PlayStation VR will support room-scale, opening door to Vive ports

Sony’s PlayStation VR will be able to offer Vive-like room-scale tech.

Room-scale allows users to meander about their homes while doing the same in VR. With HTC Vive, this is achieved via two emitters positioned in opposing corners of an allocated space. With PlayStation VR, this will be achieved via the PlayStation camera. The only limit will be the device’s field of view.

"It’s very important to clearly define the play space the player is going to be playing in … we want to make sure that your play area is kind of a sacred space, because you’re going to be flailing around, jumping, having fun," Sony’s senior staff engineer at Sony said at GDC, as reported by Polygon.

"And the developer should have complete freedom to choose how they want to define the play space. So if you want to have a smaller area, if you want to be seated, if you want to be standing, if you want to have people move around that’s great."

There will be differences, of course, Vive uses front-mounted headset cameras to ghost in visual representations of real-world physical objects a player risks colliding with. PlayStation VR can’t offer this, but will have a warning system for players who risk straying outside of the camera’s line of sight.

As a result, PlayStation VR should be able to offer a playable area measuring 1.9 x 2.4 metres. This compares to Vive’s 4.5 x 4.5 metres, although Vive users don’t need this much room – some reports that a 1.5 x 2 metre area can still be workable.

So, essentially, PlayStation VR will offer around the same space as the minimum requirements for Vive, meaning that all titles bar those who require larger play areas should be compatible.