Sony (NYSE: SNE) Computer Entertainment President of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida took the stage at GDC 2015 today to unveil new details on the company’s Project Morpheus VR headset, including specifications and a 2016 release window.
“Project Morpheus will be launching as a consumer product the first half of 2016,” Sony said in a recent Tweet.
A new prototype was revealed on-stage, along with “near-finalized specs” that underlines the VR headset has very low latency that’s registered at under 18 milliseconds to increase “immersion in virtual reality”, and features new dual 5.7 inch 1920 x 1080 OLED displays with a 120 Hz refresh rate.
“Our goal with VR is to deliver a sense of presence, making the player feel as though they’ve stepped inside the world of a game. The new Project Morpheus prototype brings us closer to that goal, as it improves the visual experience and tracking accuracy, both of which are critical to achieving sense of presence.”
The prototype also sports more accurate position tracking thanks to three new LED’s for a total of nine LED’s for “robust 360 degree tracking”.
- 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.
As revealed before, Project Morpheus will be compatible with the PlayStation 4 and will feature PlayStation Move-like peripherals for wireless controller input.
It’ll be interesting to see how Project Morpheus continues to take shape throughout the months, and how Sony aims to finalize the peripheral’s design.
While VR might still be new in various ways, it looks to be the undisputed future for gaming as a whole, but Sony will have its work cut out for them when they take on big rivals in the VR sector like Valve’s and HTC’s Vive as well as the Oculus Rift.
