After a successful jump to virtual reality last year on Oculus Rift, developer Codemasters is bringing the VR experience to the PS4 version of DiRT Rally. It will be available as a standalone retail game or via DLC for existing owners.

DiRT Rally is the best video game representation of the spectacular sport of rally driving in over a decade. Starting life as a PC-only game, Codemasters surprised everyone with their first attempt at creating an authentic simulation; a dramatic departure from their previous highly-accessible ‘arcade’ racers. The risk paid off, and the game eventually found its way to Xbox One and PS4, receiving critical acclaim.

Being cockpit-focused and containing realistically scaled stages and environments, the game was an ideal candidate for virtual reality, and the PC version received a comprehensive update in July last year, with support for the Oculus Rift [our review]. It was well-received, and remains one of the most exhilarating driving experiences currently available in VR.

dirt rally vr review oculus rift (1)According to the official blog, Codemasters is giving similar treatment to the PS4 version of the game, with support for the Sony’s PSVR headset. It will arrive in the form of DLC for existing players on the PlayStation Store, and via a new boxed version of DiRT Rally (with the VR update included) at retail. The update also adds a new feature, a novel co-driver mode for a second player, which makes use of PSVR’s ‘social screen’ output.

The wording of Codemasters’ statement suggests that this won’t be a free update for existing owners (Eurogamer is indicating it will cost £9.99 in the UK), and it also doesn’t confirm a specific release date.

SEE ALSO
The 5 Best VR Racing Sims for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive

We reached out to Codemasters again for any word on official Vive support, and there is still nothing to say on that front. It seems the development team are unable to justify the resources, and perhaps explains the decision to charge for the PSVR update. It was also likely a tougher challenge to optimise the game for PSVR compared to PC.

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


Dominic Brennan
The trial version of Microsoft’s Monster Truck Madness probably had something to do with it. And certainly the original Super Mario Kart and Gran Turismo. A car nut from an early age, Dominic was always drawn to racing games above all other genres. Now a seasoned driving simulation enthusiast, and former editor of Sim Racer magazine, Dominic has followed virtual reality developments with keen interest, as cockpit-based simulation is a perfect match for the technology. Conditions could hardly be more ideal, a scientist once said. Writing about simulators lead him to Road to VR, whose broad coverage of the industry revealed the bigger picture and limitless potential of the medium. Passionate about technology and a lifelong PC gamer, Dominic suffers from the ‘tweak for days’ PC gaming condition, where he plays the same section over and over at every possible combination of visual settings to find the right balance between fidelity and performance. Based within The Fens of Lincolnshire (it’s very flat), Dominic can sometimes be found marvelling at the real world’s ‘draw distance’, wishing virtual technologies would catch up.
  • J.C.

    PSVR has sold more headsets than Vive and Rift combined. I can see their interest, but come on, it’s an absolute joke that they can’t get a stationary game working on Vive if they got it working on the Rift. Especially with ReVive making it very obvious it’s not that hard, they had it working in 24 hours.

    It won’t matter if Codemasters was paid off by Oculus or not, this move makes it SEEM like they were. Oh well. They clearly don’t want my money, that’s what I gather from it.

    • ummm…

      how do you know psvr has sold more units?

      • KLEEBAN KLIBAN

        There are articles on it. They are really just estimates, and at least one I read said that PSVR did not outsell the other two combined. That one said PSVR sold 745K and the other two sold 420K and 355K, 775K total. While numbers can’t be trusted, it’s clear that even in the short time it has been out PSVR outsold the competition by a lonnngggg ways. Would have outsold by more if Sony had better predicted the demand. It’s still sold out. Apparently there will be a restock in Feb but they need to get on it because every day someone’s hype dies.

        • ummm…

          i see. how many playstation owners are out there? do you know?

          • KLEEBAN KLIBAN

            53.6 mil consoles sold (think thats the number) but im sure less people own. Pretty impossible to know even for Sony. I have a standard and a pro so I account for 2 sales myself. Kept the standard so I could game on two tv’s when buddies come over, or let buddies borrow it so we can game.

        • DM

          But being specific to a single console, I wouldn’t really class PSVR as direct competition for Oculus, VIVE or mobile VR.

          I’m sure some people owning a gaming PC and a PS4 decided their budget fit PSVR rather than VIVE or Oculus, but I bet it wasn’t a huge number of lost PC VR sales overall.

          Samsung VR has apparently sold 5 million units, thats a lot of sales for Oculus on top of whatever DK1, DK2 and Rift sales to date.

          • KLEEBAN KLIBAN

            True hadnt thought of that. PC gamers would want more power. Only reason to go PSVR would be the expectation for exclusives, which it’s too early to tell if Sony will have more exclusives for VR than the PC options. I would say of course Sony will, but I kinda expect the better games not to be downgraded for PSVR. We already have Fallout 4 as a Vive only VR game and thats a huge loss for PS. PSVR2 might be good enough to downgrade the larger games and still have them look decent enough to enjoy, but PSVR1 might see a lot of awesome titles pass it by like Fallout 4 seems to be.. unless PSVR picks up a lot of momentum this gen.. or unless developers learn ways to milk PSVR for better performance.

  • yag

    Yeah good luck on optimizing this game for PSVR !

    • Jamie O’Neill

      It’s already running at 60fps, so it shouldn’t be an issue to adapt to VR without a drop in fidelity.

      • DM

        except for the part where you have to render the game twice at VR friendly framerates…

        • Jamie O’Neill

          Yes and 60 FPS is accepted by Sony as VR friendly, the headset interpolates additional frames to achieve 90hz. Each eye in VR only receives half the resolution of full HD, so I believe current performance is already in an acceptable region to make the transition to VR.

          Saying that I have read that RE7 looks noticeablly worse in VR despite the non VR game running at 60fps. So there maybe be other processing overheads I haven’t considered. FOV would also play its part.

          • Sadaharu

            Sorry for replying to something long ago.

            VR runs the game at the same combined resolution, 1920×1080. But the models and everything are rendered twice (at half resolution respectively). This means an overall increase in performance required. Seeing how DiRT Rally runs smoothly without drops, there may be hardware overkills in non-VR mode. Even though, a downgrade in graphics is almost certainly going to happen.

            DiRT Rally looks okay even at low on PC, so that’s not going to be too much of a problem.

  • Keith.

    Can’t wait. Loved the game without VR, can only imagine how cool it’s going to be, sitting in the car.

  • Eidern

    Ok i’ve actually tried Dirt on PS4VR : I had to stop playing after only 20-30sec of play, as soon as I hit the brake pedal, it’s like i hit a “puke” pedal or somethin ;)
    Just to know, is it just me ? (i’m already subject of road sickness when i’m not driving) Or is it trully a problem of framerate (RE7 and EVE don’t make me sick that fast, at least 2hours of gameplay before feeling not so good) ?