TOKYO: An almost finished version of the Morpheus virtual reality headset has been shown off at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) event in San Francisco, including a new game demo by London Studio.
The headset will feature a 5.7 inch OLED screen and a resolution of 1920×1080 (i.e. 1080p) and a refresh rate of 120Hz. The latter is particularly impressive as it’s more than the 90Hz of Valve and HTC’s recently unveiled Vive and much more than the 75Hz of the current version of the Oculus Rift.
But for those who really enjoy arguing about numbers Morpheus developers are being encouraged to make games that run at 120 frames per second, rather than the normal 60fps maximum. On a normal TV screen any more than 60fps is usually pointless but doubling the frame rate is preferred when you’ve got the screen just centimetres away from your eyes.
Also key is the latency, which prevents any delay in movements of your head being translated into the game. With Morpheus the latency has been reduced to 18 milliseconds, along with an increased viewing angle of 100 degrees.
With nine tracking LEDs Morpheus is arguably the most technically advanced of any of the mass market VR headsets so far, and although it’ll be beaten to release by Valve’s Vive there’s still no release date for the retail version of the Oculus Rift.
As well as the headset’s technical specifications Sony has also been demonstrating that the Morpheus is more conformable and stylish than the other headsets with Oculus Rift in particular quite uncomfortable to wear if you already have glasses. Morpheus though has a specially strap that balances the weight of the visor across your forehead and the back of your skull.
The big question though, other than how much all this is going to cost, is what kind of games Sony are going to promote on it. Traditional first person shooters, and other games featuring fast on-foot movement, are not suitable for VR, so it’s still unclear what kind of genres are going to rise to replace them.
At GDC Sony was showing off a new tech demo created by The Getaway creators London Studio called London Heist. This ran at 60fps but uses a new Sony technology called ‘reprojection’, which is meant to give the illusion of a higher frame rate. Although apparently this is not what they meant by having 120fps games, and there are other full 120fps demos at GDC.
Although it’s a slower-paced first person game the Heist demo is controlled by holding a PlayStation Move controller in each hand, rather than using a DualShock controller, which is surely not a set-up Sony can expect from the average person.
The demo also demonstrates the PlayStation 4’s ability to track your body while using Morpheus, by requiring you to bend over in order to search draws for a gun. It all seems very impressive, and it’ll be very interesting to see if Microsoft reveals any kind of equivalent hardware later this year.
