VR on PlayStation and Xbox – is this virtual reality fully functional or should it be further improved?

Virtual Reality is undoubtedly the biggest trend in the gaming world in recent years. This amazing experience is unparalleled and rather surpasses console gaming. Or at least that’s what we thought at first, when we had only just heard about this latest technology. However, years later, not much has changed in the gaming world and as it seemed before, there are still very few homes where people gather to play games using VR goggles. Or rather, we still sit in front of our televisions with a console in front of us and a controller in our hands. But maybe that will change in the near future? What have major companies like Sony and Microsoft prepared for us? Can we expect new Xbox accessories with VR technology? Or maybe Sony is already selling such PS 5 accessories? Let us find out!

What is VR technology and how did it all start?

Virtual reality is an image of artificial reality created using information technology, which involves the multimedia creation of a computer vision of objects, space and events. It can represent both elements of the real world, as in computer simulations, as well as completely fictional which examples are VR games with science fiction themes. The precursor of virtual reality is artist, researcher and computer scientist Myron W. Krueger. He developed and created video installation projects, which he called responsive environments. Krueger’s first project, created in collaboration with Dan Sandin, Jerry Erdman and Richard Venezky, was “Glowflow”, created in 1969 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The structure consisted of a darkened room with four transparent tubes placed on the walls. By pumping fluorescent particles into them, their colour was changed, and this process was accompanied by the sounds of the legendary Moog synthesiser. OK, we’ve come a long way from that, but what does it look like now?

What accessories do you need for VR experience and how do they work?

When it comes to VR technology, the most important accessories are of course the VR goggles, and their key elements are two screens, or one divided into two parts, which in a way trick our brain as they display similar images but slightly shifted in relation to each other. These images are curved through special lenses, enter our eye and are perceived by our brain as a three-dimensional image. The sources of this image can be different. For example, it can be a games console, a PC or even our smartphone. However, just watching a three-dimensional image would quickly get boring for us. That’s why VR glasses offer us much more. They are equipped with a number of very modern sensors, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers and various types of controllers. Of course, all this equipment we have to put on our head, and in the kit we will find the appropriate mountings that will make wearing the glasses comfortable for a long time. VR goggles can have their own, permanently integrated display, or only allow you to place in them our smartphone, which will act as a display. Ok, so we need a source, such as a game console and goggles. We wonder if we will find this type of Xbox, PS5, or PS4 accessories…

VR accessories from Sony

Sony fans certainly are not complaining about the choice of PS4 I PS 5 accessories for VR technology. That’s because Sony offers fully immersive PS VR goggles with 360 degrees of visibility, allowing you to marvel at the world around you with an unobstructed field of view wherever you turn. Plus, as the manufacturer announces, a new dimension of sound thanks to 3D audio technology that lets you determine the direction and distance of ambient sound with an integrated microphone. The PS VR goggles are one of those PS5 and PS4 accessories you can’t go past! On top of this, Sony also offers games available exclusively for PS VR users.

VR accessories from Microsoft

In the first half of 2021, a wave of reports about possible work on Microsoft’s VR goggles swept across the internet. VR was supposed to be available to owners of Series S and X consoles.It all started with information provided by IGN Italy, when the portal’s reporters shared a discovery they made while connecting the manufacturer’s headphones dedicated to Xbox consoles.  An attempt to establish a connection led to a message about the need to update the VR goggles. Microsoft representatives dismissed rumours of alleged work on Xbox accessories of this type. In the gaming industry, Sony has been the most active in the implementation of VR. The manufacturer’s PlayStation virtual reality goggles have turned out to be the best-selling devices of this type in history. As many as 5 million units have been sold. VR is also promoted by Valve, the owner of the Steam platform, which has sold thousands of Valve Index VR goggles. Nintendo also has its analogue. Everyone but Microsoft. Despite earlier announcements and rumours on the subject, the Xbox console manufacturer still has not jumped on the VR bandwagon, so fans will have to do without. VR Xbox accessories simply do not exist at the moment, but we’ll see how this story unfolds in the future. Maybe the specialists at Microsoft are preparing something extra for us?

VR on PlayStation and Xbox – is this virtual reality fully functional or can it still be improved?

VR technology has definitely gained momentum and accessories of this type are becoming more comfortable and nicer in design. With time, more and more games dedicated to this type of technology are also appearing. However, we have to admit that there is still a long way to go for specialists dealing with the production of this type of equipment. Because even the best-selling VR goggles from Sony are not without flaws, and also their price is not among the lowest. Players complain about the presence of a cable at the helmet and the inability to play for long periods of time. However, not only the accessories are not yet the final version, because the games are sometimes quite truncated and do not fully use the possibilities of this unusual technology. However, VR technology is really great entertainment and if you experience it at least once, it is difficult to be satisfied with playing from a monitor or TV screen. That’s why even better games and more interesting accessories await us in the future for sure. This is just the beginning, so we have high hopes. But we’ll see how it goes.