PlayStation fans will have a first look at Sony's virtual reality gear dubbed "Project Morpheus" and Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Worldwide Studios, hinted that "Virtual Reality is the next innovation" for the PlayStation, particularly its new console PlayStation 4. Photos of the demonstration and prototypes of the PlayStation 4 VR headset were also revealed.
Shuhei Yoshida made a statement during the event.
"The industry has grown by creating technological advancements for video game players. Advancements that people maybe weren't expecting or thought was possible. PlayStation is pushing the boundary of play, and it's this focus that drives how we innovate and create the experiences we deliver to gamers."
This also marks one of the most important differences between Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's Xbox One. In a certain sense, the VR headset serves as an answer to Microsoft's Kinect, a brand new peripheral that fundamentally changes the way we interact with games. Similarly, both technologies remain mostly unproven, while VR has gained massive traction in techie circles, we still don't know how well it will support full game experiences or mass markets. The Kinect 2.0., similarly, has yet to prove itself a necessary purchase alongside the Xbox One.
The PS4 VR Headset will have its position and orientation tracked 100 times per second in a full 360 degrees of rotation within a three cubic meter "working volume." Tracking will make use of high-fidelity inertial sensors in the unit itself, tiny tracking markers on the surface of the headset, and the same stereo PlayStation Camera that tracks the DualShock 4 and PlayStation Move.
Sony R&D engineer Dr. Richard Marks noted at the panel that the PlayStation Camera "almost seems as if it was designed for VR, actually."
The current Project Morpheus developer kit has a 1080p resolution and offers a 90-plus degree field of view. Sony R&D's Anton Mikhailov said all of these stats aren't final, but they simply represent a "good sweet spot for developers." Mikhailov wouldn't go into details about the frame rate or latency capabilities of the displays, except to say the team is targeting "the highest frame rate possible and lowest latency possible" for the final unit. The developer kit will connect to the PlayStation 4 with a single cable and includes an audio jack to plug headphones directly into the unit.
President Yoshida showed a short demonstration of Sony's early VR attempts, using a modified version of God of War, Thief, the Deep and EVE Valkyrie seen from first-person, as well as some headset prototypes that date back to 2010. Using a combination of Sony's own hardware, combining personal video viewers with PlayStation Move controllers, PlayStation engineers experimented with multiple prototypes.
Will Project Morpheus play a huge success in Sony's list of accomplishments? We'll find out more updates as project Morpheus is coming soon to PlayStation 4.
