Japanese tech giant Sony intends to change the landscape of virtual reality with the projected release of its VR headset in the first half of 2016.
In an event simultaneous to the ongoing Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, California, Sony announced that its VR headset, which the company dubbed as Project Morpheus, will be retailed to consumers next year.
The company has yet to disclose the full details and final consumer version look of its VR headset, which according to Sony shall also become the most advanced yet upon its release next year.
However, Sony unravelled a sleek-looking prototype of the VR headset during the event that features a 5.7-inch OLED screen with its special capability of tracking the wearer’s motion in 360 degrees, a function which the Oculus Rift VR headset featured when it was announced in September last year. Oculus is an independent company that is into VR.
Sony also made demos for the VR headset that run at 120 frames per second (FPS), making motion sickness less likely. The device also connects to the PlayStation 4 giving an ultimate experience to the next generation gamers.
A likely problem
But there appears to be a problem with Sony’s Project Morpheus VR headset in as far as Sony’s PlayStation 4 is concerned.
The company’s next gen gaming consoles are not yet configured to handle games at a rate of 120 FPS so unless Sony comes up with another version of the PS4, then the VR headset will nearly be useless with the current gaming consoles, cites BBC News.
However, Sony PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida was quick to answer the likely problem when he announced during the Game Developers Conference that a software update to the PS4 would allow the machine to create an in-between frame to double the gaming console’s current maximum of 60 FPS.
One analyst who has been in the virtual reality industry said that higher frame rates are definitely important because those are going to translate into higher responsiveness of the gaming community and environment.
Less on looks
If there’s any caveat to the Project Morpheus of Sony, it’s the fact that it does not look nice at all when compared to the Oculus Rift, merely basing of course on the prototype that Sony has unveiled during the event at the Game Developer Conference.
But since it is not yet the final version, as Sony said, the company might adjust it to make it looking better or at par with the current roster of VR headsets now available in the market.
Project Morpheus is also notches above HTC’s recently unveiled Vive VR headset because the latter has a refresh rate of 90 FPS, which is actually very good, but not good enough for Sony’s Morpheus. In recent VR demonstrations, the Oculus Rift has been reported to be running at 90 FPS.