PlayStation VR’s external processing box unveiled

When it became clear that Sony was working on a virtual reality solution for the PlayStaton 4, those who had experienced early VR with the DK1 and 2 were a little worried. The PS4 could barely handle 60 FPS at a decent resolution, let alone the 75+ it would need for VR. That's why Sony has built an external processor to help the console out, exclusively for its PlayStationVR platform.

Set to be bundled along with the head mounted display (HMD), the PSVR box measures in at 140 x 140 x 35mm (as per Eurogamer) and has its own separate power unit before it reaches the mains plug. It features a power input, HDMI in and out connector and a USB port which hooks it up to the PS4. The front has dual ouputs for the headset itself.

VRFocus even tweeted out an image of the box at the start of this month:

#PlayStationVR cable features power, volume, mic controls, first images revealed: https://t.co/bMT3PCykef pic.twitter.com/7wzvQxAlzB

— VRFocus (@VRFocus) December 5, 2015

Although the internal hardware of the PSVR external processor is unknown, we do know that it will handle the social-screen feature which will display a secondary feed of what the VR user is seeing to a TV. Chances are it will be helping bump frame rates too, as Sony took the interesting step to set the VR headset at 120Hz, much higher than the average frame rate that you expect with PS4 titles.

However that may be achieved with the use of asynchronous time warp, which allows for a sort-of frame-rate upscaling. It also helps prevent nausea, which is key in VR hardware.

Although we'll have to wait until a commercial launch later in 2016 to find out what is inside one of these things, we do know it's actively cooled, so must have a fair bit of grunt to it.

KitGuru Says: Do you think adding this extra processor to the mix will make PSVR an expensive solution for virtual reality?

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