Sony Interactive Entertainment's Jim Ryan took to Sony's floor at CES 2022 to reveal more details about their next-generation virtual reality headset: PlayStation VR2. Although officially announced last year by SIE Senior Vice President Hideaki Nishino, this new information blowout brings up finalized technical specs that can be measured to its VR competition. Although it will still be corded, at least the process is much simpler than before.
Borrowing from its controller-cousin, the PlayStation 5's DualSense, the new pair of controllers will be called PlayStation VR Sense controllers. It's fitting too since they promise to be sporting a more ergonomic design and will have haptic feedback as one of many features. Although slightly obscured by the presentation's screenshot, these aren't simply upgraded Move controllers.
On stage, Ryan made broad explanations about the headset's latest technical upgrades, including new sensory features, enhanced eye-tracking, responsive feedback, greater field of view, foveated rendering, and 4K HDR. All of these promises taken together show an incredible update since PlayStation VR.
Their blog goes into a plethora of extra details too. For visual fidelity, the OLED display with a resolution of 2000×2040 per eye and smooth frame rates of 90/120Hz are a huge bump from its VR precursor. Since the headset itself tracks your movements with embedded cameras, there's now no need for an external camera. The sensory features are also incredibly promising: "Headset feedback is a new sensory feature that amplifies the sensations of in-game actions from the player." It's essentially replicating the template of PlayStation 5's DualSense controller and Sony-custom 3D Audio headsets into the headset. There's also the promise of eye-tracking having an immediate impact on the experience. Finally, PS VR2 eye-detection tech promises incredible specificity that'll allow for "a heightened emotional response."
PlayStation VR2 And Sense Controller Technical Specs
Alongside these is a list of technical specs for both the headset and controllers:
PlayStation VR2 Specifications
Display method OLED
Panel resolution 2000 x 2040 per eye
Panel refresh rate 90Hz, 120Hz
Lens separation Adjustable
Field of View Approx. 110 degrees
Sensors Motion Sensor: Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer)
Attachment Sensor: IR Proximity sensor
Cameras 4 cameras for headset and controller trackingIR camera for eye tracking per eye
Feedback Vibration on headset
Communication with PS5 USB Type-C®
Audio Input: Built-in microphoneOutput: Stereo headphone jack
PlayStation VR2 Sense Controllers Specifications
Buttons [Right]
PS button, Options button, Action buttons (Circle / Cross), R1 button, R2 button, Right Stick / R3 button
[Left]
PS button, Create button, Action buttons (Triangle / Square), L1 button, L2 button, Left Stick / L3 button
Sensing/ Tracking Motion Sensor: Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope + three-axis accelerometer)
Capacitive Sensor: Finger Touch DetectionIR LED: Position Tracking
Feedback Trigger Effect (on R2/L2 button), Haptic Feedback (by single actuator per unit)
Port USB Type-C® Port
Communication Bluetooth® Ver5.1
Battery Type: Built-in Lithium-ion Rechargeable Battery
New Horizon VR Title On The Horizon!
Developers Guerilla Games and Firesprite also announced a new Horizon game built for PlayStation VR2, called Horizon Call of the Mountain. Details are scant at the moment, but the first in-game glimpses shown placed your character right beneath the feet of one of this world's gargantuan creatures.
Here's a teaser trailer for that:
