Sony’s Morpheus: Here’s How Developers and Industry Veterans Reacted to Sony’s PS4 VR Headset

Yesterday’s unveiling of Sony’s Project Morpheus Virtual Reality headset caused quite a stir in the industry, and quite a few developers and industry veterans posted their impressions, opinions, banter and even some intriguing information on Twitter.

[JoGam]

Andrea Pessino, Ready at Dawn CTO:
RIP Oculus Rift… we barely knew you. : )

OUCH!

[Abriael]

Pessino's like that, edgy and competitive. I'm sure he was also half joking, mind you :D

[JoGam]

Cool.

[darthv72]

If any hardware company can make this finally take off....it would be sony. they arent first with the idea but it isnt about being first its about who can do it the best.

As much as i wanted there to be a sega vr (years ago) I knew it would not have had the level of support as i wanted it to.

With talks that MS has been developing something similar for years and that this project has also been in the works for years leads me to believe that VR was the next phase in gaming evolution.

3D, in some ways, was the testbed to see if VR had a chance and if VR is to succeed then there needs to be tighter reigns on who gets to use it.

#noVRshovelware

http://resource.mmgn.com/Ga...

[webeblazing]

And how are they doing it the best? Sony would still be stuck at square one if it wasn't for OR devs work. I find weird that people praise big businesses more than small companies especially when everything Sony announced has been said and done by OR for the longest . I understand the reason for being excite, I am too but I can't deny so is pull a me too and didn't bring anything new to the table.

[DatNJDom81]

"Dan Olson, Treyarch Software Engineer:
Maybe it’s called project morpheus because it starts out really cool and then everyone’s tired of it by the third movie."

Like call of duty?

[starchild]

They aren't doing it best. That's just nonsense.

The Rift has a 5.6" OLED screen, while Sony's headset has a 5" LCD panel. The Rift has a 110 degree FOV whereas the Sony headset has a 90 degree FOV. The tracking is said to be better with the Rift. The Rift also blocks out all of the outside world, but there is a gap on Sony's headset and if you look down you will see the ground of the real world.

And according to Engaget the Sony headset also has blurrier motion and a muddier image quality.

"There are still some pretty major issues to overcome in Project Morpheus. Vision blur, for instance, is a much bigger problem on Morpheus than on Crystal Cove/Rift DK2. The screen resolution is also clearly not as high as DK2, making everything a bit muddier, visually speaking."
http://www.engadget.com/201...

[Rocky5]

@starchild
Quiet, shhhhhhh. You can't talk bad about Sony on here. Everything they do, is better, no one can compete with them. :-/

But this does look cool, its a pity it's £250+ can't afford to buy something gimmicky at that price.

[ToyboxDX]

What's with the "You can't talk bad about Sony on here" comment? Are you a MS shill? Because only a MS shill would say this to support another MS fanboy.

Starchild link an endgadget article that said the bottom opening can be covered up by adjusting the headset so obviously he himself didn't even read the article.

The display is 1080p, so I would guess it's just the demo graphics have a lower res hence the remarks by the reviewer.

This is an early design of the VR so of course there are bound to be issues that need ironing out in the coming months.

The fact that the first review of this VR set already have positive feedback I would say Sony is on a very good head start.

[Rocky5]

Actually I go where the games are & you just proved my point :-/

I said what I said, because if anyone criticise Sony, the fanboy come out the woodwork to attach anyone who agrees.

Basically what you just done, accusing me of being a fanboy & starchild, when in reality we could both own a PS4 & love it to death.

(I don't own a PS4 by the way, I do own a PSP, PSVita & did have a PS3 until it bricked, but guess I'm a MS fanboy because I don't prays Sony for everything & anything)

[kingduqc]

He's paid by sony...

The rift>sony vr for the simple fact that the rift will be 1440p/4k real soon and that the ps4 can't handle more then 1080p.

On top of that they use LCD screen that is quite less sharp in motion then an OLED screen the rift will have.

[Prime157]

Cost is key, sometimes. Oled is awesome, but relatively expensive.

I'm not disagreeing, there's a few things at work for both.

[hellzsupernova]

How much is that though full hd is fine for a consumer product that is affordable

[senis_kenis]

It's a dev kit, sony is looking to oled and higher fov/resolution, the product is in development so stop spouting you VS bullshit.

[kingduqc]

"It's not all virtual reality rainbows and dreams, of course. There are still some pretty major issues to overcome in Project Morpheus. Vision blur, for instance, is a much bigger problem on Morpheus than on Crystal Cove/Rift DK2. The screen resolution is also clearly not as high as DK2, making everything a bit muddier"

-ENGAGET.

What is he even talking about. There is no fix way mid tier hardware can compete in an ever evolving tech world. In 2 years everything Sony VR will be left behind in the dust.

PS4 can't do high resolution at high framerate, take your fan glasses off and take a good look at the real world: VR experience needs those basic requirement for being a great. You don't want to look at blurry motion while counting pixels or at least clearly seeing the pixels grid it will give you a headache.

[mantisimo]

We don't quite know what they can and can't do yet and if it performs well, and more importantly performs well and is a keen price then we can comment.

Sony wouldn't put this out there if it was that inferior to rift.

[Subaruwrx]

Take your fanboy glasses off - no one knows enough, including the source you sited, to know how well Project Morpheus will perform. A prototype is not a final product.

[thereapersson]

Kingducq is so caught up with being a fanboy that he can't even use rational logic. Morpheus has a lot of time left in development and is currently just an early prototype. They have to work on getting the response time up and tracking more accurately before they can worry about getting the resolution higher than 1080p. Still a LOT of time to make this thing competitive and bring the cost down to a mass-market level. You act like The Oculus Rift just popped out of nowhere in the state it's in.

[Edsword]

Oculus guys fired back, I can't help but think they are crossing their fingers Sony keeps this PS4 only. I also got to think Sony's plans are bigger than that in the VR realm. My biggest fear is that the focus on VR doesn't hurt game quality. I really want a new Star War with the battle of Hoth! Wow that would be awesome in VR.

[lesrima88]

Ocolus rift over morpheus any day, will be good to know ALL the games i'll be playing with the rift on pc will be 60fps,making it more immersive ;)

[2cents]

Dan Pearce, The Tall Trees Developer:

"The Sony VR headset looks like a fancy butt massager. Okay I’m going to bed now"

lol.

Man... this generation is shaping up to be killer!!!

[Abriael]

It does kinda look like that tho...

[guitarded77]

Yeah, it do be lookin' like a butt massager. But who doesn't like a good butt massage after a 4 hour gaming session? I'm interested, but won't jump unless the price is right, and the software is appealing.

[Narutone66]

You should have seen the earlier prototype with move controllers attached to the VR head piece.

[T2]

that is funny but seriously the pictures of OR i saw were even uglier like wearing welding goggles on your face.
plus sony got the name advantage LOL

[starchild]

I personally don't like the way the Morpheus headset looks, but it's just a prototype and will likely change quite a bit.

In my opinion Sony's headset has a sort of clinical, clean sci-fi vibe about it (think Star Trek), whereas the Rift has a more rugged, gritty, utilitarian cyberpunk look to it (think Neuromancer). I simply prefer the latter.

In any case, looks are one of the last things I am concerned about. I won't be seeing the real world at all while I'm using the thing anyway. I care about the actual VR experience.

[mantisimo]

Star child why would you care what it looks like when it's on your face with your eyes inside it ?

[WeAreLegion]

I think I like Boogie's response the best.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[FunAndGun]

lol!

"I want virtual reality because my reality...suuuucks!"

[Athlon]

LoL I was laughing too, but kinda felt sad for him when he was explaining how his reality sucks. The guy should be more confident and think better of himself.

[Skate-AK]

@athlon

It's just a joke. It's a character he plays.

[ApolloTheBoss]

Tickets ready?! All Aboard!!

[curtis92]

Finally stuff that can enhance games and take them to the next level without gimmicks and without sacrificing control. I welcome all VR tech. Let's see what ya got, MS.

[OwnageDC650]

Andrea Pessino, Ready at Dawn CTO: 
RIP Oculus Rift… we barely knew you. : )

I wonder how much better Morpheus really is. Interesting. ...

[dcj0524]

Oculus Rift Crystal Cove has better specs (OLED,110 degrees,Powerful PC hardware not holding it back)Either way both of them are still prototypes.

[1nsomniac]

Yea I thought that comment was strange too along with Geoff Keighley's tweet.

Oculus Rift is certainly the more powerful & competent headset. I don't actually think Andrea's comment was serious, I think it was more of a friendly competition banter comment. Geoff's comment has me confused though, I'm guessing the people he has spoke to have been using the old Oculus headsets.

I think there will be a good market share between the 2 & I think they'll both work out. Sony headset for the mainstream & Oculus will stay with the PC-centric.

[Bathyj]

The go pro remark just won the internet. Go naughty dog

[jocomat9]

crytek is working with this and i can just imagine how awesome it would be looking around the world in the crysis suit. Since it already has a a virtual reality menu in the suit. ooo awesomeness

[gazgriff2k12]

i want a ps4 crysis 1 remake with vr support would be epic

[1nsomniac]

Awesome idea. Now make it happen!

[Pillsbury1]

It will be interesting to see what housemarque will do with this tech. The next few years will be interesting for developers and gamers.

[XiSasukeUchiha]

Yep there all reacted to the fact of VR gaming, and PS4 awesome power(Transformers!)

[LexHazard79]

Did Carmack say PS4 VR is basically low end VR experience? Any way seems alot of devs are liking it! Lets see what happens.

[ExPresident]

He's also partnered with the Oculus Rift no? I wouldn't blame him for not coming out and saying how awesome the Sony VR is.

For the disagree's that are sure to come... I'm not saying Sony's VR is awesome, or that it will be awesome, clearly pointing out the obvious.

[1nsomniac]

I believe Carmack was also a co-founder of the Oculus Rift along with Luckey.

He plugged it initially to Sony before they kickstarted it but Sony weren't interested, it looks like he's a little pissed that they're now kinda stealing his idea as direct competition.

As well as that, he's trying to explain to people how much power resources are needed for VR. So if the PS4 game uses VR it will need to take a big cut back in the graphics department for it to run correctly i.e. it'll be more like playing an earlier PS3 game than the graphical quality of a current PS4 game.

[solar]

No Carmack is explaining his lengthy experience with VR and the power needed to run it efficiently. It wasnt a knock on Morpheus.

Also I don't get a majority of those reactions. Seemed more "rah rah" then anything.

[Tastyfishpaul1974]

looking at it unless your a kid or a bro with no girlfriend I can only think one thing the other half will say when they come home and that is "you tool"

u look a right twat am I really with you! otherwise always good to see new things coming but I have a worry what this might do to your vision long term

[The Meerkat]

You turn into Blanka if you use it for too long.

(SF movie references FTW)

[S2Killinit]

Did anyone else notice the comment by alwchemy labs?? The Morpheus may come bundled with a box to increase the performance of PS4 in rendering VR. Did i read that correctly???

Ps:
alwchemy: most informative comment
Naughty dog: most funny comment

[The Meerkat]

I wonder what the specs of the box are?

[S2Killinit]

Yeah good question. Its going to be an interesting generation for gamers. And on a side note im in love with the name! (:

[cyclindk]

I'd wear these in public, no PS4 needed.

I'm a trend-setter though, so... yeah.

[eyeDEVOUR]

and youre a safty hazard.... lol j/k

[sashimi]

imma get robbed riding the nyc subway in those things rofl :P

[MilkMan]

Ridiculous. Guess sooner or later we all want to be The Lawnmower Man.

[T2]

I'd mow that lady's lawn

[thejigisup]

One step closer to a true sword art game! There is nothing better than competition to really force devs to strive for something better. ORift or Morpheus, both will drive the market. Can't wait!

[Salooh]

'' Dan Olson, Treyarch Software Engineer:
Maybe it’s called project morpheus because it starts out really cool and then everyone’s tired of it by the third movie. ''

So negative -.- . I'm glad that uncreative developers are not interested in it :P

[Mefdar]

Yeah i don't how he dares to speak of tiredness of a franchise when the only shit they make is boring, repetitive games that lack innovation year after year for the last 10 years.

[Father__Merrin]

Microsoft/Nintendo need a response, a response.....

[LKHGFDSA]

IMO the Oculus is enough competition.

[ThatOneGuyThere]

Carmack is really, really stupid sometimes.. "Calibrate PS4 VR expectations: a game that ran 60 fps on PS3 could be done in VR (stereo 1080 MSAA low latency 60 fps) on PS4."

Does he not understand that this is exactly like the rift? where its ONE 1080p image @60hz cut in half for each eye? thus anything that runs @ 60fps on ps4 @1080p will work with morpheus? It is NOT 2 full 1080 images.

[dcj0524]

Yes but the Rift can have Powerful PC hardware behind it.

[starchild]

Do you understand that true geometry based stereoscopy requires more performance from the hardware?

That's why 3D games on the PS3 like Uncharted 3 and Killzone 3 ran at lower resolutions and had pared back graphics. Look up Digital Foundry's analysis of the 3D modes of those games to understand more fully.

Not only do you have to factor in the stereoscopy, but you also need a STEADY 60fps. Stutter in games is already annoying enough, but in VR it is drastically more so. Things like stutter and aliasing are true immersion breakers, this is why you need a solid 60fps and good anti-aliasing.

Besides, how many graphically demanding games run at both 1080p and a solid 60fps on PS4? I can only think of Call of Duty Ghosts, and that isn't what most people would call graphically demanding, nor does it have a SOLID 60fps.

When you consider that most AAA games are running at 30fps with inferior post-process anti-aliasing on the PS4 it should be easy to understand what Carmack is referring to. He knows what he is talking about and he is right to point it out.

[LKHGFDSA]

Since when are Uncharted 3 and Killzone 3 lower resolution??
720p was standard for the PS3, no games ran at 1080p.

As it stands 30 fps is a design choice, devs CHOOSE to cap it at 30. It's not the more the merrier.
I don't know if the PS4 can do 1080p 60FPS, but we can't rule it out.

They've said they want the "highest framerate" for Morpheus games, who knows if that is 30fps or 60fps, the PS4 is in early stages and I don't think we can judge the capabilities from old launch titles, especially considering 60fps for non-VR games is unwanted by most devs.

[annus]

@LKHGFDSA

Your reading comprehension sucks. He clearly stated that the 3D part of it has a drastic decrease in resolution compared to NOT using 3D in the game.

It's also a design choice by devs because if they want better graphics they NEED to sacrifice framerate. If they could have it look good and be 60FPS they would, but as it stands with the hardware they prefer to lower the framerate (as most users don't care) so that they can bump the graphics up a bit more. So I would hardly say it isn't 'wanted' by devs.

[ThatOneGuyThere]

I should rephrase. He's really smart for an old-school coder. However, hes trying to belittle the competition for personal interests and its making him sound like a fool.

[benzo52]

Someone needs to make a decent maxtrix game with it.

[bluzone]

@ThatOneGuyThere I thought exactly the same thing. Mind you I'm no John Carmack.

[TyBREAKR]

Path of neo remake in vr?

[LKHGFDSA]

it's not named after Matrix. and the final name will not be "Project Morpheus".

[Blackcanary]

A Game Like "Log on Horizon" and "Sword Art Online" and i will be happy. God i would play FF14 with this wow hooo

[LKHGFDSA]

Great to know devs have been working on games for a year already.

[TomRL]

I'm not convinced the PS4 is powerful enough to output its launch games in VR. Unless the majority of developers take Crytek's 3D system used in Crysis 2, I don't see it happening. Also, wired? Hmm

Also, can't believe people are saying the Rift is doomed. From a technical perspective, just looking at the PS4, the Morpheus is doomed from the start.

[ThatOneGuyThere]

neither is doomed. both will be super fun. by this time next year we will be expecting 1080p 60fps games on ps4 as a norm. sony has been working on this since 2010, that means they knew from the start this was going to be part of the plan when they were designing the ps4. that 8gb of GDDR5 is starting to make a ton of sense. not only that, but the headset has its own chip to adjust the image, saving precious resources as pointed out by a dev at GDC.

[TomRL]

I don't mean the whole thing is doomed. But from a technical perspective, it is doomed against the Rift. And I don't see how 1080p 60fps will be the norm next year. History generally indicates that as a generation runs its course, graphics get better but resolutions and framerates take a bit of a hit. Old consoles trying to catch up on good graphics. Even the beloved Last of Us is hit by this, its framerates are all over the place compared to Uncharted 3's. And is more often than not sub-30fps.

Is the chip confirmed to adjust the image quality? That is good news if confirmed to be true.

[ThatOneGuyThere]

Official specs for the prototype:
Component Processor unit, head-mounted unit
Display Method LCD
Panel Size 5 inches
Panel Resolution 1920×RGB× 1080 (960×RGB×1080 per eye)
Field of View 90 degrees
Sensors Accelerometer, Gyroscope
Connection interface HDMI + USB
Function 3D audio, Social Screen