Sony has announced its own head-mounted display for the PlayStation 4, dubbed “Project Morpheus” and finally heralding the arrival of VR on mainstream consoles.
Sony’s experience developing consumer HMDs actually stretches back further than the current main contender – Oculus Rift – and they claim, perhaps even plausibly, to have been working on the latest project for over 3 years:
Our current prototype for Project Morpheus features a head mounted display with 1080p resolution and a 90 degree field of view.
Accelerometer and gyroscope sensors built into the head mounted unit as well as PlayStation Camera accurately tracks head orientation and movement, so as your head rotates, the image of the virtual world rotates intuitively in real-time.
Project Morpheus also features our new 3D audio technology that re-creates stereoscopic sounds in all directions and changes in real-time depending on your head orientation. In addition to PlayStation Camera, Project Morpheus works with DUALSHOCK 4 Wireless Controller and PlayStation Move to deliver an easy-to-use, plug-and-play VR experience.
The prototype for Project Morpheus is the culmination of our work over the last 3+ years as we’ve refined our vision for VR. This prototype will serve as the first development kit for PS4 developers that are as enthusiastic about this new medium as we are.
Not to be outdone, Oculus Rift has also finally started accepting orders for version 2 of its “dev kit” HMD (due to ship in July), although there is still no firm date on the final release of the consumer version – though by all accounts the dev kit is already a formidable product and boasts some fairly impressive PC game support.
As if that were not enough, Microsoft is now also rumoured to be working on an Xbox HMD provisionally dubbed “Fortaleza,” having decided the console still needs to be able to manage actual games as well as TV.
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The first round of reviews think Sony’s Project Morpheus is inferior to Oculus Rift. Wired Magazine said “Morpheus felt a bit like staring down a cardboard tube”.
Yet guess which one will be putting the other out of business?
Like I trust Sony enough to take one of their products and strap it to my head. Puppet strings and mind chains sold separately.
just another unuseful piece of tech.
The real question is, how long is it going to take me to learn how to bring Liru and Horo alive in this. Or just half ass out and use scripts and the models I made in SL.