Sony announces Project Morpheus, a virtual reality headset coming to PS4

http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/18/5524058/playstation-vr-ps4-virtual-reality

by nzonbi • 12 years ago

215 115 12 years ago

hydralist• 12 years ago

I'm still on the fence, I am a current PS3 owner and figured PS4 was a logical next purchase. Then I realized how awesome Kinect was visiting my friend and how much more of a 'next gen' feel it had. This might be the killer hardware but I'd rather just have an Oculus Rift :(

rasz_pl3• 12 years ago

Yes, I also buy weaker slower and more expensive products because of buzzwords, and reasons

maccard• 12 years ago

I played both consoles for about 3-4 hours pre launch (each), knowing that I was going to buy one. I was a 360 owner last gen, and PS2 the previous gen, so I don't have any real allegiances. However, I much preferred the PS4, not only for game selection, but the controllers felt better, and Kinect is great at first, but it really is a bit gimmicky after a while. Kinect sports is fun with friends, but not so much on your own. PS4 has exclusives like Infamous, Killzone, Knack(which I thoroughly enjoyed), Resogun, and loads more. Xbox has Ryse(didn't like it) dead rising(granted, it's fun) Forza(I want this one)and Titanfall(on the fence, probably don't care to be honest). The selection of games on PS4 is far superior, coupled with faster installation times, a much smaller box, and better looking games, makes it a no brainer IMHO

_cbb1• 12 years ago

What I appreciate most about the PS4 is how the system is architected. I love that PS4 just consumes a lot less power then a PS3 and Xbox One. You can tell without even looking at the specs because of the size. It not only consumes less power but gives you the performance.

ihuman• 12 years ago

This is fantastic news. It is good to finally see some competition in the modern VR headset industry. While the VR industry may be in it's infancy, competition may help to accelerate its development. I can't wait until GDC, where we can see how it compares to Oculus's headsets.

lhl4• 12 years ago

GDC is going on right now - this announcement was at GDC!

Oculus is likely to announce DK2 at a session tomorrow:

Wednesday, March 19 | 11:00am-12:00pm (PDT)

Working with the Latest Oculus Rift Hardware and Software (Presented by Oculus VR) Speakers: Michael Antonov (Oculus VR), Nate Mitchell (Oculus VR) Format: Sponsored Panel Track: Programming

Summary: Since the debut of the original Oculus Rift development kit at GDC 2013, we've shown off a set of critical improvements including a high-definition display, positional tracking, and low-persistence support. Likewise, behind the scenes we've also been making critical improvements to the core Oculus SDK like new feature support, optimizations (particularly around latency), and overall simplicity.In this talk, we'll discuss everything you need to know to get started integrating the latest Oculus Rift hardware with your VR game or experience. The talk will be split into an overview of the latest hardware, a technical breakdown for engineers, an a game design discussion relevant to the new features. We'll also talk about our vision for future development hardware leading to the consumer Rift and what that path might look like.

csmattryder• 12 years ago

What I think will be the killer feature over Occulus Rift is that Project Morpheus has 60 virtual speakers, which (from the liveblog commentary) could lead to audio taking a bigger part in gaming.

I'm also looking forward to this tech being used for concert demos. I'd love to strap this on and listen to AC/DC's Live At River Plate, all the sound and the atmosphere of being there!

Shame that "no PC support has been announced" [1]. But some enterprising hacker'll get it going, no doubt.

[1] http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/03/18/sonys-ps4-virtual-rea...

psykotic• 12 years ago

What I think will be the killer feature over Occulus Rift is that Project Morpheus has 60 virtual speakers, which (from the liveblog commentary) could lead to audio taking a bigger part in gaming.

With old fashioned two-speaker headphones and binaural recording, you can already achieve a surprising level of audio spatialization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IXm6SuUigI

plaguuuuuu• 12 years ago

Yerp. Games just don't simulate it very well. People are hyperfocused on graphics and nobody pays attention to audio.

However I seem to recall Creative acquiring some audio company that had products with superior audio positioning technology, & basically axed the other product in favour of EAX or whatever its called..? Could be wrong

samizdatum• 12 years ago

Currently, headphones are pretty much required hardware for VR, because the positions of the speakers relative to the ears are fixed. Achieving realistic binaural audio with external speakers isn't currently feasible because of the need to compensate for reflections and interference, let alone maintaining positionally invariant virtualized audio sources through head rotations and translations.

I'm not sure how the "60 virtual speakers" would work (it sounds like marketing terminology), but currently, the state-of-the-art in immersive in-game audio involves constructing an acoustically realistic head model, and harnessing the raytracing abilities of game engines and graphics cards to apply a material-based frequency attenuation curve at each bounce.

mistercow• 12 years ago

Actually, with two speaker headphones you can achieve any level of spatialization perceivable by human ears.

rasz_pl3• 12 years ago

60 virtual speakers

oh, so you mean its a stereo headset?

MisterBastahrd• 12 years ago

I want one of these things for software development. Being able to have one giant screen which encompasses your field of vision could work wonders for developers who feel constrained by monitors. Add in some sort of motion sensor and you can arrange your items on your giant virtual window with your hands. Throw a camera on the front of it so that when you need to look down at some paperwork, you can still see it.

1stop• 12 years ago

at 1080p... and what pixel density... it'd have to be pretty high to be bareable

catshirt3• 12 years ago

check out https://www.spaceglasses.com/

they are essentially a full screen Google Glass with "touch" based UI. i am excited for the opportunity to use something like this as an IDE.

luxpir• 12 years ago

My thoughts exactly. A portable system powered by a pocket-sized computing device, or a more powerful desktop, or the portable device dialling into the desktop. Perhaps rather than a camera a simple (Blade Runner-ish) SLR-type of screen flipper to show you RL in an instant, no extra battery power required.

I can also see a glove, similar to the early Nintendo efforts, with a keyboard that slides down over (or under) the hand, pivots 90 degrees and locks out between both hands. Speech recognition is of course great and all, but slightly humiliating to use (from experience), getting progressively moreso on a sliding scale of how many people can hear you talking to a computer. What we really need is either the sensor, as you mention, for 'air keyboard', or a brainwave reader that can intercept and interpret thought. Obviously one of those is more workable than the other, but no harm in planning ahead.

deletes3• 12 years ago

60 Virtual speakers What does that even mean? It sounds like clever marketing talk.

I bet they have just regular stereo and software. Here, take a pair of good stereo headphones and try this 3d demo. And don't forget to close your eyes.

Virtual barber shop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA

72deluxe3• 12 years ago

I would agree. With sound, you perceive sounds to be close if they have plenty of bass and far away if this bass content rolls off. You also get phase smearing, where the sound waves coming towards you interact and mush together. A perception of closeness can be achieved by reversing this process, as used by BBE in their products (I have a BBE BMax-T bass preamp that has got this in it; if you take the top off, it's a little chip doing this).

I would imagine that they're just processing audio in a way to create a logical spherical arrangement, and sounds that fit into that sphere at certain points have equalisation applied to them to give the psychological effect of being far away or close; in effect, most things can be done with equalisation! For example, guitar effects boxes these day commonly "simulate" cabinets. Each speaker cabinet has its own resonant frequency, and the speakers in it also have certain frequency responses (they are not flat responses), hence the reason 4x12" Marshall cabs sound a certain way. The speakers also have sharp treble roll-offs, so these cabinet simulators are just putting an equaliser on the output signal that sounds like the frequency response of a particular cabinet. This is also the reason that signals taken from an amplifier's "direct out" that doesn't have this EQ applied sound fizzy - the sound doesn't have the same response as the speaker (which happens to be really ineffective at converting the input signal to the output sound), and so the guitarist will compare the speaker sound to the "direct out" sound and think the "direct out" sounds rubbish! In reality, the sound they are expecting to hear is the massively coloured sound of the speaker but they are hearing the true-sounding DI tone.

(Your ears are far more responsive to middle/treble frequencies and not bass, but bass gives the feeling of power and treble the perception of loudness, hence the reason most "rock" equalisers on hifis or MP3 players boost those two, so you think "Wow, this is really powerful and LOUD!")

BTW, that's a great demo. Haven't heard that in ages.

anjc• 12 years ago

The virtual barbershop is a binaural recording made with special microphones. Presumably they're saying '60 virtual speakers' because they're modelling binaural 'ears' from 60 locations.

sillysaurus3• 12 years ago

I bought a Razer Tiamat a couple years ago (a true 7.1 surround sound headset) and it was one of the best purchases I've ever made. Imagine living your life with one eye closed, then suddenly having the opportunity to open both eyes, and how surprising it would be to realize that you have depth perception, etc. That's sort of what experiencing true surround sound is like.

It requires a bit of tweaking to get configured properly though, which led to a lot of negative reviews or people leaving reviews saying they weren't impressed.

Experiencing actual 7.1 surround sound headphones (rather than simulated surround) is kind of like a mini version of experiencing the Oculus Rift for the first time, in terms of the "wow" factor when you finally get it working properly. What Rift is to eyes, the Tiamat is to ears.

The reason headphones have had just two speakers till now is because people have two ears, so we've incorrectly assumed that that's all that's needed. But human ears are designed to capture 3D positional audio. Two speakers means there are only two positions that audio can come from. 7.1 headphones simply blow everything else out of the water. It's a very visceral experience that's hard to articulate.

The takeaway is that having a headset which is capable of physically producing soundwaves from 7 different directions at once is one of the coolest experiences that any gamer can have. For casual gamers, it enhances the experience and immersion of any game. For competitive gamers, you can hear people sneaking up behind you, so you gain a competitive advantage.

All of this means that real (not simulated) 7.1 surround sound is a valuable idea which till now has seemingly been overlooked by the gaming industry. The first industry player that delivers a true positional surround sound experience to the masses stands to profit handsomely, whether it's Oculus or Sony or someone else. So build it!

(That said, I have no idea what 60 virtual speakers means, but I wanted to share my experience with true positional surround sound. Also, the surround sound headset works fine in tandem with the Rift. So until the Oculus guys realize how important 3D positional audio is and ship their next product with a pair of surround sound headphones, you can get the same effect right now from the Tiamat.)

numo162• 12 years ago

then suddenly having the opportunity to open both eyes, and how surprising it would be to realize that you have depth perception

As someone who is stereoblind, I really wish opening both eyes leading to depth perception were true for all of us...

justin662• 12 years ago

The takeaway is that having a headset which is capable of physically producing soundwaves from 7 different directions at once is one of the coolest experiences that any gamer can have.

I'm pretty skeptical as to whether this really requires special headphones. Amazing-sounding recordings made with a binaural head can be played back on normal headphones, after all. It seems more like a signal processing problem.

Sort of analogous to the way Creative used to sell overwrought, overpriced hardware for creating sound effects with EAX when the CPU and signal-processing libraries could have been used to serve the same purposes.

PhasmaFelis3• 12 years ago

Imagine living your life with one eye closed, then suddenly having the opportunity to open both eyes, and how surprising it would be to realize that you have depth perception, etc.

Interestingly, some people with faulty depth perception have had that experience with Oculus Rift. I look forward to trying it out myself.

jameswilsterman• 12 years ago

BTW, if you have a Jambox, you can demo binaural (3D) sound by installing this update:

https://jawbone.com/liveaudio

userbinator2• 12 years ago

Live in our world, play in ours.

modeless2• 12 years ago

Before the announcement Oculus said, paraphrasing, that more people doing VR is good because it means devs will have more incentive to invest in made-for-VR content. Oculus's worst fear is not that Sony will make better hardware than them, but that Sony might make bad hardware that would give people a bad experience (motion sickness, etc) and kill this new VR renaissance before it has a chance to start.

http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/03/18/oculus-on-sonys-rumored...

melling3• 12 years ago

It's like when IBM got into the personal computer market. They made it a legitimate business and created a bigger market for personal computers.

ericd3• 12 years ago

It wasn't very good for Apple, though...

Tyrant5052• 12 years ago

3..2..1..

Tyrant5052• 12 years ago

Oh common, I have one semi "reddit-like" post about a real opinion and you can't put 2 and 2 together? Are my downvotes faith in Sony corp?

userbinator2• 12 years ago

motion sickness

The hardware doesn't matter; some people just cannot stand certain forms of stimulation-without-movement that occurs with virtual reality. I can't play FPS or watch videos containing lots of movement on large screens for this reason, and I doubt the experience would be any different for VR; if anything, making the graphics more realistic would exacerbate the situation.

catshirt3• 12 years ago

i'd have to guess the hardware to some extent, and at least the algorithms applied on top of it, can make a difference in many cases.

that is to say, you can probably not eliminate motion sickness entirely in all cases, but without care it's probably not hard to catalyze either.

Quaro• 12 years ago

The hardware doesn't matter; some people just cannot stand certain forms of stimulation-without-movement that occurs with virtual reality

While it won't help every case, for the vast majority the motion sickness is alleviated when the head tracking is better (accurate positional tracking and low latency).

You can make pretty much anyone feel sick if you add enough lag to the display.

modeless2• 12 years ago

The hardware does matter. There will be VR games that don't induce motion sickness in anyone, because they don't involve movement at all (other than actual movement of your real head, reflected 1:1 in the virtual world). When people think of VR they naively imagine virtual Call of Duty, but that's not going to happen the way people imagine it. FPS is a genre designed for traditional screens; VR will require new genres. I doubt ports of traditional FPS games to VR will even be very popular.

kybernetikos• 12 years ago

Apparently a lot of people who were getting motion sickness from the first occulus dev kit are now fine with the latest hardware. It turns the screen off after the frame is displayed so the amount of time that you are looking at something that is simply not right is extremely small. All the reviews say it makes a huge difference to people who got bad motion sickness.

comex• 12 years ago

Which is arguably what they'd say no matter what they thought. Not that Oculus doesn't have a lot going for it, but as a startup I'd be nervous to see a much larger company that makes both a game console and display technology push their own alternative.

But I guess there is not much lock-in effect - except for the current Oculus SDK, so hopefully games will start using a platform neutral one soon - and the market is potentially huge, so competition can also have a lot of pros.

cma2• 12 years ago

The Oculus SDK is open-source, so it wouldn't be too hard.

sixQuarks• 12 years ago

Honestly, I don't think they're really worried about the competition. They have Jon Carmack, enough said.

lucian1900• 12 years ago

I don't think there's much overlap.

Sony's VR will be PS4-only for a long time, perhaps forever.

The Oculus will be disallowed from the PS4 by Sony, probably forever.

AJ007• 12 years ago

The Oculus dev kit does a good job of that itself. I've demo'd mine to about 6 people and all got sick. One of my friends laid down on the floor for a good 30 minutes after. I know my limits, the first few times required taking off my shirt and blasting the air conditioner as I was drenched in a cold sweat. Yet it asks you to return, its a feeling I can only relate to with lucid dreaming. The Oculus and truly immersive VR is one of those forces, once its released will just flatten everything in its path. Nothing will return this cat to the bag.

My question, is the PS4 going to be able to handle rendering its existing games x2? Michael Abrash's presentation was pretty clear that the Oculus and its competitors would really be pushing the PC's requirements and laid out exactly why.

nemof• 12 years ago

yeah I find it incredibly hard to believe that the ps4 can push 2 x 5" 1080p displays, with the necessary latency to give a real sense of presence, as the the parlance now is.

I can only assume that if the SDK is being made soon then devs may well have had time with it. I am really looking forward to hearing about their experiences.

adamors• 12 years ago

PS4 going to be able to handle rendering its existing games x2

Well, yeah, at 10fps. Currently if the PS4 outputs 1080p it drops the framerate to 30.

higherpurpose• 12 years ago

Yes, but that's the original dev kit launched in 2012. Their current prototypes don't do that anymore, and they're still a year away from launch. Oculus is worried Sony didn't solve that. Sony just announced the device will use LCD instead of OLED. Oculus picked OLED for its low persistence which greatly reduces the nausea effect. We'll see. Sony's device is probably coming out next year, too.

And no, I think most VR PS4 games will be made at 720p@60fps. You might see some indie ones at 1080p. PS4's hardware is barely enough for VR, but should be sufficient for a decent experience. The worst part about it is that Sony won't be able to upgrade it until PS5, while Oculus will move on to 4k displays in a few years, 120Hz, better optics, and so on.

yaeger2• 12 years ago

Yes, or, they are afraid that history will repeat itself yet again.

-Consoles make inferior version of something that can be done so much better on PC. -People buy up the inferior version one cause they apparently have no problem with being stuck for a decade on hardware/games that will never change. -Developers make so much money from that bargain basement segment that they only care about the console version and if they feel like it, port it over to PC as is. Without any refinement whatsoever.

When did that ever happen before you ask? With games in general, of course.

Most recent example: DICE developed a shield as DLC for Battlefield 4. Should have been shield in one hand, pistol in the other. But!, since that would take ONE MEGABYTE OF ADDITIONAL RAM it was scrapped cause the dumb kiddie consoles can't handle that "enormous" additional load. Instead you only get the shield which is now held "in both hands"!

No problem right? Just gimp the console version and do it right on PC. Wrong. DICE is hell bend on keeping the tradition of giving the PC gamers the finger alive and just shells out this crutch on all systems.

Yeah, if these console people really have to enter the VR business, I already know how that will turn out for the one system that is best equipped to do gaming. And that is very very badly. Unless Oculous also enters the game development in a big way and more developers with the correct focus like Bohemia Interactive come forth, PC will get hosed again.

Prime Examples for developers with the wrong focus would be again, DICE and of course Rockstar who have nor problem putting GTAIV on sale on Steam now, even though who knows what will happen once the gfwl servers are shut down. And of course, nobody needs to talk about GTAV on PC. They made enough money with the cheap console version. Why should they even do a poor port to PC? Let alone maybe take some pride in their work and do things right and make the PC version really push the envelope.

PhasmaFelis3• 12 years ago

People buy up the inferior version one cause they apparently have no problem with being stuck for a decade on hardware/games that will never change.

I hear that a lot from bitter PC gamers. It's just as valid to say "People buy up consoles because they want to just be able to play some damn games without worrying about hardware upgrades and framerates and heat dissipation."

(I have a 360 and a high-end gaming PC. I am platform-agnostic. I just like games.)

deletesystem322• 12 years ago

m-m-muh m-master race
muh gaben

bentcorner3• 12 years ago

Consoles make inferior version of something that can be done so much better on PC

That's a bit of a blanket statement, no?

The PC controller market has been rife with crap. 3rd-party console controllers were equally sucky. Even Microsoft's PC controllers weren't that great.

These days, you could get by with a Logitech controller. But by and large if you want to game with a controller on a a PC you're going to use a wired 360 controller.

MBCook2• 12 years ago

It will be interesting to see the hands on reports when they start to come out. The specs seem roughly comparable to the Occulus Rift, but Sony certainly has a ton of manufacturing power to make great the special screens in quantity.

But the name "Project Morpheus" just sounded like they were trying too hard. Of course this will probably get a much sexier name for release like "Playstation Virtual Reality Headset Environment".

Occulus Rift is a pretty cool name.

TillE• 12 years ago

I'm sure Sony can put together a nice hardware package, but I'd be very skeptical about their ability to duplicate all the crucial work Oculus has done with the software.

It's not trivial translating all the sensor data quickly and precisely into game camera movements.

MBCook2• 12 years ago

Agreed. Sony is a hardware company, their software often leaves a lot to be desired.

MartinCron• 12 years ago

Occulus Rift is a pretty cool name

That's an understatement. It's a totally awesome name.

ekianjo• 12 years ago

Meh, all the previous headsets from Sony in recent history were really, really crappy (I tried most of them in exhibitions). Small angle of vision (making it look like you play a game through a small window), unbalanced weight (you tend to have you head looking down after a while), I really hope they are getting their act together here if they want to compete. Occulus Rift has a lot of headstart in that field.

lhl4• 12 years ago

The display is LCD so will be interesting to see how they do on persistence, but the FOV is 90 degrees horizontal - about the same as Oculus' units. Full PR here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sony-computer-entert... (confirmation that this is horizontal FOV in the Japanese PR: http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/140319.html )

From the presentation (see: http://live.theverge.com/live-sony-playstation-future-of-inn... ) it looks like 1) they've been working seriously on this for over 3 years and 2) they have taken the ideas of immersion/presence to heart and are focused on VR as a medium, not as a gimmick.

Personally, I think it'll be good for Oculus and VR in general to have a strong competitor w/ Sony. If it weren't PS4 only, I'd seriously consider grabbing one. Of course, we'll have to see what Oculus has up their sleeves w/ DK2 tomorrow...

deletes3• 12 years ago

Oculus Rift FOV is 110°.

dreadsword• 12 years ago

News! http://techwatching.com/page.php?i=22780

IIRC the big differentiator of Occulus Rift was lag - i.e.: to be truly immersive and "real" the system has to process and respond incredibly quickly. No mention of that anywhere from Sony.

jccooper• 12 years ago

Bah. The real Project Morpheus features hovering rockets. Real ones. http://www.youtube.com/user/MorpheusLander

deletes3• 12 years ago

The devs at Sony really like the matrix. Not very subtle.

jamesaguilar• 12 years ago

Or the god on whom the character is based.

nanidin• 12 years ago

No thanks, I'll wait for Oculus to release something that is guaranteed to work on my PC and not get locked into a Sony product - especially not after the rootkit debacle, and retroactively disabling linux on the PS3.

notastartup• 12 years ago

I have a feeling Sony is going to blow Oculus out of the water. Even more troubling if this headset makes its way to the PC which seems likely.

axefrog• 12 years ago

I have a feeling that Sony will do quite the opposite. They're already using an LCD display, which Oculus has moved away from because the pixel refresh rate is too slow. If Sony are already showing a lack of understanding in one area, it's quite possible that they'll be neglecting other areas that Oculus have been putting a lot of R&D time into. I think what's likely is that someone high up in Sony knows about Oculus and commanded his minions to "make us something like what Oculus is doing". There is no doubt in my mind that it'll fall short in numerous areas.

anonymousab2• 12 years ago

I'm curious as to how they'll manage the resolution, frame rate and low latency required, on the PS4's modest hardware, for modern games.

NiceOneBrah• 12 years ago

"Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?"

apranam2• 12 years ago

Is this flight 370????

http://www.tomnod.com/nod/challenge/malaysiaairsar2014/map/6...

adamsrog• 12 years ago

Lacking stereoscopic vision, I always have a hard time with the emergence of these new technologies. While I am naturally excited by it's potential, I'm bummed out I'll never get to experience it first-hand and secretly hope it doesn't become the norm (3D videos, VR headsets, etc).

Has anyone without stereoscopic vision tried any of these devices? What was your experience?

dimillian• 12 years ago

I'm in the same situation, but maybe worst, I'm stereoblind because one of my eye have only a peripheral vision. Anyone have feedback for VR headsets ?

danielbln2• 12 years ago

Which means VR to you will be as "good" as real life, nothing to worry here. You'll still get all the benefits of parallax. Also, check out some people using the Rift as sort of a corrective lense for stereo blindness: http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/1n6xyo/i_am_stereobl...

grannyg00se• 12 years ago

What a show of support for consumer grade VR. The Oculus Rift seemed to me as though it would always be a special little paradise for nerds. But this. This is mainstream and could blow the market wide open. I hope the OR team is ready to ride this wave.

bobowzki• 12 years ago

Well this VR thing is about to take off...

zk00006• 12 years ago

Can VR displays replace monitors for programming? It would be great to have virtually unlimited screen size. Are there some problems I do not realize at the moment?

danielbln2• 12 years ago

Eventually that's where it's going to go. At the moment resolution is the biggest limiting factor and probably will be for a couple of more years.

CmonDev• 12 years ago

I wonder if they will charge a mere $1000 or much more as usual?

Sony announces Project Morpheus, a virtual reality headset coming to PS4

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