Korix a visually-minimalist VR RTS headed to PlayStation VR claiming to be the first title to run natively at 120Hz on the headset.

Update (3/21/17, 11:05AM PT): The official PlayStation Blog confirms Korix will be released on March 28th with and include single-player campaign, skirmish, and online multiplayer (two to four players in co-op or versus) modes. The price of the game is still unannounced. Original article continues below.

While the PSVR display supports a 120Hz refresh rate, most games on the platform run at 60Hz and use a technique called asynchronous reprojection to inject interpolated frames to bring the output up to the 120Hz rate. The headset can also run with a native 90Hz refresh rate (matching the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive).

According to developer Mark Taylor, Korix will be the first game on PSVR to run natively at 120Hz, on both PS4 and PS4 Pro. The game, which is soon to get an official release date, is a “retro styled real-time strategy [game] crossed with tower defence elements,” which also has support for the PlayStation Move controllers (though they won’t be required).

Hitting such a high framerate, especially on the PS4’s 2013-era hardware, takes careful optimization. No doubt, the sharp, minimalist visuals of Korix have helped in that regard.

90Hz is good, but researchers say that framerates as high as 240Hz could improve the immersion of VR. I’ve previewed an earlier tech demo running on PSVR at 120Hz and was very impressed with the feeling of realism.

And while the game is designed to run natively at 120Hz, Taylor says the reprojection will kick in if needed during complex scenes, though ostensibly it will happen less on the more powerful PS4 Pro than the older PS4.

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According to a technical preview video by NX Gamer, Korix will also employ supersampling and 4x MSAA on both systems:

While Korix was announced way back in August 2016, ahead of the October launch of the PSVR, the game will launch on March 28th though the price is unknown.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Stefan Eckhardt

    AFAIK on the PS4 Pro Trackmania Turbo renders 120 fps natively in VR. Don’t know what happens on a regular PS4.

    Not trying to downplay Korix, this is impressive, even though the graphics are simple, as a lot is going on there still. Hopefully, it will be priced nicely. :)

    • J.C.

      It’s a shame that the VR part of Turbo is only a few tracks in each “zone”, but that’s likely due to requiring specialty camera tracking for each one, and avoiding levels that are too twisty.

      • Stefan Eckhardt

        I guess they couldn’t get it approved with letting the VR player loose on any track, possible even user generated. PS VR requires games to deliver a steady frame rate, which they can only provide in a very controlled environment, thus the 40 levels.

        Still I’d have preferred to let the player try anything, with a big warning shield maybe that they are entering the vomit inducing danger zone… :D

  • LegoKnockingShop

    Playroom VR runs at 120hz natively, was a launch title.

  • NooYawker

    This game consists mostly of blocks. Is it really that difficult to get blocky graphics to 120hz?

    • JustNiz

      Exactly my thought. Basically I’m taking this news more as a guide of how basic the graphics have to be to to do non-laggy PSVR. I think I’ll stick with my Vive.

      • Stefan Eckhardt

        Do you have an example of “laggy PSVR”? I have tried dozens of titles, good and bad, but none falls into that category.

  • Skippy76

    This is like 1980’s polygon grafx. Plus the PSVR has a hard time maintaining 90hz on most games… Whats the point?

    • brandon9271

      Hey! They’re proud of what they can do with their little potato PC ;P

      • towblerone

        PotatosVR

        • brandon9271

          PlaySpud VR ;)

          • towblerone

            PoortatoVR.

    • Stefan Eckhardt

      What do you mean with “hard time maintaining”?

      Every PSVR game holds the frame rate very strictly. Most titles render at 60 fps then add reprojection twice to reach 120 Hz. Some titles run at 90 Hz rendering 90 FPS like e.g. Thumper.

  • Jerald Doerr

    Yeah I hate to be negative…. but no textermaps, not a lot of polegons … not a lot of REAL lighting… soooo what all that equals not much graphic prossessing power needed… on top of it all trying to make that as a selling point for your game???? Errr I guess… good luck… not going to make me want it…

  • OgreTactics

    People are missing the point: the point IS for it to have someone gross stylised graphics to push the enveloppe of supersampled 120hz VR experience.

    Have you tried any 120hz VR experience? Neither have I, that’s the point, showing the look and feeling you get when experience that high of a fps as it’s get closer to the eye’s natural (although varying) “refresh rate”.

  • Sky Castle

    If you need to reduce your graphics to 8 bit to achieve 120hz then I’ll just stick with 90hz.

  • Marcus Qin

    What a kind of joke

  • towblerone

    I remember when Sony said the PS3 would natively run games at 120+ fps. They talk out of their @$$es.