The VR Age, Analisys and Thoughts on the Upcoming Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR and SteamVR
We are approaching a new age of emerging VR technologies and everybody seems to be having a lot of optimism for the technology and ever since the Oculus Rift Kickstarter, companies such as Sony and Valve have started taking notice on this exciting technology.
As Oculus VR is preparing to launch it’s rift on March 28 2016, it can be felt in the air the immense hype that this technology is building and also the hopes that it represents for the future of gaming, after all, I believe that the final frontiers of gaming experience will revolve around the player actually being in the game, being able to be alive in a virtual world and make you feel like you are really part of that world, thus effectively disconnecting yourself from the outside world; if any of you readers have watched shows such as Sword Art Online, you will know exactly what I’m talking about.
Analysis of VR Competitors
Oculus Rift
First of all, we have the aforementioned Oculus Rift which is due for release on March 28 2016; the Oculus team started a Kickstarter campaign for the rift which was successfully funded, earning over $2.5 million in crowdfunding, the main purpose of the Kickstarter was to get an initial Oculus Rift prototype to game developers in order to integrate it in their games or develop new games around the technology, this came to be know as the Oculus Rift Development Kit 1, the first dev kit of the rift was released to backers who pledged $300 or more during the Kickstarter campaign and later on it was sold publicly at the Oculus VR Website. The specifications of the Dev Kit 1 were very poor, it had a resolution of 1280×800 leading to an effective 640×480 resolution per eye and it used a 7-inch screen with a significantly lower pixel switching time than the original prototype.
In March 2014 at GDC, Oculus announced the upcoming Dev Kit 2 and it began shipping in July 2014, this new dev kit significantly improved the resolution, bringing it to a respectable 960×1080 per eye and it significantly reduced image persistence, giving it a smoother display of images. The final version of the rift received a much more modern design and it features an OLED Screen plus 1080 x 1200-pixel resolution per eye, efectively bringing it to a 2160 x 1200 final pixel resolution.
PlayStation VR
We begin with Sony, this is kind of familiar, when the Nintendo Wii came out and became popular due to it’s casual gamer friendly motion controls, Sony jumped ship into the motion control scheme with its own PlayStation Move; Sony’s take on motion control was technically better than the infrared based Wii remotes, however, it lacked one crucial thing, a killer app that effectively used the technology, instead Sony did things just to compete with Nintendo, for instance if Nintendo made Wii Sports, Sony made Sport Champions and so on.
Now back to the VR topic, Sony is answering Oculus VR with it’s own VR technology called the PlayStation VR. Initially code-named “Project Morpheus” their new VR technology attempts to compete head on with the Oculus Rift, it features 1920×1080 pixel resolution and 960×1080 resolution per eye coupled with OLED screens on each eye and a refresh rate of 120hz, even though the PlayStation VR offers less resolution than the Oculus Rift, it does offer better refresh rate than the rift, which is capped at 90hz per eye.
There is a glaring advantage that Sony has on it’s side which is accessibility; the biggest flaw of the Oculus Rift is that it requires users to have a very capable PC with an Nvidia GTX 970 in order for the Rift to work correctly, this means that no only consumers has to shell 600$ for the Rift googles but also $1000 for an Oculus Ready PC to be able to use the Rift. PlayStation VR on the other hand, requires a PlayStation 4 and that’s it, just by that, Sony’s offering has definitely a broader appeal and easier access to VR technology considering that to this day Sony has managed to sell more than 35 million PlayStation 4 units.
SteamVR
Valve also decided to join in the VR wars with it’s own Steam VR, which utilizes a VR headset called the HTC Vive, developed in co-operation between Valve engineers and phone maker HTC, this headset uses 1080p resolution, similar to the PlayStation VR and 90hz refresh rate similiar to the Oculus rift; while these specs might make it seem inferior to the competitors, the HTC Vive offers an interesting feature called “The LightHouse System”.
This unique tracking technology uses simple photosensors on any object that needs to be captured and it can also be used to map the boundaries of a room. The built in front facing cameras allow the software to identify any moving or static objects in a room which adds to the VR sensation, for example if you stand close to a wall, an image of it can appear in front of you in the VR world, preventing you from walking headfirst into it.
While the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR are meant to be used while being seated, SteamVR is designed to support standing and walking around a room with full positional tracking.
Games
Now this is where the cream of the crop is, after all, no matter how neat a new gaming technology or gimmick is, if it doesn’t have solid killer games to effectively make use of it, that technology will be destined to fail, and that can also be the case for VR as well.
Both the Oculus Rift and SteamVR are expected to use the already available VR games catalog featured on Steam. There will be 2 games are included for free with every Oculus Rift Purchase, one of them is the cute platformer Lucky’s Tale made by Oculus developer Playful Studios and the other game is Eve: Valkyrie which is a space shooter based on the EVE Online universe. More VR games are expected by the end of the year, Minecraft will be adding VR support later on in 2016.
Now on Sony’s camp, things are looking very good when it comes to games, besides third party games releasing on steam, Sony has a very good selection of first-party VR games that, in my opinion, look fantastic, such as London Heist, Robinson: The Journey, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood and many more.
Below is a trailer of the confirmed titles compatible with the PlayStation VR:
According to Sony executive Kaz Hirai, more than 100 VR games currently in development for the PlayStation, one of them being Gran Turismo Sport which will utilize VR technology, so for those who always dreamed on driving a Bugatti Veyron but don’t have the money, this might just be the game for you.
My Final Thoughts
So the question remains, is it worth it, is it really something you should jump into on launch day, or play the wait game.
Well, in my honest opinion, there is a lot of potential, I think this is the beginning of that cherished dream of one day actually being in the game and living it to the fullest, however, the price point to dig into the VR world as of this day is not justifiable, The Oculus Rift itself is priced at $600 plus a computer that can support it, so to jump to the Oculus bandwagon, you are looking to shell a cool $1600 to get yourself started in VR, that is an extremely steep price point, however, at this point in time, is understandable that VR technology is not cheap, the technology is so far ahead of it’s time that even though VR has existed for years, it’s just now that it’s probably ready for enthusiast and hardcore gamers adoption, but for mainstream consumers, it is going to take a few years until the technology is affordable enough for wide spread adoption.
One might think that Sony’s option seems the more affordable, however, Forbes Website spotted an amazon listing of the PlayStation VR priced at $800; that’s pretty much two PlayStation 4 in one gadget, Sony quickly requested amazon to take the listing down and denied the price, stating that they haven’t come up with a price yet. If this indeed is the price, then PlayStation VR will fail, as impressive as VR is, not many gamers are going to shed 800$ just for a pair VR headsets, However, there are strong rumors that Sony plans to take a loss on the PlayStation VR and price it at $400 stand-alone and also release a ps4 bundle estimated at $800 for new adopters and while it certainly is more affordable than the Rift, it is still a steep price that not many will be able to afford.
Even though Valve is planning to release it’s steam VR this year, there hasn’t been any mention on pricing, so it is expected to be priced competitively with the Rift and the PlayStation VR, however, if suddenly Valve announced Half Life 3 to be SteamVR exclusive and bundled with it, I might be tempted to get it regardless of the price.
In conclusion, VR shows a lot of promise, no doubt that great games are coming for it, everybody is genuinely excited for it, it feels like the times we jumped from 2D to 3D, however, the cost of adoption is very steep, and in order to reduce production costs of these VR headsets, people need to buy it, I just dearly hope that there are enough brave consumers who are willing to give it a try and support it until the day that the VR technology becomes affordable enough for everyone to jump in and be in the game, the way it was always meant to be.
