Nov 24, 2016  DriveClub vs DriveClub VR: the costs and benefits of virtual reality Double the frame-rate and VR-enabled, Digital Foundry examines PSVR's most ambitious port. Sell DriveClub VR at GameStop. View trade-in cash & credit values online and in store.

Some might say that the new PlayStation 4 Pro is better equipped for enhanced VR gaming as opposed to its stated purpose of adapting titles for ultra HD displays. Effectively doubling GPU power over base hardware opens up a range of options for improving PlayStation VR titles - an area where smooth frame-rates take priority over image quality or graphical features on standard PS4 hardware. So the question is simple: to what extent does PSVR benefit with a PS4 Pro upgrade?

Of course, we need to bear in mind that it's early days for PS4 Pro development in general, as evidenced by a small number of sub-optimal ports we've seen so far. On top of that, there are commercial considerations to take into account. Development budgets for VR will be constrained enough already, owing to the relatively limited number of launch units out in the wild. To add support for this specific combination of PS4 Pro and PSVR - a subset of an already small installed base - is perhaps a hard sell for a developer when it comes to allocating development resources.

Little big planet 1. Each one has a distinctive voice in both the cutscenes with actual dialogue, and then in a sort of jibber-jabber language during the levels themselves.

This may explain comments from DriveClub VR's developer, hinting that only a few visual features are enabled in PSVR's flagship racer on PlayStation 4 Pro. As it happens, we struggled to find any at all, though further comparisons revealed enhanced reflections are enabled on the body work of the car. Otherwise, the rest of our comparisons came up empty. Admittedly, we are hamstrung here; the social feed limits resolution, making pixel-count comparisons difficult. And even access to the HMD feed offers limited results owing to the distortion pass added to account for PSVR's lenses. Truly, there is nothing quite like actually putting on the headset to judge the actual differences - something we can't really present in an article, or even a video.

Nevertheless, there are clear enhancements to the experience offered by PS4 Pro on select titles. Take Crytek's Robinson: The Journey, for example. Most games use the Pro's extra processing power to simply render at a higher resolution, and this title is one of the best examples of this. While you're always viewing the headset's pixels up-close, at least by rendering games at higher resolutions, PS4 Pro can super-sample the frame for better anti-aliasing. It offers less shimmer, less visual noise, and a cleaner, more pristine image all round. Robinson visibly benefits with the headset on, and this reflects the number one advantage across a breadth of VR titles we've tried on PS4 Pro.

In particular, you can see the gains in Robinson to the corners of the screen. The so-called 'foveated rendering' technique, used to cull peripheral resolution to save on performance, isn't as aggressive implemented on PS4 Pro. There's still a blurring to the display's edges, but details are clearly much crisper compared to the standard PS4 delivery. Additionally, Crytek outlines several visual enhancements beyond a resolution bump, including improved screen-space directional occlusion, and ambient occlusion - allowing better shading between objects.

In practise, this proves too slight to pick out in play, but an improvement in texture filtering is at least clear to see across the ground. With the headset on, the blur across surfaces is massively reduced. Textures remain identical on both base PS4 and PS4 Pro, and likewise for shadow and object quality - but the boost for texture filtering is hugely welcome for any long distance views. Enhanced draw distance is also evident, again working well in concert with the other enhancements.

Robinson possibly offers up a 'best case scenario' for PSVR improvements on Pro in the here and now - CryEngine has a huge toolbox of potential improvements already built into the engine, and as a PSVR exclusive, it may have also received additional funding that helps make the business case. But it's clear that the concept of increased resolution for super-sampling, alongside a small handful of extra visual features, is a template for the other games we've tested.

Take Rebellion's Battlezone, for example. This is a very straightforward case, and the benefits of playing in VR with PS4 Pro are again focused on image quality. Much like Robinson you get increased resolution, super-sampled to the 960x1080 view on each eye within the PSVR headset, resulting in a marked jump in clarity with PS4 Pro. On top of that, dynamic lighting inside the cockpit is improved - it's only active in cut-scenes on base PS4, but enabled throughout the game on Pro. It means HUD details and external factors (radar blips, explosions) adjust in-cockpit lighting too. Performance remains just as solid.

It's a similar story for Guerrilla Cambridge's Rigs. Here we have another game where the lower resolution and high contrast artwork shows obvious scaling artefacts on base PlayStation 4 hardware. With PS4 Pro, you get a vast improvement in image quality with the headset on, and again, peripheral detail is much improved with the dialing back of foveating rendering. There is no game-changing improvement offered by the Pro, but the enhanced resolution clearly helps in mitigating the most striking of PSVR's visual compromises.

When to grind, what to forage and what to do between hunts.

We've also played pre-release builds of Farpoint, a first-person shooter for PSVR. The base PS4 version had clear frame-rate issues (something we expect to see cleaned up for launch) while the utilisation of high contrast artwork produced obvious stair-step artefacts. The PlayStation 4 Pro code, shown at the PlayStation Meeting in September was silky smooth by comparison and aliasing was far less of an issue - perhaps not surprising, bearing in mind that the game apparently renders 'twice as many pixels'.

Overall, the pattern established so far suggests that in common with standard games, PS4 Pro enhances virtual reality mostly with a boost in resolution. It helps address a fundamental issue with many PSVR titles, but we can't help but wish for more. And in this case, Crytek's Robinson: The Journey perhaps offers up a look at how the Pro can be more fully utilised in providing a more complete package of enhancements. While it clearly requires more developer effort, we should consider that many VR titles are multi-platform in nature, built using middleware designed to support multiple targets.

It's entirely plausible that developers will dip into the middleware features not only improve resolution, but also to bring over visual enhancements previously reserved for the PC versions of their games. Robinson's improvements - pushed out LODs, improved ambient occlusion and higher levels of texture filtering - could prove to be the tip of the iceberg once developers have more time getting to grips with Sony's new console hardware.

It used to be that every shiny new piece of gaming technology needed a decent racing title to really show off all of its new-fangled advances and features. Nowadays, such showcases of new hardware seem to be purely in the realm of RPGs and FPS titles; the halcyon days of the likes of as a technical flag-bearer having long since passed.Now many years later, DriveClub VR, attempts to do just that with its PSVR debut. Pointedly, while it feels like a reduced experience in some ways when compared to its, it still elicits enough of those familiar thrills in addition to its newly found immersive qualities to prove itself a worthy effort for Sony’s shiny new VR headset. The visuals in DriveClub VR need workBefore we go any further, we should acknowledge the twin narratives that seem to have plagued DriveClub VR since launch; that the game “looks like a PS2 game,” and also that it somehow has the magical ability to make folks eject their stomach contents after just a few minutes of play. In addressing the former, it is true that the visuals in DriveClub VR don’t approach those of its regular PS4 counterpart; nowhere near it, in fact. Arguably suffering the most from being on the wrong side of this technical gulf are the environments.

We even tried to download the Microsoft Store version to PC, but that didn't work either - and it's definitely not available on Steam.If you want to try Code Vein but don't want to buy it, you'll have to play the trial version on consoles - or wait for the demo to hopefully appear on Steam. You can if you have either a PS4 or Xbox One, as a special demo trial version of Code Vein is available to download on PSN or the Microsoft Store. Code vein demo pc. But what about PC?Sadly, we have to report that, as of right now at the game's release, there is no Code Vein PC demo and the trial version isn't available on PC - on any storefront.

Bereft of much of the incidental trackside detail, weather effects and other visual niceties that made many of DriveClub’s racing excursions so resplendent to look at, the tracks in DriveClub VR simply look unappealingly bare by comparison.A bigger issue though is the massive drop in resolution, simply because it directly impacts how you do all that racing business. You see, as well as featuring the light blurriness that appears at the extreme ends of your peripheral vision when viewed within the, the drop in resolution also results in huge amounts of jaggedness on the edges of visuals, which more crucially, can make perceiving what’s coming ahead in the track somewhat difficult simply because it all starts to look like a blurry orgy of pixels. Hitting Top GearAs far as the whole sickness and queasiness thing goes, I hammered Tour Mode for an hour straight (which was notably longer than what was recommended by the manual for safe play because I’m an idiot), and felt no ill effects whatsoever either during or after the session had concluded, and that was despite me turning my car into the vehicular approximation of a pinball for much of that time.Despite the distinct drop in visual quality, the handling model from DriveClub has survived wholly intact in its transition to PSVR.

Ultra-responsive and great to control, gliding past the opposition and busting out power slides feels as effortlessly enjoyable as it ever has. Equally, taking DriveClub VR online proves to be a pleasure too with extremely quick matchmaking and the races themselves proving to be just as reliably exhilarating as they are on the non-VR version of the game. Without a doubt though, where DriveClub VR truly shines is in how it leverages its titular technology to foster a sense of immersion that just hasn’t been seen in any PS4 racing game to date. Just being able to look around the interior of your car to catch a glimpse of a rival pulling up alongside you, or, the sensation of screaming along at 160MPH are all grand moments that everybody should experience.This feeling of intimate involvement with the game world extends beyond just driving too, as an entertaining passenger mode allows players to, somewhat freakily, see themselves in the driver’s seat as they are driven around the track; permitting them to take in every detail of the race without actually worrying about doing any of the racing themselves.

When you take into account that DriveClub VR wasn’t actually designed for Sony’s shiny new PSVR headset from the ground up, its accomplishments in this regard certainly feel far more significant than they initially appear.Finally, it also turns out that much like its older sibling; DriveClub VR is absolutely rammed with content. Packing in an extensive Tour Mode, single races, time trials, online multiplayer, unlockable vehicles and the ability to create your own challenges, those who decide to stick with DriveClub VR will find that the game has more than enough longevity to keep them engaged for a good long while indeed.In Summary.