GDC 2016: Here’s exactly what PlayStation VR’s mysterious black box does

GDC 2016: Here's exactly what PlayStation VR's mysterious black box does

By Hugh Langley

GDC 2016: Here's exactly what PlayStation VR's mysterious black box does

“It is not extra GPU power for the game.”

“It is not more CPU power.”

“It is certainly not a PlayStation 4 expansion unit or upgrade.”

Chris Norden, Senior Staff Engineer at Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, is talking about the black processing unit that will come with PlayStation VR – and he’s annoyed. Annoyed because people keep getting it wrong.

Speaking at GDC 2016, Norden said that he has read and heard people refer to the box as a PS4 GPU upgrade or an “expansion”.

“It doesn’t do that, that is crazy,” he said. “The PS4 is perfectly capable of 120hz output all by itself. It is not an expansion”.

So we know what it’s not – what does it do?

First off, the PU is responsible for making sure virtual reality sounds as good as it looks. The box does all the object-based 3D audio processing with tech that takes the HRTF (head-related transfer function) and spatialization, along with some other mystery ingredients, to spit out nice 3D audio over any pair of headphones.

Distortion

The box is also responsible for displaying the social screen, which is what appears on the TV. The PU undistorts everything in the picture, undoing all the things that …read more

Source:: techradar.com – Gaming

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