Virtual reality is really cool, whatever Gordon says, but it can be really expensive to enter. Take the PS5 VR add-on, PlayStation VR2. At $550, it’s more expensive than the console itself… and yes, it only works with the PS5. So, it’s no surprise that tinkerers have been trying to see if it can double as a PC gaming headset just like Meta Quest 2. Good news: yes, it can! Bad news: It needs additional hardware to make the connection. Worse news: That hardware doesn’t actually exist yet.
iVRythe developer who created the tool that allows the original PSVR headset to work with SteamVR on a Windows PC has been working on this issue for months (as documented by WCCF Tech). Sony hasn’t thrown in any major software blocks, so it should be possible, but the system relies on very specific hardware to function, including DisplayPort 1.4 and Display Stream Compression 1.1. That means it will only works with graphics cards from recent years, an Nvidia RTX 20 series or AMD 5000 series or newer.
The system also requires some extra hardware which iVRy calls a “man in the middle” because the DisplayPort AUX channel is used on the PS5 for a lot of display information. A PC needs that information from a different source, best obtained from a custom driver. To operationalize the proof of concept, iVRy used a Linux PC in between with the original PSVR tracking hardware. It’s possible this could be done without additional hardware on a Linux machine with an AMD GPU, but even that seems like a long shot at the moment.
For a more general solution, they will need to design and build a custom adapter. And then find a manufacturer who wants to mass-produce it. Given the very small niche of users wanting to use a PSVR2 on a PC, and the fact that Sony could essentially lock it down at any time (even accidentally) with a software update, that could be a tough presentation to pull off.
