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When it became clear that Sony was working on a virtual reality solution for the PlayStaton 4, those who had experienced early VR with the DK1 and 2 were a little worried. The PS4 could barely handle 60 FPS at a decent resolution, let alone the 75+ it would need for VR. That's why Sony has built an external processor to help the console out, exclusively for its PlayStationVR platform.
Set to be bundled along with the head mounted display (HMD), the PSVR box measures in at 140 x 140 x 35mm (as per Eurogamer) and has its own separate power unit before it reaches the mains plug. It features a power input, HDMI in and out connector and a USB port which hooks it up to the PS4. The front has dual ouputs for the headset itself.
VRFocus even tweeted out an image of the box at the start of this month:
#PlayStationVR cable features power, volume, mic controls, first images revealed: https://t.co/bMT3PCykef pic.twitter.com/7wzvQxAlzB
— VRFocus (@VRFocus) December 5, 2015
Although the internal hardware of the PSVR external processor is unknown, we do know that it will handle the social-screen feature which will display a secondary feed of what the VR user is seeing to a TV. Chances are it will be helping bump frame rates too, as Sony took the interesting step to set the VR headset at 120Hz, much higher than the average frame rate that you expect with PS4 titles.
However that may be achieved with the use of asynchronous time warp, which allows for a sort-of frame-rate upscaling. It also helps prevent nausea, which is key in VR hardware.
Although we'll have to wait until a commercial launch later in 2016 to find out what is inside one of these things, we do know it's actively cooled, so must have a fair bit of grunt to it.
KitGuru Says: Do you think adding this extra processor to the mix will make PSVR an expensive solution for virtual reality?
I reckon it handles image warping and VR specific rendering techniques, whilst the PS4 just outputs a “standard image” at the highest framerate it can. Probably does frame interpolation (gulp!) too, to get the 120fps. I can’t see how else it would work, because the PS4 clearly doesn’t have any interfaces necessary to offload any of the heavy lifting.
I’m not saying that it is using the USB connection in this way but the 5gbits bandwidth should be enough to run a gpu, as I have run one off a single lane, but it would require a ton of proprietary hacks to fit it in the USB formfactor not saying it would even work taking in account latency and the fact it’s powered by different parts of the cpu but it’s not outside the realm of possibility
Sony you are wasting your time….
Whatever gets the industry going imo.
The latest news on VIrtual Reality can be found at this site: http://www.VRSyndicate.com
why? they offer stellar experience and will most probably bring the vr to the masses, unlike rift/vive which require a lot more investment.
More investment you say. Both Sony’s VR and the Rift would cost around the SAME. The only thing you are investing is a new GPU in that case. Or if you are to buy a new PC, that’s still $800 and you will start saving after the first year. Consoles need a lot more investment in the long term, and I hope people one day would wake up and see that Sony and MS are only milking. And no, console gamers are not poor, if they can give Sony $3000+ for 1 generation of consoles….in fact they are richer than us PC gamers and get a lot less than we do so 😛 😛 😛