Virtual Reality Followup: PSVR · 10:32am Jul 5th, 2016
VR: Virtual Reality
Followup: Playstation VR
A few days ago, I got to try the Playstation VR system. I'd like to tell you about that experience.
In my last blog, I described the strengths and weaknesses, as I perceive them, for both the Vive and the Rift. They are both good systems, they both work well. The Vive, to recap, allows you to walk around in what amounts to a holodeck, interacting with the virtual world - picking up things, throwing things, crouching down, standing up, exploring a room-sized space. The Rift demands that you sit or stand on one place and never physically walk around. You use an Xbox Controller instead of hand-held graspers. You push buttons and move with the stick. The Vive never causes motion sickness, the Rift does, sometimes. The Vive is very expensive, and finicky to set up, but when it works, nothing beats it. The Rift is lighter, easy to set up and use, and vastly more convenient, it is also slightly cheaper.
Let me tell you about the Playstation VR, once called the 'Morpheus'.
The device is light. It weighs less than the Rift. It does not have built-in earphones or a built-in microphone. You have to supply those. It connects to a small box that connects to the Playstation 4. The small box does the work that allows the PS4 to both show the virtual world for the player using the VR headset AND also show the same scene on a television. This allows a person wearing a headset to play co-op with another person in the same room.
The PSVR device is supported on the head by a kind of 'crown' - not quite a halo - from which the visor 'hangs'. The visor can be pulled forward on a rail, and slid back to cover the eyes. This makes it very convenient for glasses. All of this also means that the system is cool - it does not bake the face like the Vive and the Rift. Air circulates easily, and the eyeballs do not get hot. More than this, it makes the system fit any person easily, and not get all sticky or gooey with skin oils between players.
The PSVR, according to the stats, has only a 90 degree field of view, compared to the 110 degree field of the Rift and Vive. I did not notice. Because of the way the device works, the perceived field of view appeared identical to me. I honestly could not tell. More than that, it actually felt less like looking through a pair of swimming goggles - a problem both the Vive and the Rift share. Despite the given stats for the machine, it actually felt wider and less confining.
More importantly, the PSVR has more pixels in the display, and the refresh is faster - 90 times a second instead of a max of 60. That difference is incredibly important, as I discovered much to my surprise. Fast refresh and more pixels helps so incredibly much. The 'screendoor' pixel view is much less than on the other two machines. But best of all - the result is no simulation sickness... at least for me, and for my spouse Stephen too - and he is VERY prone to simulation sickness.
I played VR Battlezone. It's an updated, very Tron-like vision of the old quarter-muncher. I slid my anti-grav future-tank all over the landscape, weaving and spinning and zooming and firing in every direction - including up high - and never once felt dizzy or ill. The view was clear, butter-smooth, and had zero judder. It was smoother than a babies' butt. I was very, very impressed. I did not expect it to be that damn good.
I did not try the 'Move' controllers with it. Like the Vive, the Move controllers act as 'hands' in the world, allowing the player to hold objects. It is of note that one of the coolest games for the Vive 'Job Simulator' is actually coming out for the PSVR. In that game, you walk around a space and use your virtual hands to fix cars, make sandwiches and soups, type on computers, answer old fashioned phones, and even throw office supplies across the room. If the PSVR can handle that game, damn, it can likely do just about anything the Vive can do.
And this astonished me. I expected the PSVR to be a sort of 'budget Rift' not a Vive-killer. I did not expect a better view by any means. I was, to put it bluntly, utterly blown away.
The PSVR, in short, is the bomb.
And by that, I mean that it is the cheapest, most powerful, most easy-to-use truly complete VR system of the three. Anybody could use this thing, anybody. It's basically as easy as using a controller. It is not finicky. It works well. The view is... excellent. Better than the Rift, zero question, and... I hate to say this... possibly even better than the Vive. How? How in all of hell is Sony pulling this off?
Well, I've thought about that. Sony has been making head-mounted displays for nearly a decade. To watch movies. Mostly sold in Japan, the devices allow Japanese people in small rooms to enjoy the equivalent of a large-screen television. Going one step further, and making a VR headset out of that is not very much of a stretch. They had a secret head-start, in a way.
Sony has also had the advantage of watching both HTC/Valve and Oculus stumble and make things work. They may have come last, but that apparently just means they can benefit from the work of those before. The result: I am more convinced than ever of my predictions.
My predictions, if you have forgotten, are these:
The Vive is the most impressive overall, but it is too expensive and fussy and complex for most people.
The Rift is easy, slightly cheaper, and not fussy at all... but it is still limited and locked (for most users) to Oculus itself.
The PSVR will ultimately win the VR race, and make Virtual Reality not only commonplace, but in time, the standard way to play games. It is the most affordable of all, works fantastically, is easy and simple, is the only truly consumer VR device, and... it keeps your face comfortable.
Plus, there are 40 million PS4 units out there. 40 Million 'just plug it in and it works' potential VR customers who already have the base machine. All they have to do is buy the headset, and bam: VR funtown.
That's kind of hard to beat.
So, that's my report. I have now played all three VR systems and can now render considered judgement. All three are good, and VR really is as amazing as people claim. It isn't just 'sticking a screen on your face'. It is being somewhere else, other than earth. It is genuinely astonishing, and if you have not experienced it personally, you have nothing useful or real to say about the matter. It is that big of a deal.
But, that said, the Vive is amazing but expensive and fussy, the Rift is less amazing but serviceable, and the PSVR is the easiest of all, and the least expensive, and it looked and felt just as good - or better - than the other two.
If I could only afford one of the three systems, I would... I guess I would probably go with PSVR. Yes, the Vive is all that and a bag of very large chips. Yes, the Rift is easy and it works. But damn, Playstation is going to have the games. It's going to have it all and... if past experience is any guide, the PSVR will be adaptable to work with a PC, just like the PS controller and headphones... at least eventually. I think that suggests that the PSVR will... basically do it all, and for less than half the price.
Maybe so. But I would not trade the incredible, magical experiences I have had on the HTC/Valve Vive for anything. I want that noted. Just blew me away.
Honestly, though, I spend way more time on the Rift. It's just so damn easy. All I have to do is slap it on my face. That's it. Bam, I'm in. There isn't much to do, but... it's just that easy.
When the PSVR is released in October... I will be there. Already long on order. I'm a gamer. PSVR is... I think it's going to be the place to be for most folks.
I don't regret getting all three, mind you. It is wonderful to have the privilege of comparing and contrasting. Each headset has its own charms. And, this is the beginning of history, this is a historic moment. Virtual reality will change our world. It will change our lives... I think, within 20 years, it will be as important to rich first-worlders as the internet has been to the world. It may be our very damnation, but... it will be necessary, not just a luxury.
But not yet. Not for two decades. For now, we have the Rift and the Vive and soon, the PSVR.
Let me tell you about one more experience.
Last night, I was in a virtual world called 'ALTspace VR'. It's kind of a simple chat-room / game-room meeting place online. Anyone with VR can enter - any kind of VR. Doesn't matter the brand or make or model. You got a Cardboard VR on a cell phone, you can be there.
I was chatting with three other people. I turned around to study my own robot body in a nearby mirror. I leaned forward and tried to see myself in my glowing electric eyes. My body there is white and heliotrope, smooth and rounded, sort of like a tall version of EVE from Wall-E. I tilt my head, and my robot head tilts because it is my real head, there.
One of the people-bots I was chatting with was from Germany, another from California, the third from Utah. We stood about a meter apart, more or less. We talked about VR, I admired the fact that the German man had real hands and fingers. He was using a device called a 'Leap-Motion' that represents real hands in the virtual world. His flesh fingers represented in the virtual space. He could do sign language with them.
I was there, with those people. In that room, a room that looked like a futuristic lounge. I could gaze into the mirror, I could watch the large television on the wall (it was silently running some music video). I could speak naturally, and they could too. I was there.
Yet, there, didn't exist. Not really. German-guy was in his morning, sitting at a computer. The other guys were sitting or standing in California and Utah. Yet... we were together, in a real space, a real place, walking around each other. I stood next to the german man's robot body and leaned over to study his fingers up close.
When I quit - it was four in my morning - I lifted my Rift off my face and blinked several times. I was in my chair, at home. Yet, I had just been standing somewhere else, somewhere somehow real.
I now finally understand... how I can be in two places at once, when I am not anywhere at all.
Someday, in the future, somebody is going to die in some virtual place, like the one I was in last night. They are just going to slump to the floor, and people will gather around, and then they will de-rezz, as the paramedics unplug them. Later, people will hear that they died while in VR.
And you just know that when that happens - and it will - people will start putting virtual flowers, and crosses, and virtual messages on that place, inside the virtual world, to mark the person who died - like how people do now on the side of roads where terrible accidents happen.
And later, people, inside VR, will pass by that place, with the virtual flowers, and whisper about how somebody died there, right there, on that spot.
And some part of me spins, mind akimbo, at the question: where did that person actually die?
Did they die in some room, in front of a machine, or did they die in a virtual place that cannot be pointed to? Because I think the answer is valid either way. If all of your senses are certain you are someplace, then, in a very real sense, you are. You are where your brain tells you that you are - you cannot know anything else. Reality is what you perceive, not what actually is. Reality - an any human sense - is personal.
And this thought, this issue, is not some far-future Conversion Bureau World science fiction thing, neither is it some 'not yet or ever' Optimalverse situation. It's real, right now. It could happen tomorrow. It could be on the news tomorrow. It will happen, someday. VR is here, right now, and I spend some evenings in it, talking to people and rolling D&D dice on a table that is not there, or looking at myself in a virtual mirror, trying to see my soul in my digital eyes. That is happening now, folks.
I think this is a time to be aware of these changes. It may be that things like Ready Player One and the Optimalverse may be much closer than we silly fiction writers truly realize.
Ain't that a thought?
That really is some deep thinking you added onto this. I very much do agree with it though.
Impressive, most impressive. Now I'm definitely going to be going the PSVR route in the long run, though for now I'll simply be using a smartphone rig. I'm half imagining playing Star Trek Online on a PSVR since it'll be debuting on the PS4 in September, and just basking in the glory of living in my oldest fandom. And I'll certainly have to be more mindful about VR tech in my own writing, both here and the original novel I've been playing with on and off for a few years. And the VR memorial ... I would very much like to use that at some point, if you don't mind.
One my friends has the Vive and is super into it, like, to the point of evangelizing for it and trying to convince everyone he knows how huge and important VR is and how it's going to change the world and etc etc etc.
I choose to be as disinterested and unengaged as humanly possible just to mess with him.
It's a terrifying thought to have. It's most certainly also enlightening, but it is very, very, terrifying. One programmer sometime and somewhere in the future of the human race could possibly, quite simply, botch something so epic-ly in a piece of coding for a true artificial intelligence (or come what may) that might, or even could or would or will, change the entirety of everything as we know it and possibly further than that on such a grand scale that no one would ever be able to wholly comprehend, is just amazing. Our current virtual reality technology is but a picture of the future of what our youngest generation is going to be brought up on. The times may be changing, but I have a feeling that most will be welcoming such with open arms.
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Please feel free to do so.
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VR may be cool to experience, but it has a very glaring problem: there isn't any there, there. Not a good enough one, anyway. I mean, VR chatrooms are not enough. Until somebody makes The Oasis from Ready Player One, or otherwise makes a world worth... being inside... VR is still an infant technology. That's my problem with it - that Battlezone demo I got to try? That was the most game-like fun I've ever had in VR. VR is neat, but it isn't super-duper fun, not really, not yet. Which makes me sad.
But... I cannot help but see the promise in it.
Then again, when I remember the first computer games I played, on teletype printout, they were pretty... rough. And now we have Lego Dimensions and Overwatch and shit. I try to keep that in mind.
Great blog, Chat! My adult children already spend a huge portion of their lives online, and that's where my daughter met her significant other - a relationship that was over a year old before they actually met IRL. VR is only going to accelerate the process of decoupling the locus of human awareness from "physical space" and transferring it to "perceptual space", where because of VR that space can whatever the person desires, and be shared with anyone in the world. This is going to change EVERYTHING! Relationships, leisure, learning, commerce, and in particular, people's relationship to their own bodies. It's going to be a wild ride!
The sooner the fun parts of RPO can get here, the better.
I mean I don't want the resource-lost doom part of it, but oh, the rest? Yes please.
And now I am hearing that music in my head :) not any wheeeere at aaaaaalllll…
Thanks for taking the time and effort to write this blog, and the previous one. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your thoughts on the matter, as it's very nice to get an early, first-hand account of these things. Especially when that account is untouched by any sort of company bias. ... Thought I had more to say, but the words won't flow. Ah well, anyway thanks again for sharing!
Wow. That sounds... amazing. Incredible. I mean, really, I'm having trouble believing that such things exist here, outside of books and films and the insides of games and whatnot. Thank you for writing this; I don't know if I'll ever be in a position to acquire one of these devices and make the tech review part of your post personally useful, but I enjoyed the emotions you experienced and communicated through this.
(Oh, and, ah, sorry my reading of your work here has been on hiatus for so long. I just never seen to find a good time to dig into it these days. Something else I need to do, nothing else I needed to do but something else I'm strongly in the mood for, occasionally in a mood such that the yearnies, as I believe I recall you calling them, from reading seem like they might impair the enjoyment... lots of things. I do still hope and want to get through eventually.)
Brave new world....
Hopefully uploading isn't to far behind.
Oh no. I have a PS4. YOU TRICKED ME FRIENDS! CURSE YOU!
No. No. No. You can't make me go get a my in price range PS4 VR thingy. I'm too poor and insane and evil to try it out. Dumb too. And gun shy from lawn mower man. My voice sounds funny... anyway... LAL AL LAL AL LA LA - I can't hear you siren [insert bad word here]! I've resisted Elite Dangerous and VR sex and I'll fight your song too! Next thing you know No Man's Sky going to go VR or soemthing, someting. Because 60 dollar Space Mine Craft would be cooler and I totally wouldn't want to buy that. No. Sir. Re.
Danm it, living in the future is weird.
All my stupidness aside, just leave some bread crumbs for yourself Chat Petal. Do that half fae thing by not neglecting one world for the other.
4069419 Chat, have you heard of the 1998-2003 franchise, Homeworld? When Relic went out of business and sold to THQ, which then sold out as well, Gearbox bought the Homeworld IP, and was going to make a spiritual successor, but ended up making a prequl, which is easier to play for most people, and helps introduce them to the originals.
The originals were made in 1998-1999, 2000, and 2003. They are all Space RTS, set within a fully explorable 3D skybox, meaning movement to one place or another isn't just horizontal. It's also vertical, which is something no other franchise has done to date since it's release.
Back in 1999 when Homeworld was a little more known, it took up a lot of space to run, but for them at the time, it was gorgeous.
When Gearbox bought the IP in 2013, they remastered it and released it in 2015, with redone audio, visuals, graphics, and virtually the same engine as the originals.
They released two of the three games in a Remastered Edition pack, containing the original two games modified to run on modern computers, and a few bug fixes, in their purest forms, and then they released the remastered versions, which when put together, makes the pack a four game pack.
Now the originals today are cool, especially given the tech at the time and how ambitions the original project was, but the graphics, textures, and sound fx are, what most consider today, primitive. Which is a lie, but I can understand why they'd say that.
But the Remastered? You have to look it up on Google, I can't do it justice.
If you saw it, that ain't just a screenshot made to look pretty. That is what you can find in the game if you play. Backspace removes the HUD GUI, so if you want to screenshot, you can. It's why no posters of this game exist today. If you want a nice shot, get one you'll like.
Of course, the game has a steep learning curve for those who don't play RTS, especially to move in all three dimensions, but once you pick it up, it sticks.
I want that in VR so bad. Experience the story yourself and control with better response times and better input. That will be the day we stand on holodecks and send armadas to clash.
What do you think, Chat?
Oh, I was wondering what you thought about it! Looks like my choice is cemented well and good, then, PSVR it is! They certainly do have the game selection for it!
I have a PS4, and pretty much was already planning to got that route, because it was gonna be the one I could both actually use, and afford. I prefer using Mac OS, and don't even have Windows yet on my Hackintosh, so there's the Mac vs PC software compatibility thing. On top of that, my GPU is a used Radeon HD 5770, and quite frankly, I wasn't gonna get a decent VR experience on my computer without a lot of upgrading anyway.
All that combined, meant I was pretty much gonna be set on the cheaper PS4 VR experience... To hear it is such an exceptionally good experience! Oh most wonderful of nights! You know how to put a smile on my face!
Good to know about the PS4 version in comparison to the other two.
As to reality and the perception thereof, all I can say for certain is that I haven't been living in what most folks call reality for well over a decade. VR may well be a step up, in that now other folks could see the same place.
Damn... Well said.
I appreciate the PS4 info. Completely forgot about it till now.
I now understand what you mean by the swim goggles effect. I was recently able to play with an Oculus Rift CV1. However, a few weeks ago, I was also able to play with a Gear VR. I think the focus on the Rift was off a bit and that caused me to notice all the problems with it, but there were two things that changing the focus couldn't have fixed: I could see my own nose because it wasn't covered completely which ruined the effect hardcore and the placement of the sensors being so close caused me to bump into the monitor when I tried to duck under something (We were playing PonyVRville). Maybe I could have backed away from the desk a bit, but I have a feeling it wouldn't have picked me up if I ducked lower than the desk.
I don't know if the Gear VR has any way to determine vertical movement, but there is no visible outside-world and the lenses are, if I remember this correctly, bigger than the Rift… Um, if you get a chance, try out the Gear VR. I'd like to see where it ranks in your reviews.
I hope the wide spread availability of the most popular device does not discourage the use and development of features found on different devices. Well, to be specific, I don't want the holodeck experience of the Vive to be killed by the PSVR. I'd like to see a separate device for upgrading any VR headset to the holodeck abilities of the Vive – maybe even upgrade the Vive to a space wider than its nine by nine feet. In my opinion, we need both the holo-deck like experience of the Vive and the unending ability to walk created by omnidirectional treadmills (My pick is the Cyberith Virtualizer). It would be sweetest if software was developed in ways to help players step in and out of their (completely optional) ODTs.
I looked up the Leap Motion. At $30, the price tag is shockingly agreeable, but it seems like the user has to hold their hands almost in front of their face to use it. One question/problem that jumps to the front of my mind is: how do programs like ALTspace resolve the use of Vive controllers and Leap Motion in tandem, or is the user currently locked into using only one or the other?
To get back to the core of your post, I appreciate hearing about your experiences. I've watched close to a hundred videos on YouTube of VR comparison and I don't think even one of them has touched upon comparing the user experience beyond pointing out each device's “gimmicks”, and I would not be surprised if that is because few people have ever had the opportunity to use all three, and the few who have, still sound like an upbeat reading of a spec sheet. So thank you for giving a meaningful comparison.
PS – When baking the face, remember to preheat your Oculus to 110 degrees field of view.
Very interesting and informative. I've always been intrigued by the idea of reality as simply a convenient agreement of constructs.
Each person, however minutely, sees and experiences the world around them differently, making reality subjective in such away that it can't truly exist in a unilaterally agreed form.
Back on the topic of vr though, I've been following several different projects over their lifetimes, including those that have yet to see light in the common markets. Are you aware of the VRvana project at all? I'm aware they've seen a few setbacks push their reveal date further away, but their headset purportedly has a wider viewing area than any currently available devices and also includes headphones.
I've also been following the development of alternate technology such as the magic leap MR (mixed reality) project, though aside from a few software demos and testimonials I've yet to see anything close to the planned headset. Supposedly it's similar to the failed Google Glass project but with a much bolder and more unique approach, instead of displaying on the glass, the image is projected into the eye in the same manner as any other light, making it less strenuous and more natural. They already have several big name backers, including Microsoft, Google, IBM and Nintendo.
I'm actually not sure which I find more tantalising; The prospect of being able to dive into a virtual world as real as our own, or the prospect of merging our world with the digital, forming a new overlapping and seamless one of coexistence.
Late to the party. (Hey I'm not rich! I had to wait for my tax refund to pick this up!)
But are you SURE the PSVR doesn't have a mic? Because every time I turn my headset on, my PS4 informs me the microphone has been switched to my headset...
4436110 No, I am not sure. I have never tried it in online multiplay... it is very possible that is has a mic.
Probably not new news for most, but apparently there are programs for 'augmented' reality (real world views mixed with computer-generated objects) for modern smartphones..
https://tabun.everypony.ru/blog/computers/179005.html