PlayStation VR Uses 'Simple Chaperone' For Play Area, Sony 'Not Making A Loss' Over Price
Sony Worldwide Studios' Shuhei Yoshida has talked more about the recent pricing and launch details for the PlayStation VR, revealing the corporate giant won't be taking a financial hit by pricing below other VR rivals.
He attributes their engineer's experience with squeezing high quality performance from cost-effective hardware as an ace up their sleeve when it comes to stuff like this. It's true that the PlayStation VR isn't as powerful as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive or AMD's Solus Q (which is self-contained) but then it's for just one platform.
As the company won't be making a loss per unit sold they can spend more investing in promotion, trials and development support for studios, he says. They even went so far as to wait until they could use 120Hz OLED displays for the VR headset which was custom made and cutting edge. Sony was also determined to include a 'social experience' by rendering to two different screens; the VR unit and a TV.
Incidentally that extra little box that comes with the PlayStation VR doesn't boost the power of the PlayStation 4, but actually handles 3D audio processing and outputting the VR display to a TV or other screen which includes audio. This does put extra demand on PlayStation 4 hardware so a balance must be struck and some are going to ignore it completely to avoid sacrificing performance.
In fact the PlayStation 4 is going to be really great for developers looking to get into virtual reality gaming as the fixed nature of the console means they can 'fine tune' and take advantage of its power, and they know everyone will be experiencing it the same way.
"PS4 is PS4 for everyone who owns it. With PS VR, we can ensure developers can spend a lot of time tuning their games so they can ensure the experience is great for everyone trying it."
It's a general rule that as consoles get older the games tend to look and perform better as studios get to grips with the hardware and what they can get away with. Sony is banking on this rule for the PlayStation VR to really shine over the coming years.
Features matter and PlayStation VR has stiff competition and in one area in particular; the play area. Yoshida-san praises HTC Vive for its 'great' chaperone system which keeps the user warned and alerted to physical obstacles potentially in their way or if they're close to leaving the play area. He admits Sony doesn't have that advantage as PlayStation VR is limited to the PlayStation Camera's field of view.
"In terms of PS4, because the headset is tracked by the PlayStation Camera there's a limitation in terms of its field of view. So we defined the play area to be in front of the Camera. We have communicated that to developers, so they are required to create play experiences in the area in front of the Camera..."
Sony has implemented their own simpler chaperone system to let you know if you're close to stepping outside the defined play area, but they expect developers to come up with clever little tricks to get around limitations this field of view would impose. These tech rules are made to be broken. Yoshida-san is confident studios who develop for other VR platforms first will keep modularity in mind for PlayStation VR. Not everyone has huge 'play areas' after all and room-scaling is a must.
PlayStation VR is due for launch this October and is priced at $399, which is significantly cheaper than rivals Oculus Rift at $599 and the even more expensive HTC Vive at $799.
