Project Morpheus VR headset specs close to Oculus Rift 2, Sony's display needs work says report

Sony's Project Morpheus VR headset was unveiled at GDC this week, following months of speculation. Digital Foundry has penned a report discussing what it's been hearing out of the show and to comment on the device's specs when stacked against its closest rival Oculus.

The report reads, "By most accounts, the Sony VR prototype is a very, very close match to the specs of the second-generation Oculus Rift dev kit. Screen resolution is the same, sensor frequency is a match and a similar system of using an external camera to check positional movement is integrated.

"There are just a couple of areas where Sony needs to improve - the 1080p LCD screen suffers compared to the OLED display in the second-gen Rift, while some confusion surrounds the 90-degree field of view and how that stacks up against the 110 degrees found in both iterations of the Oculus Rift."

We produced a report on the new $350 Oculus Rift headsets, which include positional head-tracking methods geared towards increasing control and reducing motion sickness. It also packs a 1080p OLED display, Crystal Cove camera, and is lighter than the first device.

We also reported on Sony's Project Morpheus reveal. The device offers a narrower field of view, and an LCD screen, which are two areas where the device pales in comparison to the new Oculus kit.

Speaking as part of an incoming Eurogamer interview, Sony's Anton Mikhailov said, "Is the difference diagonal or horizontal? That's the key there - diagonal is basically 1.4 times the horizontal. Ours is 90 degrees horizontal. If you do that calculation diagonal it's over 100, or somewhere - I think it's quite complicated doing the maths because the optics we're using are fairly non-standard, so I can't give you an exact answer. But it's certainly far above 90."

"Because this is the wild west of VR, we don't have a standard way of measuring things. When you buy a 46-inch TV, you know they mean diagonal, not horizontal. If we'd like to compare specs, we need to get a very clear spec in line. And actually optics are even more complex than that - you know, for the head-mount displays it's a little strange because the aspect ratio might not even be 16:9. What you really want is a vertical field of view and a horizontal field of view. Diagonal can be kind of misleading. It gets complicated, and the numbers range wildly - basically we can quote numbers between 90 and 120, depending on how you want to talk about it.

"Another thing is glasses and eye relief. When you get closer to the optics in VR displays, you get a wider field of view. So if you're quoting a number that's at the lens, that could be quite a bit wider. The specs we quote is 90 degrees field of view for a glasses wearing person at 15mm eye relief or further. So it's a very specific spec."

Have a gander at the Digital Foundry report for a massive insight into the device, and let us know what you think below.