Hot on the heels of Sony’s recent PlayStation 4 powered PSVR VR headset Launch, the next, more powerful iteration of the PS4 console will launch on November 10th and Sony have announced the games set to feature ‘Pro’ enhancements, including 13 for PlayStation VR.

It was once the case that console gamers had to wait for a new generation of their favourite games platform before seeing evolution in visual fidelity, but with the appetite from consumers and console businesses to see a longer cycle for each generation, both Sony and Microsoft are moving to introduce enhanced versions of their consoles to bridge the gap between generations. We won’t see Microsoft’s Xbox Scorpio until 2017 but Sony’s latest PlayStation 4 console is launching next week. The questions are: How will games developers choose to utilise that extra processing power and how will VR users stand to benefit?

SEE ALSO
PlayStation VR Review: Console VR Has Arrived

Ahead of launch, Sony have now announced a list of titles which will sport PS4 Pro enhancements and for those PSVR owners contemplating the jump to Pro, that list includes an encouraging number of VR titles.

Of the 45 titles announced to appear for the PS4 Pro before the end of the year (see full list at the bottom of this article), the following either sport PSVR-enabled features or built for Sony’s VR headset from the ground up.

PlayStation 4 Pro's Box Contents
PlayStation 4 Pro’s Box Contents

Again, precisely how these titles will be enhanced for PSVR is not yet clear. However, with the big selling point for the PS4 Pro being its ability to push existing titles at UHD / 4k resolution (see caveat for this below however), the hope is that super sampling will be employed on some games. One of the single biggest visual enhancements you can make to VR titles across the board, super sampling renders each frame at a higher resolution before down sampling to the headset’s native (in this case 1080p) resolution, reducing jaggies and improving perceived detail. We do know from the PlayStation Pro’s launch that this is a likely prospect with at least some titles, with PSVR title Farpoint (intriguingly absent from the announced list) being demonstrated with, as Sony’s Mark Cerny stated at the console’s unveiling, a “crisper image”.

farpoint playstation vr psvr aim (2)
Farpoint, from Impulse Gear

The PlayStation 4 Pro sports an enhanced SoC (system on chip) from AMD boasting an enhanced GPU and slightly higher CPU clock rate, all said to increase the console’s peak rendering throughput to 4.2 Teraflops, compared with the original PS4’s (and now PS4 Slim’s) 1.84 Teraflops. This means that although the new console isn’t too far removed from its predecessors’ core CPU architecture, its pixel-pushing grunt is significantly enhanced. Despite all this, it’s thought that the majority of games enhanced for PS4 Pro won’t hit the ‘true 4k’ resolution found in new UltraHD TVs (3840 x 2160), instead using clever rendering techniques to closely approximate it. Despite this, there’s clearly more grunt for use with VR, which is of course intensely demanding. Additionally, the PS4 Pro will also support HDR (high dynamic range) gaming, although curiously will not include an UltraHD Blu-ray capable drive.

We’ll be taking a closer look at the PlayStation 4 Pro when the console launches on November 10th for $399 / 399 EUR / £349. In the mean time, here’s the full list of titles expected to receive PS4 Pro enhancements this year.

  • Battlefield 1
  • Battlezone
  • Bound
  • Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3
  • Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
  • Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
  • Dishonored 2
  • Driveclub VR
  • EA Sports FIFA 17
  • Firewatch
  • Helldivers
  • Hitman
  • Hustle Kings
  • inFAMOUS First Light
  • inFAMOUS Second Son
  • Knack
  • Mafia III
  • Mantis Burn Racing
  • Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
  • NBA 2K17
  • Neon Chrome
  • Paragon
  • PlayStation VR Worlds
  • Ratchet & Clank
  • Rez Infinite
  • Ride 2
  • RIGS Mechanized Combat League
  • Rise Of The Tomb Raider
  • Robinson: The Journey
  • Smite
  • Super Stardust Ultra
  • The Elders Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited
  • The Elders Scrolls: Skyrim Special Edition
  • The Last Of Us Remastered
  • The Last Of Us: Left Behind
  • The Playroom VR
  • Thumper
  • Titanfall 2
  • Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
  • Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
  • Viking Squad
  • Wheels of Aurelia
  • World Of Tanks
  • XCOM 2
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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • VRgameDevGirl

    Hmmmm…. I wonder how much better psvr will look. If it gets closer to VIVE/RIFT quality I may get it.

    • Get Schwifty!

      I would hope Sony does some work on their tracking… I expect a lower visual fidelity, but the tracking and reports of drifting/floating. etc. are keeping me from moving on a headset at this point. It would be nice if Sony released some plans for a reworked tracking system.

      • Jordan Ellis

        I have rarely encountered these issues and have easily stopped them by simply adjusting camera and lighting, bright lights in front of the camera kill it, I have a bright light that’s behind my camera and it works flawlessly 95% of the time, the real issue is the play area just isn’t big enough, but if you stay in the play area, around 5ft from the camera near the center of the fov, then it works great. they need a better camera or they could simply add in more cameras to get more input that’s really the only issue, although it feels minor to me as someone who had been playing non-stop since I picked mine up at the midnight release.

        • Bryan Ischo

          And for another perspective, I tried a PSVR last night for the first time, and it’s the only time I’ve ever gotten to the verge of motion sickness with VR. It was set up in a dark room by someone who knows what they are doing.

          The headset tracking was constantly swimming a little bit. The controller tracking was wonky to a degree that I have never experienced before.

          It felt like being back in the DK2 days where I had to constantly “calibrate” and “recenter” and experience judder and lost tracking anyway.

          In short, it was by far the worst VR experience I have had. And so many of the games involved simulated motion, it was terrible. Maybe I just picked poorly, I was browsing the catalog and trying things that looked interesting.

          Also the graphics were not good. It felt like most experiences relied heavily on skyboxes, you could see where the developers were trying to cut corners to make the frame rates.

          I have exactly three and only three positive things to say about the PSVR:

          1. The headset is indeed comfortable and easy to put on and take off. This is clearly the physical design that VR headsets should and will use going forward.

          2. The ‘real’ lenses were much better than the stupid fresnel lenses in the PC headsets.

          3. The screen door effect was much more minimal in the PSVR, it was so refreshing to not see pixels constantly..

          Everything, and I mean everything, else about the PSVR sucked when compared to my Vive.

          • Jordan Ellis

            In my experience dark rooms are far from ideal, you don’t want bright light shining directly on the headset or onto the camera, but you need light.

          • Fox-One-1

            You definitely did not get the ideal experience. Like previous guy said, it works flawlessly 95% of the time.

          • Me

            I have spent so much more time with the psvr than I did with my Rift cv1 when I owned it(sold it as it was collecting dust). I had a few minor issues with tracking at first however once I repositioned my location alittle closer to the camera I have virtually no issues now. The psvr is simply so comfortable and the gaming experiences are better in my opinion. I will be lost in Robinson next week and if driveclub vr looks alittle better on the pro I will be grabbing it instantly. Patiently waiting comparison reviews!

          • fish

            The pro will do nothing for your graphics on the VR. It will only make things run smoother, and possibly help with the tracking issues the standard has. You want better visuals on your driveclub maybe you should have stuck with the rift. Project cars blows driveclub out of the water in VR. And robison? You could have tried solus, a far better game and, Drum roll please, the games are half the price on the vive and rift compared to PS VR.

          • Ely

            You are wrong, depends on game and developer. I had psvr before I got the Pro, games like rush of blood and batman were much more immersive for me. The reason? some games use a method of rendering where the center of the lense is clear and there is a blur around the edges. I felt like I didnt have my contacts in playing. with PRO most of the “blur” is gone.

          • Richard Evans

            Yep, I love my psvr. Sure I got a bit sick the first night, but since then nothing. I’m on rigs, eve: Valkiery, batman, and until dawn. You might wanna see if you can get a swap out or something. Sorry you guys aren’t enjoying it as much as the rest of us.

          • VRgameDevGirl

            I said the same thing! Was like DK2! And the vr sickness.

          • mike

            don’t forget to turn the tv backlight down also. may help with the tracking issue.

          • Rodox

            I felt sick for the first few hours but that past once I got my vr legs, now I’m fine with all games. I hope the pro improves the graphics though especially driveclub vr as that’s almost unplayable

          • fish

            ^^^ dito, not sure why I wasted money on the PSVR when I already had a vive. But it had games not available on the vive. I can say without a doubt, its time to return the PSVR and ebay the games. What a major downgrade it was. Deff better than the Gear Vr but nothing compaired to the vive. You want to see what real tracking is???? Try the vive then try the PS VR and you will see Sony has a long road ahead to make this thing work good. And not just barely work. Defend it all you want, but if you every try something better, you will truly understand PS VR is lacking. Its better than oculus,, but that will change when they finally stop using a gamepad and start using hand motion controls.

      • This shouldn’t effect the tracking, either positively or negatively. They’d have to upgrade the cameras and/or their controllers to do that. They had a chance to put much better cameras in the box with the updated PS4 camera, but I believe it’s exactly the same as it was before. Maybe it’s not possible to upgrade the camera without removing backwards compatibility with all existing Move hardware?

        I’m certain all of us would like to see a complete PS4 Move retooling, with better buttons, better ergonomics, MUCH better tracking, and a joystick on both hands. Both the VIVE and Rift have joysticks on both hands.

        The PS4 Move collection includes a nunchuck for directional control (The Navigation Controller), but I don’t it it has positional tracking, and for some reason hasn’t been used in any VR games, so it might not even be system compatible anymore. That lack of a joystick doesn’t even give the PSVR system parity with the other players in the VR field.

      • Torreth

        Im gonna tell you a secret. I personally discovered something about the PSVR tracking problem some people are experiencing two days ago. I will be quite honest that the detractors for the playstation VR are severely over hyping this issue (PC elitists, and Microsoft xbox diehard supporters who are upset that their console has no clear, or near release date for them to join into VR). Dont listen to them if you want an unbiased account of how the PSVR functions. Anyway, two days ago I sat down for a VR session, and out of nowhere my Move controllers started going crazy. I couldnt believe it. I’ve never had “ANY” issues with tracking. It got so bad that I ripped the thing off my head, and said “WHAT GIVES?!!!!!”. Thats when I saw “what gave”. The color of my balls was exactly the same color of my shirt. If your using tracking wands, and you are experiencing many tracking issues, id advise you to change your shirt. I know this sounds crazy, but when I went back and did some research on old move controller issues, Sony had acknowledged tracking issues pertaining to the color of the balls. I dont know why they havent updated the issue for use with the PSVR, but instantly after I changed my shirt the problem was gone. There are four colors it uses, and it isnt as though you cant wear the color of your balls, but its best if they arent closely matched.

        • Bryan Ischo

          I experienced the bad tracking myself; are you calling me biased?

          There is absolutely no way that the PSVR tracking solution is not inferior to the Vive’s, it’s just a known fact that camera tracking is not as good as Lighthouse tracking.

          The difference between Oculus’ and Sony’s tracking is that Oculus used a newer, and likely more expensive and higher quality, tracking camera. Sony has to rely on something that was released years ago and never designed for VR.

          Now, I think we can say with certainty given the above that PSVR’s tracking will not be as good as the others. The question is, how much worse is it and how much does it matter?

          My personal experience shows that it is significantly worse, and that it does matter. If you’ve never experienced any tracking at all before, then maybe you don’t even know the difference, and maybe you just chalk up all of the weird judder and controllers bouncing around as “just the way VR is”.

          But speaking objectively, the PSVR tracking is really bad compared to the Vive.

          I stood still in the Batman game in front of a computer console and if I moved my eyes to the periphery I could see that the entire scene was swimming around subtly. There was always constant movement that was unrelated to my head movement. I might not have noticed it had I not looked for it, but once I noticed it, if I wanted to see it, I could easily see that it was there every time I looked.

          I also got to the verge of motion sickness. To the point that during my drive home right after playing the VR, I actually felt like I had to be extra careful because my senses were off and I didn’t want to get into an accident. And I could tell that I was just on the edge of feeling nauseus, I just felt quite off for a while after that. It was not pleasant. That has *never* happened to me with any other VR headset.

          I attribute it to the bad tracking of the PSVR, and some of it is likely due to the selection of simulated movement games that Sony is pushing. Maybe that was the real problem, I guess I won’t know unless I play a non-movement-simulating PSVR game for a while and see how I feel.

          Given how awful it felt the first time around though, I’m not exactly excited to try the experiment …

          With regards to the darkness of the room, color of my shirt, whatever. The room started out lighted, not brightly lighted, just lighted. The tracking was really bad. My co-worker turned the lights off. There was still some residual light coming in from outside but the room was mostly dark. The tracking was better but still not good. I wasn’t wearing a solid color shirt (it was green and white). The TV was fairly large though and it is possible that its backlighting had some effect.

          • Torreth

            I appreciate you taking the time to write such a long post in reply. You really put a lot of thought into it, and should be commended for your effort to educate me. Now. Would I call you “biased”? Absolutely, and there’s no doubt about it! I’ll tell you exactly what you did to identify yourself right from the start. You, my friend, are an easily identifiable PC elitist. Instead of beginning your tirade with an objective viewpoint, you instead decided to go straight into competition mode. Right from the start you pitted the PSVR against its VR companions, Oculus and the ViVe. You werent even interested in the performance of the device. Every paragraph you wrote was a comparison of quality. PC elitists, like yourself, have an agenda, and that agenda makes your entire synapsis of the tracking issues and all other hardware related issues devoid of credibility in its entirety. It isnt invalid because lack of truth, but rather, it is due to the sensitivity and demand for “power and performance” that sets Hardcore PC gamers, and Casual gamers apart. Im not trying to insult you, but PC gamers know there is a definite mentality that sets both groups apart, and it is a massive difference .I have yet to see a casual gamer report tracking issues to the point of being unplayable, or heard of any car accidents or deaths related to the PSVR’s tracking issues, or sickness. None the less, what I said can affect the tracking issues is backed up by Sony. You mentioned the PSVR was at a friends house. Well, i can tell you that room setup also plays a major roll in PSVR tracking issues. Any reflective source can be the problem. The cause could be from the glass of Pepsi you set down on the coffee table, the picture that is reflecting the rear LEDs behind you, or the light on your mates phone as he is trying to get funny clips of you jerking and weaving. The jittery effect you mentioned isnt as easy to discount, but it is easy to explain. Its caused by the level of sensitivity Sony believes the camera needs to have in order for it to be able to process every move in realtime. This problem wont necessarily be permanent as firmware patches can fix this issue, as well as the other tracking issues, but to be honest, you are making a mistake. You are looking at VR as though it is already an established medium. It’s not, and it could crash quickly go the way of the 3D TV’s. The Big Three companies arent drawing battle lines with each other. The makers of the VIVe, and the Rift both want the PSVR to sell very well, and they want its lower price, along with Sony’s almost 50 million users, to expose casual consumers to VR. Your favored systems are still locked out of the living room, and if casual consumers arent willing to shell out $699 for the PSVR and PS4 system, they wont buy a Vive or Rift, as they see it as far to expensive for what they consider a hobby.

          • Bryan Ischo

            You seem not be able to understand the difference between having a competitive product to compare against versus being “a biased PC elitist”.

            I have no agenda other than objectively evaluating what I have tried and telling the truth about it, and your insinuations are as off-base as they are insulting.

            As such, I have no interest in discussing this further with you.

          • fish

            elitist LOL. you are a fonboy stuck trying to defend a weaker product. We try to inform people the truth, and that is the PS VR is weaker, much much weaker. while you try to spin the truth to make your purchase more viable. Get over the elitist crap, its about what product is better. There are 3 major headsets out now, and we WILL compair them and say what is better and what is worse. And llike it or not, no matter how much you worship Sony, they have the weaker product. Nothing more, nothing less

          • Calen

            lol pc fan boy triggered

        • fish

          wow, so even though I have been doing VR on my PC for over 3 years, and your psvr has been out a month. Suddenly you think we dont get to use our systems? Dumbest statement yet from a Sony fanboy. I know it sucks to only be able to afford the weaker piece of equipment. But that does not mean that everything you could not afford is no longer viable. PS VR is great for anyone that cannot afford the higher end equipment. But comparing it to the other headsets is pointless. It will not make your VR run better on your playstation by talking crap about its better rivals. Nothing you say or do will make it run better. And none of the headsets out now are the holy grail of VR. The next round of headsets will be the true entry into VR, But go ahead and keep trying to convince yourself that you bought the best of the best. Those of us in the real world know the difference.

    • Musicwithdepth

      won’t make the psvr look any different

      • VRgameDevGirl

        Where is your source. How do you know?, if its more powerful it should.

        • fish

          The ps4 is not close to the same level as a high end PC. So it will never run games or anything else at the same level as a vive or rift. Sorry you got tricked into thinking it was more than it is, but thats what sony wants you to think. It will have better games in the end, but it will never run at the levels of the vive or rift. Hell PC’s just got a GPU upgrade that will make the ps4pro seam like an atari……..

  • Musicwithdepth

    DAMN I DUNNO , i just brought the psvr now the pro , we do have 4k tv so… but i got a 2tb drive in my ps 4 , could i just swop drives doubt it very much

    • Slappy Blumpkin

      Yup, swapping drives is super easy peasy on the pro. Remove one screw, replace with new drive (ssd is best :) ).

  • Musicwithdepth

    i am impressed with the psvr though (avid gaming fan since the amiga cd lol and mega drive I’m 36) and a massive fingers crossed fallout 4 , gta v , fp view games, if companies could just patch them to work with the psvr , as the interactive open world already exists just a matter of recoding the controls etc , so come on rock star , gtaVR and bethesda Fallout 4VR or SkyRimVR would be epic, need some games with real depth to them and i love open world game they are the best , drive club is wicked on psvr , thing that struck me was how small these PSVR games for psvr only are compared to 50 gb standard of normal ps4 games , so imagine what they could do if they used the storage available on a blurray disk

    • fish

      its not that simple, the pro still is not powerful enough to make those games work in VR. And all ps4 games come on bluray………. You want better graphics and better running games? You are on the wrong system. You need a occulus or Rift for what you want. And still, those wont run them like you want. We are a dozen or more years away from vr looking like todays games.

  • Calen

    sweettttttt!!

  • Disapointed

    Why no uhd bluray drive?!? That’s the ONLY real reason to upgrade! Smh sony!

  • Jay

    Call of Cuty? I hear that call everyday…but only in my head, never on my phone :(

  • Fear Monkey

    I’m hoping for higher resolution and much better antialising.

    • Nein

      You are going to be disappointed. It’s still going to be 1080p and aliasing won’t make that much of a difference depending on the type of game. At best you will see higher resolution textures.

      • Fear Monkey

        Well, most PSVR games dont actually play at 1080p, they are upconverted from a much lower resolution because the game has to achieve 90fps or so, and this causes very noticeable aliasing in certain games. I’m hoping for a bump in resolution so it comes closer to full 1080p or antialising that diminishes the jaggies, which the PS PRo should be able to do.

        • Nein

          The PS Pro won’t magically get rid of anti-aliasing because it is rendering at high resolutions. It can render at 4k for all you care and it will still persist the exact same. The problem lies in the final target screen that it gets outputted to: the 1080p screen.

          • Fear Monkey

            Not True, an example is one PSVR game renders at 1440×800 (which one escapes me for a moment, there was an article about it yesterday) so it can run 60fps to 90 fps. When you scaled it to 1920×1080, lots of aliasing occurs. A PSPRO could render it at a higher res, maybe even native 1080p to match the screen, or render it slightly higher with better anti-aliasing. It wont be sharper than what the screen can normally display at 1080p, but it can reduce the shimmering and jaggies from upconverting from a lower resolution.

    • boston macro

      ps4 pro will give better resolution. And to be honest dude…playing vr the graphics really don’t even matter because the immersion is just epic! I play my psvr more than bf1 or gtav lol

      • Fear Monkey

        I got my Pro and Love the PSVR. Most games dont take advantage of the higher res, but those that do have a noticeable difference in resolution, and sometimes lighting and textures. I pretty much played PSVR non stop until I just got The Division, now I am enjoying that. They had some VR games on sale over the holiday, picked up Bound and the track racing game, both are very impressive with their use of VR..