Sony Picks Worst Way To Make PSVR 2 Compatible With PC
Sony Picks Worst Way To Make PSVR 2 Compatible With PC
The PSVR 2 will finally roll out PC support in August, but not without locking off a stack of major features enjoyed on the PlayStation 5.
You also don’t get to enjoy many of the PSVR 2’s vaunted box features — HDR, headset feedback, and eye tracking are all disabled. So are the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback (not including rumble) on the controllers.
Wtf sony
Be happy that you don't need to log your toaster and fridge into PSN to use it, too.
yet
Sony likes to pretend they're consumer friendly with stuff like this but it always comes with a huge caveat to try to push people into their closed ecosystem. Same idea as releasing PS Studios games on PC, but only just before the PS exclusive sequel comes out.
I can understand a box with DisplayPort, USB, and power inputs as very few desktop PCs actually have a video- and power delivery-capable USB C port. I cannot understand the lack of controller features and HDR.
The biggest thing, to me, is actually eye tracking
Having hardware that supports hdr but won’t work on PC is pretty much a non-starter too, imo
I can't wait for the first MadLad to get it working with the SteamDeck.
Can the Stream Deck be used with other VR systems? I’d just assume not so I’d never looked at it for that.
It‘s possible to use VR headsets with the Steam Deck. It‘s just far too weak for a pleasant experience.
It‘s worth noting though, that, according to this interview (37:30), Valve is probably working on a new VR HMD which will make use of the things they‘ve learned from developing the Deck. So I‘d guess there‘s a standalone headset coming from them at some point in the future.
Would be a bit of an adapter chain hell as you get only 1 usb-c port to work with, and you need both that and a DisplayPort cable
Docking station.
Hm. The breakout box doesn't surprise me, I would assume the headset itself is relying on some hardware within the PS5 itself, since they were clearly developed in parallel and the original PSVR also needed a breakout box itself. I bet they could have solved it in software, but maybe there's some type of hardware security also at play. Plus I can see how they'd rather avoid all the RMA from people just plugging the headset to random USB-C ports and being frustrated when it doesn't just work. It's an old school way to handle it, but at least this way they know it'll work.
The missing features are... more interesting. At a glance it makes sense, in that no PC VR game has support for headset rumble or triggers with variable resistance, to my knowledge. Is there a PC HMD with HDR support? Or any games that use it?
So on those and the eye tracking you'd expect no games would take advantage of it out of the box... but does this mean they are disabled at the driver level and no upcoming games can support it either? Or would it be possible for them to enable that down the line for maybe their own ports or, say, Capcom ports later on.
I'm surprised we're this far, honestly. This is a desperation move at best. The PSVR 2 is a funky-ass HMD compared to what has become the standard for this space. Still wired, unusual choices for displays, super unique features... a minimum baseline to meet SteamVR standards makes some sense, it's just surprising that they aren't leaving some of their feature set out there as an option for devs later on, since that seems like it would encourage more third party PSVR content on PS5.
Still, better than having a paperweight. Even with just the basic features, the PSVR headset should look nice enough and get you most of the way to a full PC VR experience. If you have a gaming PC and only have VR through your PS5 this should significantly expand your options. Although I suppose if that's you I have serious questions about why you went that way instead of getting a Quest 2 when Meta was just giving them away, like everybody else did.
As a little note, the eye tracking would be a huge selling point for social games like VRChat. Very few headsets support it so far.
Yeah, it's a nice feature that the PS5 seems to use primarily for performance. I do wonder why it's turned off here and whether there is a standardized way to report eye tracking in VR to relevant middleware they could be tapping into instead. I genuinely don't know enough about the technicalities of all the overlapping VR platforms to tell.
For me personally, I dislike Meta strongly enough that the Quest was never an option.
I already had a PS5 and have a couple of digital VR games Sony have away a while back, plus there's a few more I have been interested in. But until now the library was so restrictive that I could not justify the price tag for a PSVR2.
The only other option I considered was the Valve Index. I like Valve a lot and I'm sure it's great, but at this point it's 5 years old and would be 2x the price of the PSVR2. Not being comparable with the PS5 for those couple of free games plus exclusives in interested in like Horizon is a minor setback as well, although it's not a huge deal and Horizon might come to Steam anyways. Also I would have to upgrade my PC a couple years earlier than I would otherwise- my RX580 is mostly fine now, but I don't think it could handle VR.
I hear you, but for a budget rig something's got to give. If it's any consolation regarding Meta, they used to bleed money every time they sold one of those, so you wouldn't have done them any favors. I don't know if the balance is less crazy for them these days.
You make a good point in that holdouts that haven't purchased a PSVR2 due to lack of games may feel more justified to take the plunge now, but the extra money of the adaptor starts to sting in that case, particularly if splurging on something that may not get much use isn't acceptable for your situation.
None of these features are usable in SteamVR, or if they are, aren't supported by any games, like HDR.
There's just no pleasing some people I suppose