PlayStation VR2’s PC adapter hits this August, with missing features
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Can I just please get a driver to support OpenGL calls so I can use the PSVR2 for CAD and/or data visualization in MATLAB?
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No HDR, headset feedback, eye tracking, adaptive triggers, and haptic feedback (other than rumble).
Kinda kills the buzz with all those features not working
Kinda kills the buzz with all those features not working
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But some people might buy the PSVR2 instead of another headset if those features worked
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I would buy a PSVR2 headset if only HDR worked. I have a Pimax 5k I’m going to upgrade soon and a fully functional PSVR2 would be right at the top of that list.
Edit to add the 2, I already have an og PSVR
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Would love to have the price of PSVR2 mentioned in the article. I have a quest 2 and I'm not sure if this would be an upgrade worth the $$$ just to play steamvr
Looks like it's $449 on sony's website. How does it compare with the quest 3 (other than being tethered, of course)
Looks like it's $449 on sony's website. How does it compare with the quest 3 (other than being tethered, of course)
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Playstation controllers with standard Bluetooth are a thing aren't they?
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The Quest 2 fully supports SteamVR! Just plug the cable in (or don't, if you have WiFi 6 and don't mind +40ms of latency).
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Even if they were supported PC VR games/applications are unlikely to support those features, at least for now.
It does seem pretty short sighted to not include them however. Maybe they'll be enabled with a driver update later? Really depends how committed Sony is to supporting this weird little side project.
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So with the headset and adapter's individual prices, along with the missing features; what makes this a compelling possible purchase for someone look at getting into VR games on the PC?
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The latency is really not noticeable, at least on my setup. You do need a high power AP fairly close to the headset however. The only other issue is streaming to the headset is a battery killer, a couple of hours is the max you can expect out of the built-in battery.
It's totally worth it for games with lots of movement. Being connected to cables you can't see is just asking for trouble.
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This thing shipping half-assed with no HDR or eye-tracking tells me that Sony is preparing to discontinue PSVR2 and is giving all you owners a chance to get in before they drop it.
The Index has all the issues of a wired VR headset but somehow it remains the best VR headset you can get years after its initial release.
The Index has all the issues of a wired VR headset but somehow it remains the best VR headset you can get years after its initial release.
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Given that there are games on the desktop (thinking Ghost of Tsushima) that are adding support for things like adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, it wouldn't surprise me that these features require implementation on the game engine vs within the VR SDK, and that they can be added in-situ rather than pending a hardware update.
Cautious optimisim.
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I wouldn't call them hand tracking, but yes, I was referring to the gamepads, which are an example of Sony supporting hardware interoperability, which is what the post I was quoting was talking about.
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Your position is what I would have expected before reading Sony's blog post.
The thing is, if PSVR2 had the ability to use these features on PC, but they only worked if the game supported them... we would expect Sony to say "supported on select games" or similar.
Instead, Sony themselves have said in their blog post that these features are not available when playing on PC. Full stop.
That seems fairly final.
Sony could probably enable the features with a software update, but for now their position is that you can try whatever you want: these features are not available on PC.
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how else do you point and click? Are you thinking finger tracking? I believe only quest and vision do that optically and index needs base stations for the finger tracking controllers to work.
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When discussing VR hand tracking refers to what you're calling finger tracking. Also varjo headsets can do camera based hand tracking and there are third party solutions for that on the index.
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I mean, they kind already did:
Report: Sony stops producing PSVR2 amid “surplus” of unsold units
Pricy tethered headset falters after the modest success of original PSVR.
"We can't sell these things" doesn't exactly scream "we're going to keep making games for it."
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I am, potentially, in the target market for this product:
In the age of DisplayPort, USB 3+, and consoles that are essentially PCs in their own right, interoperability between console hardware and PCs is easier than ever; I regularly use a DualSense connected by USB on my PC, for example. Yet Sony chooses in this case to cripple many of the more interesting features of this hardware when bringing it to the PC. This reduces the value prop for people without PS5s and existing Playstation customers looking to use their expensive VR hardware with their PC.
They're likely using Steam's VR APIs to do this; is it that much harder to translate their Playstation VR API calls to Steam for these additional features?
I'd note that I had to read the article a few times before I realized that it apparently does support headset tracking, just not headset feedback. That feels a little better, since it's basically just a really uncomfortable display if it lacks the ability to look around in a virtual environment.
There's no mention of whether these missing features might show up at a later date, i.e. this is just a 1.0 offering, or if this is all we'll get. Since they don't say anything about it, I presume it's the latter, which also increases the white elephant/abandoned product possibility in the near future. If the excluded features were "to be added later", at least there's the notion that there's dev resources assigned to this product for the near future instead of becoming Sony's equivalent of the 32X.
It isn't clear to me if this play is to broaden the market for hardware that isn't selling as fast as they'd like, or a value-add for customers who already own the PSVR2. Either way, it feels like they're shooting themselves in the foot, just in 3D and without any decent haptic feedback.
- I own and use a PS5, and have a decent gaming PC with sufficient power to use this product
- There's at least one title that I play on the PS5 - Gran Turismo 7 - which supports PSVR2
- I would like to explore VR on the PC
- I do not currently own any VR hardware
In the age of DisplayPort, USB 3+, and consoles that are essentially PCs in their own right, interoperability between console hardware and PCs is easier than ever; I regularly use a DualSense connected by USB on my PC, for example. Yet Sony chooses in this case to cripple many of the more interesting features of this hardware when bringing it to the PC. This reduces the value prop for people without PS5s and existing Playstation customers looking to use their expensive VR hardware with their PC.
They're likely using Steam's VR APIs to do this; is it that much harder to translate their Playstation VR API calls to Steam for these additional features?
I'd note that I had to read the article a few times before I realized that it apparently does support headset tracking, just not headset feedback. That feels a little better, since it's basically just a really uncomfortable display if it lacks the ability to look around in a virtual environment.
There's no mention of whether these missing features might show up at a later date, i.e. this is just a 1.0 offering, or if this is all we'll get. Since they don't say anything about it, I presume it's the latter, which also increases the white elephant/abandoned product possibility in the near future. If the excluded features were "to be added later", at least there's the notion that there's dev resources assigned to this product for the near future instead of becoming Sony's equivalent of the 32X.
It isn't clear to me if this play is to broaden the market for hardware that isn't selling as fast as they'd like, or a value-add for customers who already own the PSVR2. Either way, it feels like they're shooting themselves in the foot, just in 3D and without any decent haptic feedback.
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Having the OLED will still be nice even without HDR, especially since most mainstream headsets are still LCD. Other than that, it's really just a pretty standard VR headset. Even with the reduced feature set, it's still not a bad value. The Quest 3 is probably a better value, but I think this will be easier to use on PC compared to that. I already have a PSVR2, so I'll pick this adapter up just because it'll make the thing more useful.
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Most of the missing features look reasonable. It's not like any PCVR game will code to Sony's adaptive trigger or precision rumble given the non-existent market share.
However, not supporting HDR? What does that mean? That a game can try to output in HDR but PSVR2 won't accept it? It boggles my mind they wouldn't support HDR, or am I missing something that PCVR in general doesn't support HDR? The other unfortunate miss is eye-tracking. Is there no eye-tracking in PCVR again in general?
However, not supporting HDR? What does that mean? That a game can try to output in HDR but PSVR2 won't accept it? It boggles my mind they wouldn't support HDR, or am I missing something that PCVR in general doesn't support HDR? The other unfortunate miss is eye-tracking. Is there no eye-tracking in PCVR again in general?
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John Linneman from Digital Foundry has talked quite a bit about his experiences with both, and he prefers the Quest 3 in just about all circumstances due to its much superior motion clarity (and being bright while doing so), sharpness, and being wireless. Apparently Blur Busters has rated Quest 3's motion clarity at perfect or close to perfect.
Quest 3 is LCD, and PSVR2 is OLED, so the main places PSVR2 shines are the usual OLED strengths: HDR, high detail levels in dark scenes, and black actually appearing black. The main drawbacks for PSVR2 are being wired, lower resolution, the fresnel lenses mean less clarity across the entire view compared to Quest 3's pancake lenses, and since PSVR2 isn't using a strobing strategy, motion clarity suffers and you'll get some ghosting/smearing compared to the Quest 3. (PSVR2 wouldn't be able to strobe without overall brightness taking a significant hit)
I'm still over here with my Index waiting for Valve to release another headset, but it's probably still several years away at this point.
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Quest 3 also uses pancake lenses whereas PSVR2 is stuck using relatively obsolete Fresnel lenses. This means the sweet spot for clear vision is WAY larger on the Quest 3. Especially if you are missing foveated rendering on PC (due to lack of eye tracking).
I have a Quest 2 and a PSVR1. I'm in the market for a new headset, especially for PCVR. I was considering the PSVR2 because there have been solid rumors for a while before confirmation today that PCVR will be supported.
But everything I'm seeing seems to indicate the Quest 3 is a better upgrade. I really enjoy untethered VR too with the Quest 3 so it will be nice to retain from the Quest 2.
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Sony's strategy when they decide to discontinue a product strangely always seems to be "let's sell as many of these as we can so we maximize the number of people who are pissed off when we stop supporting it".I mean, they kind already did:
Report: Sony stops producing PSVR2 amid “surplus” of unsold units
Pricy tethered headset falters after the modest success of original PSVR.arstechnica.com
"We can't sell these things" doesn't exactly scream "we're going to keep making games for it."
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I have said before that I'd only consider the PS VR2 headset if it was PC compatible, so now that it's true, I guess I'll be looking for used or open box deals to get one of my own.
I really dislike ecosystem locking for peripherals and accessories, especially when there's no physical reason it can't work on another device, so I see this as a positive. Hopefully if they do a PS VR3 in the future, it'll have PC compatibility from the start.
I really dislike ecosystem locking for peripherals and accessories, especially when there's no physical reason it can't work on another device, so I see this as a positive. Hopefully if they do a PS VR3 in the future, it'll have PC compatibility from the start.
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And it feels entirely artificial too. There's no technical reason not to support it because PCs already handle those things. Sony is either making a marketing decision to try and drive people to buy PS5 games rather than PC titles if there's competition between the two in VR space (not many) or Sony is making an effort to offload their poorly selling headsets without too much development work. The latter feels more likely, but Sony could sell a lot more of these if the full feature set wasn't tied to the PS5.
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My son has been begging to get a Valve Index. He has a Quest 3. The Index is $1000 new and we would have to figure out where to place the sensors and all that. The index is also several years old at this point. While the hardware still seems alright on paper, I don’t want to spend that kind of money on an Index. I’d rather wait for a version 2 - if that’s even happening.
Would you say the Index is still worth it right now?
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And while Sony isn't a great company I'd rather give my money to them and not Facebook
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I would never buy my son a $1000 anything that can be irreparably broken incredibly easily. By falling from a short height. Or by leaving where the sun shines in the window into the lenses.
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That's also part of my standing too. I can respect that the Quest 3 does some things really well, but I'd prefer the least amount of them, Google, and Amazon in my life. I'd sooner cough up the dough for a Bigscreen Beyond or Pimax Crystal Light than buy the Quest 3.
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