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Sony announces Project Morpheus, a virtual reality headset coming to PS4
- hydralist 13y agoI'm still on the fence, I am a current PS3 owner and figured PS4 was a logical next purchase. Then I realized how awesome Kinect was visiting my friend and how much more of a 'next gen' feel it had. This might be the killer hardware but I'd rather just have an Oculus Rift :(
- rasz_pl 13y agoYes, I also buy weaker slower and more expensive products because of buzzwords, and reasons
- maccard 13y agoI played both consoles for about 3-4 hours pre launch (each), knowing that I was going to buy one. I was a 360 owner last gen, and PS2 the previous gen, so I don't have any real allegiances. However, I much preferred the PS4, not only for game selection, but the controllers felt better, and Kinect is great at first, but it really is a bit gimmicky after a while. Kinect sports is fun with friends, but not so much on your own. PS4 has exclusives like Infamous, Killzone, Knack(which I thoroughly enjoyed), Resogun, and loads more. Xbox has Ryse(didn't like it) dead rising(granted, it's fun) Forza(I want this one)and Titanfall(on the fence, probably don't care to be honest). The selection of games on PS4 is far superior, coupled with faster installation times, a much smaller box, and better looking games, makes it a no brainer IMHO
- _cbb1 13y agoWhat I appreciate most about the PS4 is how the system is architected. I love that PS4 just consumes a lot less power then a PS3 and Xbox One. You can tell without even looking at the specs because of the size. It not only consumes less power but gives you the performance.
- ihuman 13y agoThis is fantastic news. It is good to finally see some competition in the modern VR headset industry. While the VR industry may be in it's infancy, competition may help to accelerate its development. I can't wait until GDC, where we can see how it compares to Oculus's headsets.
- lhl 13y agoGDC is going on right now - this announcement was at GDC! Oculus is likely to announce DK2 at a session tomorrow: Wednesday, March 19 | 11:00am-12:00pm (PDT) Working with the Latest Oculus Rift Hardware and Software (Presented by Oculus VR) Speakers: Michael Antonov (Oculus VR), Nate Mitchell (Oculus VR) Format: Sponsored Panel Track: Programming Summary: Since the debut of the original Oculus Rift development kit at GDC 2013, we've shown off a set of critical improvements including a high-definition display, positional tracking, and low-persistence support. Likewise, behind the scenes we've also been making critical improvements to the core Oculus SDK like new feature support, optimizations (particularly around latency), and overall simplicity.In this talk, we'll discuss everything you need to know to get started integrating the latest Oculus Rift hardware with your VR game or experience. The talk will be split into an overview of the latest hardware, a technical breakdown for engineers, an a game design discussion relevant to the new features. We'll also talk about our vision for future development hardware leading to the consumer Rift and what that path might look like.
- csmattryder 13y agoWhat I think will be the killer feature over Occulus Rift is that Project Morpheus has 60 virtual speakers, which (from the liveblog commentary) could lead to audio taking a bigger part in gaming. I'm also looking forward to this tech being used for concert demos. I'd love to strap this on and listen to AC/DC's Live At River Plate, all the sound and the atmosphere of being there! Shame that "no PC support has been announced" [1]. But some enterprising hacker'll get it going, no doubt. [1] http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/03/18/sonys-ps4-virtual-reality-headset-is-named-project-morpheus-pictures-inside/ http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/03/18/sonys-ps4-virtual-rea...
- psykotic 13y ago> What I think will be the killer feature over Occulus Rift is that Project Morpheus has 60 virtual speakers, which (from the liveblog commentary) could lead to audio taking a bigger part in gaming. With old fashioned two-speaker headphones and binaural recording, you can already achieve a surprising level of audio spatialization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IXm6SuUigI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IXm6SuUigI
- plaguuuuuu 13y agoYerp. Games just don't simulate it very well. People are hyperfocused on graphics and nobody pays attention to audio. However I seem to recall Creative acquiring some audio company that had products with superior audio positioning technology, & basically axed the other product in favour of EAX or whatever its called..? Could be wrong
- rasz_pl 13y agoAureal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aureal_Semiconductor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aureal_Semiconductor Creative bancrupted them with legal cost while at the same time using their patented tech without paying. I have Diamond Sonic Impact 90 (Vertex AU8820) next to me on the wall :/ That was and is my best sound card to date.
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- userbinator 13y agoLive in our world, play in ours.
- modeless 13y agoBefore the announcement Oculus said, paraphrasing, that more people doing VR is good because it means devs will have more incentive to invest in made-for-VR content. Oculus's worst fear is not that Sony will make better hardware than them, but that Sony might make bad hardware that would give people a bad experience (motion sickness, etc) and kill this new VR renaissance before it has a chance to start. http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/03/18/oculus-on-sonys-rumored-vr-headset http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/03/18/oculus-on-sonys-rumored...
- melling 13y agoIt's like when IBM got into the personal computer market. They made it a legitimate business and created a bigger market for personal computers.
- ericd 13y agoIt wasn't very good for Apple, though...
- sireat 13y agoI'd say it was quite good for Apple. Without IBM, Lisa with its 10k price tag might have actually won out over Mac. That is, Apple would have made Lisa their business computer and not even bothered pushing Mac. (see folklore.org et al) At the time, Apple II was not considered business level hardware (although people used it for business, ie VisiCalc). Without IBM entering PC market, the micro revolution would have taken a few years longer.
- ericd 13y agoInteresting viewpoint. I got the impression that the Lisa just wasn't a very good computer, and not worth the price, but maybe you're right.
- melling 13y agoWhy do you say that? Apple was big in the 1980's.
- MBCook 13y agoIt will be interesting to see the hands on reports when they start to come out. The specs seem roughly comparable to the Occulus Rift, but Sony certainly has a ton of manufacturing power to make great the special screens in quantity. But the name "Project Morpheus" just sounded like they were trying too hard. Of course this will probably get a much sexier name for release like "Playstation Virtual Reality Headset Environment". Occulus Rift is a pretty cool name.
- TillE 13y agoI'm sure Sony can put together a nice hardware package, but I'd be very skeptical about their ability to duplicate all the crucial work Oculus has done with the software. It's not trivial translating all the sensor data quickly and precisely into game camera movements.
- MartinCron 13y agoOcculus Rift is a pretty cool name That's an understatement. It's a totally awesome name.
- ekianjo 13y agoMeh, all the previous headsets from Sony in recent history were really, really crappy (I tried most of them in exhibitions). Small angle of vision (making it look like you play a game through a small window), unbalanced weight (you tend to have you head looking down after a while), I really hope they are getting their act together here if they want to compete. Occulus Rift has a lot of headstart in that field.
- lhl 13y agoThe display is LCD so will be interesting to see how they do on persistence, but the FOV is 90 degrees horizontal - about the same as Oculus' units. Full PR here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sony-computer-entertainment-announces-project-morpheus---a-virtual-reality-system-that-expands-the-world-of-playstation4-ps4-250898211.html http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sony-computer-entert... (confirmation that this is horizontal FOV in the Japanese PR: http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/140319.html http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/140319.html ) From the presentation (see: http://live.theverge.com/live-sony-playstation-future-of-innovation-gdc-2014/ http://live.theverge.com/live-sony-playstation-future-of-inn... ) it looks like 1) they've been working seriously on this for over 3 years and 2) they have taken the ideas of immersion/presence to heart and are focused on VR as a medium, not as a gimmick. Personally, I think it'll be good for Oculus and VR in general to have a strong competitor w/ Sony. If it weren't PS4 only, I'd seriously consider grabbing one. Of course, we'll have to see what Oculus has up their sleeves w/ DK2 tomorrow...
- dreadsword 13y agoNews! http://techwatching.com/page.php?i=22780 http://techwatching.com/page.php?i=22780 IIRC the big differentiator of Occulus Rift was lag - i.e.: to be truly immersive and "real" the system has to process and respond incredibly quickly. No mention of that anywhere from Sony.
- jccooper 13y agoBah. The real Project Morpheus features hovering rockets. Real ones. http://www.youtube.com/user/MorpheusLander http://www.youtube.com/user/MorpheusLander
- deletes 13y agoThe devs at Sony really like the matrix. Not very subtle.
- jamesaguilar 13y agoOr the god on whom the character is based.
- dagw 13y agoMy money is on the comic book character.
- nanidin 13y agoNo thanks, I'll wait for Oculus to release something that is guaranteed to work on my PC and not get locked into a Sony product - especially not after the rootkit debacle, and retroactively disabling linux on the PS3.
- notastartup 13y agoI have a feeling Sony is going to blow Oculus out of the water. Even more troubling if this headset makes its way to the PC which seems likely.
- axefrog 13y agoI have a feeling that Sony will do quite the opposite. They're already using an LCD display, which Oculus has moved away from because the pixel refresh rate is too slow. If Sony are already showing a lack of understanding in one area, it's quite possible that they'll be neglecting other areas that Oculus have been putting a lot of R&D time into. I think what's likely is that someone high up in Sony knows about Oculus and commanded his minions to "make us something like what Oculus is doing". There is no doubt in my mind that it'll fall short in numerous areas.
- anonymousab 13y agoI'm curious as to how they'll manage the resolution, frame rate and low latency required, on the PS4's modest hardware, for modern games.
- NiceOneBrah 13y ago"Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?"
- apranam2 13y agoIs this flight 370???? http://www.tomnod.com/nod/challenge/malaysiaairsar2014/map/654342 http://www.tomnod.com/nod/challenge/malaysiaairsar2014/map/6...
- adamsrog 13y agoLacking stereoscopic vision, I always have a hard time with the emergence of these new technologies. While I am naturally excited by it's potential, I'm bummed out I'll never get to experience it first-hand and secretly hope it doesn't become the norm (3D videos, VR headsets, etc). Has anyone without stereoscopic vision tried any of these devices? What was your experience?
- dimillian 13y agoI'm in the same situation, but maybe worst, I'm stereoblind because one of my eye have only a peripheral vision. Anyone have feedback for VR headsets ?
- danielbln 13y agoWhich means VR to you will be as "good" as real life, nothing to worry here. You'll still get all the benefits of parallax. Also, check out some people using the Rift as sort of a corrective lense for stereo blindness: http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/1n6xyo/i_am_stereoblind_but_the_oculus_rift_is_my/ http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/1n6xyo/i_am_stereobl...
- grannyg00se 13y agoWhat a show of support for consumer grade VR. The Oculus Rift seemed to me as though it would always be a special little paradise for nerds. But this. This is mainstream and could blow the market wide open. I hope the OR team is ready to ride this wave.
- bobowzki 13y agoWell this VR thing is about to take off...
- zk00006 13y agoCan VR displays replace monitors for programming? It would be great to have virtually unlimited screen size. Are there some problems I do not realize at the moment?
- danielbln 13y agoEventually that's where it's going to go. At the moment resolution is the biggest limiting factor and probably will be for a couple of more years.
- CmonDev 13y agoI wonder if they will charge a mere $1000 or much more as usual?
- goggles99 13y agoI personally see VR as it stands today, (yes I have demoed an Oculus) as the dying 3Dtv. Not going to work out until technology advances to provide a better, more lifelike experience. Even then I don't know if it will be popular. Who wants to sit in a room with their face covered up for hours each day. You cannot really converse with or communicate with anyone else. You are just kind of shut off.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]