PlayStation VR on PC?

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I think Sony would be crazy not to bring the PlayStation VR to the PC. I mean, if they can actually do it, why not?

Speaking to Nikkei, SCE’s senior vice president Masayasu Ito opened the door - admittedly just a crack - to the idea of Sony’s upcoming $400 VR headset eventually being compatible with PC. “Since PlayStation 4 shares a lot of its components with PCs, the possibility is there,” Ito says. “At the moment we are focused on games and we are not ready to make any announcements at this stage, but I’d say there will be an expansion into various fields.”
 
Sony has been crazy not to write drivers for the PS3 and PS4 controllers for PC use,, but that hasn't stopped them from refusing to get off their proprietary platform tunnel vision. I'm not sure Sony has the vision to bring PlaystationVR to PC, especially if A) it is a less powerful/less quality VR experience compared to Oculus and especially VIVE and B) it would mean they have to open up their SDK or better yet make their hardware SteamVR etc compatible. I have no doubt they COULD do it right if they wanted to, but I am guessing their intransigence will prevent them from doing so.
 
That would be cool, but dont forget the PS4 has 8 ace units. My 7950 only has 2. So i think the GVR would still require a hefty PC.
I believe that stand alone VR will win the day for consumers. Mobility, price and no need for gaming rig will win the day even though the games/experience will be better on hardwired PC systems. With foviated rendering, and mobile soc's to help offload the work, maybe they could come up with a hypbrid PC VR that will give older PC the same experience for extra cash. The upfront cost is just too much for me atm.
 
I almost preordered one the other day. I thought that it would be likely to find some way to use it with a PC. I then remembered that the PS4 camera has some ridiculous proprietary connector and scrapped the whole preorder idea.

We'll see what this first generation of VR turns out to be. For now, I expect it to mostly be glorified tech demos with a few great "wow" moments. PC and VR hardware have a long ways to go before they are both ready for each other.
 
It's been hard enough to get Microsoft to support PC. Cold day in Hell before Sony does. They won't even make drivers for their controller.
 
Dunnlang said:
I almost preordered one the other day. I thought that it would be likely to find some way to use it with a PC. I then remembered that the PS4 camera has some ridiculous proprietary connector and scrapped the whole preorder idea.

We'll see what this first generation of VR turns out to be. For now, I expect it to mostly be glorified tech demos with a few great "wow" moments. PC and VR hardware have a long ways to go before they are both ready for each other.
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Eh, depends upon application. I wouldn't want to play battlefield with a headset, but something like a racing or flight sim where you are "motionless" inside a moving cockpit would be awesome. Maybe even a tank game where your hands control tank direction but your head is in free spin with the turret.

There are use cases for VR headsets, and I don't think walking around a room/augmented reality is one of them. That said, are the niche areas VR headsets are good for large enough to sustain their development and production? Probably not. But I'm willing to wait a few years and see what happens if/when the price comes down.
 
Hopefully Sony will get with the times... and realize that they might be able to sell more hardware to more people. It's not like they'd lose hardware sales on this. If somebody is going to get a VR headset that doesn't have a console (or rather, doesn't care for the console "experience")... isn't likely going to buy a console to use that VR headset...
 
Its no surprise it will never makes it to PC, Playstation VR with a console would become redundant unless they make the PC version pointless.
They would have to publish content that both the console and PC can use. Never, ever, going to happen.
They want to sell more consoles not less.
 
Nenu said:
Its no surprise it will never makes it to PC, Playstation VR with a console would become redundant unless they make the PC version pointless.
They would have to publish content that both the console and PC can use. Never, ever, going to happen.
They want to sell more consoles not less.
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Although I'd love to have a VR system I can use with my PS4 and PC, I highly doubt it'll come to PC either. However, this is a totally different scenario for Sony. Only time will tell.
 
Even aside from the fact that they make money on the software so they're unlikely to allow people to use the hardware outside of their own licensed ecosystem, imagine how much more a modern PC would be able to get out of the headset than the PS4 can. It could be a bit embarrassing for Sony.
 
BigJayDogg3 said:
Eh, depends upon application. I wouldn't want to play battlefield with a headset, but something like a racing or flight sim where you are "motionless" inside a moving cockpit would be awesome. Maybe even a tank game where your hands control tank direction but your head is in free spin with the turret.

There are use cases for VR headsets, and I don't think walking around a room/augmented reality is one of them. That said, are the niche areas VR headsets are good for large enough to sustain their development and production? Probably not. But I'm willing to wait a few years and see what happens if/when the price comes down.
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I've played BF4 on the DK2 and it was a decent experience. The limitations of the DK2 and the non-friendly BF4 engine (no independent head movement, not even in cockpit) is the deal breaker. With that said, why do you think Battlefield or similar games wouldn't be worthwhile to play? It seems that motion sickness is more likely when the player doesn't have a visual reference point, as long as movement feels right, I doubt most users will have issue. Now if you're saying you don't want to run in circles trying to play a FPS at room scale, well I can't argue that, I don't want to do that either, lol.

I DO look forward to an FSX or similar game that utilizes touch controls to allow manipulation of all controls and dials in a cockpit. Being able to walk out of a hangar and do pre-flight would be pretty cool. My dad had his private pilots license and was an instructor until his health prevented him from being able to renew his license. Something with that kind of immersion, even "just" cockpit manipulation, would be awesome for him.
 
USMCGrunt said:
I've played BF4 on the DK2 and it was a decent experience. The limitations of the DK2 and the non-friendly BF4 engine (no independent head movement, not even in cockpit) is the deal breaker. With that said, why do you think Battlefield or similar games wouldn't be worthwhile to play? It seems that motion sickness is more likely when the player doesn't have a visual reference point, as long as movement feels right, I doubt most users will have issue. Now if you're saying you don't want to run in circles trying to play a FPS at room scale, well I can't argue that, I don't want to do that either, lol.

I DO look forward to an FSX or similar game that utilizes touch controls to allow manipulation of all controls and dials in a cockpit. Being able to walk out of a hangar and do pre-flight would be pretty cool. My dad had his private pilots license and was an instructor until his health prevented him from being able to renew his license. Something with that kind of immersion, even "just" cockpit manipulation, would be awesome for him.
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For a game where character's position doesn't move relative to the cockpit, looking for an apex/other cars/planes is a relatively natural movement.

In a shooter, your reticle almost can't move with your head, the motion isn't fine enough. In real life, you keep your head on a swivel, but bringing your weapon to your line of sight is "easy" To get on target, in game, you're still moving the mouse to aim. Keeping track of my reticle within my moving field of vision sounds like a tremendous pain in the bum. And from what you're saying, all I get from the DK2 right now is the ability to have BF4 in 3D on a big screen at a large performance penalty. That doesn't seem worth it to me, and I'd guess several others.

Now if we get a modern Power Glove-esque accessory, my opinion may change. Interacting with the virtual world with completely natural motion (seeing a button on the wall and actually pressing it, moving your hands up to shoulder your weapon, pressing buttons on the dash in your virtual car) I think would create enough immersion to make other game types more viable.

If you asked me right now, I'd think VR headsets are going to 1) flop completely, 2) be sold only to early adopters and very, very niche markets, 3) have a few good games made and end up with a bunch of gimmick-y shovelware like Nintendo's original Wii, or 4) games will be created that are unlike what we know right now.

I don't see number 4 happening unless these devices sell in large enough volume to encourage devs to build tailored experiences. So all we really end up with are games designed around controllers or KB/M being "ported" to the HMDs. I'd LOVE to be proven wrong as I really want the tech for sim racing. Right now I wish I'd gone with my first mind and purchased DK2 at it's $350 vs waiting for a retail release (that we now know is considerably more expensive). But I don't think VR's success is going to happen with the market and pricing being what it is.

Then again, this is all my opinion, and it probably stinks as much as my asshole.
 
BigJayDogg3 said:
For a game where character's position doesn't move relative to the cockpit, looking for an apex/other cars/planes is a relatively natural movement.

In a shooter, your reticle almost can't move with your head, the motion isn't fine enough. In real life, you keep your head on a swivel, but bringing your weapon to your line of sight is "easy" To get on target, in game, you're still moving the mouse to aim. Keeping track of my reticle within my moving field of vision sounds like a tremendous pain in the bum. And from what you're saying, all I get from the DK2 right now is the ability to have BF4 in 3D on a big screen at a large performance penalty. That doesn't seem worth it to me, and I'd guess several others.
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There's a video out there somewhere where Valve talks about how it handled viewpoint/targeting reticle behavior for TF2 in VR. If I recall, they have a HUD element that lets you know where your crosshairs are relative to your viewpoint and the crosshairs will slowly align to your viewpoint....or maybe that last part was an experiment that they didn't implement, can't recall, lol.

Sounds like you haven't tried VR yet, VR isn't just a big screen in 3D on your face. There IS a performance hit yes, but if viewpoint was free from aimpoint in BF4, I'd be playing the shit out of it in VR, even with the DK2. I'm confident that the next iteration of COD or BF will be more VR friendly. Unfortunately, VR can't be conveyed in words, you really have to experience it to understand how great it can be.

I am excited for input devices that bring the user further into the environment. I don't think we'll ever get anything that gives us full tactile immersion (imitating the pressure on your finger/hand when pressing a button) but fully interactive environments is mostly on the game developers as the major players, Oculus and HTC, have or are soon to have motion controls that bring your hands into the virtual world.
 
I think it comes down to whether Sony is subsidizing the HMD via game sales. If they are, they would not want someone to buy it just to play games on the PC where they don't get a cut of the action. Remember when Microsoft released the PC version of the cam, it was twice the price of the Xbox one, since they needed it to be profitable. I imagine Sony may open it up after a hardware rev / lite version later where they're no longer losing money on the HMD. Their current PC HMDs like the HMZ-T3 are like $1k on Amazon so I don't see it happening especially now that they don't even have a PC division for bundling opportunities.
 
Xaeos said:
Sony has been crazy not to write drivers for the PS3 and PS4 controllers for PC use,, but that hasn't stopped them from refusing to get off their proprietary platform tunnel vision. I'm not sure Sony has the vision to bring PlaystationVR to PC, especially if A) it is a less powerful/less quality VR experience compared to Oculus and especially VIVE and B) it would mean they have to open up their SDK or better yet make their hardware SteamVR etc compatible. I have no doubt they COULD do it right if they wanted to, but I am guessing their intransigence will prevent them from doing so.
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Here is an idea... if you want to play PSVR then buy a PS4. Simple, huh? Sony has no reason whatsoever to bring the PSVR to PC whatsoever.
 
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