‘VR headset for PlayStation 5 gets OLED screen with HDR support’

Sony, according to sources, held a private conference on Tuesday to update developers with its next PSVR headset for the PlayStation 5. Several details about the device were shared in it.

The headset would include an OLED screen with a resolution of 4000×2040 pixels, or 2000×2040 pixels per eye. The headset would also offer HDR support. The lenses used will have a field of view of 110 degrees, according to PSVR Without Parole, where the current PSVR headset offers a field of view of 100 degrees.

YouTube user PSVR Without Parole was the first to report on the conference, in which Sony released new specifications about the upcoming headset, among other things. The UploadVR website has verified that the conference has indeed taken place.

The headset is also said to support eye tracking and foveated rendering. The latter is a rendering technique that uses eye tracking to determine what users are looking at, in order to reduce the image quality in users’ peripheral vision. This should lead to better performance, as it reduces the computational burden. Sony also talks about support for flexible scaling resolution to further boost the performance.

Sony has also confirmed that the controllers of its upcoming VR headset for the PS5 will have touch sensors for the thumb, index and middle fingers of users. This allows the controller to check, among other things, whether users are holding the controller.

In terms of games, Sony wants to focus on “hybrid experiences,” according to PSVR Without Parole. For example, Sony wants upcoming PS5 games to have support for VR. That’s comparable to the optional PSVR support for games like Hitman 3, Resident Evil 7 and No Man’s Sky. Users would also be able to choose whether to download a VR version or the regular version of a game. Sony would not have confirmed during the conference whether the upcoming headset will be backwards compatible with current PSVR games, but the company is said to be working on remasters of certain games.

Sony previously announced that it is working on a new PSVR headset, although it hasn’t mentioned a release date yet. The headset will use a single cable. Sony would have emphasized during the conference that the VR headset will not be on the market in 2021. Earlier rumors stated that the upcoming PSVR with OLED screens will be released at the end of 2022.