Why PSVR games look blurry or less good than flat games
I think most regulars here already know why PSVR games look the way they do, but it could be helpful for newbies to understand the reasons behind this (to the best of my knowledge).
This will answer questions like:
- Why does the screen look blurry?
- Why are VR games much less good looking than flat games?
1. The resolution
The resolution of the screen is 1920 x 1080 pixels, your standard full HD resolution. But because you have two eyes this gets divided by half: 960 x 1080 pixels per eye. Your brain mixes those two images together to produce the final image with 3D depth. This image appears to be roughly square (as left and right image don't overlap 100%), so let's say this final image is 1160 x 1080 pixels. Needless to say, 4K has a better resolution than that, so there is a clear drop in resolution when compared to a 4K flat game.
This squared image, combined with the rounded lenses, is why it looks like you're wearing a scuba mask. Normally you can see much further to the sides.
The social screen (the copy of the VR screen on your flat TV) appears to be a cropped version of either the left or right image.
2. Subpixels
Pixels are made by tiny lights in a grid, called subpixels. They are red, green and blue, but your mind mixes these lights to form one pixel of a certain color and brightness.
The PSVR's OLED screen has more subpixels than other screens used in VR headsets. The result is that the mesh made by the black space in between pixels (called the screen-door effect) is much less pronounced and colors have more contrast. So the PSVR has a lower resolution screen (compared to Rift and Vive), but the quality of the individual pixels is higher.
The downside to OLED is the slight green pixelated pattern overlay you can discern, especially in darker areas (but not quite black). This is called 'mura'.
3. In your face
Some people describe the display as blurry and/or low-res. This is just a natural result of strapping a screen right to your face. From a distance a normal LCD HD monitor appears sharper, but if you move really close, so that it completely fills your vision, it will look worse. The screen of the PSVR roughly translates to a 226 inch TV. When your TV is that big, a 1160 x 1080 pixel image will appear to be low res. But in fact, it's really just blown-up and you start to see things that you normally can't perceive, because you're too far from the screen.
The center of your vision is sharper than around the edges. Some developers take advantage of this by rendering the center of the image at a higher quality than the edges (this conserves CPU power). Additionally, the lenses in the display will distort the image slightly around the edges. It's why in VR you should move your head to focus, instead of your eyes.
4. Double trouble
Now in order for you to perceive depth, the image for the left and right eye have to be rendered individually. So instead of rendering a frame once on a 1920 x 1080p resolution, your PS4 has to render it twice on a 960 x 1080p resolution. This requires much more rendering power. On top of that, while flat games are allowed to drop below 30 frames per second, Sony wants PSVR games to be at least 60 frames per second, preferably 90+, in order to prevent motion sickness.
The way developers cope with this is by lowering the detail of objects (especially those far away), reduce textures and other clever tricks. This is why a lot of VR games look 'blurry' and the games that don't rely heavily on textures, look better than those that do.
This also means that VR games will always look less good than flat games. Even on a possible PS5/PSVR2, simply because they can divert graphical power to improve details and fidelity.
5. Regular vs Pro
The PlayStation Pro has a more powerful graphics card (and some other improvements). For VR, game developers can use this power to up the frame rate, increase the amount of details, improve textures, increase the anti-aliasing (so the transition between pixels is smoother) or use supersampling (render at a higher resolution and then scale it back down), and so on. The change depends on the developer's willingness to optimize for Pro. For some games there is no effect, with others it can make a real difference.
6. Putting it on and IPD
Make sure the lenses are clean before putting it on, using the microfiber cloth provided. If you wear glasses, like me, make sure they are also spotless and positioned optimally.
The most important thing you can do to get the best image is putting the headset on correctly. Moving the headset slightly up and down and sometimes left or right can make a big difference (the text screen you see when you put on the headset can help you judge sharpness). Put the visor as close to your face as it allows. It can also help to put the back strap slightly higher than you normally would, this corrects the angle of the screen to your face.
Lastly, there's adjusting your eye-to-eye distance (or IPD) in the settings. While for most people this just determines your relative scale in a VR world, I've seen people complain about it when it was way off. Just don't expect a huge difference in clarity, correct positioning is a much more important factor.
IPD can be set per individual player profile. Because the display is a single screen for both eyes, there's no way to change IPD physically by altering the position of the lenses (like you can on Rift and Vive).
The standard setting for the screen brightness is 100%. By lowering it you'll have less strain on the eyes and mura is less pronounced.
7. Per game
Every game has its own rendering engine, so bluriness can differ a lot per title. Generally, Astro Bot on Pro is regarded as one of the best rendered games on PSVR. GNOG, WipEout, Bound or Arca's Path are also very crisp, in my opinion. Sometimes games have in-game settings that alter how it's rendered. Play around with these, to see what works best for you.