PlayStation VR headset 'Project Morpheus' announced

Sony is making a VR headset.

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Sony has confirmed plans to make a VR headset, currently dubbed "Project Morpheus." The long-rumored device will compete with Oculus Rift as competition in virtual reality begins to heat up.

"Virtual Reality is the next innovation from PlayStation that may very well shape the future of games," Shuhei Yoshida confirmed at a GDC panel.

The current dev kit features a 1080p display with 90+ degree field of view. However, this is a prototype and isn't necessarily indicative of a final retail product. The VR headset can be used alongside PlayStation Move. Tracking of both the headset and controller are handled by the PlayStation Camera. The headset also promises "true spatial sound, synthesized by simulating the human ear."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    March 18, 2014 5:59 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, PlayStation VR headset 'Project Morpheus' announced.

    Sony is making a VR headset.

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      March 18, 2014 6:04 PM

      I don't think the PS4 is powerful enough to have quality VR. Occulus developers say they still aren't where they want to be with VR, partly because you need at least 1080p 60fps for each eye to have the immersive experience. PS4 can't hit that with most games now.

      I guess it can still be cool, but they will definitely have to cut back on a lot of stuff, like ambient occlusion, to get a high resolution rendered twice.

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        March 18, 2014 6:22 PM

        [deleted]

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        March 18, 2014 6:31 PM

        Well, you could have 1080p, 60fps for each eye right now if you were willing to regress on the visuals. It's going to be a tradeoff and probably not one that most large developers will take. This seems more like something the indie scene will go for at the moment.

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        March 18, 2014 8:11 PM

        its still cool, going to promote faster innovation, the devs are all going to want to have killer features. I feel like this is a win for everyone.

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        March 18, 2014 8:34 PM

        its just 1920x540 per eye on the Crystal Cove prototype, but the second render is significant. Also Valve stated that a lot of current high end effects don't work well in current VR. Its plausible that they can get some solid VR experiences.

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        March 18, 2014 9:18 PM

        The PS4 has no problem whatsoever rendering at 1080p 60fps. Neither does the XBox One. It's just a matter of what you want to do with every pixel. A game designed for VR from the ground up would budget for this from the start.

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          March 18, 2014 9:33 PM

          For 3d it would need to be 60fps for each eye. That's a total of 120 frames a second the consoles would have to render.

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            March 18, 2014 9:44 PM

            I haven't been paying much attention but didn't some OR guys say 60hz per eye wasn't good enough and they wanted something in the 90-120 fps range?

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              March 18, 2014 10:37 PM

              Yes, 90hz was their stated minimum for immersive VR. They also made a big deal about "low persistence" where the panels are dark most of the time and just pulse the image when it's fresh, so that you don't get smearing while your eye is looking at something but you turn your head while keeping your eye locked. The Sony stuff doesn't have either of these features.

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                March 18, 2014 10:42 PM

                What excites me the most about the OR team is that they have a great grasp on human biology basically to factor into product design and specs.

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                  March 19, 2014 1:39 AM

                  what would actually really upset me is if we had something like a less-than-optimal mass market design fucking up VR in the eyes (heh) of the public when better alternatives exist.

                  Hopefully that remains as just an irrational fear of mine.

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          March 18, 2014 9:37 PM

          now double that. neither console is ready for that.

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            March 19, 2014 2:25 AM

            You don't need to double that, see my post below. You also don't need to process things at 120Hz. Assuming each eye sees an additional 20%, you'd only need to process 1920x1296 at 60Hz.

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          March 18, 2014 11:47 PM

          [deleted]

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        March 19, 2014 1:26 AM

        ps4 could hit that with less complex scenes, meaning custom games for their VR headset that target whatever framerate and res they want but sacrifce fidelity.

        they cant just make killzone run at 90 fps 1080p for a vr headset though.

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        March 19, 2014 2:22 AM

        You don't need separate1080p renders for each eye, a decent majority of the scene is overlap, only the far left/right edges of the scene defer based on eye.

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          March 19, 2014 2:28 AM

          You need to render the overlap areas differently. It's the same bits of scene and the same textures, but seen from a slightly different angle. That's why it looks 3D.

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            March 19, 2014 2:31 AM

            You'll need to render a bit more of the scene to deal with things like occlusion and motion parallax differently in each eye, but that still is only necessary for near objects. There's a lot of optimization that could be done here that would avoid having to render two fully separate 1920x1080 scenes.

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              March 19, 2014 2:32 AM

              Ah yes, that's true.

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              March 19, 2014 4:26 AM

              I really doubt there would be that much to copy. It seems like most of your vision is the same but that's only because your brain compensates for the slight differences in view between your eyes.

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                March 19, 2014 5:08 AM

                I can see rendering the two frames simultaneously being useful: you could potentially only load a texture once and paint it twice, once into each frame. It could be quicker than rendering the whole of the left eye then starting again and rendering the whole of the right eye.

                Perhaps all VR systems do this already.

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                March 19, 2014 5:37 PM

                You could start with a standard 1920x1080 render, then ray trace objects to see how much they occlude others based on the position each eye. Replace the areas where this is above a certain threshold, render the outside edges of the screen, problem solved.

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      March 18, 2014 8:48 PM

      I seem to remember Sony TV glasses from 14 years ago: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/01/12

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      March 18, 2014 9:01 PM

      no thanks, keep it on PC with actual hardware and dev flexibility that can move that scene forward.

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      March 19, 2014 2:12 AM

      Do devices like this work for people with one eye?

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        March 19, 2014 2:23 AM

        No, these systems are based on binocular disparity. One of the many cues to 3D, nearly all other cues are already taken advantage of on standard monitors.

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          March 19, 2014 4:11 AM

          It does still work. Standard monitors can only show one cue, perspective. A VR set does so much more, eg just tracking your head makes a massive difference. In fact it should do everything that makes your vision work IRL.
          Like roggor said below, VR with one eye is like real life with one eye. You lose some depth perception, but you lost that IRL before putting on the headset.

          This has ofcourse been tested:
          http://kotaku.com/playing-occulus-rift-with-only-one-eye-1074765790

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            March 19, 2014 4:15 AM

            Thanks for the link. I only have one good eye and figured it would still be neat, even without the full 3D. Good to hear someone else's experience with it though.

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            March 19, 2014 5:06 PM

            Many thanks for answers.

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            March 19, 2014 5:34 PM

            You can do head tracking without VR? One of the shackers who plays a ton of flight sims uses it iirc.

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        March 19, 2014 2:40 AM

        I would assume so. Sure, you're not getting stereo vision, but that's no different from how you experience the real world.

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        March 19, 2014 8:57 AM

        Fellow one eyer, we'd probably have no depth perception in the virtual world, but that's the same as the real world for us. We technically would be losing out, but we'd be losing out no more or less than we already do.

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      March 19, 2014 5:13 AM

      Guys, remember this is a Sony peripheral. It'll be DOA and they'll drop it within 6 months.

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        March 19, 2014 6:49 AM

        And require a proprietary interface, API, headmount, etc.

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        March 19, 2014 6:53 AM

        You sure wish they would.

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          March 19, 2014 6:55 AM

          I don't wish anything. It's their track record.

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        March 19, 2014 6:58 AM

        [deleted]

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          March 19, 2014 6:59 AM

          I don't have a deal, but when it comes to console accessories they have an established track record of releasing something and then completely dropping it quickly.

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            March 19, 2014 7:38 AM

            I agree i also hate how they keep dropping support but if Sony allow this device to work on PC as well this ( to me anyway ) is the device to get, Best of both world.

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            March 19, 2014 7:57 AM

            You totally have a deal.

        • gmd legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury mega
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          March 19, 2014 7:39 AM

          He is secretly Steve Ballmer's nephew

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          March 19, 2014 7:39 AM

          He's right though. I'm a huge Sony fanboy, but these guys are notorious for showing us their latest cool thing and then dropping it a year later.

          Remember the E3 where Sony hyped the shit out of 3D and Move? How long after that did they continue to support either of those with games and advertising?

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            March 19, 2014 7:44 AM

            [deleted]

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              March 19, 2014 7:54 AM

              Hype proven, I'll give that to you.

              Consumer demand, I don't think anyone knows at this point.

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                March 19, 2014 7:57 AM

                Yeah, that's where this entire trend will live or die. I feel like I've heard nothing but good stuff from many people that have tried the Oculus Rift, but I expect most people will have a hard time getting excited without there being some very broadly available demo units.

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            March 19, 2014 9:22 AM

            The demand is totally different potentially. Here they are leading instead of Me Tooing. (on the console front)

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            March 19, 2014 1:04 PM

            Well now they're resurrecting Move to work with their 3D VR headset, so in a way you could say Sony's giving both of those concepts are getting another lease on life. They did go awfully dormant for a while there though.

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        March 19, 2014 7:57 AM

        I could see this not shipping until 2016.

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      March 19, 2014 6:50 AM

      If this is going to require the camera, ala how the Wii works, I can't see this being very accurate or allow for fine movement.

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        March 19, 2014 6:55 AM

        You can get quite accurate positioning with a camera. You can see sub-pixel movements, plus the PS camera is HD.

        I wonder about latency on the camera, can they get it down to the level that OR are aiming for?

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        March 19, 2014 8:01 AM

        They say their camera was designed with this thing in mind, they also have sensors on the VR set, supposedly polls at 1000hz

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      March 19, 2014 6:57 AM

      I'm excited about this I don't care what all you grumpy naysayers have to naysay about it.

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      March 19, 2014 7:37 AM

      I sure hope this goes mainstream and its required for all games not optional. It will give me a reason to stop being a gamer. I'm serious. I thought it would be 3D, but that went up in smoke...maybe this will do it. I'm very weak and always stay...but I dislike it when things become mandatory, where you have to rearrange your entire living room to accommodate one piece of new technology and really im to old for all this stuff. So I am ready to close this chapter in my life and hand it over to my kids.

      BRING IT ON!

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      March 19, 2014 7:51 AM

      [deleted]

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