CES 2022 – PlayStation VR2: technical characteristics and a first game announced for the … – Les Numériques

Almost a year after confirming the existence of a next-gen PlayStation VR designed for the PS5, Sony is finally giving news of its next virtual reality headset. Present on stage during the manufacturer’s CES 2022 opening conference, Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, has indeed confirmed some new information, starting with the most basic of them: his official name will therefore be a very conservative PlayStation VR2.

But things obviously did not stop there and the manufacturer took advantage of the event to lift the veil on the technical specifications of the device. Let’s say it straight away, these last few surprises since most of them only confirm hallway noise, including the specialized site UploadVR had wind in May 2021.

HDR, foveal rendering and haptic feedback on the program

But we now know without the slightest doubt that the headset does indeed have OLED definition screens of 2000 x 2040 px per eye, with a refresh rate of 90 or 120 Hz, HDR support and an advertised field of vision of 110 ° (against 100 ° for the first PS VR). It is also equipped with an eye movement tracking system that allows it to make use of foveal rendering – a technique for optimizing the use of the console’s graphics computing power through spatially variable rendering definition. , higher in the center of the user’s vision, where their visual acuity is finest. This tracking can also be used by developers as a control input to improve player immersion. For example, we can imagine that an NPC is able to detect when we look him straight in the eye and react accordingly.

The presence of haptic motors is also confirmed not only in the controllers (which have also been baptized by the sweet name of PlayStation VR2 Sense Controller), but also in the headset itself. This could serve, if we are to believe the examples we are given, to make the player feel the pulse of his character or even the acceleration of a vehicle – which could in the process minimize the impact of motion sickness for the players. people who are prone to it.

Finally, the headset connects to the PS5 by means of a simple USB-C cable and uses an inside-out motion tracking system making use of four cameras placed directly on the visor to find one’s way around its environment and to detect the controllers. – like a Oculus Quest 2.

Side games, Horizon as a standard bearer

But the hardware is obviously not everything and it is also the games that will or not the interest of the PS VR2. It is in this capacity that Sony also cracked the very first announcement of a game created specifically for the new headset in the person of Horizon: Call of the Mountain. An announcement that comes at the right time, while Horizon: Forbidden West, the second canonical episode of the license, is due in just a month and a half, on February 18, 2022 on PS4 and PS5. This iteration in virtual reality will put us in the shoes not of Aloy, the main heroine of the saga, but of a whole new character evolving in the same universe. The title is being developed in tandem by Guerilla Games, Dutch studio creator of the series, and Firesprite Games, British studio which Sony acquired just a few months ago (September 2021).

After all that, there are obviously still two big unknowns: What will the helmet look like, and when will it be available – not to mention its price? On these points, Sony still fiercely maintains the secret for the moment. Perhaps the priority is elsewhere for the moment: while the manufacturer is still struggling to manufacture enough PS5s to meet demand, it would undoubtedly be very premature to commit to a date now. delivery for the PS VR2.