HEAD IN THE CLOUDS
With PSVR2’s arrival imminent, we talk to developers about how it heralds a new era for virtual reality
S‘‘October ong In The Smoke launched at a weird time,” Jake Kazdal, CEO and creative director of developer 17-Bit, reflects as we discuss the game’s original 2021 launch. “Sony support was great [in terms of] getting the title going, and funding things, and supporting us developing the game, but PSVR1 was losing steam. Sony wasn’t really focused on it, and PSVR2 had just been announced, so all the excitement was going on that. It was kind of a really unfortunate launch window for us.”
Fortunately, the survival game won’t be lost to the mists. Song In The Smoke Rekindled is one of over 30 launch games coming to PSVR2 on 22 February. Thanks to the capabilities of the new hardware, Kazdal tells us, Rekindled is far more than a simple rerelease, with brand new assets, extra detail, and more (flip to p66 for our own impressions of the game).
“[Developing for PSVR2 is] just so buttery-smooth. We’re able to bump up all the LOD [level of detail], add a bunch of new graphical effects, and go crazy on the materials and everything. It looks like a different game.”
ASHES TO ASHES
It’s safe to say the new hardware is a massive step up from the previous generation.
“We support everything,” Kazdal tells us. “We’ve got haptic trigger feedback, foveated rendering, eye-tracking, headset rumble – which is really cool for melee combat when you get hit.”
All those features ensure PSVR2 stands out, ensuring it’s truly its own thing and not just a simple followup to an earlier piece of hardware. That’s something that Josh Stiksma of Polyarc (developer of PSVR’s storybook-style Moss duology) would agree on. “If you were to put the headsets on side by side, you would immediately be able to tell the difference,” he says.
The graphics aren’t the only thing that make that obvious; the headset as a whole, and the way it feels on your head, is distinctive.
“It is a very comfortable headset,” Stiksma tells us. “I kind of feel like I said the same thing about the first PSVR headset – they just nail it with the comfort of getting in and out of the headset.”
While some may deride the presence of any cable at all, PSVR2’s single wire is so light we barely notice it in our own hands-on sessions. “Having it be a single wire makes it so simple,” Stiksma says. “Here’s your one plug in that’s got some good length to it so you can still move around the room […] One cable certainly helps a lot with the impression of how simple it is to set it up.” Plugging it in’s no hassle – it’s almost no different to plugging a different controller into your PS5.
HEAD BANGING
Haptic feedback features in both the Sense controllers and the headset. Don’t worry, it’s not going to make you feel battered when you receive a bonk on the head in-game. Instead, when we play, we notice it subtly helps to ground us in the digital world (and it’s said to help ease motion sickness too). For instance, after you jump down from a ledge in VR, the headset can rumble to emulate the impact your body is anticipating. It’s a neat trick, and just one example of how developers can use headset haptics.
We spoke to Kyoko Yamashita, the PR manager at Enhance, the
“THE SINGLE WIRE IS SO LIGHT WE BARELY NOTICE IT IN OUR OWN HANDS-ON SESSIONS.”
developer behind elevated VR experiences Tetris Effect and Rez Infinite, both of which are receiving PSVR2 upgrades. “Obviously, the headset vibration of PSVR2 being one of their innovation features, we’re taking full advantage of that,” Yamashita says, “so you’re going to feel the jolt of the haptics as you go into the Zone, or in between Journey mode stages in [Tetris Effect.]”
Haptics are far from the only clever trick the headset is capable of; foveated rendering harnesses the headset’s eye-tracking capabilities by only rendering in high detail what you’re directly looking at and reducing the visual quality of whatever is in your peripheral vision. This trick, coupled with the 2,000x2,040 per eye resolution for each of the headset’s OLED displays, gives developers’ creative visions a lot more room to breathe. Blinking, for instance, can now be an input – used in Tetris Effect for activating a powerup and conversely in Supermassive’s The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR to have monsters come at you when you’re not looking.
Kazdal weighs in, “[Using eye tracking for navigation is] super-subtle but it’s just so natural-feeling. Before, you’re moving the camera with your head, but now you have this other layer of fidelity by looking [in VR] exactly where you’re looking [in real life] even if your head isn’t moving. It’s really hard to go back after you’ve gotten used to that.”
Stiksma offers a more characterdriven perspective on the feature. “The fact that a character can understand that you’re looking at them, and react accordingly is a powerful thing.” He tells us, “So for us, we see new features like that, [and] we’re like, ‘Okay, what did they do once they notice that you’ve been staring at them for a while?’”
ORB PONDERING
“The one thing that I think is going to be really evident to all players is obviously going from one single-track controller to having both of your hands in terms of physical interaction,” says Stiksma on the Sense controllers, a pair of orb-shaped devices you hold in either hand. They’re much more than a jazzed-up take on the PlayStation Move baton-style controllers. For those who’ve never used a PlayStation Move controller, Kazdal provides necessary context, saying, “No-one’s a really big fan of the PSVR Move controllers; they were kind of compromised from the get-go, so it was always a little shaky and tough to manoeuvre.” After all, they weren’t originally designed with virtual reality gaming in mind, but were rather retro-fitted movetracking controllers.
“The first-generation control scheme was so hampered, the tracking was really bad and jittery and the controllers were just awkward,” Kazdal continues.
Stiksma raves about the new Sense controllers: “Reaching in and grabbing things, it feels so much better to be able to have two hands. They did a great job with the initial PlayStation VR, and we are really, really happy making the game for it but seeing that advancement is a great thing to see.”
Finger touch detection is yet another new form of input PSVR2 puts on the table for developers. “An example would be, ‘Oh, I know that you have your hand there. So your character is gonna have their sword out and ready.’ It just feels reactive,” Stiksma explains. “In terms of an avenue for exploration with [finger touch detection], we haven’t gotten too far down that avenue yet, just due to the nature of [Moss], but there’s a lot of potential there […] in terms of packing so much into one set of controllers.”
“The adaptive trigger is something that stands out to me as something that’s extremely powerful for virtual reality in particular,” Stiksma continues, “because it allows us to put such texture on the interactions [through trigger resistance and haptic feedback, making them] feel weighty and feel real.”
You may reach out to grab a pot, Stiksma explains, before pressing down on the weighty adaptive triggers to crush it. “If there’s actual tension, and the faster you break it, the faster it explodes – you can feel like there is something that you’re grabbing,” he says. “Really simple example, but it can help illustrate just how powerful [it] can be to […] have that feedback that feels so real, and you get more engrossed in the world.”
When it comes to gaming, inside the VR headset or not, immersion is the name of the game. After all, that’s where the Tetris Effect gets its name. Turn the page, and allow us to usher you into some of the worlds you’ll be exploring in a level of detail like never before… We’ll see you on the other side.
“IT’S REALLY HARD TO GO BACK AFTER YOU’VE GOTTEN USED TO [THE EYE-TRACKING].”