SONY CES | PSVR2 and accessibility controller Project Leonardo

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Sony's Jim Ryan revealed the launch date for the new PSVR2 during the CES press conference. Gran Turismo 7 was announced to be PSVR2 compatible through a free update right for the VR headset's launch on February 22nd.

A short sequence of gameplay footage was played, showing a no HUD onboard race, with 10 cars clearly visible on track. No more informations were given, so it's impossible to tell if it's going to be available in the entirety of the game, but if past history is to be trusted, expect the game to only feature a dedicated single player VR mode - Gran Turismo already featured VR previously but only in showroom mode and a specific mode where you could only race a single AI opponent.


Another interesting thing announced in that conference is Project Leonardo, a customizable controller designed for accessibility with the help of several organizations. It can be used as a standalone, in pair and / or alongside a regular PS5 controller, and also features 3.5 AUX ports to expand the player's possibilities further by plugging in external third party accessories.

leonardo.jpg


It may not be a steering wheel or fancy pedal set but this could well be a major innovation for simracing. For those who suffered tragic accidents or were born with a physical handicap, finding a way to overcome their disabilities was quite a daunting task. It wasn't impossible though, as I raced online a very competent wheelchair bound racer who used a mouth controller to drive on titles like Gran Turismo, F1 and Assetto Corsa. Having a widely available, first party solution that can be adjusted to anyone's specific needs and cater to a wider variety of disabilities is a very welcome initiative that will hopefully help and encourage more people to try out simracing - or just enjoy games in general.
About author
GT-Alex
Global motorsports enjoyer, long time simracer, Gran Turismo veteran, I've been driving alongside top drivers since the dawn of online pro leagues on Gran Turismo, and qualified for the only cancelled FIA GTC World Tour. I've left aside competitive driving in 2020 to dedicate myself to IGTL, a simracing organisation hosting high quality events for pro racers and customers, to create with friends the kind of events we wished we could have had. We strive to provide the best events for drivers and the best content for viewers, and want to help the simracing scene grow and shine further in the global esports scene.

Comments

Great news for any prospective PS5/VR2 owners, i love the look of it, might even buy myself one in the spring.
 
GT7 + VR = exciting.

Although I don't recommend gaming to anyone who isn't into this addiction yet, but still everyone has equal rights to try whatever they want.
Btw, I have an experience racing against a guy, I defended P1 like a lion. I was blocking all race long, where I put him into a Verstappen situation (either we both crash or you pull out). I know the psychology of 99.99% of us let's admit, in the end, we all would do a hopeless send. But the guy had the nerves and the wisdom, and stayed patient all race long.
I suddenly came across a video of someone driving a Mazda MX-5 around Okayama. The guy had the chance to make an overtake attempt in the end of every straight but it was 50-50 so he didn't. The guy had superb control of the car off the grip and the racing line. The car ahead in that video was me. The guy had no arms at all and used a mouth controller. (sorry if my comment is useless, but the topic reminded me of someone who surprised me but in a good way ,and who I respect him so much).
 
Like it not, VR needs the push for the big guns like Sony as we will all benefit from it in the long run. Eventually it will be a just a regular accessory, not some niche, mega-expensive thing for a small percentage willing to buy 4090s.

The Oculus has Meta behind it but Sony are still the biggest player in the games market and I think this product will take it beyond the 'wii' level the PSVR had. This may actually make people take VR seriously rather than look at it as something for novelty shooting games. Like it or not, it's all about the graphics for most people.
 
Mm...all in the design - these Halo style headsets can be hit or miss for a lot of people as they don't always fit right - much rather the original Oculus style compared to the Halo on my HTC Cosmos. But I'm guessing Sony will get the design right. The other thing I like about Sony VR is (I don't know for sure) apparently it uses single pass stereo for most stuff - should be pretty good with the PS5. Wish there was a way Nvidia could implement single pass stereo somehow for all PC VR in a driver
 
I suddenly came across a video of someone driving a Mazda MX-5 around Okayama. The guy had the chance to make an overtake attempt in the end of every straight but it was 50-50 so he didn't. The guy had superb control of the car off the grip and the racing line. The car ahead in that video was me.
Strange I have a similiar story about from 5-7 years back also on this track when I was an iRacing member and participated in a Mazda MX-5 on Okayama.
All the race I was in position #2 following a Finnish driver who was slightly slower than me - but the difference was so small and he was defending so smart that I would have taken both of us out if I had divebombed him.:laugh:
I accepted 2nd place - grrr.

BUT then on the last lap we were almost ½ a lap away from #3 this Finnish driver almost parked his car to the right side of the last straight.
What what?
Ofcourse I overtook him and he became #2.

Afterwards I PMed him WTF happened.
And I will never forget that he answered: You were faster than me the whole race so to be able to look at myself in the mirror I had to offer you the victory.
Hehe at least some Finnish drivers are 101% gentlemen :thumbsup:
 
The native resolution is below the reverb G2 and the reverb G2 is for me personally an absolute minimum. Second thing is that I only use my G2 with maximum anti aliasing, the graphics without minimum 4* anti aliasing are to jaggered/blocky/pixelated. And I use my G2 above native resolution(render resolution 3400px), without supersampling the image quality is also much worse.

The PSVR2, especially for the money, look great. But I expect that the PS5 won't run the PSVR2 with supersampling/above native resolution and high MSAA, for that reason I expect an pixelated experience.

But I still would like to see GT7 on VR, it will probably be a great experience.
 
The VR experience seems to be subjective. You've got guys with very high end sets claiming other high end sets are unusable etc. I'm from the original Indycar and F1GP era of the early 90s. Even using my psvr headset for pcvr was amazing.

Sometimes it seems all a bit 'i can't play this at 143 frames a second!'. Maybe I'm just old.
 

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