need to have other headsets next to you running the same games to be able to tell us if the experience was any different whatsoever, that's how subtle the differences are when running different games)? If so, that's extremely impressive from team Sony at this price point, right?

Ok your 2nd post clarifies this somewhat. It wasn't up when I posted the reply above.

 

[FritzEiv]

nitrium: I think if people are buying these thinking they aren't going to have any problems, see any artifacts, are really fooling themselves. All of the principle architects are begging for more GPU power, and the GPU manufacturers are tripping all over themselves to give it to them. During AMD's event, one studio (creator of VR content) said that Raja sent over Pro Duos to help out (when the product didn't even exist yet). There are all sorts of techniques being deployed, such as foveated rendering, and asynchronous time warp. The game engine providers are employing techniques in their tools, and developers are making accommodations (compromises?) for latency issues and the lack of processing power. These are all good things, don't get me wrong, but there will be issues. We're at the chicken/egg stage, and there needs to be plenty of content to get people excited. I trust the hardware will come along.

After thinking about these things and after the Sony experience, I'm anxious to get back to some other games on other platforms for a closer look. We'll have a chance to do that -- and side by side -- soon enough.

 

[Hellbound]

I was excited to read your "hands on" article on the PSVR.. I wanted to know more on the hardware specs, controls, input lag, etc... Something you should have included, which was announced today by Sony, was the price!!!! I'm just baffled the one question most of us had about this HMD was announced today and you did not include it in your article. BTW, its going to cost $399...

Next time, less subjective and be more objective....

 

[Hellbound]

I was excited to read your "hands on" article on the PSVR.. I wanted to know more on the hardware specs, controls, input lag, etc... Something you should have included, which was announced today by Sony, was the price!!!! I'm just baffled the one question most of us had about this HMD was announced today and you did not include it in your article. BTW, its going to cost $399...

Next time, less subjective and be more objective....

 

[-Fran-]

Well, it looks like FPSes will soon need pedals (yes, wheel pedals or something of the like) to control movement more effectively (jumping/crouching, forward/reverse, etc). For racing-like games it's natural, because you're planted in a thing that moves you around and you decide where to go, but for games which don't have vehicles you use, I do believe it's quite annoying.

Also, pedals it's just the base concept, since you can pretty much use anything, including the expensive walking platform we saw before.

Cheers!

 

[Guest]

It appears that industry is running out of ideas so they came up with another bullshit called VR which will end up like 3D TV...cool but nobody gives a f. about it.

 

[-Fran-]

It appears that industry is running out of ideas so they came up with another bullshit called VR which will end up like 3D TV...cool but nobody gives a f. about it.

You can't be more wrong there. VR can not be compared to the 3D stuff they tried to pull before. Have you actually tried anything VR? If you haven't, then you really should to understand why it is not a fad nor over-hyped thing. Plus, VR has been since the 90s, but the technology wasn't there at the time. Now it is.

Cheers!

 

[utgardaloki]

...cool but nobody gives a f. about it.

You've got to admit though... VR seems to make for a whole lot of "nobodies".

 

[FritzEiv]

I was excited to read your "hands on" article on the PSVR.. I wanted to know more on the hardware specs, controls, input lag, etc... Something you should have included, which was announced today by Sony, was the price!!!! I'm just baffled the one question most of us had about this HMD was announced today and you did not include it in your article. BTW, its going to cost $399...

Next time, less subjective and be more objective....

I did write about that the day before when it was announced. Sorry you missed it. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sony-psvr-playstation-vr-399,31420.html

 

[cptnjarhead]

VR is here, but not here. As for passing fad like 3DTV, thats coming from people who have not used the product and or do not understand the Tech. VR/AR is tied to mobile tech, and that tech advances exponentially, because people buy new phones every two years or less. 3Dtv's are a one time purchase that usually last 5 years or so, even longer. The experience with VR is personal, and more immersive than 3dtv, and the applications a far reaching. This is just the first round of VR/AR, in two years we will see stand alone headsets capable of the same performance as the current RIFT/VIVE and others. This will bring a golden age of media delivery and interaction for a long time.