The PS5 is stuck in a hard place right now. Sony can’t nail down the retail price, and the production is costing much more than anticipated. This, in turn, is impacting how the company is approaching the second edition of their PlayStation virtual reality headset. Will we see it directly after the console release? Will they try to make major hardware improvements to make some profit off of their hardware? Only time will tell.
One thing we do know is that Sony is going all-in with virtual reality. In a time where Xbox is hesitant to dip their feet in the water, Sony and PlayStation are going for a full cannonball. In the companies latest patent, we see what could be the final mockup of the PSVR 2 headset. Hardware improvements galore, gaze detection, and much more. We are going to break it all down for you so you don’t have to read through and understand the lengthy patent.
Basic Hardware Improvements
With the progression of each headset from a company, you’d expect for the comfort of the convenience of the headset to improve. With the PSVR 2 headset, you’ll be able to get those upgrades. It seems like there will be a new strap system on the second version of the headset. Its not going to be the easiest for your hair, but it will take a lot of pressure off of your forehead. This will be a fun improvement.
You’ll still have a strap around the back of the head, but it won’t be tightening with a knob like before. You’ll have a strap on the top of the head as well, and both of these straps seem to be elastic. One observation that can be made by that is the material being used. If it is in fact elastic, you can expect this headset to be pretty lightweight. So will it be standalone? No promises just yet.
If the headset is going to be capable of what we think, making it standalone wouldn’t be the best route to go, especially if you have the all-powerful PS5 just a few feet from your chair.
Gaze Detection and Foveated Rendering
This isn’t promised in the newest headset Sony will be releasing, but all signs are pointing this direction. The patent, in multiple places, talks about the foveate rendering that is going to be working in unison with the gaze detection. This isn’t full eye tracking like many thought, but it will be enough to give you a display that is working full time to make the experience better for the user.
This is also going to impact where the field of view is. if the headset naturally only has 105°, that won’t be a problem. Depending on where you look the rendering and the actually display can move to fix your line of sight as well.
Again, none of this is promised for the second version of the PlayStation virtual reality headset. With that being said, it is awfully exciting for all VR lovers to see a company as big as Sony take virtual reality this serious.
New Display
There isn’t much about the actual display itself inside of the patent, but you read a lot about how this is an alternate display. If the PS5 is going to be pushing out an insane amount of frames and pixels, not all at-home TVs will be able to run with it. In fact, it is going to be pretty rare to find a mass adoption of all of the consoles new powers early on into the adoption of the hardware. But what if Sony ships out their own display, the newest VR headset.
Everyone is aware of the Cinematic Mode in the PSVR headset that allows the headset to turn into a flatscreen TV for you to game on and play your favorite show inside of. This could take a turn for the better with the new headset. This could be the preferred way to play regular console games.
The headset is going to be much cheaper than a TV that roll out 240 FPS and 8K. The headset obviously won’t be able to show that, but it could have a faster refresh rate and higher pixel count than the TV in your bedroom. This could be a fantastic alternate to even the most avid console gamers.
