PSVR2 for PlayStation 5 detail supposedly leaked from Sony developer conference
A YouTube video posted by the PSVR Without Parole channel claims to have new information about Sony’s next-generation virtual reality hardware for PlayStation 5. The channel claims that they sourced fresh information from a private conference held on Tuesday—claims later independently corroborated by UploadVR.
PSVR2’s display will have a resolution of 2000 x 2040 per eye, as reported by UploadVR in May. This is a significant improvement over the world’s current most popular headset, the Oculus Quest 2. Furthermore, PSVR Without Parole claims that the screen will be OLED-based and support high dynamic range (HDR), potentially giving it a lot more vibrancy, deeper blacks, and brightness than the Quest 2’s non-HDR LCD display.
The new kit will reportedly have a 110-degree field of view, up from Sony’s original PSVR and around 20 degrees better than the Oculus Quest 2. This wide FoV will be achieved in part by fresnel lenses, which Quest users are already familiar with. (Read: Apple reportedly working on VR headset)
The biggest news from UploadVR in May was that PSVR2 will support eye-tracking, enabling a much-desired performance-enhancing technique called foveated rendering. According to today’s video, PSVR2 will also include Flexible Scaling Resolution (FSR), which “concentrates rendering resources on the player’s area of focus” to reduce hardware load. It’s unclear how FSR differs from foveated rendering.
PSVR Without Parole also reports that the PSVR2 will have haptic feedback in the headset to help reduce motion sickness, via a “rotary motor.”
Finally, the video’s most intriguing tidbits concern software. Sony reportedly wants to focus on “console-quality” triple-A games rather than “VR experiences” like pretending to be Batman for 90 minutes or swimming with whales for ten.
As Capcom did with Resident Evil 7, Sony believes creating “hybrid” games that support both traditional displays and virtual reality is the best way to achieve this. The idea is to let the player choose between the standard and VR versions, reducing download size.
Apparently, no mention of PSVR2 being backward compatible with PSVR1 games was made at the event, which is slightly concerning. That said, I expect Sony to take care of its early adopters. Sony is reportedly planning a “big push” to “remaster” PSVR1 games for the new hardware.
The video ends by stating that PSVR2 will be released in early 2022, but no price or release date has been set. In the meantime, you can watch the entire video below.
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