The PlayStation 4 only has so much power, which is limiting for developers, especially those looking to create games for the PlayStation VR headset, which will require games to run at a much higher frame rate in order to avoid issues and motion sickness. Fortunately, Sony has a solution to this, a sizeable processing box, which will plug in to your PS4 and provide additional power for the headset.
While the PS4 did manage to eliminate the power brick, it looks like those looking to play in virtual reality will need to make some space for this additional box, which will be about the size of a Nintendo Wii.
This information comes from a Polygon report. The site was able to check out the final version of PlayStation VR this month and while they weren't allowed to take any pictures, they were able to take a close look at what will be releasing next year and publish their findings.
The processing box will take care of graphics, and help free up resources for two screen social experiences, in which one person will be watching the TV while the other has the headset on. This would be good for games like ‘Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes', though we don't know if that particular title will be coming to PSVR next year.
KitGuru Says: People were wondering exactly how the PS4 will handle virtual reality and now we know- it comes with a hardware add-on to bring extra processing power. What do you guys think of this implementation from Sony? I feel a little more confident that the PS4 will be able to offer a decent VR experience now, knowing that extra hardware is included in the bundle.
Ingenious solution.
I’m sure no one is at all surprised by this.
It was the only possible way VR could ever work on a limited console system. I’m sure Sony would have prefered to have the extra processing power in the headset itself, but VR needs a hell of a lot of grunt.
A GTX 970 and a high clocked i5 are what Occulus consider the minimum requirements.. and that’s practically two PS4s worth of power.
Called it right from the start. I knew they would ship their VR headset with an external GPU of some kind
Depends on how it works…I’m seriously curious. How will it hook up? It’ll need a PCIe Bus if it’s handling graphics…if that’s the case and it can be hacked, you’re in for a hell of a custom steam machine, if you put Linux on it!
There is always a way!
“A GTX 970 and a high clocked i5 are what Occulus consider the minimum requirement” From WCCFtech ?
I don’t know what that is, but those minimum specs were the ones Oculus posted themselves on their blog.
Here :
“Given the challenges around VR graphics performance, the Rift will have a recommended specification to ensure that developers can optimize for a known hardware configuration, which ensures a better player experience of comfortable sustained presence. The recommended PC specification is an NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD 290, Intel i5-4590, and 8GB RAM. This configuration will be held for the lifetime of the Rift and should drop in price over time.”
Source : https://www.oculus.com/en-us/blog/powering-the-rift/
they didn’t say ” The recommended PC specification is an NVIDIA GTX 970″ , Instead they said :
” The recommended PC specification is an NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD 290, Intel i5-4590, and 8GB RAM”
Why this article said GTX 970? why not says this “GTX 970 or AMD 290” ?
If they’re equal, why kick up a fuss. So what if OP didn’t include the AMD offering?