• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Demo PlayStation VR at Select Best Buy Stores (Every weekend through December)

The moment the demo started the rep handed me the Dual Shock controller and it took my brain a couple of seconds to realize that what I was seeing wasn't the real controller, but an in-game version. I would love more games to utilize that feature.

Yeah, that idea sounds great whenever it comes up, I'm glad it's come up from a number of devs and discussions about the demos, they should think about doing that whenever it makes sense to do prior to a game.
 
Respect for going into detail. But do you not think that the Eve's demo will be improved by launch time?

Those Rift showcase games I'm guessing are native 90fps.

I'm sure some of the PSVR showcase starter games are 120fps native. I believe Eve will be a native 60fps upscaled to 120fps.

So I think the experience would vary for you (since you are used to such high framerates for your PC games).

If you get a chance, try other games. I'm sure there is a list of the native 120fps games.

Honestly, unlike on my monitor, the framerate drops wasn't what bothered me all that much. But it was something I was easily able to pick out and wave my finger at.

1. Comfort. PSVR was excellent. Rift was a vice grip on my head.
2. Movement. Neither Rift nor PSVR was up to my expectations here.
3. The res. PSVR was "I can't see very clearly at all." Rift was like an epiphany by comparison.
4. The FOV. PSVR was fine. Rift was goggles.
5. The framerate.

The difference was significant between the 2 in regards to comfort and clarity.

Back to the framerate, up scaling would not fix my problem, it would exacerbate it. I could easily pick such a thing. Just moving my head and seeing the ghosting/blending effect would be a dead giveaway.

I really don't want to worry about the variability of experiences across different PSVR games/demos, that's for certain.

There really isn't a perfect solution on the market for me right now, unless I happen to get my hands on a Vive and it changes my mind. I would be willing to pay $800-900 for it too.
 

beef3483

Member
Tried it out this weekend. Played Battlezone. Was pleasantly surprised by the FOV. I thought it would be less. It was such a short experience, but I enjoyed it. It really did feel like you were inside of the world.
 

vivftp

Member
Weird. To me, it looked on par as with the Gear VR I tried, and a step below the Oculus

Just to clarify, were you judging it by its relatively low resolution, or the space between the pixels (ie. screendoor effect)?

I only tried Battlezone, but I'm sure in an environment with more complex textures I would have noticed the more limited resolution. For me though, the screendoor was only there if I tried to look for it, and I didn't notice it at all if I was simply playing and enjoying the game.


Anyways, definitely going to ensure I spend some time to adjust the headset to get the full experience next time. Can't wait to try The Deep since my mind can focus more on the experience than trying to move around and shoot things like in Battlezone.
 
3. The res. PSVR was "I can't see very clearly at all." Rift was like an epiphany by comparison.

Were the pixels clear, or blurry? PSVR is lower res than Vive/Rift, but there's been numerous reports of demo headsets not being wiped down sufficiently after cleaning leading to actual blurriness. Either that or the lack of personal calibration could lead to an unclear image.
 

clem84

Gold Member
Just came back from a local Comiccon and they had a Playstation booth with VR games and GT Sports.

AM0zvmc.jpg


gT4vtsx.jpg


This was my first time trying any kind of VR.

I'm sold! :)

The game I tried was Rigs. When I put the helmet on it took a bit of adjustment. Don't know if it was the helmet itself or the guy helping being inexperienced but after a while it fit perfectly. It wasn't too tight. I tried it only for 10 minutes so I don't know if extended play sessions would cause some kind of comfort problem but there wasn't any during my playtime.

At first it was definitely a "holy crap!" moment. Looking down and seeing my character's hands instead of my own sent me chills. Then the guy went "you can look at the back of your mech", so I did and it was amazing. I had concerns about how faithfully the in-game camera could follow my head movement but they were put to rest pretty fast. It really is 1:1. Looking at my teammates and being able to freely look around without using thumbsticks for the first time was an awesome experience.

A negative. When I first put the helmet on I immediately noticed the grid of the pixels. You know like the mosquito net on a door? That's how it was a little bit. Not that noticeable mind you but it still kinda was. After about 30 seconds I stopped noticing it completely.

Rigs was a cool game and it looked nice. Very colorful and very responsive. One thing I'll definitely have to get used to if I buy a headset and I start playing regularly is constantly having two ways to control my viewpoint. Both the right stick and headset enables you to look around. One is your mech, the other is the head of your character. Sometimes I wanted my mech to turn but instead of using the right stick, I looked to the right. :) At first it was very difficult to control but at the end of my 10 minutes it was a lot better.

The game itself was difficult but the controls felt tight and responsive. Even though I was struggling with the controls, I always felt that it was due to my inexperience with VR and more specifically this game, rather than a shortcoming on the game's part.

In short, what I got from my PSVR experience is that the good definitely outweigh the bad. Those are not the best graphics I've seen and the grid/resolution problem can be a bit distracting but the immersion is there. It's all in the execution as they say and in this case Sony very nicely pulled it off. What I wanted from VR was a solid product with decent support and, most of all, something that felt fresh and new. And it delivered on all of those. I just hope the launch shipment will be enough to satisfy everyone or that we won't have to wait too long for new shipments to arrive.
 
Were the pixels clear, or blurry? PSVR is lower res than Vive/Rift, but there's been numerous reports of demo headsets not being wiped down sufficiently after cleaning leading to actual blurriness. Either that or the lack of personal calibration could lead to an unclear image.

I watched the PSVR dude clean off the headset. There wasn't any kind of smudge action going on from cleaning. As a glasses wearing individual, I would be able to tell if that was the problem. Guy asked if everything was good after doing the whole nine yard calibration for me and with my feedback. I do remember being able to resolve text quite clearly (but in a low res 480p kind of way, not an out of focus at the optometrist office way) in the OS menu. The clarity dropped when the game started. I couldn't see any pixels or screen door in the menu or the game.

Conversely, Oculus dude took the thing off of a hook and made me put the thing on my head, didn't offer me any help :(. It was anything but perfect. The screen door and pixels were there, but everything else was so much better it didn't matter.
 
For those of you with a Gear VR who tried PSVR, how did the image quality compare? Not the games, but the quality of the picture? Like if I watch real life 3D video, is the resolution going to be better or worse? How about the screen door effect? Overall quality?
 
Just got back, mildly excited about it.

At the risk of just echoing the sentiments that everyone has already posted:

  • The headset is super light. Insanely comfortable compared to the Vive, and stil decidedly more comfortable than the Rift. It floats on your face, and the rubber facial interface feels great.
  • There's an almost imperceptible screen door effect. The optics and screen combo is so shockingly good that unless you go into it expecting to see screen door, you won't. I was genuinely shocked. I really couldn't imagine what VR without SDE would be like, having used the Rift up to CV1 and the Vive for months, but Sony absolutely nailed it. Everything is undeniably low res, but it's clear low res.
  • The tracking is garbage, at least within the setup I used (which to be brutally honest seemed fairly standard and better than what most users will have in their home). It's noticeably juddery, drops out completely with disturbing frequency, and even when working flawlessly is noticeably lagged. It's just bad. I really wish Sony had figured out a better solution instead of just tacking on existing last gen hardware, because it's genuinely awful compared to the Vive.
  • FOV is decent. Not Vive level, but comparable to CV1 for sure. Nothing that's going to take you out of the experience.
  • I don't know how I feel about 60fps being scaled to 120hz. I played Battlezone and the shark demo (PS VR Worlds?), and both were mildly nauseating. Every second of PSVR was really similar to how it felt when playing games on my CV1 and they dropped from 90fps for a split second. This is disheartening, to say the least. I have never felt nauseous with my Vive, but PSVR left me pretty woozy.
  • The headset looks great. Definitely something I'd be happy to have on my coffee table.

Incidentally, none of the VR demos I've attended have been run well, but this one was pretty bad. The rep was good about cleaning off the headset and getting people through the line efficiently, but the blatant misinformation was painful. We had to wait a while for the rep to get it set up again because after coming back from their lunch break, they plugged in the HDMI cables backwards and couldn't figure out why the input/output wasn't working. Then they started telling the line about how PSVR fully supports Leap Motion and roomscale interaction.
 

vivftp

Member
Oh yeah, on the subject of motion sickness I didn't experience a single bit of that, even with part of the image out of focus due to improperly putting on the headset.

FOV was also something I had no problem with. Maybe on a more brightly lit experience I would notice it more, but I honestly didn't even think about or notice the FOV my entire session. That at least tells me it probably won't be much of a problem unless I'm specifically looking for it.
 

jryi

Senior Analyst, Fanboy Drivel Research Partners LLC
Sorry if this has been discussed thoroughly already, but what's the queue situation in these events generally? I might be able to catch the demo in New Hampshire next Friday, but since I'm travelling with my wife, I don't want to have her waiting for hours for me to get my fifteen minutes with the rig.
 

stormplyr

Member
I tried it today. I did the undersea demo with the shark. It really immersive other than the fact I couldn't get the headset to sit on my head correctly without it being blurry. I probably just need more one on one time to find the right fit. If I didn't have people around me I could totally see being really immersed in what's going on
 

_woLf

Member
So I just got back from trying it at my local Best Buy - here are a few impressions. There was pretty much no line at all. I walked up to the area and one person was already playing, once he finished ~5mins later I took my turn.

First, the thing is way lighter than I expected and far easier to put on than the Rift. I haven't tried the Vive yet to compare it to that, just to be clear.

I tried Eve Valkyrie since that's the game I have tried the most on a Rift. It played fantastic on a PS4 controller and there was no lag at all. It looked and sounded great although the one big takeaway I had is that the screen, for me at least, seemed a bit blurry. On the other hand, unlike the Rift last year at PAX, there was no screen door effect at all on the PSVR. It was one of the things that bothered me most about the rift last year, so I am thinking they must have some kind of solution that blurs the pixels a bit to counter a hard screen door effect. For how much that bothered me with the Rift, that's a welcome trade off personally.

It has the same problem the rift has that causes light to bleed through the bottom by your nose. Play this in the dark for the best experience.

I hope this can get the software support it needs to take off. It's a great solution to VR and much closer to the Rift than I was expecting. Although it can get expensive with the other stuff required to use it, it's still nowhere near the expense of a Rift/Vive and compatible graphics cards, CPU etc. It obviously isn't as powerful as a Rift because of the hardware constraints of the PS4, but it's definitely good enough to stand on it's own, in my opinion.
 

maxx1919

Neo Member
I'm sorry I use a translator, I meant that how can full screen it is pixelated. I thought that this is the original quality ps vr
 

Seventy5

Member
I got to try London Heist on Saturday at GameStop, totally sold me. I thought the girl ahead of me was overacting her fear during the shark/sea demo, then I was ducking back when things hit the windshield in my demo. The girl running it didn't have the move controllers calibrated well at all, so I had a hard time grabbing clips for my gun. Didn't matter though, the second I looked to my right and saw the driver talking, I was in.

I absolutely can't wait to get this thing home. 7 Days to Die on this would be nightmare fuel...I can't wait.
 

Kyolux

Member
I got to try London Heist on Saturday at GameStop, totally sold me. I thought the girl ahead of me was overacting her fear during the shark/sea demo, then I was ducking back when things hit the windshield in my demo. The girl running it didn't have the move controllers calibrated well at all, so I had a hard time grabbing clips for my gun. Didn't matter though, the second I looked to my right and saw the driver talking, I was in.

I absolutely can't wait to get this thing home. 7 Days to Die on this would be nightmare fuel...I can't wait.

For me it was the headset sound that was really really low. I could barely hear what the driver was saying. As for grabbing clips.. at some point I was just grabbing them without even needing to look. That was really awesome and felt totally badass. That's just not something you could do without VR and motion controls.
 
For me it was the headset sound that was really really low. I could barely hear what the driver was saying. As for grabbing clips.. at some point I was just grabbing them without even needing to look. That was really awesome and felt totally badass. That's just not something you could do without VR and motion controls.
/nod
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I got to try London Heist on Saturday at GameStop, totally sold me. I thought the girl ahead of me was overacting her fear during the shark/sea demo, then I was ducking back when things hit the windshield in my demo. The girl running it didn't have the move controllers calibrated well at all, so I had a hard time grabbing clips for my gun. Didn't matter though, the second I looked to my right and saw the driver talking, I was in.

I absolutely can't wait to get this thing home. 7 Days to Die on this would be nightmare fuel...I can't wait.

I LOVED the move implementation in this demo. I was grabbing things and throwing the at my driver, reloading like a pro, shooting with a titled gun like tom cruise. This guy who went after me was reloading without looking and everyone in the line was like ok thats brilliant!

For me it was the headset sound that was really really low. I could barely hear what the driver was saying. As for grabbing clips.. at some point I was just grabbing them without even needing to look. That was really awesome and felt totally badass. That's just not something you could do without VR and motion controls.

oh man the audio is what sold the experience. it completely cuts you off from the outside world and the 7.1 surround sound pulls you in like nothing ive experienced before and i own a Gold Headset. I tried the soccer header demo last time and the sound really sold me on the atmosphere. That demo had no reason being that impressive.
 

vivftp

Member
I tried the Ocean Descent demo at another EB Games location since I already tried the Battlezone demo last week. It was a LOT better than I thought it'd be, and I was even more impressed than I was with Battlezone. The image quality was great and bright. Tracking movement was spot on when I did a full 360 and when I tried to get close to the cage and even stick my head outside the cage. They got the headphones working this time, and it was a far more immersive experience with them on. I also took a few extra seconds to properly adjust the headset compared to my last experience and found it was very easy to hit that sweet spot so that everything was in focus.

I was curious to see how the graphics would be compared to Battlezone based on other peoples comments, and it exceeded my expectations. Screen door effect was minimal and the resolution was easily sufficient for me to be able to enjoy the experience.

I was so happy with it I went back later in the day and tried Battlezone to see how the entire thing would be with everything in focus. It was so damned fun!

Really wish I had pre-ordered this thing :(
 
I was so happy with it I went back later in the day and tried Battlezone to see how the entire thing would be with everything in focus. It was so damned fun!

Really wish I had pre-ordered this thing :(
Don't worry there will be enough supply for retail, so be sure to be there for launch and you can buy the headset.
 

yukonrye

Member
Had a chance to try this out today. This is my first experience with anything VR. I went with the Shark cage demo. Overall it was impressive. The image was really blurry for me and I could not seem to correct it. The rep suggested I try angling the goggles up or down and it corrected it a little but the angle it was against my face felt unnatural. I spent most of the demo readjusting the goggles. I had my glasses on and I'm near-sighted so maybe that was the problem? I should've had him pause it so I could try it without my glasses. I did notice what you could call a screendoor effect but it was more like looking through a very slightly weathered piece of plexiglass. Other than that the tech is neat. There was a great sense of distance, the ocean felt huge. The head tracking had no noticeable lag. Like others have mentioned here, there is a 'looking though goggles' effect but I didn't notice it much as time went on. I may go back and try another demo without glasses.

Does anyone here know how vision problems like being near-sighted work with VR goggles? Like if everything far away is blurry in real life without glasses would the same thing be true with objects far away in VR?
 
Does anyone here know how vision problems like being near-sighted work with VR goggles? Like if everything far away is blurry in real life without glasses would the same thing be true with objects far away in VR?

Technically if you can see up close you don't need to wear glasses since the screen is 3 inches away from your face. I herd from a PSVR demo review video that the guy was near sighted and he was amazed when he tried it without glasses because it was like the PSVR headset gave him new eyes because he could finally see objects far away.

My guess is your vision was blurry constantly because your glasses where trying to correct your eyes but that had a reverse effect considering the screen is so close.

I would suggest trying it again tomorrow without glasses to see how it feels.
 

cheezcake

Member
Technically if you can see up close you don't need to wear glasses since the screen is 3 inches away from your face. I herd from a PSVR demo review video that the guy was near sighted and he was amazed when he tried it without glasses because it was like the PSVR headset gave him new eyes because he could finally see objects far away.

My guess is your vision was blurry constantly because your glasses where trying to correct your eyes but that had a reverse effect considering the screen is so close.

I would suggest trying it again tomorrow without glasses to see how it feels.

Just to explain what's going on here in a bit more detail, the lenses in these units mimic a focal distance far away from the actual screen. If you were actually trying to focus on a screen just a few centimetres from your face the ocular strain would be horrible. The Rift and Vive IIRC are set to focus at 1.3m and 0.7m respectively IIRC, meaning it's equivalent to viewing a screen 1.3m/0.7m away so if you're farsighted or nearsighted to the degree that you can't resolve stuff with near perfect clarity at these distances then you will need your glasses. Id guess PSVR focal distance is in the same ballpark.
 

DOWN

Banned
EVE had bad aliasing and at first I thought that meant some downsides to PSVR, but yesterday I played Ocean Descent and lord, that was good. Basically no aliasing and looked awesome. Not sharp, but looked great
 
Tried it a few hours ago. Played Battlezone. I'll keep it short since most things have been said already. But I left very disappointed. The resolution of the screen is just terrible. Watching the same VR games being output onto the Tv they have setup and the games look 50 times better. After about 2 or 3 minutes of fighting tanks in Battlezone I started to get really nauseous so I called it quits. The graphics were just plain bad for a 2016 game. The only thing that looked decent to me was your cockpit. The headset looks nice and it was light and comfortable, but that doesn't mean much when I wouldn't want to actual use it. After years and years of increasing impressive graphics and display resolutions, this seems like a huge step backwards. Still seems like truly impressive and affordable VR hardware and software are a long way off.
 
Tried it a few hours ago. Played Battlezone. I'll keep it short since most things have been said already. But I left very disappointed. The resolution of the screen is just terrible. Watching the same VR games being output onto the Tv they have setup and the games look 50 times better. After about 2 or 3 minutes of fighting tanks in Battlezone I started to get really nauseous so I called it quits. The graphics were just plain bad for a 2016 game. The only thing that looked decent to me was your cockpit. The headset looks nice and it was light and comfortable, but that doesn't mean much when I wouldn't want to actual use it. After years and years of increasing impressive graphics and display resolutions, this seems like a huge step backwards. Still seems like truly impressive and affordable VR hardware and software are a long way off.

Yeah, VR isn't going to compete in IQ with a standard 2D display for a while. But hopefully not that far off. There are already 4K screens in mobile phones. If they can be driven at the required framerates, we could see a higher-end VR headset options come out in the next few years. Even then, it probably won't compete with 2D screens, but should go a long way towards closing the gap.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Yeah, VR isn't going to compete in IQ with a standard 2D display for a while. But hopefully not that far off. There are already 4K screens in mobile phones. If they can be driven at the required framerates, we could see a higher-end VR headset options come out in the next few years. Even then, it probably won't compete with 2D screens, but should go a long way towards closing the gap.

It probably won't happen for at least 10 years for PSVR version 3.
 
Finally tried out PSVR at best buy this afternoon...and I am sold!!! Now I regret not preordering it!! lol....How do i get my hands on one day 1 Gaf?!
 
Man I'm pissed. My local bestbuy is listed on the playstation site and the best buy one as having the demo all weekend but when I was there friday they didn't have it and when I called today it was the same. I want to try this stuff but I can't ever find it.
 
Finally tried out PSVR at best buy this afternoon...and I am sold!!! Now I regret not preordering it!! lol....How do i get my hands on one day 1 Gaf?!

Sony claims they limited pre-orders in order to have more units available Day 1 for walk-ins, so I guess your best bet would be to hit up a store on the morning of release.
 

Mikey Jr.

Member
Anyone in Canada go to EB games to try this out?

I'm worried about lines and shit. Canadian hours are garabge, so they do these things one time in Saturday and thats it. Does it get packed?
 

Kyolux

Member
Anyone in Canada go to EB games to try this out?

I'm worried about lines and shit. Canadian hours are garabge, so they do these things one time in Saturday and thats it. Does it get packed?

I went to an ebgames in Ottawa on the first week-end over here. There was about 6 that were before us. So took about I'd say a 45-50 minutes wait?

Was worth it in my opinion. It confirmed that I want to keep my pre-order.
 

sn00zer

Member
Got to sit and play most of the rest of the demos

-Eve Valkyrie- was kinda neat, outside of the launch sequence didnt feel really impressive and not sure why. Was really weird playing as a female in VR, will need to think more about how I felt about that.

-London Heist- I generally hate this sort of setting (crime) in games, but holy hell that was AMAZING. Opening the door to look out the window behind you is absolutely bonkers, also had a lot of great moments that really forced you to look around. Probably the best showing of VR's potential.

-SuperHyperCube- Holy shit was this cool. The game itself is fairly simple, flip a 3d shape to match the shape of a 2D hole, but my gawd the presentation is INCREDIBLE. You feel like you are in an 80s movie representation of a future videogame. There is an ungodly sense of speed when you drop the block and it feels like you are going into warp drive. The whole game has you flying in some sort of infinitely large space that just looks gorgeous with its simple aesthetic. It also has a really cool use of god rays that point directly at you, but have an amazing 3d effect.

So demo rankings (of the ones I played)

1. Battlezone
2. London Heist
2./3. SuperHyperCube
.
.
.
.
X. Eve Valkyrie
 

sn00zer

Member
I think SuperHyperCube actually makes me want to buy a PSVR more than anything because it showed even the simplest (and this was about as simple a game you could get on a console) become entirely new beast in VR.
 
Top Bottom