PSVR2 | More interesting than anticipated?

GT7vr2.jpg
Following the unveiling of PSVR2, more informations about the compatible games at launch have been revealed. This of course includes Gran Turismo 7, which will see VR featured on launch day, February 22nd. From that day and within a one month period, 30+ games will launch with or integrate VR in an update, but among those, GT7 is the only racing game.

A positive point is, contrary to expectations set by previous history in the franchise, VR has been announced to work in the whole game aside for split screen races. TO quote Kazunori Yamauchi:

While 2-player splitscreen races are not supported in VR, all other races, including online races, will be available. From the Nürburgring to Tsukuba, tracks can be experienced exactly as they are in real life.

The words "all other races" are especially interesting, because that implies VR would not limit the number of cars on track, and that it would work in Sport mode. This seems contradictory to previous declarations from Kazunori Yamauchi, who stated they disabled the virtual rear view mirrors in all views except bumper cam for game balancing reasons, and general attitude towards Sport mode where e-brake and H-pattern shifters are disabled, again for game balancing. VR brings a clear advantage regarding situational awareness though, which goes against previous design decisions from Polyphony Digital, indicating this may have been forced upon them by Sony, or poor wording choice from Kazunori.

One interesting thing to gather from the other supported games list is the presence of non PS exclusive titles. Although nothing has been said about potential PC compatibility, Sony's recent shift in attitude regarding exclusive IPs now being available on PC raises hopes. And if that doesn't happen, the non exclusive titles should help modders to come up with unofficial PC compatibility solutions - a thing that has been done with PSVR1.
About author
GT-Alex
Global motorsports enjoyer, long time simracer, Gran Turismo veteran, I've been driving alongside top drivers since the dawn of online pro leagues on Gran Turismo, and qualified for the only cancelled FIA GTC World Tour. I've left aside competitive driving in 2020 to dedicate myself to IGTL, a simracing organisation hosting high quality events for pro racers and customers, to create with friends the kind of events we wished we could have had. We strive to provide the best events for drivers and the best content for viewers, and want to help the simracing scene grow and shine further in the global esports scene.

Comments

I'm wondering if GT7 will run on native PSVR2 resolution or below(with something like FSR or similair) or above(supersampling) and if it has anti aliasing and if so: how much and what type (MSAA/TAA).

This all makes a huge difference for the VR experience.
 
Killer app. Although GT7 is quite light in the sim department, this is going to be a great VR game for racing, especially online.
GT simulates more things than you'd think, but poor design choices makes people think it doesn't. It's still not as detailed as other more focused titles and it has its issues of course, but some thing it doesn't advertizes it does better than games that advertized them. I will probably write something about it someday, but I want to play with API reading apps more.
 
Now I've invested more in the PC, it's probably a false economy for me to bother with a PS5+PSVR2 combo. That's £1000 just for 1 game. I bought the original PSVR and tbh it spent most of it's days gathering dust until Trinus and Ivry got released.

This said, I hope it does well, just to boost the VR games market and push progression. Who knows where VR will be in 5 or 10 years.
 
GT simulates more things than you'd think, but poor design choices makes people think it doesn't. It's still not as detailed as other more focused titles and it has its issues of course, but some thing it doesn't advertizes it does better than games that advertized them. I will probably write something about it someday, but I want to play with API reading apps more.
Indeed, Gran Turismo has come a long way, I consider it a lightcore sim already, several irl vs GT7 videos are very convincing, for example I really dig this:
Similarly tuned car runs the exact same lap time as the real deal

And this is banger (don't know how to embed Reddit videos):
Notice how it almost moves exactly the same

The elitism just likes to spit on it because with their logic "if I last played Gran Turismo 15 years ago then it must be still the same"
 
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The PSVR2 is OK. It's still the equivalent of playing on a single screen with a 1:1 FOV which basically means terrible h.FOV, blackness all around your peripheral vision as if looking through a keyhole, and a max refresh rate which is good but nothing special.

What's the PPD? Is it at least in the low-to-mid 20s (like the Pimax 8K X and HP Reverb G2)?

Having said that, if I couldn't own a PC for whatever reason, I'd go out and buy a PS5, GT7, and PSVR2 tomorrow.

I stopped using labels like full / hardcore sim, light sim / sim-cade, etc. I find that too simplistic. While GTS & GT7 may not be as "full sim" in some ways as other sims, it's actually superior and therefore more sim in other ways.

Most PC sims are still completely wonky and unrealistic at/over the limit and just not natural while a lot of those moments are just way more intuitive, and natural in GTS / GT7. Also, in GTS / GT7, if you drive a tyre with very low relative grip, let's say a Miata with road tyres, you still get a sense of the tyres trying to re-grip and "bite" into the track as it's in that slip-grip-slip-grip state whereas in most other sims, the lower the grip a car / tyre has, the more the tyre just sliiiiiidddeeesssss as if all friction is lost, as if the surface of the track turned into a smooth piece of glass. And if the sim tries to remedey that behaviour, then things either just become way overly grippy (as if the problem is trying to be masked by just raising sheer grip) or the dynamics of the slip/grip become all snappy and "elasticy-tensiony" as if the car becomes "broken" when it gets into any slip-state.
 
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I would still prefer PSVR 2 and whichever VR devices are compatible with gaming PC way more than Nintendo Switch VR which includes the Labo.
 
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Gotta admit best headset on paper. HDR, OLED, foveated rendering!!! I hope for PC support.

Sony could do quite well making this PC compatible also.
IMO it will never get official PC-support because the PSVR 2 is made to sell games from the Playstation Store exclusively. Sony probably doesn't earn enough if anything from the hardware-sales, so making it PC-compatible would be as far fetched as hoping for a Steam-store for the PS5.

Selling former exclusive PS-games on Steam is a total different story. A PC-version of this Horizon VR within the next years or even GT7 makes sense because it creates more revenue so profit which can be invested into new exclusive titles for the Playstation.
 
Indeed, Gran Turismo has come a long way, I consider it a lightcore sim already, several irl vs GT7 videos are very convincing, for example I really dig this:
Similarly tuned car runs the exact same lap time as the real deal

And this is banger (don't know how to embed Reddit videos):
Notice how it almost moves exactly the same

The elitism just likes to spit on it because with their logic "if I last played Gran Turismo 15 years ago then it must be still the same"
The S2000 in GT7 drives *exactly* like my IRL S2000. The FFB injects a lot of weight transfer info (so obviously the steering feels different), but the overall effect is really good.

The S2000 is fairly softly sprung (well my '03 AP1 anyway) and this is duplicated very well in GT7. People like to criticize GT7 as "arcade", but the street cars drive more like their IRL counterparts than many of the cars in Assetto Corsa.

Where GT7 has trouble is with very stiffly-sprung vehicles (ie race cars). The steering feels very stiff and lifeless. I have no idea how a high-downforce car with stiff springs feels, however.
 
GT simulates more things than you'd think, but poor design choices makes people think it doesn't. It's still not as detailed as other more focused titles and it has its issues of course, but some thing it doesn't advertizes it does better than games that advertized them. I will probably write something about it someday, but I want to play with API reading apps more.
yup if PD set the GTs up more like PC sims with Practise, Quali etc and get away from the 3 laps to win stuff (although tbh I havn't played a GT games since 5, but I'm sure I've read the core gamplay is the same) I'd be all over them again like flies on ****. Although release GT on PC would be better for me.
 
IMO it will never get official PC-support because the PSVR 2 is made to sell games from the Playstation Store exclusively. Sony probably doesn't earn enough if anything from the hardware-sales, so making it PC-compatible would be as far fetched as hoping for a Steam-store for the PS5.

Selling former exclusive PS-games on Steam is a total different story. A PC-version of this Horizon VR within the next years or even GT7 makes sense because it creates more revenue so profit which can be invested into new exclusive titles for the Playstation.
Not trying to put you down, but you clearly don't know about Trinus or IVRY, which are special after-market drivers that allow you to use PSVR1 on PC. If it's technologically possible, it will happen. I just had to reply to this before anyone sees it and gets discouraged. I'm hopeful it will happen, but it remains to be seen. I already use my PSVR1 in AC and it works like a charm.
 
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Not trying to put you down, but you clearly don't know about Trinus or IVRY, which are special after-market drivers that allow you to use PSVR1 on PC. If it's technologically possible, it will happen. I just had to reply to this before anyone sees it and gets discouraged. I'm
"Sony might have encrypted the signals of the Playstation VR 2 to prevent them from being used on devices besides the PS5, the developer says. And even if that weren’t the case, it could take several years before even an image is displayed in the headset. You would also have to develop your own tracking software and drivers for the Sense controllers – a major challenge.

“I would say it is very unlikely that the PSVR2 would be useable for PCVR within 5 years of its release,” sums up his assesment."

 
I must recognize that..... No , its not more impressive than anticipated cuz i did not anticipate it.

btw, dont buy it, go for any other headset more pc friendly and have many more options out there to race, lets say ams1 ams2, rf2, ac, pc2...plenty of choices outside the paystation world, lol. In pc you can be free of subscriptions to race online its only a console modern bulshit business to get ur wallet empty.

Cheers, see ya on the playstation! :p
 
"Sony might have encrypted the signals of the Playstation VR 2 to prevent them from being used on devices besides the PS5, the developer says. And even if that weren’t the case, it could take several years before even an image is displayed in the headset. You would also have to develop your own tracking software and drivers for the Sense controllers – a major challenge.

“I would say it is very unlikely that the PSVR2 would be useable for PCVR within 5 years of its release,” sums up his assesment."

Ooof, so they caught on... good to know, thanks!
 

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