The PlayStation VR and Skyrim - First Impressions
VR can cause nausea in some people. I've never experienced it before. Perhaps, because I've never played a VR game after consuming an entire bottle of wine. An intoxicated man may conclude that playing VR while having alcohol floating around in their blood stream leads to this nausea. I don't think VR game reviewers sink a bottle of plonk before sitting down to share their first impressions of a virtual reality game.
Yet here I find myself. I figured this would be a good idea after writing about how awesome I thought Oblivion was.
I plugged in my PlayStation VR, an empty bottle of Rosé on the kitchen counter. I threw in the Skyrim VR Blu-Ray disc, and waited for the game to install. It took a bit longer than I expected, but that's the spinning rust inside my PlayStation 4 Pro talking.
Skyrim. VR. A black screen, but sound. It took me a while to learn (via an angry Google search on my mobile) that I needed to change the PlayStation's video output settings away from 4K to 1080p in order to get an image on either the TV or the VR Headset with Skyrim. Once I did I was met with an image.
What an image. I'd liken it to looking through a periscope from atop the masts of a mighty sea-faring vessel, except instead of seeing the view you'd expect from the Crows Nest, you get a spherical, vignetted glimpse into the world of Skyrim, which surrounds you in a moderate resolution, with no incredible sense of depth, but with a level of immersion that feels convincing enough to let you fantasise about being a prisoner about to be executed, yet soon to escape, and carve your own both in the world.
I chose to do the "free motion" movement controls, instead of "teleportation". I want to experience walking. Except - there's no real head bob, instead just a feeling that you're gliding around on roller skates. The controls feel a little clunky with the move controllers, but I'm sure with more time, I'll get used to them.
Melee combat feels far too easy from the early parts of the game, but it is incredibly satisfying.
The limiting factor I found was with the PlayStation Move controllers. Perhaps I need a lot more time with them to become competent. Perhaps I'm just an uncoordinated individual - but perhaps, also there's an awful lot of computational stuff the PlayStation Pro has to do in order to translate motions in 3D space into a game engine, then render a whole bunch of other things, while throwing dozens of things at you from the game world all at the exact same time.
It's a technical marvel that it runs at all on such hardware - and I think that a PC vr version of this would be BOUNDLESS times better, especially when combined with a myriad of modifications, better quality controllers, and of course, sharper lenses and headsets.
However, this is something that throughout the day away from Skyrim VR something that I wanted to revisit.
My only discomfort with the experience was that of the PS4VR headset's ergonomics, and the fact that this recollection of a time when I played Skyrim VR drunk made me want to come back into its world again and again. I will likely spend some more time in its game world tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!
Its true that the resolution in Skyrim VR is pretty poor compared to the one on a normal screen, but thats a problem with the Sony VR goggles in general. You just cannot expect anything close to photorealism with those things.
A bit of compensation is that you can look around just like in real life, without using buttons or something. Btw., if you use headphones, the sound also moves around accordingly. Have you tried that?
If you want to feel motion sickness from VR, then try a driving game like Dirt Rally or so. At least I don't handle that so well. And also it suffers from the poor resolution too, when it tries to display the detailed graphics of the game in the VR goggle.
However, you are pointing out the basic problem of the Sony PS VR correctly: its just too cheap. Highend PC gamers spend 5x as much on the graphics cards alone, than a PS4 Pro costs. So its not such a surprise, that the PS VR does not compare to the top PC setups.
Absolutely, the resolution is just too low. Gran Turismo VR didn't feel too bad when I tested that with the PSVR. I've toyed with the idea of plugging my PSVR into my PC (just to see what it would be like) - but I think I'll pass on having a rat's warren's nest of cables - it is bad enough in the lounge room :D
It's probably different from person to person, but I feel queasy pretty soon if I drive this rally sim with VR. Its full of bends and going up and down - at least thats what you see. But you don't feel it, of course. This is normally a sign that something is going wrong, so the body starts to protest.
I dont know if the PS VR goggle can be connected to a PC. But I never really bothered to try. The result won't be any better than on the PS4 anyway, so its not much use.
To clear the uncertainty, you can jerry rig the PSVR to a PC using third-party apps. And yes, the headset is pretty low-res, but, for some reason, it has a refresh rate of 120 Hz.
I tend to forgive the drawbacks of this headset, as it is relatively cheap compared to its brethren over on PC.
Ok, didn't know that. However, for a decent picture, it would need at least a 4k or better 8k display, that is shared between the eyes. And especially 8k is still a challenge even for expensice PCs. Also, the games would get a lot larger.
But you are right, for the price the PS VR is not too bad. Especially for games, which are taylor made to run on PS VR, like Bound and such stuff. Then it doesn't look realistic, but pretty cool nevertheless.
I recommend Blood & Truth. It is kind of an on rails shooter, but you choose when you advance on the rails and sometime have a choice of routes.
I've got that game in my PS collection - along with a whole bunch of other VR titles - I'll get to it eventually - it will be interesting to play something "Designed for VR", and designed with that particular headset in mind, as well. Skyrim VR feels like more of a "can we pull this off?", "great?", as opposed to a labour of love for a bespoke piece of equipment.
Sure its a better experience on PC. :)
Yeah, I used to to this with the cheaper "google cardboard" headsets using Trinus VR - gave a few titles a quick whiz in VR, but it was ultimately way too laggy at the time. With a wired connection, I think it could be a lot better using the PSVR. I can do it, I'm just lazy with cables!
Gotta wait a few more years for stuff to go bluetooth, I guess.