Project Morpheus Almost Complete
Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida recently spoke with the Wall Street Journal and told the outlet that Project Morpheus is 85 percent complete. He wouldn't say when the HMD would hit store shelves or how much it will cost consumers, but he did mention that many components are also used in smartphones, which should keep the price tag low.
Sony is targeting gamers as Morpheus' core audience, but the company is hoping that the tech will draw in non-gamers as well. "With the Morpheus and PlayStation 4, we can offer them a totally new virtual reality experience in a lighthearted and fun manner," he said. Non-gaming applications could include visual textbooks, driving lessons and so on.
Just recently Project Morpheus was demonstrated at the Tokyo Game Show. The company provided a sea exploration game, which had participants making swimming moves as they interacted with the virtual environment.
According to CVG, Yoshida said back in August that the Move motion controller will spark a new interest in motion detection once players demand 3D motion tracking while using Morpheus. The PlayStation 4 Camera will also be a requirement for Morpheus, as its job will be to pinpoint head tracking data. Currently, it's mainly used as a webcam.
Sony revealed Project Morpheus back in March, a visor-styled HMD with built-in inertial sensors that work with the PlayStation Camera to track the user's head movements and orientation. There's also Sony's 3D audio technology that not only addresses the front, back and sides, but the spaces above and below the players, providing a realistic experience.
"Along with PlayStation Camera, Wireless Controller for PS4, and PS Move, Morpheus will deliver immersive breakthrough entertainment experiences to gamers through the PS4 system, leveraging SCE's expertise across key areas for VR – including display/optics, audio, tracking, control, ease of use, and content," said Sony's press release.
The specifications include a 90 degree field of view, HDMI and USB connections, a resolution of 1080 x 960 for each eye (equal to 1920 x 1080), an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a five-inch LCD panel.
With all that said, is it possible gamers will see Project Morpheus this Christmas? We'll see what happens over the next several months.
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I've crunched the numbers and at least for the Rift you need AT LEAST a 4k display to even begin competing with the DPI of 1080p desktop monitors. The perceived size of the display is just that big! Moving on, you would need a 4k display for each eye to compete with 1440p offerings, and a >8k display for each eye to compete with 4k display DPI.
Even at the lower DPI of console gaming, you're going to need at least 1440p to compensate for the expanded viewing angles.
Oculus Rift is doing it right. If you want new tech to be successful, you have to take your time and deliver a top-quality product, though the publicly available "Dev Kits" are a stroke of genius. The same can be said for HL2 Episode 3. We are impatient, but we tolerate it because we know that when it releases it will be amazing.
i keep them around just to knock oculous and any other VR claims back out into the psycho (LSD) drug world. 1950's tech no matter how they play it on 1D. real 3D is just that when computer programmers design games for 9D then they will probably be 3D.
top bottom left right forward backwards and inside planes 4 axis is required to make 3D, impossible on a flat 1D screen. if you immersed yourself into a fish tank that would be more 3D than any claims made by computer programmers. VR is nothing more than a horror of fun house mirrors
At 4 inches from your eye, 20/20 vision can see about 2000 pixels per inch, the legal standard for 20/20 vision is 876 dots per inch at 4 inches. Ideally you want these things as close to the eye as possible, but the average adult has trouble focusing at less then 4 inches from the eye. Children can focus down to around 2 inches. So, thats why im using 4 inches.
Even using the legal standard rather then what the average 20/20 person can see at that distance, and assuming about a 12 inch curved screen(at 4 inches my field of view is larger then this, i duno exactly how large a human field of view is at this distance), you need a resolution of 10500 pixels by 7000 at least. Probably a good bit larger. Tho the resolution at the extreme of your field of vision doesnt have to be as good. So they can fudge it and it will still look fine if they wanted to.
These things have a LONG way to go before they fill your field of view without pixels being visible. Even a 4k screen at 4 inches isnt going to cut it. The 1080p screen is not even close to cutting it.
PS4, PS5, or any PS of the future will not be top of the line. PS4 currently runs $400. a decked out Alienware Aurora cost $3,800. There is a world of difference between console and Gaming Computers. This being said, you have to understand that VR for the PlayStation is going to be limited.
However, it can still provide a unique experience that can be both fun and successful. Everything needs a starting point. Technology gets better as it develops the atari 2600 to ColecoVison to Nintendo to Playstation and on.. If it wasn't for the previous we would not have what we do today. Morpheous or Oculus Rift may not be the ultimate VR but they are a starting point. There is a world of potential yet to be discovered, so I am happy there are those who are developing things and exploring new possibilities.
PS4, PS5, or any PS of the future will not be top of the line. PS4 currently runs $400. a decked out Alienware Aurora cost $3,800. There is a world of difference between console and Gaming Computers. This being said, you have to understand that VR for the PlayStation is going to be limited.
However, it can still provide a unique experience that can be both fun and successful. Everything needs a starting point. Technology gets better as it develops the atari 2600 to ColecoVison to Nintendo to Playstation and on.. If it wasn't for the previous we would not have what we do today. Morpheous or Oculus Rift may not be the ultimate VR but they are a starting point. There is a world of potential yet to be discovered, so I am happy there are those who are developing things and exploring new possibilities.