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Having trouble playing PSVR due to the headset not tracking accurately in space? This can be fixed if you figure out how tracking works!
It’s no secret that one of the components of the motion tracking function of both the Move controllers and the headset itself is the Playstation Eye camera. Based on data from the gyroscope, accelerometer and camera, devices are positioned and movements are transferred from the real world to the virtual one. If the data from the gyroscope and accelerometer are not affected by the factors of your playing space, then the lighting features can become a real problem.
Have you noticed that the glowing balls on the Playstation Move controllers change color from time to time? It doesn’t just happen. By choosing the right color spectrum, the Playstation makes the Move controllers stand out as much as possible against the background of the game space lighting for better tracking by the camera. Only bright sources of light that are directly in the camera’s field of view can greatly interfere with tracking in such a situation. In the case of the PSVR headset, the indicator lights are unable to change their color and are always lit in blue.
How to “help” the PlayStation Eye camera to better track the PSVR headset?
Regardless of the lighting, the LEDs on the helmet will always remain blue, which means you need to take this factor into account when arranging the room in which you play.
Anyway, if you’ve used the Playstation Move, you’ve already had to make changes to the lighting in the room. Bright lamps, a window in the daytime and other sources of direct light greatly impair the visibility of the joysticks for the camera. In the case of PSVR, all the same rules work, only you need to go a little further.
Empirically, as well as according to user reviews, it was found that the best background for the contrast of blue LEDs on the headset is green. The yellow background also works well, but it is with green lighting that even the indicators on the controllers turn blue, just like on the headset.
How to get the right lighting for better PSVR tracking?
Making some changes to the lighting, as well as to the arrangement of objects and furniture in the game space, which is in the field of view of the Playstation Eye camera, will definitely improve your gaming experience using PSVR.
To do this or not is a purely personal matter for each user. It is not at all necessary to change the environment you are used to, because even without this, Playstation VR will work. However, if you want to achieve maximum comfort from use, then most likely you are ready for experiments.
Several factors must be taken into account:
- There should be no bright light sources in the camera’s field of view
- There should be no bright color interference in the background (for example, paintings or curtains, with the color of which the light from the controllers or headset will merge)
- Room lighting should be green
- The location and type of lamps should create a minimum of shadows.
The first two points are obvious and do not require special explanation, but it is worth dwelling on the type of lamps and their location in more detail.
For starters, you can simply change the lamp in your light source to green. Such lamps are not expensive and thus it will become clear whether the game is worth the candle. It is only important to pay attention to the type of lamp and use models with a “soft” light that does not create pronounced shadows. An excellent option in this case would be LED lamps with a green glow.
If the result is already obvious and helmet tracking is an order of magnitude better, you can go further and think about special racks to evenly illuminate the playing area.
We hope this information has helped you improve your gaming experience with Playstation VR and now any movement you make in real life will not be missed in virtual reality!