Greater than six years after its VR debut, Sony is able to deliver next-gen VR to PS5 with PSVR 2. Does PlayStation VR 2 make a considerable enchancment over its predecessor? And the way does it stack as much as different VR headsets in the marketplace? Learn on to search out out.
With PSVR 2, Sony is not only enhancing on the prior headset, it’s additionally elevating some bars for shopper headsets total as the primary gadget in its class to deliver eye-tracking, HDR, and new haptic capabilities to the market. Let’s begin out with a take a look at PSVR 2’s specs and the way they examine to the unique PSVR:
PSVR 2 vs. PSVR Specs |
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| PSVR 2 | PSVR | |
| Decision | 2,000 x 2,040 (4.1MP) per-eye, OLED, HDR | 960 x 1,080 (1.0MP) per-eye, RGB OLED |
| Refresh Charge | 90Hz, 120Hz | 90Hz, 120Hz |
| Lenses | Fresnel | Single aspect non-Fresnel |
| Subject-of-view (claimed) | 110° (diagonal presumed) | 100° (diagonal presumed) |
| Optical Changes | IPD, eye-relief | Eye-relief |
| Connectors | USB-C (no breakout field) | USB, HDMI (breakout field) |
| Cable Size | 4.5m | 4.4m |
| Monitoring | Inside-out (no exterior beacons) | Outdoors-in (exterior digicam) |
| On-board cameras | 4x IR (exterior), 2x IR (inside) | None |
| Go-through View | Sure | No |
| Enter | PSVR 2 Sense controllers (rechargable), DualShock 5 (rechargable) eye-tracking | DualShock 4 (rechargeable), PS Transfer (rechargeable), PS Purpose (rechargeable), voice |
| Audio | 3.5mm aux output | 3.5mm aux output |
| Microphone | Sure | Sure |
| Haptics | Controllers, headset | Controllers |
| Weight | 560g | 600g |
| Launch Date | February twenty second, 2023 | October thirteenth, 2016 |
| Console Compatibility | PS5 | PS4, PS4 Professional, PS5 (with adapter, solely PS4 appropriate VR video games) |
PSVR 2 Evaluate
Some of the vital components of a VR headset is how issues look while you peer via the lenses, in order that’s the place we’re going to start out.
Readability
How good issues look within a VR headset is determined by way more than simply decision, so we prefer to boil issues right down to the purpose of speaking about ‘readability’, ie: how clear does the digital world look contained in the headset.
PSVR 2 will get a giant leap in readability over its predecessor thanks before everything to a giant leap in decision (from 1.0MP per-eye to 4.1MP per-eye). From a decision standpoint, that places PSVR 2 on par with different headsets in the marketplace like Quest 2.
Whereas the picture via PSVR 2’s lenses definitely appears a lot better than the unique PSVR, it’s hampered a bit by two notable points: candy spot and movement blur.
PSVR 2’s Fresnel lenses even have pretty good edge-to-edge readability, however provided that you may get your eyes within the headset’s quite small eye-box (AKA candy spot). Sadly not everybody will have the ability to get their eyes into the best place as a result of the candy spot appears to be designed at a distance that makes it so that you’d need to cram the headset uncomfortably in opposition to your face to be able to maintain the lenses within the excellent spot. Due to an eye-relief adjustment it’s straightforward to maneuver the lenses far sufficient away that they aren’t crushing your nostril, however for each little bit that you just do you quit some sharpness on the sides and a few field-of-view.
The small eye-box additionally signifies that if you happen to don’t dial the headsets ergonomic changes in good you’ll see issues like chromatic aberration and extra blur across the edges than you’d in any other case.
Fortunately Sony has included a guided calibration step (which makes use of the headset’s eye-tracking) and helps customers discover that superb spot by guiding them towards the right IPD and lens alignment. This undoubtedly helps scale back the difficulty of getting a small candy spot, and I discover myself working calibration each few occasions that I choose up the headset simply to make certain issues haven’t jostled misplaced. Fortunately Sony has made it straightforward to run the calibration step at any level—even in the course of a sport.
I additionally talked about movement blur as one thing that’s holding again the readability on PSVR 2. I nonetheless don’t know precisely why I’m seeing a good bit of movement blur on PSVR 2—whether or not its persistence blur, ghosting, reprojection, or one thing else—nevertheless it somwhat reduces the sharpness of the picture each time your head is in movement (which in VR is more often than not). It’s a disgrace as a result of you’ll be able to see simply how sharp every little thing is while you head remains to be, after which as quickly as you go to take a look at one thing else, the world round you turns into a bit extra blurry.
And sadly PSVR 2’s Fresnel lenses aren’t an exception to the rule: its nonetheless straightforward to identify god rays and a few glare in excessive distinction scenes.
Shows & HDR
Candy spot points apart, PSVR 2 is packing a pair of spectacular OLED shows that make colours really feel extra wealthy and saturated whereas permitting darkish components of the scene to get really darkish as a substitute of simply darkish gray.
This makes a giant distinction in the case of content material like Horizon Name of the Mountain which goals to immerse gamers in a world stuffed with lush surroundings.
Whereas it’s nice to have OLED black ranges on a contemporary headset, PSVR 2’s shows do endure from extra mura than seen on its contemporaries, which manifests as a little bit of speckling on the display screen that’s extra seen when seen in opposition to sure colours.
However that’s the worth you pay for these deep blacks and purported ‘HDR’ capabilities, although I’ve but to listen to Sony affirm key components of that functionality, like peak brightness.
In my expertise with the headset I can’t say I’ve felt like its displaying considerably extra peak brightness than different headsets, nevertheless it feels just like the HDR is paying off extra within the mid and decrease tones.
Subject-of-view
Just like the small candy spot, PSVR 2’s field-of-view is technically fairly massive—at occasions feeling prefer it meets even Valve’s Index—however that’s provided that you’ll be able to push the lenses exceptionally (and for me, uncomfortably) near your eyes; so shut that the lenses are placing a whole lot of stress in your nostril. Between the place it’s truly comfy for me to have the lenses sit and the place I’d get the utmost field-of-view, it appears like I’m leaving a non-trivial quantity of FoV on the desk. That mentioned, even the comfy place leaves me with a reasonably sizable field-of-view that exceeds one thing like Quest 2.
IPD & Eye-tracking
PSVR 2 is the primary shopper VR headset to ship with eye-tracking. Whereas this has the potential to be very helpful throughout a spread of purposes, I’ve but to see any sport that’s placing it to significantly good use. Up to now the closest any sport has come is Horizon Name of the Mountain which makes use of eye-tracking to enhance the accuracy of the sport’s refined auto-aim.
For its half, Sony is making use of the eye-tracking to assist customers set their appropriate IPD (which may be very helpful, particularly contemplating the headset’s small candy spot), and even alter the lean of the headset on the person’s head.
Whereas I admire that good contact, I want the calibration step would truly present a quantity to accompany the IPD setting; that means you may merely bear in mind your quantity and dial it in each time. As a substitute, the guided calibration simply reveals a visible indicator of how shut your eyes are to the middle of the lenses. It really works nicely, however with out a quantity to go by you have to dial issues in visually each time.