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[Digital Foundry] PSVR 2 Deep Dive - Song In The Smoke Preview - Talking Tech With 17-Bit

Lunatic_Gamer

Lunatic_Gamer

Gold Member



With PlayStation VR 2 due later this month, developers are starting to share details on their games - and the rich specification and capabilities of Sony's new headset. In this interview, John Linneman discusses Song in the Smoke with developer 17-bit, plus you'll get to see plenty of gameplay along with PSVR 2 vs PSVR 1 vs Oculus Quest comparisons.
 
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SLB1904

SLB1904

Banned
DenchDeckard said:
This looks so bad....what is this?

Sorry Devs, I am sure you put a lot of hard work in but it looks really poor.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately they had to make this game run originally on the Quest 2.
Thankfully the psvr2 was able them to increase the graphics fidelity. Improving the gameplay like jumping freely. Etc.

On topic they really didn't like on quest lol
I'm pretty much confirmed quest 3 will be another crap.
 
Crayon

Crayon

Member
Errr I want to play this but the launch is stacked and all I can think about are the 3 biggest games.
 
mckmas8808

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
P83wSVR.jpg



xHmWeZI.jpg
 
supernova8

supernova8

Banned
Visually looks shit but interesting how they said they had to work backwards with Quest 2 but with PSVR2 they could go really go to town before the framerate started tanking. Obvious but still a positive sign.
 
DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Romulus said:
There's a drastic power difference, alot of games they don't even attempt on quest1. Again, it's still nowhere near psvr2
Click to expand...
Right, but it's comparing the two versions. The game itself, the app, probably doesn't change no matter which Oculus you play it on. Like running an app on iPhone 10 vs 14. The game probably looks the same other than better (internal) framerates.
 
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Romulus

Romulus

Member
DeepEnigma said:
Right, but it's comparing the two versions. The game itself, the app, probably doesn't change no matter which Oculus you play it on. Like running an app on iPhone 10 vs 14. The game probably looks the same other than better (internal) framerates.
Click to expand...


Yeah in that case they didn't even update it. Other versions they do and it's a huge difference in textures and everything. Or stuff like iron man, there is no quest 1 version at all.
 
Heisenberg007

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Some tidbits from the interview:
  • The PS VR 2 version is by far the best.
  • PS VR 2 is a proper premium machine that won't be overtaken by another VR headset for quite some time.
  • Foveated rendering with eye-tracking is a game changer.
  • When they activated Foveated Rendering, they went "Oh my God!!". They said we can never go back now.
  • OLED blacks are amazing. It's proper pitch black if you're in the dark, so much so that they you start wondering if your VR headset is even on or off.
  • The comfort of the PS VR 2 is second to none. Sony has done a great job in stopping the light leakage. There is essentially 0 light leakage.
  • PS VR 2 offers a lot of new features -- adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, headset haptic, foveated rendering, eye-tracking, etc. And there are no PS VR 2 games out there, so there is no standard practice or templates on how to use these features. This means devs are playing with it on their own and coming with really creative stuff.
  • Eye-tracking is so fast and accurate that the dev tried his level-best to break it by looking at different areas super fast. He failed because he couldn't break it at all. It's so fast and accurate.
  • The fidelity improvement is a "quantum leap." -
  • The polycount increase from PS VR 1 to PS VR 2 versions is by 4x to 10x.
DATdaeV.jpg
 
Razvedka

Razvedka

Banned
I keep hearing amazing things. My only concern is that I buy a PSVR2 and it's, obviously, a device that's completely tied to PlayStation. Is there any plans by Sony or anyone else for it to work on PC as well?

I know this is a stupid question.

Edit: research says no. Not at all likely. What I expected, but it was worth a measure of hope.
 
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Heisenberg007

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Razvedka said:
I keep hearing amazing things. My only concern is that I buy a PSVR2 and it's, obviously, a device that's completely tied to PlayStation. Is there any plans by Sony or anyone else for it to work on PC as well?

I know this is a stupid question.
Click to expand...
No one knows. There's no official info out there.

My best guess: it'll likely not come to PC (at least, officially). Considering the tech and features it has, Sony is very likely selling this at a loss at $550. In that case, they'd be making a profit on software sale, which they can't do on PC.
 
mckmas8808

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Heisenberg007 said:
Some tidbits from the interview:
  • The PS VR 2 version is by far the best.
  • PS VR 2 is a proper premium machine that won't be overtaken by another VR headset for quite some time.
  • Foveated rendering with eye-tracking is a game changer.
  • When they activated Foveated Rendering, they went "Oh my God!!". They said we can never go back now.
  • OLED blacks are amazing. It's proper pitch black if you're in the dark, so much so that they you start wondering if your VR headset is even on or off.
  • The comfort of the PS VR 2 is second to none. Sony has done a great job in stopping the light leakage. There is essentially 0 light leakage.
  • PS VR 2 offers a lot of new features -- adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, headset haptic, foveated rendering, eye-tracking, etc. And there are no PS VR 2 games out there, so there is no standard practice or templates on how to use these features. This means devs are playing with it on their own and coming with really creative stuff.
  • Eye-tracking is so fast and accurate that the dev tried his level-best to break it by looking at different areas super fast. He failed because he couldn't break it at all. It's so fast and accurate.
  • The fidelity improvement is a "quantum leap." -
  • The polycount increase from PS VR 1 to PS VR 2 versions is by 4x to 10x.
Click to expand...


Great write up. It's interviews like this that makes me still be a big believer in Digital Foundry. I wish they make VR their next "big thing" to do. Because the PS5 and XSX are too close in power to be interesting at this point.
 
DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Heisenberg007 said:
Some tidbits from the interview:
  • Eye-tracking is so fast and accurate that the dev tried his level-best to break it by looking at different areas super fast. He failed because he couldn't break it at all. It's so fast and accurate.
Click to expand...
They probably have it down to where the processing is so fast, that it updates faster than your brain receiving the image.
 
Markio128

Markio128

Member
Looks pretty good to me. I’ve not decided if I’ll buy it for launch, but I’ll definitely be picking it up at some point. I’ve pretty much got 3 full games in GT7, RE:V and NMS without having to spend a penny. I’m thinking of buying another 3 games: Horizon COTM, Kayak VR and either this one, or Pavlov. I’ll be set for months. I’m super hyped and even booked a few days off.
 
Crayon

Crayon

Member
Heisenberg007 said:
No one knows. There's no official info out there.

My best guess: it'll likely not come to PC (at least, officially). Considering the tech and features it has, Sony is very likely selling this at a loss at $550. In that case, they'd be making a profit on software sale, which they can't do on PC.
Click to expand...

I was hoping that they would leave a back doorr open at best. Unfortunately, the guy who contributed a lot to getting psvr1 working on pc says it's going to be very hard if not impossible with psvr2. If I understand correctly, he pointed out that plugging in a psvr1 at least gets you started with a dumb display. With psvr2, even that is encrypted. Never say never but it looks like sony has taken steps to lock it down.
 
sachos

sachos

Member
What a great interview! This has hyped me even more, their excitement is contagious! They talk about how you can't tell if the screen is on when showing black and how they had to change some cutscenes that cut to white because of the HDR brightness although it seems they are not properly supporting HDR? I did not understand that part.
Its pretty obvious if you only ever played PSVR1 or this is your first time using VR it will blow your mind.
 
DenchDeckard

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
So the oled is perfect in these its not like the vita and psvr 1 where you can almost see the dirty screen effect on black screens?
 
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ABnormal

ABnormal

Member
sachos said:
What a great interview! This has hyped me even more, their excitement is contagious! They talk about how you can't tell if the screen is on when showing black and how they had to change some cutscenes that cut to white because of the HDR brightness although it seems they are not properly supporting HDR? I did not understand that part.
Its pretty obvious if you only ever played PSVR1 or this is your first time using VR it will blow your mind.
Click to expand...
They said that they didn't update the game to HDR because they realized that they would need to redo all the visuals of the entire game, since HDR would throw lighting towards too bright or too dark, if don't properly tweaked in all the different situations.
They say also that the big contrast of the oled screen alone makes the visuals take a jump in lighting fidelity, compared to lcd screens.
 
sachos

sachos

Member
ABnormal said:
They said that they didn't update the game to HDR because they realized that they would need to redo all the visuals of the entire game, since HDR would throw lighting towards too bright or too dark, if don't properly tweaked in all the different situations.
They say also that the big contrast of the oled screen alone makes the visuals take a jump in lighting fidelity, compared to lcd screens.
Click to expand...
Oh i see, hope they can later update it to support HDR with a patch if the reception to their game is good enough.
 
ABnormal

ABnormal

Member
sachos said:
Oh i see, hope they can later update it to support HDR with a patch if the reception to their game is good enough.
Click to expand...
Hopefully so, but I'm already sorry for most VR developers involved in PSVR 2 launch, because many titles will be cannibalized by the few most popular ones. At the same time, there was the need to have many games in the launch window, to make understand that it will have broad support, and to have many chioces, even those less known.
I hope all less known developers will manage to have their chance. At least, those who are really skilled and passionate about VR. Those who are simply seeking to ride a new tide, producing barely QA approved games, in the hope of impulse blind sales, need to change job.
 
sachos

sachos

Member
ABnormal said:
Hopefully so, but I'm already sorry for most VR developers involved in PSVR 2 launch, because many titles will be cannibalized by the few most popular ones. At the same time, there was the need to have many games in the launch window, to make understand that it will have broad support, and to have many chioces, even those less known.
I hope all less known developers will manage to have their chance. At least, those who are really skilled and passionate about VR. Those who are simply seeking to ride a new tide, producing barely QA approved games, in the hope of impulse blind sales, need to change job.
Click to expand...
I think as long as the games are good they will do alright, people are hungry for VR content and since this will be a lot of people first VR headset they will have a lot to choose from. Im sure there will be a lot of "Top games to try" type of lists too or "hidden gems" couple of weeks after launch.
 
Rudius

Rudius

Member
ABnormal said:
They said that they didn't update the game to HDR because they realized that they would need to redo all the visuals of the entire game, since HDR would throw lighting towards too bright or too dark, if don't properly tweaked in all the different situations.
They say also that the big contrast of the oled screen alone makes the visuals take a jump in lighting fidelity, compared to lcd screens.
Click to expand...
In the 10 minute mark they mention the wider color gamut and elimination of color banding in sunset, present in other headsets. Wide color gamut is a characteristic of HDR.

11:10 "it's always HDR in the headset".
 
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ABnormal

ABnormal

Member
Rudius said:
In the 10 minute mark they mention the wider color gamut and elimination of color banding in sunset, present in other headsets. Wide color gamut is a characteristic of HDR.

11:10 "it's always HDR in the headset".
Click to expand...
Wide color gamut can be implemented without fear, because it basically increases the number of nuances in color grading, but without altering necessarily the dynamic range of scene lighting. Then you can also have dynamic range lighting, which of course includes also WCG by base (it has to, otherways banding becomes inevitable).
But even WCG alone is great for image quality, and on oled the result is probably really vibrant and crisp.
 
Raonak

Raonak

Banned
The using the eyetracking for gameplay elements sounds amazing. There's a lot of potential there, from aiming via eyesight to just be puzzles, to even horror games (FUCK THAT)

PSVR2 shaping up to be the premier headset. Hopefully sony supports the software side well.
 
T

Tchu-Espresso

likes mayo on everthing and can't dance
Good video but it would have been nice if they explained some of the survival mechanics a little more.
 
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