PS5 VR Leak Reveals Foveated Rendering, 4K Resolution and More
Updated: Aug 21, 2021
A leak about the upcoming PlayStation 5’s (PS5) VR system suggests that it might come with 4K resolution and other features that could improve players’ experience and immersion.
Credit: Jessica Lewis on Unsplash
It’s been said that Sony plans to add 4K resolution, eye-tracking capable of foveated rendering and a lens separation adjustment dial to the PS5’s VR system. The VR system’s headset, meanwhile, might feature a motor for haptic feedback.
If this is true, then we should expect a more immersive experience from the PS5’s VR system when it comes out. Hideaki Nishino, Sony’s Senior Vice President for Platform Planning and Management, stated that developers are already working on games that will feature a new world for players to explore in VR.
Immersion aside, the features seem to be worth waiting for if the leak is true. The headset’s 4K resolution (2000×2040 per eye) is reputed to be slightly less than the HP Reverb G2, which is the current leader in consumer VR headset resolution, and slightly more than the Oculus Quest 2. The headset may feature roughly 8.16 million pixels in total and a USB Type-C connector for the console.
The PS5’s VR system might also be equipped with eye-tracking capable of foveated rendering. For the unaware, foveated rendering is a rendering technique that uses a VR headset’s eye-tracker to reduce the system’s rendering workload. A VR headset with foveated rendering does this by greatly reducing the image quality of objects in the player’s peripheral vision, just like how our eyes operate in real life. Meanwhile, the quality of content in the player’s line of sight will remain the same. This could mean faster rendering for the PS5’s VR system, although this is still just speculation.
A demonstration of how eye-tracking can help a player’s aim in a VR game Credit: Tobii
Another possible benefit of eye-tracking is improved throwing mechanics that developers can utilise by taking into account what the player is aiming at when they release a virtual object.
The leak, unfortunately, did not contain any definite date or any clues as to when the PS5’s VR system will hit store shelves, so here’s hoping they’ll be made available for purchase as soon as 2022.
Written by John Paul Joaquin