Sony next-gen PlayStation5 VR 120Hz 4K oled hmd (=PSVR2) - can now be used for PCVR too!

Currently my two favorite PSVR2 reviews are:

Also note that PSVR2 supports 90 Hz, 120 Hz, and 2 x 60 fps in 120 Hz. Some reviewers may have activated the latter, which results in some ghosting. The above reviews show how eye tracking and foveated rendering work, jump to 20:50 in the vid from Tested. 

Btw, here's the eye tracking and foveated rendering in action:

Also as testified by several reviewers including Norm from Tested, you cannot see the effect of foveated rendering, because eye tracking makes sure that what you see is always sharp. 

According to UploadVR this can increase performance up to 4 times:

https://uploadvr.com/psvr-2-eye-tracking-foveated-rendering-gdc/

An increase of let's say 2-4 times may turn the PS5's Opteron processor into something close to a RTX 3090. This was observed by devs behind Pavlov who stated that PSVR2 was about 10% faster than their PC with a 3090 Ti. 

This was also fun to hear:

oh man this actually looks
1:09
exactly the same
1:12
as my bloody as the bloody PC
1:14
version
1:15
now bear in mind right for the PC I have
1:17
like a an I9
1:20
processor I've got 64 gigs of RAM
1:25
I've got a bloody 3080ti

- So the most important feature of the PS5 may indeed be its processing power, fueled by eye tracking and foveated rendering.  

Awesome commercial, lol - so even Ozzy got one:

I'm not fond of all these unboxing vids - but I like my own shots 😁

Got the package today:

Compared to Rift CV1 and especially Index, the PSVR2 packaging is rather ... boring - the code to Call of the Mountain seems to have been added quickly, the cable box was not properly closed, but no damage:

At least I got the game code:

The download was 46GB - and additionally 7GB for GT7. Only 780MB for the VR patch to Resident Evil 8 (Village). 

And finally the meat:

- here compared to CV1 and Index:

Surely Sony does not win anything for the boring packaging - no sticker and no microfiber cloth come with the PSVR2.

Also some said the Sense controllers are big - but they are not, feels like made for small hands, nearly too small for my hands: 

It's more about the length of the shaft - see how much longer the Index controller is, the Index controller feels much better with big hands. But I'll probably habituate. 

The hmd looks kinda big and bulky, I was never a great fan of that design, and I greatly dislike the white color - but I can't see it when wearing it, and oled panels win 😉

Have just finished downloading the games and pairing the controllers, will continue with the full setup in a few minutes 😇

Keep us posted 😄 

But yeah, I agree the box is a little underwhelming for such a nex-gen product like the PSVR2. Not a huge deal, but it's the little things that matter. 

First impressions:

Getting the hmd to sit optimally is extremely important, I had to correct it several times, but I'm getting the hang of it.

When the hmd is placed correctly, sweet spot is much like the Index, maybe a tiny bit smaller, but nothing important. The sweet spot is fine.

Everything works perfectly with glasses, using my Zeiss glasses with anti-glare coating I really saw no god rays or glare at all. That was even better than CV1 and Index. No issues with eye tracking and foveated rendering. I could move in the lenses to the max. Fov felt the same as Index, fov is really big, it goes beyond my glasses inside the hmd.

The panel res is higher than Index, but it didn't feel like much of a difference. But I'm using tons of super sampling with Index, which provides a sharp and soft image.

The bad: All the AAA games use blurry 2 x 60 fps in 120 Hz, so that goes for Call of the Mountain, Resideny Evil 8 and GT7. All are a somewhat blurry mess, but having done 45 fps ASW for years with Rift CV1 ss 2.0, I can live with it. It does feel like the Oculus ASW 2.0 and Valve's motion smoothing are far better at reprojections than Sony.
I didn't dare buy more games due to the fear of 2 x 60 fps. Index looks so much better in 1 x 80 fps or 1 x 90 fps. In Call of the Mountain, clearly the PS5 can't keep the 60 fps, it's very easy to see the stuttering Ben from Road To VR mentioned in his PSVR2 review. Still Call of the Mountain is awesome - but I think Sony should change the name to: "The Climb 3 - now with story and Robo-Dinos", lol.

The ugly: The oled mura is bad, never seen it worse. Like some sort of film grain constantly there. Not even CV1 has that in bright scenes. Index is still by far my king of image quality - even with the annoying columns. I hope I did not forget to remove any protective film from the PSVR2 lenses, pretty sure I did not see any, lol. Rift CV1 has the SPUD, but it can only be seen in very dark locations or when you get a totally black image. Using PSVR2, the oled mura is always there - but harder to see in some games than others. Sure the CV1 SDE is much worse, but I didn't expect this level of mura in the PSVR2.

From the games I tried today, PSVR2 felt like a poor man's idea of high-end VR. It's not bad, but also not that good - it needs more gpu power. It needs 1 x 90 fps, not 2 x 60 fps.

I think PSVR2 will be awesome for watching movies.

The Sony Pulse 3D wireless headphones sounded awesome in RE8 and great in Call of the Mountain. They are slightly hot to wear, especially compared to CV1 and Index, but the quality is fine - and there's no perceivable latency.

Tracking was fine, did not have any issues - apart from the 2 x 60 fps making tracking feel less accurate. Controllers are ok even with big hands, but very hard to put on without looking, lol.

Comfort was not that good for me, got some pressure on my forehead, maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I'm not the only one mentioning this. CV1 comfort is miles ahead, and Index feels much better too, then again I've had years of training getting optimal comfort with these hmds.

Until I see some 1 x 90 fps or 1 x 120 fps games, my rating of PSVR2 would probably be 7/10, and 9/10 for Index + RTX 3090. 2c.

Call of the Mountain will probably be game of the year 2023, even with the 2 x 60 fps in 120 Hz and the oled mura (the mura might more be like a fine layer of SPUD like the CV1 used, but more easy to see in bright scenes with the PSVR2) the game is astonishing. 

The npcs are Alyx class, maybe even better - if was was 20 years old again, I'd ask her out on a date, lol:

- also note the depth of field. This npc is quite awesome too, and there're many more npcs:

I can confirm that she looks even better using the hmd. I'm starting to forgive the 60 fps, for this really is the graphics you're getting, note the amount of vegetation:

And check out this view distance, maybe only Stormland does it similarly (and in 90 fps):

I took down three of these giant robo-hawks with my bow last night. You can craft some explosive arrows too.  

Textures are great too, some are slightly low-res, but most are high-res. Also see this rope, it looks awesome in the game with the tiny fibers/threads/hairs sticking out of the rope:

The game is my highest priority right now, but I'm worried about it being over too quickly, so I try to play some Resident Evil 8 too - and GT7 🙂 

A few more images (all from the start, no spoilers)

Btw, games like Star Wars Galaxy, Rex Infinite and Thumper all provide perfect 120 fps in 120 Hz. Especially Rez Infinite really shows off the oled blacks - and you can now use eye tracking to aim with your eyes - that was new and really great. In Call of the Mountain you can use eye tracking to select menus, it works great. You can turn off foveated rendering and eye tracking in Call of the Mountain, but I have not done so - I can see any effect of the foveated rendering anyway, no matter how fast I move my eyes, the image is always sharp where I'm looking. 

Finally found out how to take screenshots - a bit cumbersome, need to transfer them to a USB stick, but I get from A to B, lol.

These are my very first shots, and foveated rendering is on, so everything I'm not looking at will be somewhat blurry. Screenshots are automatically taken in 3840x2160, so that's 4K image directly from the game. 

When I mean that Call of the Mountain is Alyx class or even better - then I mean graphics are top of the class like:

This is the leader - I think, can't remember his name - some less high-ranking npcs still look good, but to a lesser degree:

You can see I'm looking at her face, of course those green amulets looks nice too 😉

Looking a the scenic views, I did get somewhat emotional - I've been into computer games since the Commodore 64 i 1982, and I could not help thinking about a quote from the movie No Country For Old Men:

Well, I'm here now, I don't regret anything - and I think I followed a great rule 😀

Note that inside the game the foveated rendering does not cause any blur you can see - so the whole image appears sharp. Being inside the Call of the Mountain game-world does feel like reaching a new destination. This is indeed one of the 5 best VR experiences ever made, together with Alyx and Lone Echo 1-2. 

See how detailed the 3D grass is:

Like in Lone Echo, there are tiny scratches on the metal surface of my bow:

Just to show some of the high-res textures. 

I'll be back later 🙂

The PSVR2 is complicated, it's hard to find optimal image clarity, but I'm getting better and the eye tracking is growing on me and really fun to use. Btw, last night I got the Machine Safari - you have to complete the first missions in Call of the Mountain to activate the Machine Safari - it's really mind-blowing, I don't recall even Alyx reaching the same level:

This is extremely far beyond what any standalone VR solution can do using current mobile gpus - but maybe standalone can achieve this in 2030 - 2035, who knows 😉 

I guess the PSVR2 is not bad, lol, it does blow everything else out of the water when it's best. Still, if Sony allowed it, I'm confident Call of the Mountain would play even better using Index + RTX 3090. So I really do not need more hardware - we need more content. And right now getting the best new VR content requires PSVR2. There's nothing but Alyx to challenge Call of the Mountain. 2c. 

I just took down my first Thunder-Jaw in Call of the Mountain, maybe the most awesome VR battle I've ever had, certainly made the Strider in Alyx feel like a walk in the park. A Thunder-Jaw is like a Robo-T-Rex, but maybe 2-3 times bigger. Currently I don't think anything is better than Call of the Mountain, but Alyx is same level - there really are no other VR experiences in this league. It has to do with the sheer size of Call of the Mountain, the incredible animations, and large number of opponents etc. Not even Lone Echo 2 is a full match for Call of the Mountain, even if Lone Echo 2 would be my 3rd best ever VR experience. 

Still not so fond of the PSVR2 hardware, but it's not bad either - there's no SDE, oled blacks and big fov, and I've started not noticing the mura much. I took a few more shots - some I've posted before, but here the lighting is different to show other details:

This is using foveated rendering, so places where I'm not looking may look (slightly) blurry. 

And there are many truly beautiful sights - in 3D with extreme view distance:

Here I'm hiding in the grass so the Watchers can't see me - and checkout the sunlight:

More light and sun-rays:

Here I'm taking on my first Thunder-Jaw with my fire arrows and more - do try this at home 😉

Just to show a Thunder-Jaw up close - it's gigantic in the game 

The battle has begun - one should think Sony would go easy on new customers, but no - this battle will demand all you've got - even for VR veterans 

Thunder-Jaw on fire, thanks fire arrows! 🤗 

That's gotta hurt 🙂

A good Thunder-Jaw is a dead Thunder-Jaw 🙂

- and finally some more nice/high-res textures in the game:

See the tiny scratches on the surface

Ground textures, see blur from foveated rendering to the left

Bonus - Star Wars Tales from the Galaxy's Edge - but apart from these dudes, the game looks heavily Questified with low-poly locations, many low-res textures, barren landscapes and limited opponents, I'm not paying $50 for that, not worth more than $10 to me, so I'll wait for a sale:

The bar is great, unfortunately the rest of the game has far more reduced quality. The game is running in totally smooth 120 fps and oled does make colors pop.