Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate - Here's how the Quest 3 and PSVR 2 version compare
Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate is out today for Meta Quest and Playstation VR 2. What are the graphical differences?
Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate is a greatly expanded remake of the VR game Wanderer, released in 2022 for the first Playstation VR and PC VR headsets.
After many delays, Mighty Eyes' ambitious project has been released today for Quest 3, 3S, 2 and Pro as well as Playstation VR 2. The PC VR version will launch at a later date. The exact date is not yet known.
This article is not a review of the VR game. I'm going to focus on the graphics and performance and discuss the differences between Quest 3 and Playstation VR 2, both in writing and in the form of a video that shows the same section of the game once on PSVR 2 and once on Quest 3.
One of Playstation VR 2's best-looking VR games
The year is 2061, and the world and civilization as we know it have been largely destroyed by natural disasters and wars. You take on the role of Asher Neumann, a young man wandering the ruins of Boston in search of his grandfather's apartment.
Once there, you find a wearable time machine, which you must use to travel back in time to correct catastrophic historical events and restore the old world order. During this time travel, you will turn into various contemporaries and visit a number of locations and eras.
I've played Wanderer for a few hours and haven't visited all the places and times yet, but what I've seen I've really enjoyed, especially on Playstation VR 2. The destroyed Boston, reclaimed by nature, is as apocalyptically beautiful as any VR game since Half-Life: Alyx.
The lighting, dynamic shadows and particle effects, crisp textures and finely modeled objects, transparent water and realistic flora make Wanderer a feast for the eyes. Thanks to foveated rendering, the game world is rendered at an high resolution, resulting in a smooth and beautifully clear image. At least most of the time.
I say "most of the time" because the game seems to dynamically adjust the resolution depending on how busy the system is. As a result, the more distant environments can sometimes lose their sharpness and start to flicker, as if the resolution had suddenly been greatly reduced. During my playing time, however, this was the exception rather than the rule.
According to Mighty Eyes, the game runs stable at 90 Hz and does not use Sony's reprojection rendering. This information matches my own impressions. Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate runs very smoothly. You can tell that Mighty Eyes put a lot of effort into PSVR 2 optimization.
Overall, the VR game is certainly one of the most graphically rich and beautiful titles virtual reality has to offer across the whole VR ecosystem.
Better than expected on Meta Quest 3
Considering the graphical splendor of the console version, I was afraid that Meta Quest 3 would have major graphical compromises. These fears were unfounded.
The Quest 3 version lacks visual treats like elaborate lighting and particle effects, post-processing, real-time shadows, and transparent water, and the textures aren't quite as sharp, but overall the visual appearance remains intact.
However, Mighty Eyes had to make other compromises to achieve a smooth frame rate on Meta Quest. According to the developers, both Quest 2 and Quest 3 use Asynchronous Spacewarp (ASW), which can cause artifacts by artificially doubling the frame rate: from 36 to 72 frames per second on Quest 2 and from 40 to 80 frames per second on Quest 3.
In the scene I recorded for the video, Meta's metrics tool registered 90 fps, so the game was actually running at 45 fps. The maximum resolution was 2,200 by 2,200 pixels, which is quite high by Quest standards. However, the game uses dynamic resolution, which reduces the resolution when the GPU is. Unfortunately, the fluctuations in resolution can be quite noticeable.
I only tried the Quest 3 version, which according to Mighty Eyes offers a higher resolution and more graphical detail than the Quest 2 version.
Conclusion: Pretty on Quest, stunning on PSVR 2
If you have the choice, you should play Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate on the Playstation VR 2, or on PC as soon as this version, which we have not yet tested, is released.
The studio has clearly optimized the game for the most powerful VR platforms and has not compromised on the graphics because of Meta Quest. Graphics fetishists will get their money's worth with this title.
Those who only have a Quest 3 will also enjoy the game. Mighty Eyes has somehow managed to bring these worlds to the standalone headset without any major compromises. The biggest trade-off is in performance: Wanderer doesn't feel quite as smooth on the Quest 3, and ASW artifacts can spoil the overall good impression.
In the Quest 3 section of my video, the game sometimes stutters. Please note that this is because I'm recording a video, and that the game normally runs more smoothly.
Mighty Eyes writes that the Quest performance will be further improved in the coming weeks. A day 1 patch is also planned for Meta Quest, which I have not yet been able to try out.
Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate can be purchased from the Horizon Store and the Playstation Store for $50. If you own the original game, you will receive a 20 percent discount on the upgrade. If you buy the Quest version, you will receive the Rift version (PC VR) for free as soon as it is released, and vice versa.
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