Render resolutions of PSVR 2 games vary widely, analysis shows
A VR enthusiast uses a pixel-counting technique to determine the resolution of PSVR 2 games. The results are surprising.
VR studios almost never talk about the resolution at which their PSVR 2 games render. Reddit user Techslogi was curious and took matters into his own hands.
On Saturday, he published a Reddit post containing a list of PSVR 2 games and their rendering resolutions, including Gran Turismo 7, Resident Village and Horizon Call of the Mountain, as well as some indie titles. In the meanwhile, he has added a handful of new games such as Song in the Smoke and Puzzling Places.
The pixel-counting technique used is based on an old-fashioned but reliable method that was used and explained seven years ago in a video by the well-known Youtube channel Digital Foundry, which specializes in technical analysis of video games.
"A valid pixel counting technique"
Techslogi uses high-resolution screenshots taken with the DualSense controller's Share button as his source material. He saves them to a USB stick instead of sharing on social media to avoid compression artifacts. Then he counts the horizontal and vertical pixels with Digital Foundry's old method.
"Once rendering is complete, the image of one eye is resized to 4K resolution for the social screen. It is then deliberately distorted to compensate for lens distortion, so as to display a coherent image as best as possible", writes Vertical Robot, the studio behind Red Matter 2,which joined the Reddit discussion.
"The pixel counting technique is absolutely valid, as long as you are counting the pixels within the fovea. If there's no eye-tracked foveated rendering, the pixel counting should be done at the center of the screen."
Note, however, that Techslogi's approach might not be 100% accurate, and mistakes are possible, as Techslogi himself points out. Only the studios themselves know the exact resolutions.
Playstation VR 2: A wide range of rendering resolutions
Of all the PSVR 2 games measured so far by Techslogi, only Red Matter 2 and Song in the Smoke are rendered at the display's native resolution. I'm not shocked, since both titles offer a crisp and clear image.
Techslogi's spreadsheet as of August 21, 2023. | Image: Techslogi
According to Vertical Robot, Red Matter 2 uses supersampling, which means that the VR game is rendered at an even higher resolution than the displays and then scaled down. Performance-wise, these high rendering resolutions are made possible by foveated rendering, where the high pixel count is only applied to the area that the eye is currently looking at. Users don't usually notice this, though.
Resident Evil 8 and Gran Turismo 7 are also at the top of the list, with Horizon Call of the Mountain in the middle. At the lower end of the scale is No Man's Sky, which was measured at a resolution of 1,024 x 576 pixels, a quarter of what the PSVR 2's displays are capable of. Those who experience a blurry image in the VR version of the game should not be surprised.
Techslogi's post can be found on Reddit. Or check out the spreadsheet directly.
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