Can a CONSOLE match desktop VR? - PSVR Review
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,526 words · ~7 min read
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Virtual reality has been in a weird spot. From the fact that it's difficult
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to convince people it's awesome without real hands-on time along with the cost
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of high-end VR headsets to the fact that while there are cool experiences, the
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basic versions most people have tried like the Gear VR frankly aren't that
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great. And even at the high-end where the experience is much better, there
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aren't exactly a ton of killer apps. Enter the PlayStation VR. Sony's
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solution that sits squarely in between putting your phone into a folded piece
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of cardboard and dropping over $1,500 on a VR PC gaming solution.
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Massdrop has teamed up with Sennheiser to bring you their all-new HD 6X
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headphones. Check them out in the link below. The PSVR at $500 for the whole
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kit or $400 if you already have the camera and move controllers is cheaper
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than both the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift. But the big kicker here, maybe not
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for you and for me, but for the gaming consumer base as a whole, is that it
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works with the PlayStation 4, which has sold over 40 million units in the last 3
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years, making it the most popular current generation console and therefore
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inherently more likely a Christmas present for holiday shoppers this year.
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Let's start with the headset itself. It is the heaviest of the current major VR
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headsets, but it makes up for it with some awesome mounting implementation. It
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feels more like you're just naturally putting on a helmet or a hat due to the
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automatically retracting plastic strap that is fixed around your head. To
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tighten things up, you can use the dial on the back and there's a release button
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as well for uh emergencies. The Tether
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has inline controls for volume, mic mute, and most importantly, power along
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with a headphone jack on the side. These little tweaks improve ease of use more
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than you might expect. Though it's not the first time the PC solution has felt
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more designed by engineers for engineers
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compared to the console one. The only downside here is that these little
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features add a little bit more weight to the cable, increasing the anchor effect
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that it creates. Not a huge deal, but
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noticeable after a while of being immersed in VR. As far as the screen
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goes, it's a lower resolution than the Rift and Vive with a single 1080p panel.
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not one screen for each eye like the others. But it must be noted that this
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is an OLED panel. Meaning that while you'll definitely notice jaggies or
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aliasing, the screen door effect, the the black lines between pixels is
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noticeable, but not nearly as prominent as you might think given the difference
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in panel resolution. I would say the screen is really solid overall. Moving
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on, you don't need the PlayStation Move controllers. can just use the
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PlayStation gamepad and for most things that's going to be fine. They can even
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track in VR thanks to the light that's on the back of it and it can be used for
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some basic in-game hand presence. That being said, there are experiences that
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really do need them and having individual hand tracking definitely
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boosts your immersion. It's a shame, however, that they haven't made any
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improvements since the Move's original release in 2010 as an accessory for the
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PlayStation 3. They're just so far
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behind the hand controllers for the Vive and Rift. Not only in ergonomic design,
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the shape and button placement, but in terms of tracking. The tracking of all
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these items, including the headset, isn't great. In my testing, I did
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encounter some jittering and a few tracking issues, but it wasn't that bad
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overall. But that being said, Nick Light and Colton Potter had motion sickness
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that left them queasy after about 40 minutes of using it. This is a your
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mileage may vary type of thing, however, so it may be not as bad for you, or it
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could be worse. All of that being said, you can help the tracking along. You
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simply need to dim the lights or even better yet turn them off altogether.
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This will help the PlayStation camera track the LEDs on your gear. The
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brighter the room, the worse the tracking will be. These things are very
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dependent. If you want the best tracking experience, play in a very dark room.
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And then we have the ever misunderstood breakout box. I want to set the record
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straight here. The box is not responsible for asynchronous time warp
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or reprojection or anything like that. The PS4 handles reprojection itself.
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What the breakout box does is grab sensor data, manage 3D audio, and split
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the image. All of which is good and useful. There just seemed to be a lot of
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people who thought it was doing something else. Finally, we get to the
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experiences and how it all comes together. Stuff like Batman Arkham VR is
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great, but it only lasts for about an hour. Sony's ownership of IP like this
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gives them a ton of options for the future. But right now, I really don't
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feel like they're using it to its full potential. Go further with it. Make an
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awesome Batman game that makes people really want to come to the platform.
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Make it go a lot deeper than just pointing at things and holding a button.
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And I know looking at yourself in the mirror as Batman and going, "I'm
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Batman." over and over again is amazing.
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But when that's all the depth to the game,
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I want more. Overall, the system could
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be described as good enough. At least
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for what they're trying to do. If you already own a PlayStation 4, the cost
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might not be an insurmountable obstacle, especially if your little sister already
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talked you into buying a PlayStation camera and move controllers. That that
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would be helpful. The experience is not as mind-blowing as the Vive or the Rift,
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but the cost is proportionately lower. But thanks to its ability to project the
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TV natively automatically from the box right away, others in the room can have
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fun along with you, which is great. It can also accept any HDMI input, and it's
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potential for more immersive experiences with superior headtracking given
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appropriate lighting compared to like a Gear VR or something like that. It's
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pretty cool. If you already own a PlayStation 4 and you're looking for
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something new to try, I don't think the price is unreasonable. So maybe it's
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something to consider. The Chefeps Jewel is a sousie tool that
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helps you cook perfect food every time without the stress. By cooking at a
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precise temperature, you cannot over or undercook your food, which makes cooking
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things like fish, chicken, and even steaks a breeze. To use it, place your
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meat or fish in a normal Ziploc freezer bag and seal it with all the seasonings
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that you'd like inside. Fill a pot with water and then place the Juul in the
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pot. Open up the Juul app on your phone and select what you're cooking and how
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you want it cooked. My favorite feature that the Juul has is visual dness, which
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makes this you can see exactly what the meat will look like when cut open at all
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of the various temperatures, which is really helpful even if you are a very
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skilled cook. The Jewel is available now for holiday gifting. Check it out in the
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link below. All right, guys. Thanks for watching this video. Like it if you
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liked it, disliked it if you disliked it. Get subscribed. All that kind of fun stuff. I know it's a VR headset for a
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console, and most of you guys are PC guys, and I am too. But it is cool to
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see the whole spectrum of devices as they come along. And it is exciting
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because it's actually not that bad. And having actually not that bad be a thing
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in VR and hopefully more people buy it. That could bring more development costs
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to like PC. I don't know. So, it could work out in the end. If you want to
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discuss all the things I said and debate consoles versus PCs, hopefully
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non-aggressively, you go to the forum link in the video description down below. While you're there, check out the
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link for the shirts and stuff that are here. If you want to buy a PSVR or
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something like that, there's also an Amazon link for you as well. If you'd
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like to see another video on the HTC Vive or the HTC Vive versus Oculus Rift
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video or the Oculus Rift video itself or
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whatever Taran decides to put here, you can click on that. And uh yeah, I'll see
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you next