So, I've had PSVR for a day, and haven't had a chance to try out all the demos or the games I picked up yet, but I wanted to hammer out my thoughts on the platform, coming from someone that had a HMZ-T1, DK1, DK2, The Rift, Gear VR and who has probably had about 6 hours using a Vive.
First, it's interesting comparing this to the HMZ-T1, which for those that don't know was Sony's recent head mounted display that came out four or so years ago if I remember right and was the first head mounted display I bought.
That wasn't a VR headset, but it did support stereoscopic imagery and Sony did use it in their initial experiments in VR development, leading into the PSVR. It's much smaller. It has two discrete OLED displays, one for each eye. The optics on the HMZ, that was close to $1000, are no where near as good as the optics on the PSVR, but the screens seem to have much better contrast and much better blacks than PSVR.
The HMZ is a little lighter, but not nearly by as much as you'd expect given the bulk of the PSVR headset. The HMZ has built in headphones, that aren't great, but as with the Rift, built in headphones are a huge and worthwhile convenience. That said, I was very happy how using the PSVR without headphones works.
As different as the headsets are, you can see the same design language in them, which I find interesting, and both in theory try to put the bulk of the weight on your forehead, counter balanced by a strap that goes under (or over and under) the back of your head. The point of contact has been massively increased, thank god, because the HMZ used to give me fierce headaches if I wore it for more than an hour, and the PSVR is light years more comfortable to wear than it.
That ghetto top strap, is something I glued onto my HMZ to try and improve comfort, which it fortunately did, but not nearly by as much as I hoped.
Comparing the comfort and build quality of this to the other VR headsets then, I'd put it a close second in comfort to the Oculus Rift. I can wear it for hours at a time without getting neck strain or a headache... an absolute must for a headset. I love the soft textured cushions that allow breathability while giving it a snug and comfortable fit. Looking straight down, the headset doesn't move as I would sometimes find the Rift doing.
Where the Rift had it beaten was that once you have the Rift sized to your head, putting it on and taking it off is a simple, single movement. This has more to it, but once it's on I find it quite comfortable.
I'm used to light leak from the nose gap in the Rift, so the light leak here isn't an issue for me. I love the soft facial interface, and the convenience of being able to slide the screen out to better see your surroundings or have something to eat or drink is another major plus here. This is the easiest headset to drink out of a can without taking off. Perhaps something people might think is a strange thing to point out, but it's something I take advantage of.
The screens and optics were the nicest surprise. Both are very good. The optics might actually be the best out of the VR headsets. No haloing. You do get some chromatic aberration, but it looks to be on a similar level as to the other headsets (I can never seem to totally eliminate it on any headset no matter how much I reposition them). The sweet spot and amount of the screen in focus is large, about what I remember from my Rift. Field of view is below the Vive, but still at a place I'm more than happy with coming from the Rift.
The screen's reduced resolution is, as I'd hoped, mostly mitigated by the sub pixel situation. Pixel fill rate is nice and high, and I definitely don't miss the pentile sub pixel layout of the Rift and Vive. Black levels seem slightly worse though, and it seems to have more of a static white noise type of image when staring at 'black' pixels than the other two headsets. For a headset that's half the price, I didn't expect it to come so close to the premium headsets in terms of panel quality. It's got a good panel, and great optics, adding up to an overall experience that's definitely in the same ball park as the other headsets.
Headset tracking is solid within eight or so feet, but it really starts to swim beyond that, meaning I can't sit on my couch with the camera on the TV and get a comfortable experience. Controller tracking becomes an issue after something more like five feet.
That said, I haven't had a chance to go hands on with Oculus's touch controllers. Most of my motion controller gaming was done on a Razer Hydra, and these have that comfortably beaten. They certainly don't have the millimeter accuracy of the Vive controllers and most of the games I've tried they haven't felt 1:1, but I think the issues with the move wands have been exaggerated by people comparing them to the high end tracking solutions HTC and Oculus have put together.
These work adequately for many gameplay scenarios from what I've tested, and as mentioned, are leaps and bounds ahead of the Razer Hydra. It's definitely an area where PSVR falls behind the other high end platforms, but it's far from a deal breaker. When a game offers support for them, they beat using the dual shock in all the titles I've tried so far. London Heist had close to 1:1 tracking and the accuracy I was able to achieve using them convinced me that they were good enough for most things.
However, for something like job simulator, standing as far from the camera as the game told me to, I found them to be much less accurate than I could really tolerate, and didn't really enjoy that game as a result. London Heist has me itching to pick up I Expect You to Die, which based on the PC demo I played, should work really well with the move controllers. I'm a little nervous about how Batman is going to work, which I've picked up, but I'll try it later.
Quality of experiences have been good. The first thing I tried was Zen Pinball VR, which I've put hours into on PC. The quality of the graphics on my PS4 Pro (not sure if the game has any pro support) are about what I remember them on PC. Maybe slightly lower resolution, but I'm not sure if that's the rendering resolution or the panels. Eitherway, while I could increase the downsampling on PC, I couldn't push it much higher than the default without the game dropping frames once multiball got going. This was a stable sixty even as things got hectic. It's the game I remember from PC without any major downgrades (again other than perhaps a resolution reduction).
RE7 Demo looks fantastic. All in, all considered, by far the best looking VR game I've yet played. I wish the player cast a shadow, but that's a small nitpick. Definitely felt that the lower rendering resolution of the Kitchen demo represented a serious downgrade, over running Beginning Hour on a Pro. On a Pro, you can tell you're playing a lower resolution VR game, but all the effects they've put together added up to a fantastic atmosphere. There is no doubt in my mind that Capcom have built the RE engine, and every environment in the game for VR. Absolutely amazing work, and I can't believe I'll be playing a AAA full length VR title in my favorite franchise in just a few weeks.
London Heist is brilliant. I very much hope they expand on it into a full game. All the little easter eggs you can achieve by playing with the environment and the clever way it uses positional audio and the microphone in the headset is great stuff. Ocean Descent I wish was more of a game (as it was when they first demoed it where you head a flare gun). The frame interpolation is a bit of a disappointment. I was hoping the effect would be less obvious, but turning around to track the shark as it swims around the cage definitely made the effect very obvious. It made the shark look almost like it was vibrating, and it made me feel like my eyes weren't properly working as I couldn't bring it into focus. Keeping my head still, it works really well. Turning my head in a static environment it works well. But moving your head in a moving environment is definitely where the seams really show up.
The shining star so far has been Playroom VR. Its amazing. My wife who has never 'just' had fun while wearing a VR headset loved it, and loves how comfortable the PSVR headset is. As someone who was a huge Nintendoland fan, than Sony have basically made their own Nintendoland for this thing, is hugely appreciated. Cat and Mouse is severely lacking in depth and strategy, but just the joy of playing as a mouse and watching the cat player's movements and voice transferred to the robot cat in the game is an utter joy. The Kaiju / Power Rangers game is much more replayable, and there's little I've done in VR as enjoyable as dodging pianos, crates and missiles as the monster, while mocking them in that stupid high pitched voice. Robot Rescue reminded me a lot of Lucky's Tale. I'd love to see that developed into a full title. I really liked that they gave the headset wearer a physical presence. It's cool in Lucky's tale when he looks at you and waves, but it's cooler to see the big robot's shadow, and see it crashing through the world to keep up with the little robot. Most Wanted seems potentially fun once it gets more difficult, but we only played the first couple of difficulties so far. But that hat brim is such a simple and effective detail. I really felt like I was wearing a hat!
Hopefully this isn't going to be a Nintendoland, or augmented reality on 3DS type of proof of concept thing where no other games really use these capabilities, because they're absolutely onto something here. I love Keep Talking, but these asynchronous mini games with two separate scales or views of the world are incredibly charming and something I can't wait to have people over to play again. I'm really impressed that the PS4 can push an experience like this.
All in all, the PS4 pro seems to be doing what an entry level VR PC (GTX 970 ish) can do with a Rift. That's really impressive. $900 all in is still an expensive entry into the world of VR for anyone without a PS4, but to get an appropriate PC, head set, and motion controller setup, would set you back in the ball park of $1700.
Granted you'll have better motion controls, but that's really the only area where I think PSVR falls behind. The software line up so far is great, certainly on par if not better than what you've got for PC.
I absolutely still plan on buying a Vive sometime next year, but my couple of months with VR have been tough, and PSVR has come along and really impressed me with the quality of it's headset and the quality of the titles I've played or tried the demos for.
In a parallel dimension, I didn't sell my Rift and I picked up Touch controllers. I'm sure I'm very happy in that dimension. But I'm definitely happy here in this one.
Oh, I almost didn't mention it. Rush of Blood could do with 1:1 tracking like London Heist pulls off, but it's an absolute blast even with the motion controls it has. What a fantastic game that thing is.
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