There are a lot of unknowns about PSVR 2's upcoming PC support
Sony announced PC VR support for the Playstation VR 2 last week, but left it open as to what that might look like, fueling speculation.
The announcement was buried in a blog post celebrating the first anniversary of the PSVR 2, and it raised more questions than it answered. Sony wrote:
Also, we’re pleased to share that we are currently testing the ability for PS VR2 players to access additional games on PC to offer even more game variety in addition to the PS VR2 titles available through PS5. We hope to make this support available in 2024, so stay tuned for more updates.
Opinions differ on what this means in practice. Two main options are currently discussed by the broader VR community, which I will go into below.
Regardless of which way Sony ultimately goes: Playstation VR2 could (theoretically!) make a strong PC VR headset thanks to high-contrast OLED displays, eye-tracking for foveated rendering, and excellent controller haptics. All at a relatively low price by PC VR standards.
Playstation VR 2 runs on PC
The most obvious form of PC VR support is a plug-and-play solution: The Playstation VR 2 is plugged into the PC and recognized by SteamVR as a PC VR headset. In this case, Sony would work with Valve to ensure full SteamVR compatibility.
But it's not that simple because the technical hurdles for PC VR support for Playstation VR 2 are high, as the next section will show.
PC VR games are streamed to the PS5
The team behind iVRy, which has been working on unofficial PC VR support for some time, has a different theory: that VR games will be streamed from the PC to the PS5 via a Steam Link app and made available for Playstation VR 2 from there. This way, the PS5 would still be required.
The biggest hurdle, and by no means the only one, is that the Playstation VR 2 requires a dedicated USB-C port to power the headset. There are currently only a handful of older graphics cards that offer the required VirtualLink port. The iVRy developers therefore expect Sony to go the streaming route, even if it means more friction (network configuration, latency) for users.
It is currently unclear what form PC VR support will take, and Sony's timeframe suggests that the feature could be a while off.
Meanwhile, the iVRy developers indicate that their paid SteamVR driver for Playstation VR 2 could be released in March. Hardware requirements include an AMD graphics card with a VirtualLink port or a VirtualLink adapter. DualSense controllers are not supported, but users can use Index controllers instead.
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