Preparing for VR : Enabling Cinemizer OLED Head Tracking in ALL PlayStation 4 games

Otacon "Snake ...This is a HMD Infiltration mission" ....Snake "I can see Harold and Kumar from here .." 

Last year I demonstrated the first methods here and here  for enabling head tracking in console games, all console games, something which sparked disbelief and the ire of some VR Creationists ..you see some of the most complex problems have the most simple solutions..... got to demo it at E3,i49 and Eurogamer.. for several thousands of HMD fans.. including Sony, Microsoft and our friends at Oculus .. 

a demo without a game ... what next an army without a nation...? they'll be coming for us Snake

Since E3 2013 I have been dying to test head tracking with the PS4, we already know it works with the Xbox One.. as I showed here. In that article I looked forward to being able to use head tracking in PS4 games as well as pondering the heresy that console masses courtesy of the likes of Sony were going to receive VR before a PC minority...Yeah ..foolish..right ?...what was it Mr Jobs used to say..

this is not what Steve Jobs used to say...it is something that Otacon would say ..like every minute beeping you on that incessant CODEX ..why does Snake never shout OTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCON?

And last week as Yoshida san revealed Project Morpheus confirming the arrival of console VR , I got round to testing the first method for enabling Cinemizer OLED head tracking in all PS4 games.... I love it when a plan comes together ..

Boo!!

HMD use on consoles is not limited to VR .. a gamer  may just want to use a non VR HMD to  play Killzone Shadow Fall, a quick game of the very quick game that is  WarFrame or spend 2 hours and 40 odd minutes in a play through of Metal Solid Ground Zeros with head tracking on your portable HMD .. you know one you can buy now and use .. without having to be a paid up member of VR Creationist Monthly.. 

weapon of light....

And this is what I am going to show you how to do ...use head tracking in PS4 games that is ..not sign up for VR Creationist Monthly ... only joking Palmer...my subscription which they tell me comes with a free Oculus Rift Dev Kit 2 is fully paid...

The upshot of this is we  can very simply HMD game with head tracking on both next gen consoles.. any game you want ..

transparent is the new black ... or brown ...or yellow .. or..

The really cool thing is whatever HMD you are TVRKING .. you can still use the Cinemizer OLED head tracker to achieve this ..although it seriously helps if your HMD is <180g and is nausea, blur and pain free .. the aim is to play games replacing legacy displays .. with real world use of a portable HMD as opposed to virtual world HMD prototype abuse of the user that leaves them dizzy for hours..or even for a second...

And ...this is how we do it:

Full Gaming tests 

Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeros played with Cinemizer OLED HMD + Head Tracking

For Kojima san who timed his Metal Gear Ground Zeros release to perfectly coincide with my head tracking on PS4 tests ....the game  played with Cinemizer OLED head tracking. 

This is a HMD Infiltration mission an entire mission over 2 hours and 30 odd minutes ..to test/demo  it is possible to game on  a HMD without pain, nausea and other detrimental effects.

With a  180g HMD, this is possible I know because I tested it on a fellow passenger at 38000 ft over a 10 hour flight.. First and foremost a HMD must cause no discomfort, this is why some HMD devs take care to explain you are testing developer prototypes .. prototypes that are not viable in commercial or retail usage applications until they eliminate such issues .. VR sickness and other issues are NOT present in all HMDs.. 

Of course like I wrote in the video description ...it was not like I was going to stop playing a new Metal Gear Solid game until I finished .. and here it is .. 

That's a two hour plus HMD test, taking the HMD off gives no post game nausea, playing through the entire game the head tracker works without issue as you can see from the video ..from 0s to 2 hours 36 minutes there is no drop,drag,drift or random wandering off of the head tracker ... like you get in certain now obsolete head trackers ..  

Killzone Shadow Fall Multiplayer

For Guerrilla one of whom I met back at i49 :

Warframe 

Next up Digital Extreme's War Frame .. third person, with a very fast game camera not ideally suited to HMD gaming ...right?  Wrong:  Head Tracking augments third person games in a way that replaces and eliminates that bane of camera movement the right thumbstick. It is in third person games that head tracking as a device for augmenting gameplay comes into it's own .. you can turn to a sound or visual cue, you already do this when playing without realizing .. turn on head tracking and you can effortlessly ..scan your environment ,turn round to face the enemy behind you or operate the camera to bring into the screen area all the bad guys surrounding you .. something you used to have to drag a mouse or move a thumb stick to achieve..

We can now play ANY PlayStation 4 game with Zeiss head tracking, what this means is even if Project Morpheus does not support head tracking in a legacy non VR game.. I will be able to use Zeiss head tracking with it 

Issues : 

The Xim4 Beta has trouble with the touch pad in certain games, this should be solved as feedback reaches the devs .. 

If you are worried about drag,latency or drift as I told Palmer a long time ago, so long ago now there is none with this head tracker that you can perceive.. on PC or Console.. old gen or next gen..  

Other  head tracking options 

Zeiss head tracking is capable of mouse emulation in hardware, the PS4 accepts mouse and keyboard input, even recognizing the head tracker when you connect it to a USB port. 

If you are a developer, or Sony , Yoshida san this means you then please enable mouse and keyboard support in games on the PS4  ..and voila we have Zeiss head tracking that I could demo for you now with Project Morpheus, the HMZT3/Q (and 4) and which works instantly ..much as it did with PS3 games that support mouse and keyboard input ..with any HMD the user connects to the PS4 .. apart from the Rift ...for now ..

Method 

If you can't wait:

Hardware
Xim Edge updated to Xim4E  follow the instructions here 
Cinemizer OLED Head Tracker 

Connect the Zeiss head tracker to the USB hub in lieu of a mouse and away you go .. as you see in the video 

This also forms a third method to enable Zeiss head tracking in Xbox One games .. no need for a Cronus device anymore.. 

If you can wait :

Wait for XIM 4 to release ..but if you are sitting in front of a XIM Edge ..what are you waiting for ? The Retail Rift ? Dev Kit Too?  these will not work with your PS4 .. though that's not going to stop me trying now is it ? As I am sure JC will tell you.. 

More testing to follow as the Xim Beta improves the whole experience will improve .. but right now I have a head tracker that let's me play Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U, Wii, PS1,2,3 and 4 games not to mention all the Saturn classics.. and of course PC games in 2D,3D and so called OVR..

Can we say that about any other head tracker? Right time to crack the cellophane on Dark Souls 2...


Thanks to 

OBsIV and XIM for a stunning a product : cannot wait till XIM4 arrives 
Carl Zeiss ...  
Hideo Kojima and Konami .. for MGSVGZ ... 
Guerrilla for Killzone Shadow Fall 
Digital Extremes for Warframe
Sony and Yoshida san ..for the PS4 and dreaming the dream that is Project Morpheus..  developing it without the need for a fanatical fan boy base ....wait..I get it .. I finally ...understand JC .... it's all starting to make sense now .. 

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