Project Morpheus: Could Sony’s Take On Virtual Reality Outshine Oculus Rift?
Project Morpheus, as we know by now, is Sony’s attempt to create a virtual reality gaming experience to truly take the PlayStation 4 to the next level. Sony knows that the peripheral has to be done right or they’ll just be making the next Virtual Boy.
We also know that Sony’s virtual reality peripheral isn’t the only one in the public eye. The Oculus Rift is a similar device which fits over the eyes and converts the on-screen image into an immersive virtual world. However, there are some things both get right and wrong.
The Oculus Rift sports a visual resolution of a mere 640 by 768, which, when only an inch or so away from the eye, can become quite a pixelated disappointment (though the settings allow higher numbers to match your TV or monitor’s native resolution). Early first person shooters dealt with a similar problem, which created a sort of “break” between edges so you could clearly see between the polygons.
Project Morpheus currently uses a much more impressive 960 by 1080 resolution, which is a little more photo-realistic when such a short distance away from the eye. The problem is that its display is currently LCD, which doesn’t handle quick motion very well, while the Oculus Rift uses OLED. Sony is still looking into turning up the resolution even higher and experimenting for better quick motion display options.
On the subject of quick motion, Sony’s virtual reality peripheral, while still in development and far from being complete, already has one solution in place. While a virtual reality headset can be cumbersome and shift around with quick movements, their device fits very comfortably on the head and straps in for minimal shifting. Sony is still working on perfecting the fit so it accommodates all head shapes and sizes.
Sony’s Project Morpheus brings virtual reality to mainstream console gaming – http://t.co/CvK6kvEQ7j
— Thomas Miller IV (@CranialChaos) May 20, 2014
One issue with the design that we hope is fixed before the peripheral launches possibly next year is the headset jack, which seems to be situated inside the visor. That seems to be the worst possible place to put it, aside from going through the lens itself.
It is still unknown how the DualShock 4 light is set to interact with Project Morpheus, other than the possibility of using PlayStation Move style integration where you literally move the controller as an extra form of control. Perhaps it will use the controller light to tell it where the field of view needs to be? It doesn’t seem to be that necessary if there is a motion tracker already built into the visor.
It appears that Sony may be onto something with Project Morpheus that could put the Oculus Rift to shame. Also, with Microsoft having stated that they’ve been planning on something similar, we’re wondering if they might be secretly developing their own virtual reality gaming device.
[image via digitaltrends]
