You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here
PlayStation VR ships with an external processing box, but what exactly does it do? Digital Foundry has some answers, revealing the unit does not provide any additional GPU or processing support to the PS4.
Senior Sony staff engineer Chris Norden revealed the box’s purpose during a GDC 2016 presentation. To be clear Norden outlined what the processing box does not do:
- No extra GPU or CPU power to PS4, and it is not an expansion to the console
- As such developers cannot write code for the processing box
What the box actually does:
- Object-based 3D audio processing
- Social screen output – reassembling the VR output for display on TV. This process does result in an image quality loss, with the output having been upscaled and cropped
- The ability to output a different audio and video stream to the TV. This feed is sent compressed – DF believes it to be 720p30 – and then uncompressed by the processing box to be displayed on the TV. The functionality does require extra work to be done by the PS4, so it may be something reserved for the less graphically intense titles.
- It handles Cinematic Mode, which enables PS4 games and videos to be displayed on a virtual 5 meter wide screen.
You can pre-order PS VR now, but Amazon is unable to guarantee launch day delivery.
Source: Digital Foundry
About the Author
