Hello Games’ unprecedented ongoing commitment to No Man’s Sky has continued this week with its enormous Echoes update, adding an entirely new alien race and massively expanded space-based combat. But one other feature buried in the patch notes is the inclusion of foveated rendering for PSVR2, which has had a colossal impact on the intergalactic outing’s visuals.
While the game looked and played pretty good on Sony’s new-gen headset at launch, some felt the visuals were far too compromised. The addition of foveated rendering, however, has allowed the developer to upgrade the overall resolution, by diverting computational resources to the areas of the screen you’re looking at. This works in conjunction with eye-tracking, and is one of PSVR2’s standout features.
If you haven’t explored the endless boundaries of the galaxy in virtual reality for a little while, then, you may want to consider picking up where you left off – or starting a new game entirely. Regardless of how you play, however – in pancake mode or with PSVR2 – there’s no question No Man’s Sky continues to grow with each new update, and Hello Games deserves tremendous credit for resurrecting this title following its fairly mediocre launch.
[source reddit.com]
Comments 30
No Man's Sky has to be one of, if not THE biggest turnaround in video game history. This will definitely be one of the first games I get with a PSVR2.
@HotGoomba I thought it was great with PSVR2 prior to the foveated rendering update. So it's going to be EVEN better for you now!
@get2sammyb yay (:
This is great news as some biomes were quite blurry, although others were still breathtaking. The only thing for me is that I wish they would add new trophy challenges along with any new content! I know Sony doesn’t require this, but it would really add to the fun and longevity to me.
As someone who mainly plays very heavy story driven, single player games, always been unsure if i'd like NMS.
But now with this patch on PSVR2 and it only being £20 on PSN, I think it's time to bite! So curious to see all these procedurally generated worlds, especially in VR.
Considering too it seems that it was only one person at Hello Games who tinkered to get the foveated rendering (tweet below!.. or do we call it X? xD) I think it definitely deserves a purchase in support of their efforts!
https://twitter.com/Griff_/status/1694765522972213267?s=20
@get2sammyb couldn’t agree more , Infact bar Kayak I think it’s PSVR2s best game
It really does make a huge difference. Stellar effort!
@Perryg92 I am also mostly playing story driven games, and I spend an embarrassing number of hours in NMS. Though, I would dare to say that one presumably has to look quite a bit for an engaging story in NMS. There are stories and the latest expansions, which I have not played, may have even better stories. But, the majority of the gameplay is resource management and exploration. The procedural generation has its advantageous and disadvantageous. One hand it allows to create the billion planets which all look different. On the other hand the generators are not as sophisticated as developers, and the generated planets appear in the end very similar. It is still a fascinating game which pulled me in for a quite some time. I quickly looked at the latest update, and it plays really well on psvr2. But, I also was fine with the state it was in a month or so ago.
@gaston thanks for your insight! appreciate it.
NMS will definitely be added to my library
(my already extensive backlog screaming "Noooo!" xD)
Will be cool to finally check it all out. Plus my PSVR2 needs some renewed attention from me so this is a perfect excuse
If Starfield wasn't about to release I would jump into this on vr...but I got to much on the plate game wise as it is
@StylesT to be honest I don’t know one gamer currently not intimidated by a massive backlog of shame
I played 100+ hours of this on a very blurry PSVR1 (and original PS4) and still had a blast, so with this added foveated rendering this now sounds like a must-play to anyone with a PSVR2.
And I should also mention: NMS is one of the few VR games you can also play together with your flatscreen friends. Good co-op times!
The difference post-update is insane! It honestly looks as good as Red Matter 2 now, which held the crown in terms of visual clarity before!
It looks insanely good now. I tried to play it flat-screen while I had a cold last week (not putting a headset on while sick... gross 😆) and I can't go back. I can only play this game in VR now.
The only serious complaint about it before on PSVR2 was the visuals, now it is beautiful to look at as well. The difference when exploring planets in particular is mind blowing.
Next update a story pretty please. Would be amazing to have story in this game in my opinion.
@Perryg92 There is actually a fairly deep story in NMS its just its very text heavy and not greatly told but its a good thought provoking story.
@Dobbos There is a story though a big plus a few smaller ones.
Apparently this is now Red Matter levels of clear, with no reprojected! Will have to jump back in, just wish I had new stuff to do.
@Trousersnake @thefourfoldroot1 I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, but I loaded it up last night and it in no way matches Red Matter 2 for me in graphical fidelity. It's definitely a step up from where it was and makes it a lot more playable but I can name several games with much better graphical fidelity.
It's still awesome that they updated the graphics, I just need to be honest.
@ztpayne7
Thanks for that. I didn’t see how something of that scale could look like Red Matter 2, which is one of the most incredible looking games ever, but all pretty much within rooms and corridors. Still, glad it’s been so improved.
@thefourfoldroot1 Yeah, I would have loved for it to look that good, but to my eye it just doesn't. But it makes sense with how big and open NMS is vs how corridor like Red Matter 2 is. I think it's like if it was the worst looking PSVR2 game there was (which is what a lot of people said), it's now around mid tier instead of top tier
@ztpayne7 I just came off an extensive session, and i have to admit that when i visited my settlement, the outlines of buildings in particular have clearer jaggies on them than i remember. The clarity seems to have come with a cost for that matter. It's way sharper but there is still more jank to spot than Red Matter 2 has, which is close to none. It's an insanely huge game and it just can't look as polished as RM 2 obviously. The clarity is there, but when there's a lot going on and assets are cluttered it does have noticeable jaggies. My initial excitement got a little ahead of the truth i guess. I stand corrected🤷♂️🥴🙃
@Trousersnake to be fair, I only played like 20 minutes of the intro, so I didn't get to see settlements, or any of that stuff. Maybe it looks better in more confined spaces. I got started on a snow planet this time which was new. Again, I do feel it was massively improved. With all the hype I saw on reddit I went in believing it was going to be like Red Matter 2 and to me it just wasn't unfortunately. It's still a great upgrade!
And it isn't all on my expectations. I played Kayak VR for the first time, expecting it to look great, and it does! Not perfect but great. I also tried Synth Riders for the first time and it was way better than I expected. But again, both of those games don't have the same scope as something like NMS, which might be one of the most ambitious games on the platform with how vast and procedurally generated it is.
Want to try this, just feel a nice sale price would put me over the edge as its so much money for the psvr2 at the moment.
@Jswift56 WRT to the PSVR2, there could be a sale around Xmas?
NMS is 50% off at the mo, as cheap as it's ever been.
I’ve never tried this game, but I’m semi-interested. I bought a used PS VR (NOT VR2) a couple weeks back. Perturbator mentioned the VR version is blurry. Can anyone else comment on this game and their experience with PS VR (NOT PS VR2)? Is it worth a buy? Or…do you think I’d be wasting my time and I should save up for the PS VR2 and the PS VR2 version of No Man’s Sky?
@jgrangervikings1 I assume you have your PSVR connected to the PS5? In that case you could give it a go as PS5+PSVR 1 runs the PS4 Pro version, which is pretty acceptable. I played NMS a ton on my Pro and loved every second of it. In case you do PSVR on the base PS4, don't bother.
@Trousersnake Yep, I run the PSVR through the PS5. It works great that way. I’ve only used VR on the PS4 to play Everybody’s Golf VR because I got that one on disc.
Wasn't impressed at all with PSVR2 upgrade. Still looked really blurry and smeary to me. Played it yesterday and the image is so sharp and crisp now. Great update.
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