{"id":46,"date":"2016-10-13T07:03:07","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T14:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sambishop.com\/?p=46"},"modified":"2016-10-13T07:03:07","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T14:03:07","slug":"playstation-vr-is-finally-here-the-best-and-worst-of-vr-in-one-package","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sambishop.com\/?p=46","title":{"rendered":"PLAYSTATION VR IS FINALLY HERE \u2013 THE BEST AND WORST OF VR IN ONE PACKAGE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019ve been quiet for a while around here, and\u00a0had countless<\/em>\u00a0experiences since my last post. Uncharted 4 happened, and reaffirmed my belief that Naughty Dog understands how to milk \u2013 on an almost impossibly technical level \u2013 the most that a console can do at that current time. Plenty of games may supplant that bar they established, but almost certainly none of them will come from external developers, as is the way of first-party development. But Gears of War 4 also happened, and it seems as apt a comparison as any with The Coalition really flexing what the Unreal Engine 4 can do on (relatively) weaker hardware. Games like Forza Horizon 3 are showing that the hardware isn\u2019t the issue; 1080p games are possible on all hardware, and specs mean nothing if something is coded to work the hardware \u2013 especially if the competition is boasting said specs. It\u2019s been wonderful to watch this all play out. Yes, fine, I\u2019m biased and I know that in like-for-like 3rd party comparisons, the Xbox one will fare poorly in resolution or textures (or some combination thereof), but when you have first-party developers knowing the specs inside and out, it makes for a game where \u201climitations\u201d are pointless. It\u2019s gorgeous, sounds like a ton of fun to play, and I will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is a post about VR, a thing that this dumping ground of my thoughts is supposed to be about. I\u2019ve been quiet. REALLY quiet. A lot of that comes down to just not having the time or impetus to actually post something there, but PlayStation VR was finally released this week, and without question I will be biased my impressions. I\u2019ve seen the hardware evolve at work, I\u2019ve seen the software get better, and most of all, I\u2019ve seen how the UI would finalize. I\u2019m not entirely sure that it\u2019s complete at this point (you don\u2019t actually get Trophy notifications, for instance, which I swear was in there before).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no objectivity here, is what I\u2019m getting at. I cannot possibly distance myself from seeing how the platform, the hardware and the games have matured over the course of the last two or so years when I was quietly snuck into a room to try out the hardware for the first time (as Project Morpheus in the parlance of that era). The actual engineering had clearly been done at that point. Visibly it was no different from what you can try today. The head strap, the whole sliding face mask, it was all there, and the research had been done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was different, however, as the hardware progressed, was the software, and the actual UI. For the longest<\/em> time, there was <\/em>no real UI. After spending ample time in the Vive and Rift headsets, I imagined a sort of \u201cgreeting room\u201d approach that never happened. Nope, you\u2019re using the PS4, you get the PS4 interface. That\u2019s fine, and in truth the Playroom VR and Demo Disc constructs do approximate the vision I had of things, but you don\u2019t get that when you unbox the headset for the first time. Instead, things are kept simple, logical, and for the amount of wires this generation requires, is insanely straightforward. Seriously, if you can\u2019t get PSVR up and running in 15 minutes, then my compatriots have failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was seeing all these things I\u2019d seen before, at multiple points, slowly growing more and more \u201cright\u201d that got me excited. I\u2019ve NEVER been one to hide my excitement for VR. I\u2019m trying to make <\/em>stuff for VR \u2013 PlayStation included, but that\u2019s way<\/strong> after I tackle the other guys first \u2013 and this is the first\/last shot at taking it mainstream. It was happening. This low(er)-cost headset was performing like the others did. The end result is this: they nailed<\/em> it. Seriously, the headset tracking is flawless for me, though I know there have been issues with the poor Giant Bomb guys, and I wish they\u2019d actually get a new unit, but I\u2019m guessing they want to review what was given to them because it could happen to someone who walks into a store to purchase things. I will not shill for PlayStation: if you experience the problems they have, that\u2019s horrible, and you should return that thing to the place you got it, because it\u2019s straight-up BROKEN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s where I also try to avoid the inevitable insinuations that I\u2019m blinded by my approximation to PS VR (see, I separate them because I\u2019ve been conditioned to; PSVR, if you prefer). Move was a poor idea for a motion controller \u2013 not at the time; it was WAY more responsive than the Wii remotes, and there are a slew of technical videos that show this was tech Sony didn\u2019t steal or copycat, it was just a Deep Impact\/Armageddon kind of thing \u2013 visible light optical tech is not at ALL acceptable if you want real, non-jittery motion control. Colored balls are amazing at positional tracking, which is what PS VR uses, but it\u2019s shit at orientation and depth, and those, even with a normal camera that can\u2019t see at an extremely high resolution. The sensors <\/em>are fine, and will be tweaked to improve things, but the tech is forward-facing, jittery and imprecise because it\u2019s tech from a generation ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The headset has its own problems too: the OLED shmutz is unavoidable at this point; if it\u2019s dark, you\u2019ll see a kind of spotting pattern that literally is only there in the dark areas. The panel and what you get per-eye is lower-res than the other headsets, though in practice this is less of an issue than you\u2019d think due to the fact that all three RGB pixels are crammed into the the same block of the screen that would normally be laid top-to-bottom and kinda broken up on the other two headsets. The so-called \u201cscreen door effect\u201d is present, but less than you\u2019d get even on the higher-end headsets. The optics were made to squeeze all them pixels together in a way that would focus (quite literally) the available pixels right into the middle. As you look out with your eyes, you see more blur and chromatic aberration, so things aren\u2019t so clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the hilarious part of it: after focusing for SO LONG on the advantages the other headsets had in specs, I honestly don\u2019t give a shit. Yes, both have a wider field of view (meaning you take in more of the \u201cpicture\u201d in your head before you see black), and some can feel crisper at their native resolution, neither is as easy to use, offers the same breadth of options, and stands as much of a chance at actual VR mainstream success. For all the specs that the others have (and again, I\u2019m trying to make a game for them<\/em>, not PS VR), their screens are as poor in the bad ways, aren\u2019t as good in the good ways, and perform literally identically in terms of actual tech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PlayStation VR genuinely IS the cheapest way to find true presence \u2013 the ephemeral quality that removes you from feeling you\u2019re watching something and instead puts you INSIDE that thing you\u2019re watching. It\u2019s essentially the holy grail of first-gen VR, and PlayStation VR nails <\/em>it despite apparently lower specs. It also has a TON of content. Dozens of hours, at least, in terms of random demo disc (yep, that\u2019s a thing, and it comes in every system, though in truth it\u2019s apparently just a portal to download demo updates at this point), plus stuff like VR Worlds, which is legit as fuck in delivering that presence. Playroom VR is also incredibly good at serving that sort of Wii Sports-style introduction of the ideas, but it\u2019s handled with aplomb in terms of getting you inside a world. You\u2019re literally missing out on the fun if you don\u2019t try it, because it\u2019s free and because you might actually hate fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are so, SO many games I want to talk about, and I will. I\u2019m going to try to commit myself to actually reviewing shit again, because if I don\u2019t I will go insane, but for now, know that PlayStation VR is not <\/em>the underpowered, second-rate version of VR that people tried to make it. It\u2019s real. It\u2019s incredible, and if you want to get in on VR, this is the cheapest, most straightforward and EASILY the simplest version of it. I hope it takes off, I don\u2019t care if it doesn\u2019t, but I do want VR to catch on, and I think it\u2019s the best, cheapest way to do that and understand WHY VR is so huge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been quiet for a while around here, and\u00a0had countless\u00a0experiences since my last post. Uncharted 4 happened, and reaffirmed my belief that Naughty Dog understands how to milk \u2013 on an almost impossibly technical level \u2013 the most that a console can do at that current time. Plenty of games may supplant that bar they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sambishop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sambishop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sambishop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sambishop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sambishop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sambishop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sambishop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sambishop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sambishop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}