Introducing Project Morpheus
March 20, 2014
Sony’s Project Morpheus (credit: Sony)
Throwing down a challenge to the Oculus Rift virtual reality head-mounted display, Shu Yoshida, President, SCE Worldwide Studios, introduced at GDC 2014 Project Morpheus, a prototype virtual reality (VR) system that works with PS4 and could radically change gaming.
Yoshida said Sony’s Project Morpheus features a head-mounted display with 1080p HD resolution and a 90 degree field of view (vs. Olculus’ 110 degrees). Accelerometer and gyroscope sensors are built into the head-mounted unit as well as PlayStation Camera head orientation and movement, so as your head rotates, the image of the virtual world rotates intuitively in real-time, says Sony.
Project Morpheus also features Sony’s new 3D audio technology, which recreates stereoscopic sounds in all directions and changes in real-time depending on your head orientation.
Project Morpheus vs. Oculus Rift
But is it really better than the Oculus? Trusted Reviews compared the two to find out which one represents the future of virtual-reality gaming.
Its conclusion: “It’s too early to tell which of these is better. Morpheus’s support potential is truly exciting, but its use of an LCD screen is a little worrying, judging by our previous experience. And in its prototype form, the lesser field of view of the Morpheus means it may not have quite the jaw-dropping visual impact of the Crystal Cove edition of Oculus Rift. However, both of these gadgets are soaring to the top of our ‘most wanted’ list.”
Gizmo lust
Gizmodo was more enthusiastic about Project Morpheus. “Sony’s got the muscle to make Morpheus a reality; while the Oculus Rift is popular, it’s also relatively niche, and has run low on components recently. If Sony sees enough interest in Morpheus, it would be able to scale up the project relatively quickly. And combined with PlayStation Move and the PlayStation Camera, it could create a potent virtual environment.”
Of course, it’s also all about the games, and Gizmodo notes that Sony’s already got a handful of software partners lined up — including Autodesk, Epic Games, and Unity.
KurzweilAI plans to get its hands (and head) on one of the early production models and will report back asap. Strictly for editorial analysis. No, really.
Comments (4)
by Santarii
I would hardly call the Rift niche. It’s entering a much larger market than what Sony is going for. Sony’s is PS4 specific so its market is maxed out at the number of PS4 owners. The Rift will work with a much larger range of hardware. Desktop PC’s, laptops…
Anything running on Windows, OS X, Linux, and potentially also Android.
Their parts shortage was for their first developer kit and only happened just as they were gearing up to announce their 2nd developer kit.
I’m fairly sure Sony’s Project Morpheus will be a very good device, but the Rift is definitely not the more niche of the two.
by Nunya
With 6 million PS4′s sold, it’s no surprise that Sony is developing it’s own VR system, especially given that Oculus has, for all intents and purposes “decertified” it AND Microsoft’s “next-gen” hardware offerings. They simply don’t have the horsepower to power the Rift.
Consoles became successful because they offered products to the gaming community that were unavailable on PC’s. But today there’s barely a discernible difference in the final rendered image on my big screen…and there’s no way I’m spending another $500 or so bucks on a one-function gaming box just to get VR, when I can just plug the Rift into my desktop.
by Jho
Sony also revealed a really cool eye tracking camera to essentially replace the right nub on the controller completely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKYr9MaZw3I&feature=player_detailpage
Now I’m fantasizing that they combined the two. We have the Oculus Rift at work, and as I have played some TF2 with it, my biggest annoyance is that I have to control the direction my character is looking at with the joystick. It tracks some of my head movements with it’s motion sensing and I know the DK2 tracks your head movement way better, but eye tracking would greatly enhance the experience.
by Bradley Steeg
I’m excited that a large company is pursuing visual audio virtual realty. But I have more faith in the Oculus because they are small and creative.