It was almost exactly a year ago when Sony revealed Project Morpheus at GDC 2014 and officially entered the PlayStation 4 virtual reality headset race alongside Facebook’s Oculus Rift. At the time all they had was tech demos and no concrete information about the system’s specs or when it might be widely available to consumers.
Fast forward a year to GDC 2015 and Project Morpheus for PS4 is back, only this time Shuhei Yoshida, President of Worldwide Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment, made sure the virtual reality experience was presented more as actual “reality” and less like a fancy prototype that would never see the light of day in a retail store.
Yoshida unveiled a new prototype design for Project Morpheus that you can see in the image above. He also provided revised “near final” technical specifications including a 1920 x 1080 OLED display. And saving the best for last, Yoshida announced that Project Morpheus will be available to purchase sometime in the first half of 2016.
Here are the Project Morpheus specs, and you can bet there will be more revealed about Sony’s VR headset at E3 this June.
- OLED display: In exchange for the 5 inch LCD, the new Morpheus VR headset is equipped with a 5.7 inch 1920 X RGB X 1080 resolution OLED display. This new screen expands the field of view and enables low persistence, removing motion blur.
- 120hz refresh rate: The previous refresh rate spec has been doubled for this new prototype, which means games for Morpheus can be rendered at 120fps. When combined with the OLED display’s high refresh rate and the power of PS4, Morpheus is able to output amazingly smooth visuals.
- Super low latency: We know how critical low latency is to delivering a great VR experience, and we’ve reduced latency to less than 18ms, about half of what the first Morpheus prototype had. Low latency is critical to deliver a sense of presence, at the same time making the VR experience comfortable to players.
- More accurate tracking: To make positional tracking more precise, we’ve added three LEDs to the headset – one on the front and two on the side – for a total of nine LEDs to support robust 360 degree tracking.
- User-friendly design: We’ve made the Morpheus VR headset easier to put on and take off, with a single band design and quick release button. The headband supports the weight of the unit on the top of your head, so there is no pressure on your face. Other components have also been adjusted and configured to make the headset lighter, so that players do not find the headset cumbersome or uncomfortable to use.
Source: PS Blog
