Audio

Photo by Road to VR

One of my biggest gripes about PSVR 2 is the lack of directly integrated audio.

Even though the headset comes with custom earbuds which attach to the back of the headset and can even stow in little holes in the headband, having to deal with sticking them in your ears or sticking them back in their holes every time you put the headset on or take it off us just an annoying step that I wish I didn’t have to do.

Worse still… if you’re like me and become very immersed in what you’re playing, you’ll forget they’re even in your ears, which means that every time you take the headset off you’ll be greeted with the uncomfortable sensation of them being pulled out of your ears. This has happened to me on the vast majority of PSVR 2 play sessions so far.

Photo by Road to VR

The saving grace is that at least the earbuds provide good audio quality and noise isolation on their own.

And while you technically can remove the earbuds and choose to use your own 3.5mm headphones or earbuds, this winds up being a sub-par solution because you’re still dealing with putting extra stuff on your head and removing it, and then you have bulky headphones don’t usually play nice with the headstrap, or at best you’ve got a different pair of earbuds but you’re now dealing with a long cable dangling over your shoulder while you play.

Hopefully we’ll see third-party audio solutions come to the rescue to offer an off-ear audio solution that requires no fiddling from the user.

Tracking & Controllers

Photo by Road to VR

Sony’s jump to inside-out tracking on PSVR 2 has certainly been well executed.

The tracking quality isn’t just leaps and bounds ahead of what we saw with the original PSVR, but it’s right up there with the best inside-out tracking solutions on the market. In my time with the headset so far, across several different lighting conditions, I experienced essentially zero tracking errors from either the headset or the controllers.

When I stress-tested PSVR 2’s tolerance for low light (remember, the system needs to be able to see the world around you in order to track its position), I was pretty darn impressed with how long the tracking would hold on before finally complaining that it needed more light. Even when the passthrough view showed seemingly 90% noise from low-light, the headset and controllers continued to track fairly well.

I also found the headset to be quite tolerant of larger, bright, overhead lights, both in the tracking of the headset and the controllers.

Sony has also taken the time to include a thoughtful extra option for PSVR 2 called ‘Tracking Support’ which places a target on your TV that makes it easier for the headset to track in difficult situations. I haven’t actually found a situation where I needed this yet (and it’s turned off by default), but it could be helpful in some circumstances of unique room composition or lighting.

Photo by Road to VR

The shape of the PSVR 2 ‘Sense’ controllers certainly has a unique form to it, but it isn’t just for the sake of being different. Moving the tracking rings more toward the wrists means the controllers can get much closer together without bumping into each other compared to the placement we see of the rings on most other VR controllers. This has a minor (but welcomed) benefit of making close hand-to-hand interactions more immersive with little downside (except a slightly off-kilter balance).

Photo by Road to VR

The controllers themselves feel solid in the hand, though might feel a little bit small to those with bigger hands. The buttons, sticks, and triggers all feel high quality, and though the grab button is in fact a button and not a trigger, so far I’ve found the force required to keep it continuously depressed hasn’t bothered me yet.

Similar to some of VR controllers, the sticks, buttons, and triggers of the PSVR 2 controllers are capacitive, which means the game can identify when you’re touching them and use that information to more accurately represent your hand in the game. It’s still fairly coarse sensing, and I haven’t seen it used too effectively just yet, but it can be a nice detail for developers who take the time to add that extra bit of polish.

Haptics

PSVR 2 brings new haptic capabilities to the market, offering more than we’ve seen even on the most premium VR headsets on the market.

In addition to the usual rumble in the controllers, the Sense controllers also have adaptive triggers which can vary their resistance of each trigger pull. While this works well, unfortunately I haven’t seen it used particularly well just yet. Unfortunately haptics tend to be low on the priority list when it comes to game polish, but I have a feeling that some game will end up making great use of the new trigger capability and I’m looking forward to seeing that in action.

And that’s not the only new haptic capability that PSVR 2 brings to the table. It’s also the first headset we’ve ever seen to come with rumble haptics on the head.

Compared to generally smaller motors in VR controllers, the rumble motor in the headset is clearly larger and provides a weightier rumble that still manages to feel smooth rather than rattly (if ‘rattly’ wasn’t a real word before, it is now). You’ll know what as mean as soon as you turn on the headset because it gives you a nice rumble to say ‘hello I’m ready’ each time you hit the power button.

So far I’ve seen head rumble on PSVR 2 used thoughtfully to emphasize only the most intense moments in some games, and it really does at a little extra intensity to what’s happening around you. As with most haptics, it’s a small but immersive touch.

I have a feeling that it could get annoying if overused, so hopefully developers will let it lay forgotten until they need to pull out all of the haptic stops for those big moments.

Fit & Ergonomics

Photo by Road to VR

I’ve yet to meet a ‘halo-style’ headband on a VR headset that I really liked, and PSVR 2 is no exception. In my experience, the fit of halo-style headstraps is less flexible when it comes to the wide range of head shapes out there.

There’s only one specific way that the curve of the forehead pad will fit best on your forehead, but that’s different for everyone and in my case that perfect spot means my eyes are way outside the sweet spot of the lens. That means I need to move the forehead pad to a less ideal spot from a comfort standpoint in order to achieve reasonable visuals.

Photo by Road to VR

For me that’s meant that PSVR 2 consistently starts to be uncomfortable after about an hour of playtime. Compared other headsets, I also found it a little more difficult to tweak the headset’s position for temporary relief which might otherwise allow me to extend my sessions (very likely because of the small sweet spot).

As I’ve said before, if there was an up and down adjustment for the lenses, this wouldn’t be much of an issue, but understandably that’s difficult to achieve from a mechanic standpoint.

While it’s nice that PSVR 2 gains an IPD adjustment that its predecessor lacked, this was ultimately a necessity because of the headset’s small sweet spot.

It’s nice to see that PSVR 2 continues to have a generous eye-relief adjustment which allows the headset to fit a wider range of people (including making it easier to fit glasses) though, again, the small sweet spot of the lens means you’re going to give up some clarity and field-of-view if your eyes aren’t as close to the lens as possible.

Photo by Road to VR

From a fit standpoint, PSVR 2 feels very similar to PSVR in the way that it sits and how you put it on. There’s a crank on the back to tighten the headstrap and a button to release the springy tension of the struts.

I find it a bit annoying that the struts are always locked in place (and automatically retract to minimum distance) if you aren’t actively holding the button and using two hands to pull the headset open to fit it over your head. Like some other headsets, I’d much rather be able to dial in the fit once, then have some spring to the struts to make it easy to pull the headset on without needing to use the button or the crank every single time. This also makes it really awkward to take the headset off without setting the controllers down first.

Continue on Page 3: Software Experience, Content Question, Review Summary »

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • ViRGiN

    A complete PCVR replacement package. Wonderful.
    PCVR will remain a refuge for vrchat weebs and praydog mouse and keyboard 3d tv vr players.
    Standalone lives in parrarel to PSVR2; they don’t threathen each other.

    However, this statement is incorrect.
    > PSVR 2 is the first consumer VR headset to ship with eye-tracking.

    HTC Vive Pro Eye came out in 2019; was sold in consumer goods stores in many countries. It was even announced during CONSUMER Electronic Show.

    Quest Pro came out in 2022 and although it’s meant for “pro” users, it’s still a consumer device, just at a higher price point.

    • Gonzax

      Well, at least you didn’t write it all in caps, that’s an improvement! xD

      By the way, Praydog mouse and keyboard??? hahaha Jeez dude, at least get your facts straight before posting something like that. Praydog’s mods support full motion controllers, you can play RE7 in full VR which wait…. you can’t do on PSVR1 or 2!! funny huh?

      • ViRGiN

        I never used full caps. You might have mixed me with a true virigin out there who believes in deckard coming out soon!

        And no, you get your facts straight. There might be 6DOF tracking, but it’s all keybinds for your virtua-cop 6DOF crosshair. You aren’t ever pulling out a mag, you aren’t chambering a round manually, you can’t even pick up stuff around you. You have to use keybinds for each and every action. And RE7 is one of the very few games that gets more than 6DOF camera. So in short, yeah, praydog is 3d tv gaming, to be played front facing, and preferably sitting down. It has nothing to do with “real” native VR. But I can see the point of such praisal – PCVR sucks, is dead and obsolete – so at least AAA games displayed in VR headset makes somewhat PCVR interesting. Nobody would be praising praydog, if PCVR had actual PC quality content instead of being the platform where rec room, beat saber and gorilla tag are the dominant titles.

      • KRAKEN

        RE7 and RE4re coming to PSVR2, native vr

        • Gonzax

          Awesome, I’ve played RE7 in Vr both on psvr1 and pc but I will play it again, let alone RE4 VR, which was incredible on Quest already. Once it’s confirmed for PSVR2 as the full game I’ll buy psvr2.
          I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve played RE4 so far: gamecube, ps2, wii, xbox 360, pc, quest, soon psvr2…..

    • Ben Lang

      I pretty much consider any headset above $1,000 to be outside of the consumer range. Vive Pro Eye launched at $1,600 and not even HTC claimed it was for consumers.

      • Andrey

        Um, well, there still was a consumer headset that shipped with eye-tracking back in 2017 and it’s price was 500$ – it’s name is FOVE, a japanese headset that was lost in time (and people’s memory I guess?). It was, well, pretty bad in many (if not all) aspects, but still it was on the price point of PSVR2 (even if it came without controllers), so if 550$ PSVR2 is consumer-oriented headset with eye-tracking, then FOVE was also like that. Just to be fair, that’s all.

        • Ben Lang

          Pretty sure FOVE never actually reached the market? I think maybe they got dev kits out at best.

          • Andrey

            It had a kickstarter campaign and after some time when it succeed you could order it on their site without any problems for 500$. I clearly remember it because I was thinking about buying one at the time. Also you can still buy it on ebay and even in some stores, so I believe there were a lot of it produced, at leasts dozens of thousands. Not sure if you can call it “consumer headset”, but it was pretty affordable and freely availible for sure.

      • ViRGiN

        that’s quite an artificial barrier. valve index is $999, but in euros it’s already above that magical barrier, standing at 1079 euros. and that’s considering it’s 4 years old at this point. with your mindset, that puts valve index outside consumer range.

        • Ben Lang

          Gotta draw the line somewhere, that’s been the number I’ve gone by for many years.

      • Kevin Brook

        Pico 4 is only £379 in the UK, although I don’t know if it’s doing any foveated rendering eye tracking. I assume it can once devs support it?

    • LMAO

      Ignorant troll alert!

      • ViRGiN

        triggered random valve fanboy spotted!

        • Steve

          Rude boy.

    • kool

      No hmd threatens each other at this point. psvr2 Dev’s will need pcvr sells early on to recoup money and help flesh out online communities and a lot of them use quests to play…wheres the threat? Im counting on PC Dev’s to fill in the peices where console Dev’s wont. But I think your right about one thing, I think a lot of pcvr players will look at the ps5/psvr2 combo as a viable alternative to another gpu and hmd.

      • ViRGiN

        no psvr2 developer will need a single pcvr sales.
        what possible games are we even talking about?
        look at all the big pcvr exclusives from the past months – lonn, hubris. who the f ever cared about those on pc? it’s not half life alyx, so it’s obsolete. maybe worth picking up 11 months after release during steam “10 for $10” bundles; and only to support valve and hoard more games that will never be launched.
        tell me all those developers who got barely rich thanks to pcvr, without mentioning walking dead, superhot, h3vr. even pavlov completly abandoned their pcvr version for over a year just to focus on psvr2. every single developer is better off without pcvr. pcvr is the place where indie developers ends up after being turned down by meta. steamvr is sidequest for pc.

    • mirak

      > HTC Vive Pro Eye came out in 2019; was sold in consumer goods stores in many countries. It was even announced during CONSUMER Electronic Show.

      Yes I have one and the eye tracking is unfortunately totally useless to a consumer.

      Beside the calibration application, I never used an application or game that used it.

    • Pablo C

      I remember a time (Ps1 and 2) when consoles really took the video gaming flag (to come back again to the Master race years later). I agree that might happen to VR for some years, and PCVR will get some of the features but not all.
      I´m happy though, that then the PC VR games to come will be like some of the excelent VR adaptations of flat games out there: HL2, Raft, GH, OW, among many others.
      Flat games are always the most refined, so it´ll be nice to play them in VR.

  • Tommy

    pfftt!
    You are just jealous you won’t be able to play games using the PCVR VR Injector mod.
    It not “mouse and keyboard 3D tv games”. These games are being fully implemented with full motion control and are just as good as most VR native games. Stop sh!tting on things you know nothing about.

    • ViRGiN

      You know comment section supports replies? Who are you even talking to, you praydog supporter? It sounds like you never played a game made for vr, and you’re putting those obsolete mods at the same pedestal native games are. This isn’t praydog discord, you will have your views challenged instead of mindless support.

      • Tommy

        Ha, thought it was a reply. Brain no work good.
        Many I don’t put at the same level, others I would say are better.

        • Max-Dmg

          I’d be sad if i was a virgin too.

  • Tommy

    Good review but for me it’s already a done deal!
    If you have the money, you should be playing on PCVR, PSVR2, and standalone.

    • KRAKEN

      standalone is useless, the resolution and processing, yeck, quest2 games look worse than some PS1 game, soap, vaselline and pixels.

      • Tommy

        I don’t disagree but some Quest 2 games are still fun :)

      • Arno van Wingerde

        Well, the Quest2 does not offer 4090 graphics, that’s for sure! But sometimes lower graphics are acceptable to other people and the advantage of putting the set on in about every room of the house and the garden is nice as well, as is the option to take it with you to show other people. I never gave that aspect much thought, until I started to consider the vastly added power of PSVR2 over Quest2. It is probably not good enough for you, but coming from a Quest2 it seems already 2/3 of the way to your set… for a fraction of the price of a PC setup!

  • “I’ve yet to see any game that’s putting it [eye tracking] to seriously good use”.

    Song in the Smoke is using it to detect climb points that apparently makes a noticeable difference in that experience. They did a really interesting interview with Digital Foundry about the PS VR 2 port of the game.

    • ViRGiN

      I wouldn’t call that a “seriously good use”. It’s still a gimmick, and simplfying gameplay gimmick for absolute vr novice players.

      • That’s fair, it’s a small detail as opposed to a major part of the gameplay. But seems like one of those things that once you use it you wouldn’t want to go back to headset locked gaze. Better for your neck and not having that awkward moment, where you can’t get the UI to activate on something because the headset gaze doesn’t match your actual gaze.

      • Mike

        you guys are missing the point. the eye tracking is what makes foveated rendering possible. when its working well you won’t notice. it just makes the graphics able to be a lot more detailed than they would be without eye tracking.

      • KRAKEN

        No, it makes it more realistic

    • Ben Lang

      Thanks, I’ll be keeping my eyes out for more uses as more devs get their hands on it

      • JMoo

        What about the dynamic foveated rendering present in every game? My understanding is this is eye-tracking’s primary function. Seems odd not to mention that.

      • Christian Schildwaechter

        According to the DF PSVR 2 review, Rez Infinite now has a mode that allows aiming at targets with eye gaze, and it seems to really add to the synesthetic experience.

        • Jistuce

          Rez continues to be the best VR game.

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            Which is of course a dangerously broad statement, but I kind of agree. Rez Infinite is a game that actually understands the medium, which is insane, considering that it is mostly a port of a 2001 Dreamcast shooter. Lead developer Tetsuya Mizuguchi stated that the synesthetic experience in VR is what he was aiming for in 2001, but that he had to wait for 15 more years for the technology to catch up.

            HL:A is usually ranked as No 1, and is without doubt excellent in many ways. But some things that triggered a low of WOW, be it collecting cans, drawing on windows or just seeing City 17, will fade into normality with increase visual quality in VR games, just like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were awe-inducing when the movie released, while we are now unfazed by much better CGI.

            Rez Infinite isn”t groundbreaking regarding it’s technical implementation, but in how it uses VR to really impact human perception. I always think that virtual reality is somewhat wasted by using it for emulating actual reality. When you can do anything, why would you chose to do it in a similar way and environment to what you see everyday? Rez Infinite is one of the few examples that don’t rely on a short lived technical impression, but on taking the player not only out of their regular environment, but out of their normal world experience, going for actually virtual reality instead of just “visually closely matched reality”.

  • Octogod

    As always, an amazingly thorough review.

    The small sweet spot, halo ergonomics, and limited software will have me sitting on the sidelines.

    • ApocalypseShadow

      Ridiculous. Limited software. There’s tons there to play. As much games as a console launch.

      • Octogod

        Sony has said there are 100 games in development.

        In comparison, there are 500 on the Quest store and thousands on the app store. If you like a genre, there is a very real chance there will be less than 10 games in each.

  • Gonzax

    Great review, very complete. The headset looks really great, with lots of things to love and some negatives too. Personally I hate halo-straps, I find them very uncomfortable and they shake too much when moving your head but most things look a clear improvement.
    Once the software department is on par and there’s enough games I will be certainly buying one.

  • Ryan H

    Did anyone actually proofread this review?

    I didn’t even take English in college and there are so many mistakes.

  • MosBen

    One of the things that’s been fun to watch is how the increased computing horsepower has allowed VR to improve. I remember those early days when I think my GTX 970 was barely able to run some of the more demanding titles, but now we have a home console that can run VR without significant problems. I know, computing power increasing over time is unremarkable to the point of banality, but every once in a while it’s neat to see how far we’ve actually come since that original Oculus Kickstarter 10 years ago.

    • KRAKEN

      I been into VR since Rift S and PSVR, but always buying, never playing, I like good graphics.
      I have Quest 2 since day one and G2 ver2 since they came out and only now when i got 4090 i gave real chance to Alyx [I tried before it was horrible], now i set 10K by 10K per eye and the game is Okish.
      Its far from perfect, especially the sweet spot issues of Fresnel lenses, the still low resolution of the display, the lack of RGB OLED and HDR
      I mean right now G2 on 4090 is what VR day1 supposed to be, its BARE MINIMUM [I mean graphically-wise, sharpness-wise

      • Arno van Wingerde

        Your story sounds ridiculous today, but in 10 years, everybody will agree!

      • Mike EY

        Ironically the GTX970 is the bare minimum for HL:A.

        New 2k x 2k headsets would work better with a GTX1080.

      • MosBen

        To me, one of the biggest conceptual breakthroughs of those early days of VR was the idea of “presence” along with the realization that you don’t actually need super high fidelity graphics to achieve some interesting results with presence. Now, obviously better graphics is a nice to have, but there were plenty of interesting experiences to be had in those early days even staring through a screen door effect or holding a phone wrapped in cardboard to your face.

        And actually, I too have held off on playing Alyx because I didn’t want to experience it on my GTX 1070 that I was running for several years. Indeed, I kind of stopped playing with VR for a while while I waited for the ability to buy a graphics card for close to MSRP. Fortunately, I recently picked up a GTX 3070, so now I’m cleaning up the clutter that found its way into my VR space and am looking forward to getting back into it.

  • Andrey

    I am waiting for some local places to own PSVR2 to go and try it for myself (basically just to complete Horizon Call of the Mountain – and no, I am not talking about shops that sell it, but places where you can go and play games if you don’t own the hardware, just to be clear).
    But, once again, to the main point – there were rumors from some reliable insiders on Monday, that Sony will announce a new State of Play on Tuesday and… there wasn’t any announcment. I was looking for a new State of Play right before or, at least, right after release of PSVR2 with some – cool, if possible – announcments that will boost the sales. But no, Sony, like always, knows best. Well, then we should just wait till June!…
    …to finally get a couple of indie and PSVR2 ports game announcments. Probably. I really want to be mistaken…

    • ViRGiN

      there is no better testing than actually having the device at home and using it in peace. consumer laws exists for a reason; any european can order psvr2 and ps5, use it, and return it without ever specifying a reason. if you think you are interested in one, the only way is to buy one and battle test it.

      • Andrey

        Ahahahahahaha! Yeah, it’s a pretty funny joke!
        …wait, it wasn’t a joke?
        I am from Europe, but not from the “real” Europe (the eastern Europe). And the only local place where I was able to find a PSVR2 pre-order – out of pure curiosity – sells it for 1k dollars. Not to mention that I do not own a PS5 and buying one – used one by the way – will cost another 700-800 dollars depending on the version and the new one can go, again, up to 1k or above. And, believe me, you do not want to hear about salaries out there! So yeah, almost two thousands bucks to play only one game? No, thank you! I will better pay 10 bucks and spend one night in some shady place playing PSVR2 for six or even more hours in a row.
        On the other hand, if PSVR2 had my dream game either announced or released, that both Sony, Meta and everyone else never released last November – no @&^%, I would buy it immediately for any amount of money. And that’s, basically, the only reason I am still a little bit interested in PSVR2 – a tiiiiiny possibility that this game will be announced during one of State of Plays, E3 or something similar. But looking at Sony right now and how they do not want to spend real money on real AAA games (hello to not open-world Horizon VR exclusive!), I can’t make myself buying something so generally useless for me for this amount of money.
        Oh, and of course I can buy it somewhere else and cheaper. But there won’t be any guarantee or returns, so it’s a double-edged sword, just like always. But, one last time, with no games to play there is no point in buying it. At least for now.

        • ViRGiN

          oh well, i meant to specify european union. the consumer laws are pretty much same all across.

          otherwise i kinda agree with you. money isn’t an issue for me, but there is nothing serious released or even announced. as a both pcvr and quest owner, i’ve seen and played pretty much it all. i don’t need headset improvements with significant downgrades like zero audio and cable to play it on hdr oled, at 60 fps upscaled to 120 to add to that.

          but if there will be battlefield, gta or cod – i’ll be in. ps5 with its unified hardware is the only real possibility to have modern games in vr. pc with its bazillions combinations of hardware parts and drivers is immediatly a no go.

          • Nam Pham

            I also have Quest and PCVR. I bought PSVR2 with the intention to return it later. Was able to finish Horizon in a few days and currently playing RE8. Coming from PCVR it’s not a quality jump like many youtubers suggested. But I am still tempted to keep the PSVR2 because it’s the only platform with potential to have lots of AAA games

        • Rome

          What’s your dream game?

          • Andrey

            Sword Art Online. Of course not a full-dive VR version of it but adapted for current-gen VR systems (as an indie game developer myself I am certain that’s it’s more than possible to make it both authentic and very interesting to play).
            If you, by any chance, don’t know about it – it’s a light novel/anime/game series that started in 2009 (books), 2012 (anime) and 2014 (games) and tells a story about a group of players that “play” different full-dive VR games. Imo, it’s a must-watch for any VR enthusiast, not for the story/characters (it’s not for everyone to be fair), but because of the representation of the ideal VR games in different genres and it’s systems. In 2012 they were showing both foverated rendering and eye-tracking (10 years ago!), superdetailed LODs based on it (a better analog to UE5 Nanite system), advanced self-learning AIs and players’ communication with it, VR user interfaces (that, at the time, wasn’t even possible to recreate in real world) and many-many more. And the main point of it is that everything looks believable in terms of VR. The cruel irony is that based on the lore, the very first game with the same title (SAO) was released on November 6, 2022. And there even was a special event in Japan on this day… where nothing for VR wasn’t announced even closely.
            All those years before this date I was looking forward to PSVR2, because there was a very good chance that Sony – the a) japanese company that b) likes to create exclusive titles for their platform – would use this chance to boost both their pre-orders and sales of PSVR2 in general.
            SAO is very popular both in Japan and outside of it. And, in my honest opinion, that is the best potential system seller for ANY VR headset. There were more than 20 millions books sold worldwide (in 2017, now it’s definetely much more), last games from the series sold 1+ millions of copies. There are a HUGE fan base that love VR and want a SAO VR game, millions of people all over the world. I already said it many times, but I will repeat it again and again – I will buy PSVR2, Pico 5, Quest 3, HTC XR Elite, Pimax whatever or any other headset for any amount of money if it will have a Sword Art Online VR game for it. And I strongly believe that hundreds of thousands if not millions of people all over the world are ready to do the same. And, finally – the whole title is all about VR! Moreover – it started the whole wave of all kinds of isekai/VRMMORPGs anime/manga/ranobe of the last decade. So it’s the best candidate to create a VR game based on it that will be succesful even just because of it’s name.
            I already lost any hope for that to happen (the canon date is missed anyway) – both managers and any people who plan/analyze in big companies for some reason can’t see that SAO is a literal golden mine in terms of VR. I even tried to create it myself for many times to show people (both VR entuthiasts, “flat” gamers and SAO fans, as well as big companies) that it can be recreated and it will be a head blown experience, but without any succes, lol (I am alone and, as a simple gamedesigner and 3D modeler, don’t posses any skills in programming no matter how hard I try to learn it). Anyway, with the tiniest pieces of hope left in my soul I am just waiting for this miracle to happen. Next PSVR2-related State of Play. Then Meta Games Showcase in April. Then E3 or it’s substitute. Then Gamescom in August and Tokyo Games Show in September. Then The Game Awards in December. For 10+ years straight, year after year. Still nothing, but I am used to waiting at this point! There is nothing I can do about it anyway…

        • KRAKEN

          PSVR2 is 800$ with HZD game included.
          We also overpay and im sure lots of other countries except USA that thas the lowest prices

    • Sven Viking

      One of the people who started those rumours is saying Sony is going to leave it unusually late for some reason. If true, and if it really involves the announcement of PSVR1 exclusives being ported to PSVR2, maybe they’re trying not to cannibalise the sales of new games with old 1st party game announcements or something?

      • Rome

        This makes sense actually. Or at least I’m trying to make it make sense and keep my hope for an astro bot port alive.

        • Sven Viking

          Same here.

    • KRAKEN

      Hey Resident Evil 4 comes to PSVR2. third RE game already

      • Andrey

        Well, that’s good and all, but many people already played it back in 2000s (the original game I mean) or even played it in VR on Quest 2. Actually it was a very first RE game I played long time ago back in the times on my buddy’s PC! Those horrible controls… Anyway, it’s not that interesting as RE2/3 remakes imo. Not to mention that some people don’t like zombies or horrors too. I mean it’s good that RE (and especially 4th game) fans will get both a remake and ability to play it in VR with cool graphics… But for me it’s definitely not a game I can count as a PSVR2 system seller. Not even close, especially because I played it (and in VR too) and do not really want to play it again that much.
        By the way, tomorrow (or even today?) there will be State of Play with 5 new VR games announcments. That’s what I am looking forward to! Really hope to see some good exclusives just like the Horizon game. Who knows, maybe all those 5 titles will be so sick that I will go and buy overpriced (in my country) PS5 and PSVR2, lol?

        • KRAKEN

          Its the remake that comes to PSVR2, it was in the news.
          IMHO, RE4 is the worst RE game, the reason being is the game that started the downhill, when RE became no longer RE and turned into shooter.
          RE:CV is the last classical RE game, everything after RE4 is a shooter
          BUT the RE4 Remake can still be enjoyed as game, if you play it as just a game not like RE series

          The OG RE4 VR on Quest 2, IMHO its unplayable, i gave chance to quest 2 native games, but they pukable, the graphics quality is so low that it looks worse than PS2 games looked on TV.
          I wish it came to PC

  • Sven Viking

    Seems like an oversight to say it doesn’t use eye tracking for anything much and then not mention foveated rendering anywhere in the article?

    • Ben Lang

      Foveated rendering is nice, but it’s not exactly a user-facing benefit. So if it was only used for foveated rendering… it would hardly be worth mentioning as a feature.

      • Sven Viking

        Wouldn’t the user-facing benefit be in increased clarity, graphics quality or frame rates? It’d certainly be a user-facing issue if the implementation caused noticeable artifacting in the peripheral vision, noticeable resolution changes with eye movement, or periodic issues due to lack of reliability or accuracy of eye tracking, so foveated rendering would seem worth mentioning in a review if only to confirm the presence or absence of such problems.

        • Christian Schildwaechter

          Invisible ETFR allows the GPU to perform above its regular limits, so it is an optimization, just like occlusion culling or using LoD and billboards/imposters. Users will of course notice a difference in performance, but it is not fundamental. The ETFR on the PSVR 2 seems to be invisible inside the HMD, but noticeable for someone watching the same gameplay on a TV, where areas outside of the current focus appear a lot more jaggy/lower resolution. So it adds/frees performance, but doesn’t double it. The PS5 APU is comparable to an RTX 2070, so maybe ETFR will allow it to operate at the level of an RTX 2080, meaning you could get the same results by throwing more hardware at it. That wouldn’t work on a PSVR 2, but is of course an option for PCVR users.

          That is different from a feature that actually requires eye tracking, like highlighting and firing at objects you gaze at in Rez Infinite on the PSVR 2. Performance increases via ETFR are what we all are hoping for, and the PSVR 2 seems to be the first usable implementation, but in general we rarely discuss the thousands of optimization methods that go into any VR game once they have been established, because while they do improve the performance and allow you to play games that may otherwise not work on that platform, they don’t change how you interact with the game.

          And it is actually hard to tell if HCotW performance depends mostly on the general speed of the PS5 GPU, CPU, the fast memory and storage system, clever level design or ETFR, and most likely it is a combination of all, with ETFR just being one part. This all contributes to the base performance level of the PSVR 2 compared to other platforms, but you could get there with a different set of components too, and users wouldn’t notice the difference.

          • Sven Viking

            Yeah great info, almost like something that would be good to learn in an otherwise comprehensive review.

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            I remember comments from Tobii from a few years ago that despite decades of development, their eye tracking only worked for 95% of all users, simply because people’s eyes are just so different. I think Digital Foundry mentioned in their PSVR 2 review that eye tracking stops working if you close one eye, so being “cross eyed” and similar visual disorders may interfere with it too. It is possible that Sony had to actually limit how much performance gain they can get from ETFR, as higher rates will probably require a more aggressive and thus precise tracking, which in turn could exclude more users with less typical eyes. And if a feature doesn’t work reliably for almost all users, developers cannot rely on the performance benefits it provides.

            It is very hard to evaluate how “expensive” ETFR was for Sony, including not only the most likely moderate hardware costs, but also the licensing fees per headset for Tobii and the development of a solution that works for the mass market. It is possible that it would have been cheaper to throw that money at improving the general performance of the PS5, for example including more CUs for the GPU like on the Xbox Series X, adding about 20% performance that would benefit all PS5 users.

            So maybe the inclusion of ETFR is mostly tactical for software developers: This special type of performance optimization is only available for VR. If they manage to balance these performance gains against the extra computational costs for stereoscopy etc., this could mean that a hybrid game would have about the same hardware requirements for both the flat and the VR version. Meaning it is much more attractive for a company like Konami to release a VR option for RE8 than it would be if they had to go back and optimize the code and reduce the graphics to squeeze out an extra 30% just so they can run it for a small number of VR users.

            This isn’t a problem for PCVR, where developers simply expect VR users to invest into beefier hardware, nor is it a problem for mobile VR, where the hardware baseline already includes VR usage.
            So the true value of ETFR on PSVR 2 would not be the extra performance it gives VR players, but that it makes the hybrid game development that Sony recommends to studios economically feasible in the first place for a fixed hardware console. And as an important component of their strategy to entice more VR development to make PSVR 2 an attractive platform, ETFR could be way more valuable to Sony itself than the pure performance improvements suggests.

          • Sven Viking

            I think Digital Foundry mentioned in their PSVR 2 review that eye tracking stops working if you close one eye

            That’s correct. I’ve long thought it’d be nice for people blind in one eye to be able to disable rendering (or greatly reduce render resolution) for the other eye — performance gains should well exceed what they lose from the lack of FR on PSVR2, and it shouldn’t be difficult to implement. Unfortunately unlikely to happen as a very niche feature though.

          • kool

            I think sony was thinking if a title can run on ps4 it should be able to run on psvr2. Most new 3rd party games still support ps4 and series s. So if you can get to that baseline in vr. Dev’s shouldn’t have a problem porting their IPs to VR.

        • Runesr2

          Exactly, it has been shown that eye tracking and foveated rendering may increase performance by 2 – 4x (UploadVR said 3.6x in an article), so covering this aspect in a PSVR2 review is extremely important.
          Thanks to foveated rendering, PS5 may perform like a RTX 3080+ in VR. Pavlov devs even estimated 10% better perfornance using PSVR2 than PCVR with 3090 Ti!

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            The 3.6x factor was for a best case scenario from a Unity PSVR 2 developer talk, in no way close to what they typically measured. For some scenes ETFR did almost nothing, an average factor of 1.4x-1.6x was more realistic. Which is still significantly more than the performance gain from ETFR on the Quest Pro, but very far from 2x-4x. So outside of extreme cases, it will allow the PS5 to punch around the level of an RTX 2080/2080TI.

            The consensus for the performance reported on Pavlov is pretty much that this is mostly due to the very bad optimization of the PC version from a single developer, and possibly has less to do with ETFR and more with the very fast memory subsystem allowing to pump huge amount of way too large textures very quickly from SSD to GPU. We won’t see similar improvements from companies like Konami who know how to properly optimize games in the first place, leaving less to gain from other technologies.

            The PS5/PSVR 2 is a very well balanced system with a lot of built-in optimizations and developer support at a very competitive price for the raw performance, but it is still basically using mid-level PC hardware, and limited by physics. You can’t just cherry pick only the best case numbers published somewhere and then assume that they apply universally. ETFR is a useful new type of optimization, but it can’t do magic.

          • Sven Viking

            The fact you can get gains like that in specific circumstances would give the impression there could be certain types of graphics techniques or features that’d be unrealistic normally but usable with foveated rendering. One problem is since eye tracking can be disabled manually and doesn’t work for e.g. people with one eye, you’d need either a disclaimer that the game only worked with eye tracking or the option to forego your novel graphics feature.

          • david vincent

            Yes we would need a new 3D engine build around foveated rendering to get substancial gains from this tech. Carmack has talked quite a bit on this. I guess we’ll see!

  • Nothing to see here

    Still not a peep about how vision correction lenses will work with the PSVR2. 75% of adults need some kind of vision correction and not a lot will want to wear contact lenses just so they can get their face into the sweet spot. I guess put up with out of focus images? Gee thanks Sony. I have ordered PSVR2 vision correction lenses from a third party. They were expensive (over $100) and there is no way to know how well they will work or whether they will make god rays, or the sweet spot better or worse thanks to the total lack of reporting on the subject from this and every other news source.

    • kool

      One review I’ve read said he was able to wear this glasses in headset with n I problems.

    • ApocalypseShadow

      Nonsense. You’ve used VR before. The headset isn’t the problem. It’s your eyes.

      Just like I do, you can wear glasses because they built the thing to have that option.

      Thanks Sony.

    • gothicvillas

      Check Digital Foundry review on YT. Glasses work fine.

    • Bob

      Are you using lenses adapters? Because if you are then potentially you’ll run into issues with the eye tracking as the adapters will block the ability for them to “scan” your eyes.

  • Max-Dmg

    4.5 miles is pretty good for the cable length but does it come with cable ties?

    • ViRGiN

      no, and just like the hated quest pro, it also comes with one charging cable for controllers. so you can’t charge two at the same time. quest pro at least came with the dock.

      • Sai

        You should have the 2nd one from the PS5 itself. Also almost everything today is charged by usb-c, i can hardly imagine anyone in the 1st world not having at least one additional cable at home anyway. I cant understand your point and i have seen this argument being brought up a lot in other discussions too.

        • Arno van Wingerde

          Sure, but it would be nice to have a short Y-cable that could charge both controllers from a single charger.

      • KRAKEN

        Who cares about cables, even no cables its Ok, i don’t need another cable, honestly i dont

    • Rome

      Not going to work for me unfortunately. I need a 12 mile cable minimum.

      • Max-Dmg

        Have you got an extension lead?

  • C.

    Decent review, but you are such a peasant when it comes to audio lol. Terrible opinions there for the whole thing. Just delete the paragraph. Nobody wants friggin’ included garbage headphones and audio on the set. I want my own high-quality ear buds or over the ears headphones thanks. I sit for most of VR, and the last thing I want is their chintzy audio taking up headset space and everything else to boot and not being able to remove it. I have no idea where this dude is coming from here. Audio peasant confirmed.

    • alan green

      Not everyone wants to be completely shut off from everybody else in the room. Having speakers built in to the headset would mean you could hear your game AND any other noises, like the doorbell ringing etc.
      Nothing wrong with that section of the article. It’s informative. You wants better audio? You know you can easily plug your own cans into it. If you’re not an audiophile the included buds will get you by.

      • C.

        The included buds are terrible. The included buds with the PSVR were fucking LOL. Only the ignorant persist in enjoying mediocrity. Hell, it’s worse than mediocrity. IDK the last thing I want is integrated headphones unless I can literally pick the quality at this point.

        Why? Because they take up space and get in the way. That’s why. I don’t want a set like that at all.

      • kool

        I think you should have an option to pick up background audio from the mic. You could have it turned down but I’d still like to know if im being asked questions in VR.

      • Mike

        the tv can play game audio when headset is on.

    • Ben Lang

      Have you used Index? I’d happily trade putting on a separate pair of headphones for integrated off-ear headphones of that quality.

      • C.

        I would not do that. Some people, myself included at times, still use our hi-fi audio gear hooked up to receivers and amps bypassing the 3D audio just because it’s that much better.

        I have high sensitivity Etymotics hooked directly to set for 3D films and some games, but come on man. Have you ever heard great, properly amped audio lol? I was pretty much just joking around in the above post, but it’s kinda seeming like this is something most reviewers skip over despite being a huge portion of the experience.

        Real audio that is properly amped absolutely blows the barn doors of anything you are getting from integrated set and speaker/headphone combo. Y’all should get out more. It would have been sweet, likewise, if you could have made actual audio comparisons of sets you have had and told us about the quality of audio right away, and then even tried your own Sennheisers or Etymotics to tell us about how far the set can amp any of these headphones. As in I use HD600s at 300ohms for VR stuff. Not the most expensive pair, but they are incredibly solid for the price so no danger of messing them up. When amped and in VR, these things absolutely demolished the audio from the headset in 3D, and they are connected to a Denon. Just saying, there is a wide world of better audio out there, and some people definitely want those kinds of things. Having my set add a bunch of weight for audio I don’t want is crazy to me for 644 dollars. Just my opinion. I didn’t mind your review, and it’s not like many go into audio, but it would be nice if reviews actually did!

        • Ben Lang

          So have you used Index?

          • XRC

            Some thoughts on index BMR ear speakers, from Index first birthday article for Skarredghost

            “Once the sound power issue was resolved, I spent most of my time using the BMR ear speakers as their sound quality was very good, though to be critical slightly lacking bass weight when compared to studio headphones. For their tiny size and weight (53 gramme) though, they pack a big punch and have excellent clarity throughout their range including going very loud without distortion.

            The other important reason I stuck with the BMR ear speakers was for the sheer quality of life and comfort improvements of using headset mounted, off-ear audio, combined with their really immersive and open soundscape interacting naturally with the unique shape of my wonky ears.”

          • C.

            Briefly yes. I don’t know what impresses you about that audio so much. I would not say it’s bad, it’s way better than say the pack-in garbage on VR, but it will never compete in isolation or sound capability to a good pair of headphones and a solid amp. I mean yes I have read your own article on the audio, but you don’t really strike me as an in-depth audio fanatic no offense. The isolation of on-ear headphones like quality Sennheisers is bare minimum for me personally. The off-ear approach gives no isolation at all, and it’s completely distracting and lacking in any decent bass response. The end.

        • kool

          Dude just buy the $100 3d headset sony is selling it uses tempest 3d audio software that was made for VR. He probably could have put that in there somewhere.

      • kool

        I would too but understand why they dont. You should review the tempest 3d audio headphones if you get a chance.

  • sjefdeklerk

    Not sure I understand the content part. I mean show me better content on SteamVR! What great AAA titles did we have there? Ehmmm HL:A and then …

    • Tommy

      Let me know when PSVR2 get these. Most of these are already released on PCVR, some are coming soon.
      Asgards Wrath
      Assetto Corsa
      Boneworks
      Alien Isolation
      Bendy and the Ink Machine
      Blade and Sorcery
      Crash Bandicoot
      Cyberpunk 2077
      Deep Rock Galactic
      Devil May Cry 5
      Doom 3 BFG
      Dying Light
      Elden Ring
      Elder Scrolls Morrowind
      Elite Dangerous
      Fallout 4
      Final Fantasy VII
      Final Fantasy XIV
      Firewatch
      Fortnite
      Gary’s Mod
      Ghostwire Tokyo
      Grand Theft Auto V
      Grounded
      GTFO
      Gunfire Reborn
      Half Life (1&2)
      Hogwarts Legacy
      Horizon Zero Dawn
      Left 4 Dead 2
      The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
      Life is Strange: Before the Storm
      Little Nightmares 2
      Mafia (1&2) – No longer available
      Metal: Hellsinger
      Minecraft Dungeons
      Monster Hunter Rise
      Neon White
      No Man’s Sky
      Outer Wilds
      Pinball FX
      Portal
      Project Cars III
      Ready or Not
      Red Dead Redemption 2
      Resident Evil (2,3,7,8)
      Returnal
      Risk of Rain 2
      Saints Row
      Saints Row 3
      Scorn
      Session: Skate Sim
      Severed Steel
      Skyrim VR
      The Stanley Parable
      Star Wars Battlefront 2
      Star Wars Dark Forces
      Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
      Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
      Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast
      Star Wars Squadrons
      Star Wars TIE Fighter
      Star Wars X-Wing Alliance
      Stray
      Subnautica
      System Shock
      Tony Hawk Remake (1&2)
      Valheim
      TWD: Saints and Sinners
      Zelda: Breath of the Wild

    • Mike

      also, the thing hasn’t even launched yet so they should give them a chance before they ding them for that in the review. the original psvr games were made for the move controllers and Sony probably want to start fresh with the new controllers. that way everyone has a next gen experience not one handy caped by the psvr limitations. games will arrive soon.

      • Christian Schildwaechter

        That is a difficult demand. Those that didn’t pre-order, blindly trusting Sony, will be looking for reviews before buying them. Sony obviously sent out review units some time ago with the embargo for reviews lifted on Friday. The PSVR 2 updates for titles like RE8 and GT 7 aren’t part of the review package and will only become available at launch.

        So all any reviewer can do is either evaluate what is actually there, meaning it will not cover important releases and updates that come in the future, or delay the review until after the launch of more titles, meaning it will be useless to those considering to buy at launch. It would be pretty unacceptable for them to just speculate how all the features will be used in future titles, as we have seen a lot of time that the technical potential doesn’t always translate into actual features, and some features that look great on paper don’t pan out in reality. Which is why we often get “this is the current state” previews shortly before the launch, and “is it yet/still worth it” reviews six months or a year later.

    • Ben Lang

      All headsets could use more/better content!

    • david vincent

      Kids and their AAA games nowadays…
      On PCVR you have Hogwarts, Elden Ring, Cyberpunk, etc. thanks to the amazing modding community.
      And tons to come thanks to Praydog’s Upcoming Universal UE VR Injector.

  • XRC

    Comprehensive review. Very interesting comments about the ergonomics, small eyebox and sweetspot. Look forward to a demo soon.

  • Thanks for this very detailed review

  • disqus_X9ZJ2aszXj

    Could you comment on any experience with motion sickness? Whether you or your colleague experienced it, or whether there are any changes from the original PSVR?

    • Ben Lang

      The tracking is significantly better than the original PSVR, so that’s a big improvement toward reducing any motion sickness that could be caused by the hardware itself.

      Assuming a headset has solid tracking (and PSVR 2 does) most of the potential for motion sickness comes down to game design, and some people are more sensitive than others.

      For anyone who finds themselves highly sensitive to VR motion, seek out games like Beat Saber where there’s no artificial movement. If you’re feeling a bit more ambitious, look for titles that have teleport movement—avoid smooth movement and smooth turn! All of our game reviews include a little report card at the bottom detailing a game’s comfort options, see here for example: https://www.roadtovr.com/horizon-call-of-the-mountain-review-psvr-2/

  • Runesr2

    PSVR2 offers – according to UploadVR:

    “PSVR could run content at 90 FPS, 120FPS or a third mode where 60 frames were reprojected up to 120 FPS. PSVR 2 similarly offers native 90 or 120 FPS, alongside a reprojected 120 FPS option”

    Did Ben use 60 fps reprojected to 120 fps, which could explain ghistibg, or pure 90 Hz?
    It’s very important to describe this – in order not to spread potential incompetent misinformation about ghosting of the PSVR2.

    So how was the ghosting and reprojections using PSVR2 in 90 Hz, 120 Hz and 2 x 60 fps in 120 Hz?

    • shadow9d9

      The designer sets that, not the user…

    • kool

      I think the ghosting will be fixed with patches and better understanding of they hardware.

    • Ben Lang

      This isn’t a user-adjustable setting, and games don’t relay which mode they’re using. On the original PSVR, most games go for 60Hz native with 120Hz reprojection, but it’s not clear yet where most games are landing with PSVR 2.

      Reprojection issues usually appear as stuttering and not blur. What I’m seeing appears to be mostly blur. The issue could also be a combination of both stuttering and blur that have different root causes.

      Its possible to have perfect reprojection which doesn’t cause any visible artifacts, but it depends on the display’s capabilities and the software/firmware implementation.

      I’ve tried a variety of games and have seen the issue but I’m continuing to test more to find out. I’ve asked Sony about this issue on more than one occasion and they’ve had nothing to say about it.

      • Zerofool

        Thanks for the review – it’s in-depth and useful as always.

        This blurring issue sounds to me like it’s caused by a duty cycle setting of the displays which is not low enough (basically, not “low persistence” enough, similarly to the Rift DK1 back in the day), which may be required in order to achieve the high brightness levels needed for HDR.

        In the hope that the duty cycle is variable based on the brightness setting, have you tried lowering the brightness from the quick menu to its lowest possible value and checking if the blurring is still perceivable?

        • Runesr2

          Using the Index, I’ve noticed that the image gets slightly more blurry in 120 and 144 Hz compared to 80 and 90 Hz. I’m not sure the panels are fast enough to separate all images in 120+ Hz, causing some slight blurring. That is why I normally use 90 Hz, seems more sharp. I’m using an oc’ed RTX 3090, so performance in 120 Hz is great and I’m not getting reprojections – same for 144 Hz.
          I’m wondering if 120 Hz may have a similar issue for PSVR2.

      • Runesr2

        Thanks, I greatly appreciate the relpy. Norm from Tested spent some time on the foveated rendering – and said it was possible to turn it off, see his vid starting at 20:50. He also said that the performance improvement by enabling foveated rendering was not high enough to get 120 fps in 120 Hz. But hard to read between the lines as he does not go into details about the settings.
        In games like Ratchet & Clank you got like 3 perfirmance settings, but you have none in Call of the Mountain? Maybe the eye tracking is disabled in some more general setting, but I’m just guessing.

      • Zerofool

        Apparently my assumption was correct. SadlyItsBradley has slo-mo footage on twitter showing the differences in duty cycle based on the brightness setting. According to him, the 25% value offers a good balance between clarity and brightness (subjectively, based on his personal blur sensitivity). The same findings as another poster here.

  • MOT

    Just seen an interesting tweet from John Linneman Senior Staff Writer at digital foundry and eurogamer talking about Gran Turismo 7 on psvr2

    “OK, GT7 in VR is unbelievable. One small detail that literally caught my eye – the HDR glare of headlights in your mirrors during night races. It’s bright to the point where it closely resembles reality in a similar situation. I’ve never seen anything quite like this in a game.”

    Sounds incredible.

  • ViRGiN

    Honestly – I did not even bother to read the review. Everything has been already said in the past few months. It doesn’t matter how awesome or not the headset is – we all just want more and better, bigger games.

  • KRAKEN

    OP, how it com pares to playing on Reverb G2 on PC?

    With all the technology, RGB OLED, fovated rendering, is the image sharper and less “watery” than on G2?
    On G2 i have sharp center and if i try to look with my eye instead of my head say read text its blurry, outside the sharp center

    • Tommy

      Very close to G2. The blacks are darker and has better colors on PSVR2. The resolution is about the same.

      • Bob

        Are you sure about that? Do you own the PSVR 2 or just preaching it?

        • Tommy

          Had a G2. Own a PSVR2.
          PSVR2 is blurriness but has a better display

          • Bob

            Neither have pancake lenses.

          • Tommy

            I corrected myself

  • Roger Bentley

    I have currently a psv1 day 1 edition, quest 1 and quest 2 both day 1 edition, rift cv1 day edition, hp reverb g2v2 after my day 1 g2 went bad. And my newest edition. The psvr2 that is now home with his Daddy psv1. It’s awesome and enjoying every min of it gran turismo is excellent.

    • Bob

      Did things looks blurry or sharp in psvr 2?

  • Constantin Georgiu

    “I also mentioned motion blur as something that’s holding back the clarity on PSVR 2. I still don’t know exactly why I’m seeing a fair bit of motion blur on PSVR 2”

    Based on my testing I know exactly why this is happening. The “HDR” display is basically reducing the Black Frame Insertion feature of the headset. The PSVR2 is the blurriest headset I have ever seen and to me it induces motion sickness.

    The “good” news is that you can increase the motion clarity by reducing the default 100% brightness to about 25%.

    You can easily see this change improves motion clarity because even the text from the brightness settings will be clear in motion if you move your head left and right while keeping your eyes focused on the test.

    To me the PSVR2 is a major disappointment as it causes motion sickness and looks terrible in motion.

    I had almost all major VR headsets and I still have a valve index which is vastly superior.

    • Arno van Wingerde

      Oops… that might be a deal breaker for me.

    • Mike EY

      Why reduce brightness to 25%…

      • Zerofool

        The brightness setting apparently controls the duty cycle of the display (how much time it’s on vs off). High duty cycle (high persistence) introduces perceived motion blur. Reducing the setting reduces the blur. 25% seems to be a good middle ground – clear image, but decently bright still.

  • Alexisms

    Apologies if this is answered elsewhere but can you watch 3d blu rays in psvr2?

  • Lucidfeuer

    I just tried the PSVR2. Ergonomics is on point (although a bit wobbly which is to be expected from a halo design) or rather 10x better than the disgusting Meta strap, despite the cable. And while the image is the brightest and smoothest I think I’ve seen in a consumer headset, the sweetspot is indeed way to finicky.

    But since the PS5 is POS and there’s no BC, there’s little to make me care for this headset for now.

  • Rupert Jung

    Looks like they ‘payed’ the high brightness with a long image persitence, resulting in unusual strong motion blur. I also can confirm the problem with the lenses pressing against the nose, would be great if they had a small cutout on the edge. Overall it still looks great, though.