Last month, Mark Cerny revealed that PlayStation VR won’t see any immediate changes as a result of PlayStation 4 Pro’s extra power, and it’s up to developers to take advantage of the new hardware. Testing out the newly released Robinson: The Journey (which supports PS4 Pro), Road to VR discovered that loading times on Sony’s console are faster when launching a new campaign – 40 seconds on PS4 Pro vs 52 seconds on PS4.
These improved loading times on PS4 Pro extend to other PS4 games – not just PSVR ones – and Road to VR adds that this “also translates to less noticeable texture pop-in in some cases.”
VG247, meanwhile, looked at PSVR performance on PS4 Pro and said, “Unpatched games might run a little smoother with less pop-in or quicker load times, but the nuts and bolts of the game will remain unchanged. Pro patched PSVR games do show a more noticeable difference.”
Spending the most time with PlayStation VR Worlds, VG247 didn’t notice many differences on PS4 Pro, except in the menus, which are now crisper. While the Luge and Underwater games “both felt basically identical,” The London Heist received some “subtle but pleasing visual improvements.”
Using The London Heist as an example, VG247 added, “This generally seems to be a theme for the various Pro-friendly games I test. Games generally look and perform more or less as I perceive them on the regular PS4, but occasionally there’s a moment where one can definitely sense an increased sense of clarity offered when you’re on the Pro. This happened a fair amount with RIGS in particular. There felt to be no real difference in the unpatched games.”
Upload VR also did their own PSVR on PS4 Pro test, saying that games set up side-by-side on the same television are “noticeably sharper and crisper [on PS4 Pro], especially if they have received an official patch incorporating support for PS4 Pro.”
Overall though, Upload VR says “most of the PSVR games are nearly identical, even if they have been patched with Pro support.”
Taking a look at Battlezone on PS4 Pro, CNN noticed that there was a slight improvement in frame rate and visual fidelity, and text was easier to read.
In their PS4 Pro review, Eurogamer highlighted what PSVR owners can expect:
PS4 Pro allows developers to produce enhanced versions of their PlayStation VR titles. We didn’t have time to test individual titles in the constrained time we’ve had so far with the unit, but demos we’ve seen to date show that super-sampling is used to reduce aliasing and improve clarity in the HMD. The Pro also features multi-resolution scaling technology not found in the base PS4, which should help performance.
If you’re wondering, you won’t find any PSVR tracking improvements on PS4 Pro.
PlayStation VR games that will support PS4 Pro when it launches tomorrow, November 10 include Battlezone, Bound, DriveClub VR, PlayStation VR Worlds, Rez Infinite, RIGS Mechanized Combat League, Robinson: The Journey, Super Stardust Ultra, The Playroom VR, Thumper, Tumble, and Until Dawn: Rush of Blood.
Are you a PSVR owner who’s buying PS4 Pro (our review) tomorrow?
[Source: CNN, Eurogamer, Road to VR (1), (2), Upload VR, VG247]
