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

You really need oled for Resident Evil 8 (Village) - to illustrate, this is a well-lit dungeon:

- and this is a badly-lit dungeon, but you can see all objects using the PSVR2 thanks to the pitch-black oled panels - how much can you see now?

I guess you get the idea - lcd is a no-go with this game. I did have to increase brightness on several of the below shots to show what you can expect using oled. There're quite the number of high-quality npcs in the game - here's a welcoming party (small gathering):

Some ladies are less attractive than others:

I did get a few shots of Countess Alcina Dimitrescu, or just Lady D 

Here she drinks/sucks the blood of my injured hand:

Yup, it's love at first sight! 😍

I think I like her daughter better - or whoever that girl might be:

The girls did not treat me nicely, put a meat hook in each of my hands and hung me from the ceiling. To get free I had to pull the metal hook through the flesh of each hand - this is why this game is 18+. My hands afterwards didn't look the same:

Note the high-res textures on the hands, you can see many skin imperfections etc. 

Environments are great too:

After spending much more  time in RE8, the game still is amazing, but I do notice the limitations more. Motion capture still is second to none though.

But the game works with the 1.84 tflops PS4 in 45 fps. Thus PS4 non-Pro is the target for the poly levels, and it does show for many ordinary assets, which have a low poly count. You can find many low-res textures if you look for them. Alyx really is - in general - on an entirely different level. Feels like Alyx is running many times better than RE8, even using Index with low settings and a GTX 1080.

In the castle, in some rooms the game felt a lot more blurry than usual, maybe auto-res kicking in trying to keep 60 fps. I kept thinking how amazing the game would be if I could use PSVR2 with my RTX 3090 - because you'll want the oled. Increase the res by 4x, and RE8 would shine so much more.

Still not sure about the mura - in very dark places it looks a lot like the CV1 spud. Could it be a similar software filter to increase response times of the oled pixels?

Btw, the Pulse 3D headphones are growing on me, maybe I needed to break-in the membranes, but the sound in Call of the Mountain and Resident Evil 8 is really great. It also adds a lot to the immersion.

This is why some consider Resident Evil 8 for an Alyx class experience:

I completed Call of the Mountain a few weeks ago, the Sony software tells me it took me 8 hours, so much the same as Lone Echo in 2017. 

Graphics in Call of the Mountain are better than Lone Echo 1, and may even be considered better than Lone Echo 2, but that's a matter of opinion. You do have many more npcs in Call of the Mountain than in Lone Echo 2. 

Here are some last shots from Call of the Mountain:

The above vistas are some of the most beautiful ever seen in a VR game. The lighting is great too:

Brought down my first FireClaw:

- but npcs are where Call of the Mountain shines the most, all awesomely animated using motion capture:

All screenshots taken while I was playing the game.   

Switchback has received the maybe worst user reviews of current PSVR2 games, and many users say it's extremely blurry (=subsampled) and looks like an old PSVR games slightly polished and released as a PSVR2 exclusive. I'm not really disagreeing - the game is blurry, but poly-levels are much better than usual Quest games. Also volumetric lights and dynamic shadows may take up much performance - and the average PSVR2 Joe may not notice the shadows and know the cost in performance. I've seen tons of VR garbage content over the years, and while Switchback isn't great in any way, it's not that bad either. I even think it's better - and a much longer ride - than what you get in the local fun fair - I took a few shots while playing the game:

Hand textures aren't low-res - near object look fine, the subsampling hits distant objects - like the most distant wall

See the dynamic shadows here - I point my flashlight at the figure, and see its dynamic shadow on the wall - it does look nice/great-ish

A giant head emerges through the ceiling - some horror effects do work nicely

Light and fire in a burning room

Some standard environment - I'm shining the flashlight at the doll to the left, and it casts a dynamic shadow

Some standard rooms/locations - nothing great, but also not that bad for poly levels, textures and lighting

Zombies look ok-ish:

View distance is also acceptable - if you check the distance to building in the most distant part of the background

Weapons look fine too:

That said, the game is very blurry, looks like Rift CV1 ss 1.0. Or looks like Index res 100% in a very TAA-soaked game - if some understand what I', trying to communicate 🙂 It's not unplayable, but definitely also not worth the $40 I paid - then again, I don't mind supporting the devs, this is a Sony PSVR2 exclusive.

Mian problem is that the game does not support foveated rendering, and the devs had to subsample a lot to get 60 fps. The game uses 60 fps with reprojections and there's no 90 or 120 fps. But the game is very dark, oled shines and really is required - and you do not notice the reprojections much. I'd rate the game 6/10 for now, devs are working on a big patch. If you're a really big fan of horror roller-coasters, maybe you would even consider this a 7.5/10 game...

The credits do contain quite a lot of people, I think this game - even with its profound issues - was not cheap to make. 

Btw, I'm down to playing some pancakes in VR - that's a new low for me, lol - but I'm actually enjoying it. At least this one is a blast even as a VR-pancake (mura works as film grain, oled blacks are awesome in this dark game, in VR I have the equivalent of a 300" TV (image at 75% takes up my entire fov), and the game is third person and works much like Moss 1-2):

I tried to play the game on my rather big plasma TV, but it was not the same as playing it 2D in VR, I did not feel any immersion and quickly stopped playing. This is the first pancake I'm really enjoying playing on a giant screen in VR, and where I do not much notice that it is not a real VR game - I took these shots in VR:

Sony PSVR2 supports 2D games in 120 fps - and that works with Returnal. Graphics finally look like what I expected from PSVR2,  image quality is sharp and feels like I'm finally getting benefits of the 4k panels - even if this may be considered cheating, lol 🙂

The game is like the movie Groundhog Day, when you die you restart, but do keep some things. You restart in the crashed spaceship, and when that happens you're in first person perspective - this works really great in VR, feels very VR-ish. The Sony Pulse 3D headphones work wonders in the game, firing your guns sounds awesome - I guess the game was made for Sony Pulse 3D headphones. The PSVR2 does a great job of closing out all lights from the room in the real-world, this total isolation helps greatly for immersion - you can only focus on the game with no distractions. 

Even in fake-VR, Returnal  is much better that Gran Turismo 7 VR, but worse the Call of the Mountain and Resident Evil 8 VR. I consider Returnal my 4th AAA PSVR2 game 😉 No clue what I'm doing, after 3 hours I'm 36% through level one, I keep on shooting and dying 😎 🤓

For now I'd rate the game 6/10 in 2D using a TV, and 9/10 with PSVR2. 2c.

Have to admit I'm using my Rift CV1 a lot more than I use the PSVR2. It has to do with both available content, but also with comfort. My forehead is quite straight, not very curved, and the PSVR2 does not fit great - after wearing it for more than an hour it kinda feels like wearing this, lol:

So after an hour I get red pressure marks on my forehead, and the PSVR2 is hurting - have to change position of the hmd often - I never get that with the Rift CV1.

Luckily - VR Cover is my friend - I just got this:

See these vids:

https://youtu.be/ffNj1KQSogM

I still get pressure marks, but slightly less - and now my skin can breathe (MRTV seems to have forgotten to mention this most important advantage with the VR Cover). Sony using pure silicone means your skin is suffocating under the headband, and building up sweat/water - the VR Cover lets your skin breathe. Does cost about $40 though (shipping included) - and ships only from Thailand. I did not have issues with Customs though. 

Besides that, most new PSVR2 games are garbage - mostly bottom-end Quest ports, and adding to the insult many only use 60 fps with reprojections - even if the PS5 is about 10 times faster than the Quest 2's Adreno 650 phone gpu. 

But there are some new trailers from upcoming exclusive PSVR2 games, like Synapse:

- and the Resident Evil 4 Remake may be the best news this year - the game has same Metascore as Alyx (93% average):

Not sure I'll be using my PSVR2 much before Synapse arrives July 4. 

Another (semi-)exclusive PSVR2 game:

Coming in 2024. Seems like devs did not want to port Wanderer, but created a new game using assets from the original game. This may speed up making a new-ish game. I'll probably buy it, unless it comes out on Steam too.

Sony seems rather active these days pumping out PSVR2 games - one reason might be, due the PS5 having same tflops as a GTX 1080 Ti - RTX 2080 (Ti - only using foveated rendering) making it very easy to port PCVR to PSVR2:

The true power of the PS5 is that it's a medium range PC rig in disguise - allowing devs to port nearly all PCVR games to PSVR2. Even compared to the expected Adreno 740 gpu in the Quest 3, the Quest 3 does not stand a chance compared to the PS5 which is 3 - 5 times faster, depending on the use of foveated rendering with eye tracking. Then again, PS5 + PSVR2 is also twice as expensive as the Quest 3.

There's more, but these titles look more dull to me:

- Apart from RE4 Remake VR, this is still the one I anticipate the most:

New PSVR2 trailer by Sony:

Hmmm, I do wonder if this will ever work 🤔

https://twitter.com/iVRy_VR/status/1674435002489253890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw