SW: PSVR Impressions Thread

Many Best Buy and Gamespot stores across the U.S. will have PSVR demos starting this weekend. I got to try the PSVR just a couple of hours ago, and I am quite impressed.

Pros -
Comfort - Much lighter that the Vive. I quickly forgot I was wearing a headset!
Image Quality - The "screen door effect" was FAR less noticeable than the Vive.
Games - Just from the few demos available it is clear that the PSVR will have the best VR lineup of the big 3.

Cons -
Tracking - The move controllers leave much to be desired. It didn't even feel like 1 to 1 movement.
Motion Sickness - I have NEVER felt motion sick from the Vive. It took maybe 10 seconds and I felt "off" a little bit. EVE Valkyrie made me feel a little motion sick for nearly an hour after playing. NOTHING makes me feel like this. Not VR, roller coasters, anything. I was kinda shocked.


I was very skeptical of the PS4 hardware running VR well. It is safe to say I was wrong. I honestly feel that the PSVR is a better headset than the Vive. The image quality is MUCH better from the absence of the halo effect, screen door effect and fuzzy image outside of the center of the lens. I'm not sure how Sony did it, but I am now a believer.

Anyone else try the PSVR? Leave your impressions here.

I would try it if one was close, but im nowhere near one. It seems the outdated PS Move and PS Camera will really hold this thing back. So many are complaining about it. I played the Vive and it picks up motion awesome.

Is the Naughty America game coming to PSVR? if not im going vive

I wonder how long before they're broken, nobody respects store demos anymore.

Doesn't the move work best in a low light environment?

Plan on running by a gamestop near where I live when I'm back home from work.

Excited to give it a go.

I could already tell from the E3 presentation it was good. The shit looked completely useless before that event but they've really honed the whole VR thing for and made it look viable to someone like me had not faith in the thing.

Though I'll most likely be waiting til I get a neo or higher before jump into this medium unless they come out with a truly killer must have VR title.

@lamprey263: There are 2 Sony employees onsite putting the headset on each user, explaining things and cleaning it after each use. It's not just sitting there for folks to try. That would be crazy.

Damn, those are some good impressions. I definitely had my doubts (still kinda do), but I'm interested in trying it.

That shit pisses me off so much.

When I was a kid I remember being able to go to a store and actually sit on a couch in front of a TV with the console hooked up and play a game. They actually trusted you to turn the console on and off, put the controller back, and not steal the fucking game.

Then years later they had to start locking the console behind the glass and have you stand, but at least they would leave the controller just wired regularly. Dumb asses had to **** that up too so they started putting controllers in some stationary binding. And even then these idiots will still find a way to break them.

Sorry for the rant, it just annoys me that the average Joe has become such an idiot when it comes to these things.

Yeah, that's definitely the only way it would work these days.

I can't wait to try one.

Not sure I really need or want this for my PS4. It costs as much as a console and the benefits to me just are not there. I guess we shall see though.

You just made me want to go and see for myself. Hopefully I get to find a store around my city.

@getyeryayasout: thanks. Going Sunday at noon.

5 locations within 20 miles master race.

@getyeryayasout:

You good bro? I'd come blaze with ya if it wasn't a cross country trip lol.

Great to hear, and glad their different approach to the display has paid off. I was going to go play with one tomorrow but I don't think I'll have time :-(

@GoldenElementXL: So you felt some sort of motion sickness from the psvr, obvious this is because of the low framerates.

This has me worried about the lens quality. I've only gotten nauseous when using cheap VR headsets that used misshapen lenses. You don't notice because the screen is so close to the lenses, but it's like wearing someone else's prescription glasses...

sadly there is no kiosk planned on where I live, so I will just have to experience it at launch. @GoldenElementXL thank for your first hand impression :D

@ConanTheStoner: lol gotta love how fast some are!!

Sony sold me on VR with this E3, I had not interest in it but not I am.

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But then I remember its $400

**** that.

The fact that you felt motion sickness might be a good indicator that performance wise psvr might not be good enough. At least until Neo comes out.

The motion sickness is worrisome

Sounds good, but I can't help but feel a closed-platform will offer a good enough range of VR experiences, though it could hold the highest production value experiences.

Hard to say, really - Sony has a lot of clout and influence with developers and can fuel development more readily than either Oculus or Valve. The amount of small 1st party teams that Sony could assign to developing for PSVR is far higher, plus their policies and relationships with indie studios is promising (though I'm skeptical that indie teams are going to create the "killer app").

My greater concern is the longevity of the device and the fidelity of its tracking. Retrofitting Move controllers is, to me, a poor decision, but understandable from a pricing perspective. Plus, how much are games/experiences going to cost? I'm not going to drop more than $15 on what are more technical showpieces than games and it's unclear to me how Sony is going to distribute content.

I played with it for about 4 hours at E3. The content will make or break it. There were moments of brilliance but there were more bad than good games. I personally think it's a bit overpriced. To have a family play on it together it's $1000+ and to me outside of cockpit style games, co-op gaming is its biggest draw.

I experienced none, myself - I think there's a powerful interaction between the tech's capabilities and individual viewer differences. I would encourage people to try it and see how susceptible they are, because I think some will be hit by it and others won't and that's more the nature of the beast.

I posted some impressions over here from my time with PSVR today. Was very pleased, and thought it held up very well compared to (and often surpassed) my other VR experiences

I agree, it was strikingly good - especially given the a priori concerns I think we've all had going into it regarding the PS4's power.

For me, in the end, it will all be about content. People complain about the price, but for me it's a non-issue regarding the hardware. Now that I know how good it is and how well it works, I think it is worth the price*

*provided the content itself can be full fledged. And that's where I am holding off - not over the tech itself, not any more.

[ specifically to this OP as you have more details than where I posted this post below originally: Are the blacks JET BLACK in PSVR? I feel the grey blacks in rift CV1 and Vive are killers to feeling presence in scenes where you have blank space. This was never a problem in DK2. Same goes for god rays - none on DK2 nor on PSVR I hope? - thanks to non fresnel lenses which both DK2 and PSVR have)

I sold my Vive for various reasons I won't go into, but as a full system it's clearly the best out there but still - HMD wise - it's not good enough for the money. My DK2 rift was more pleasant in many ways, due to solid blacks and no god rays/lensflare. Now, PSVR is meant to be similar to DK2 in spec AND in that it doesn't use fresnel lenses (like Rift CV1 and Vive do) this is what causes immersion breaking god rays.

PSVR also uses superior RGB screens instead of PENTILE. So this should aid in better contrast, blacks, colours (more natural) and combined with the BETTER lenses from Sony should make for the most 'visually connected' HMD of the big 3 (even with less power and lower res).

So my question to those that have tried it, did you notice this glassy/non foggy connection to the world in PSVR, where it felt more immersive, more impressive than rift/vive due to these things? I have it pre-ordered and I won't be buying a PS4 neo though clearly that has come out to make PSVR more future proof, there's only so much they will be able to do with VR on a standard PS4 and my future big spending is going towards PC VR Gen 2 with massive tech improvements hopefully.

So, given that PSVR is running on less powerful system, with lower res, those that have tried all/many VR would you say it felt the best ergonomically (it looks it) and visually (other than resolution), did it feel 'effortless' to the eyes and without visual annoyances? Am trying to work out whether to cancel my pre-order or not (And probably will) but am trying to see if there's any hope left... really GEN 2 VR is where it's going to be at. Also I have doubts about Move being good enough, compared to my ex-vive wands which were perfect. I already have 2 move wands from PS3 days though.

Also - one thing that would def have me keeping my pre-order would be if Sony were going to open up the HMD to use on PC. There were rumours they might, anyone heard any more on that? I really don't want to just be locked into whatever PS can offer up for my VR, as a developer and Unreal engine VR tinkerer, lots of my VR fun has come from making my own stuff. I know they will probably have the most polished VR games for a while but the ability to use it away from $30 game purchases constantly would be a no-brainer to me.

This is true, which is why people writing it off completely based on resolution or system power don't quite get it, the HMD (PSVR HMD) is shaping up to be the best/most balanced one for the tech available at this time. Personally the res is STILL too low on even the vive for my liking, so PSVR will be DK2 level or feel a bit better, but if the rest of it feels good that's part of the battle.

What I would like is for Sony to enter the HMD race properly, with a NON PS HMD with competing/better spec than the rest. THey can both afford to do so, as a larger company with tons of experience with lenses and screens and as a mass-seller with proper distribution that puts even HTC in the shade. So I think Sony would be missing a trick if they didn't at least consider making a Vive/Rift rival on PC and clean up there due to japanese QUALITY of design and execution. Next year Gen 2 is going to be on the way, and it'll make PSVR seem like Virtual Boy, with foveated rendering, higher res again (maybe MAYBE even 4k with Foveated making it do-able) and much much better tracking inc hand tracking, eye interaction etc. Sony can't rest on the PSVR mk1 if it means to take VR seriously. The playstation will hold them back if they only focus on that, but is perfectly valid for PSVR (Neo esp but bring on PS5 for a machine designed from the start for good VR using VR centric GPU with mutli view rendering built int). Xbox (ugh) scorpio is going to be bringing it's A game for VR specifically (with Oculus providing a custom HMD probably better than anything we currently have on the market) so Sony really can NOT stop with just PSVR mk1. It needs PS5 + a much better HMD for when scorpio hits, or just after.

Fingers crossed they enter the game, and don't just see VR as console thing.

No Man's Sky has a lot to clean up before it is VR ready. It's barely a fun game to begin with, it's worth playing, I don't imagine VR would really enhance the experience much. Eve Valkyrie on the other hand looks sick.

One game I was looking forward to for non-VR gaming that's being sold as a VR game is Rez Infinite. I really don't get it, they're selling it for $40 on disc, I got it for 800 MS points ($10) as an XBLA game 8 years ago. It looks exactly the same. The VR doesn't even appear to do anything judging from what we saw at the PSX demonstration, just you can use your headset as a display but it gives no motion feedback at all for camera control. This is truly disappointing as I wanted to pick this up as I figured it'd have non-VR gameplay, which I'm not sure about, but I'd double dip if that were the case, or I was, but hearing how it's gonna be $40 then no fucking way.

I'm stoked for BattleZone by Rebellion, hope too that the game will be available to non-VR gamers as well. Eve Valkyrie looks great too. I haven't seen it myself but people have great things to say about the Batman game.

I guess now, some of you will finally understand my aggravation when the usual anti-vr trolls on this board would hurl unfounded barbs at psvr. The tech is really quite good, and they are getting great picture out of the hardware on the base model ps4.

All of the rhetoric about it being ps2 graphics in VR, silk screening, and the other litany of bullshit that the nyadc's of the world had people hyped on is about to fall flat on its face. Playing is believing. I have been telling yall.

I'll check out my local Best Buy this weekend. I would try it, but I still have no interest.

@Heil68: I don't think they have the demos anymore. This thread is almost 2 months old lol. But it's great imo. PSVR.

Demo dates and locations

There will be demos through the holiday.

@GoldenElementXL: sweet, time to hit the stores again.

I didnt even notice the date..lol

Nothing around my immediate area, but my friend is scheduled to get it, so I'll try it out on his.

I tried it and it was cool but in short bursts. I think most of the games coming out for it are only good for playing in short bursts. For the asking price, I don't think it's worth it for playing games in short bursts.

I tried it and I've also tried the Vive. They are both comparable actually and it's weird since I was expecting Vive to blow it away.

The lack of a screen door effect and the comfort of the headset was amazing. I didn't get dizzy at all playing it, and I played all the games they had for it. Eve Valkyrie was awesome and so was Battlezone. I can't wait to try games like Driveclub and GT Sport on it. I'll definitely be buying one.

*twiddles fingers* GOOD, GOOD!

Cannot wait until mine arrives in October.