More than five million headsets sold and more than 650 different game releases worldwide – this is the record of Sony’s first PlayStation VR headset, which saw the light of day in the gaming world on October 13, 2016. These numbers are solid, but they are nowhere near enough to penetrate the mass market in the long run. More than six years later, the Japanese console manufacturer is now making a new attempt, relying not only on a very wide range of starting titles, but also on noticeably improved technology.
Class 1 cable concept
As a reminder, there are a number of steps involved in getting a PS VR1 up and running. Link the console to the processor box, connect the processor box to the TV and headset, link the PlayStation camera needed for tracking to the console, and so on. All in all, a good cabling alone takes about five minutes. Not so with the PS VR2. Here you plug the approximately 4.5 meter long cable from the glasses into the USB-C port of the PS5 – done. You can then immediately begin the installation process and get started shortly afterwards. Exemplary solution!
The new tracking method was also convincing. Instead of a single external camera, which monitors the LEDs on the headset and the controllers with a certain error sensitivity, this time Sony uses four cameras on the front of the headset. They scan the room and minutely track the position of the PS VR2 Sense controllers. This inside-out tracking is now widespread in the industry and the PS VR2 also works perfectly and very precisely.
But the cameras have another advantage: if you press a slightly inwardly curved button on the bottom right of the front part of the headset, the headset switches to see-through mode and shows the user the environment on the display. Calling with a mobile phone etc. can also be done without any problems with the headset on. A clear improvement over the first generation of PS VR devices.
Cool new controllers
The two included PS VR2 Sense controllers, each weighing 168 grams, are a clear step forward. They fit perfectly in the hand, can be attached to the respective wrist with a strap and offer all the important buttons that are also known from the PS5 Dual Sense Controller – including adaptive triggers, ie shoulder buttons (L2, R2) that create resistance. Unlike the older Move controllers, they also have an analog stick on each side that you can plug in.
The proven haptic feedback from the Dual Sense Controller is also on board, providing the usual nuanced feedback in the first hands-on check with “Horizon: Call of the Mountain”. How long the wireless controllers can last with constant use will be revealed at the latest when the test devices arrive. When the internal battery is empty, charging takes place via the supplied USB-C cable, which is located on the bottom of the controller. Or you plug the controller into the separately available charging station.
Lush OLED look
Another PS VR2 highlight is the OLED display built into the headset, along with flatter Fresnel lenses. It now has a resolution of 2000 x 2040 pixels per eye (PSVR1 was 960 x 1080 pixels per eye), masters HDR, offers a 10-degree larger field of view than the previous model and supports refresh rates from 90 to 120 Hz. the image pressure is fantastic and leaves a lasting impression after just a few seconds.
The new ventilation concept also contributes to the latter: during our exposure time of almost an hour, the lenses did not fog up once! It’s also nice that there’s now a dial in the top left of the front headset area for manual eye relief adjustment.
Impressive eye tracking
Probably the biggest hardware joker, though, are the two eye-tracking cameras built into the headset. With them, the headset knows what the user is looking at, which in turn enables a technique called foveated rendering. The basic idea here: the PS5 displays the image in full focus only in the area of the field of view that the user’s gaze is focused on. The areas around it are less sharp and the hardware is thus relieved – which, however, is not perceptible to the human eye. The reward for the effort is performance reserves, which developers can then use for more graphical detail.
And it is precisely these details that make “Horizon: Call of the Mountain” a truly mesmerizing visual experience. For example, right in the opening passage of the demo, a huge, bird-like machine glides over our heads, which not only stirs up hundreds of leaves in the area, but also makes treetops vibrate briefly with its suction power.
But also the farsightedness in a later climbing sequence, the sharpness of the textures when carefully inspecting surrounding objects or the fireworks effect in the minute-long fight against a thunderjaw are inspiring. In short: “Horizon: Call of the Mountain” shows where the journey on PS VR2 can go visually.
But back to eye tracking. This enables foveated rendering on the one hand, but also playful improvements on the other. For example, that game characters now look more focused in our eyes or that a selection cursor can now be easily controlled by simple eye movements – a function that “Horizon: Call of the Mountain” already offers in its menus. Other games, such as the upcoming horror title The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR, use eye tracking to detect blinks – then match a blink with consequences in certain passages of gameplay.
Conclusion
Even though we’ve only been able to play for just under an hour so far, the practically final hardware at the hands-on event did an incredible job. It’s super comfortable to wear, delivers a top-notch 4K picture, makes great use of the PS5’s performance thanks to foveated rendering, offers plenty of useful comfort improvements (new ventilation concept, etc.) by hand, and its great Create haptic effects.
The audio concept is worth a discussion at this point: you can choose between the supplied in-ear headphones or your own headphones connected via a jack connection. Unfortunately, there are no small, permanently integrated speakers like those in the Oculus Rift that don’t completely acoustically shield the player from the outside world.
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