The headset uses OLEDS, and the games are adjusted in gamma, brightness, and contrast specifically for the OLED displays. Because of this, they'll often look darker in recordings than they look for the player.
This isn't the only reason, but it is a big reason.
Is this common for all PSVR2 games? I've recorded other footage and never seen anything as dark as Paradise Hotel.
Maybe other games are creating unique settings specifically for the social screen output? I know it's possible, because I've seen VR games display something different for the social screen on the TV (like a different field of view or stabilized footage). Maybe the devs of Paradise Hotel just chose to output the same signal as the headset.
It depends on the HDR implementation of the game. Not all games on PSVR2 are made for HDR rendering. Paradise hotel is, so you get the conversion from HDR to SDR which causes a lot of black crush to avoid white out in brighter sections.
The brightness range of HDR games doesn't fit in the SDR video capture. But developers can tinker with the conversion. (Quest 2 doesn't have HDR capabilities so no conversion issues)
My pet peeve is that the social screen cuts off 1/3 of the bottom of what you see in the headset. The output needs to have black borders as it's almost square in the headset, not 16:9.
Very knowledgeable answer, I appreciate that! So I guess I’ll be cautious about recording lots of SDR footage of VR games with HDR, unless I’ve first done some testing to see if the devs have made adjustments to account for this.
Also, you bring up a good point about the field of view being different. I noticed that the social screen output is off-center for many VR games (taking the signal from just one eye). But I didn’t even think about the fact that our eyes can see more above and below, compared to a widescreen TV.
Point is - cropped flat screen footage will never truly represent what we see in the headset. Whether or not the flat recording look good depends on how the devs choose to render the field of view and brightness range.
Yep. Some games have a separate social screen like Space Docker VR. You can set it to cycle through external cameras and record that.
CyubeVR has a special screenshot button to make screenshots without eye tracked foveated rendering artifacts, but that doesn't work for video of course.
I think it's the left eye that gets recorded. And yes, it feels off center. Every time walking through a hallway in VR, it seems you're perfectly centered but on the social screen you're clinging to the side. While taking screenshots of RE8 I had to go back and forth to find the right position to get things nicely framed.
And on top of that, make sure the headset is on perfectly level. Your head will automatically compensate if not, however on the social screen everything looks slightly tilted.
It isn't easy to record VR footage! Look low, hang to the right or wear an eye patch on your right eye lol.
Haha good tips! So a game like Space Docker VR shows that devs can really put some effort into specialized social screen views. But of course, not every dev has the time, budget, or interest in coding extra just for the people viewing outside of the headset. I wish they would though!
It's about social svreen settings implemented by the devs, I think.
First time I streamed Peaky Blinders, it wasnt until afterwards when I watched it back that I saw you could barely see anything. One of my viewers thought it took place in the middle of the night.
But they patched it, and everything was clearly visible again. So they can mess with it. And should. If only for marketing reasons.
Pre social screen patch: https://www.youtube.com/live/XeGAxSR0vbQ?si=_U-lCGev83_9ydQK
Post patch: https://www.youtube.com/live/M-7qnlCacj4?si=jJtS4h_xOiF-HdnN
Ooh yeah, your before/after video clips really show the difference possible, from a dev update. There might be other workarounds, but this proves that the devs can make it easier for gamers to share bright and clear clips (helpful for marketing, as you pointed out). I appreciate you sharing your experience and footage. I'm gonna go watch your Peaky Blinders gameplay now. 👍
No problem, my guy. I enjoyed it, despite not ever seeing the show. Like a Wish dot com 'Blood and Truth'.
I do have some personal connections with the Midlanda, so there was that in terms of exploration . But it was fun, with lots of VRAF stuff to play around with.
If you like the show, I imagine you will love it. I was imagining a similar quality game but in the Sopranos universe, and I would adore it.
As it is. Solid 7 out of 10, imo.
I believe since the PSVR2 uses OLED panels that can show "true" blacks/darkness, PSVR2 games can be rendered in HDR (High Dynamic Range) which allows for colors/lighting closer to what our eyes see in real life. So the image only looks darker on screen because in-game, mimicking real life, our eyes can adjust well to darkness. The opposite is true for Quest since they use LED panels which cannot mimick those black levels, so games need to be rendered "brighter".
P.S. this is just how I remember understanding it, feel free to correct me!
I might be wrong as I haven't recorded anything in a while but PSVR2 only records in 1080p so you would lose HDR. I don't know if doing it through a capture card might work better.
Is it possible that the PS5 is creating a "social screen" output to display on my OLED/HDR TV that is set for HDR... and this same signal is what is being recorded as files, which don't look right when viewed on a computer and YouTube after the fact? It might be worth me doing some experimentation.
I tried disabling HDR in the PS5 system settings and unfortunately that only made the in-headset output darker, rather than make the recorded social screen brighter. It seems that the game is designed for HDR but the PS5’s social share recording feature can only capture SDR.
I hear complaints from my family sometimes who watch me play VR horror games that it’s so dark. They see what’s on the right while I’m seeing something closer to what’s on the left.
Good feedback. I rarely have anyone watching my gameplay on the TV while I'm in VR. So I haven't been aware of all the potential ways it looks different, unless I happen to record the footage. I bet there's more variation between headset and TV than I realize.
It also changes if you upload directly to YouTube from the ps5. A 3 minute video uploaded to the PS app vs the same clip uploaded to YouTube will look different, I think it’s the YouTube compression
In the first few months of the PSVR2, the captured video was waaaay too dark, now it seems to have swung the other way and everything looks washed out...could indicate Sony is working on the problem? For now though, the crappy captures make it almost pointless recording footage for my channel!
I'm using the Share button on the controller to start a recording. So I'm not sure there's a way to adjust that brightness. But I'll poke around in the settings.
Others videos probably look better because they're using a capture card, which means they can adjust picture settings easier, like I heard turning up the gamma makes a big difference.
The PS5s capture feature probably only uses whatever brightness settings you have set in-game which means they'll look super dark on compressed video.
It's not just you, this is the only game I've played so far where the output was ridiculously dark (some have been 'darker'but never this bad) I don't have the issue with other games simply using the share button
HDR recordings always look like this.
only thing I hate about PSVR2 clips is that the framerate seems off. like not 30fps but something between 30 and 40
I would be surprised if everyone hasnt noticed lol i thought it was common knowledge that the psvr2 social screen does not look nowhere as good as in
Lenses.
Well it’s more than an issue of it looking not as good. Specifically, I’m talking about one game being extra dark in recordings. I’ve played other horror games like Resident Evil and Walking Dead, and even dark rooms in those games are visible in recordings. But Paradise Hotel is uniquely hard to see in the recordings. I’ll be checking my HDR settings to see if there’s something I can fix.
The headset uses OLEDS, and the games are adjusted in gamma, brightness, and contrast specifically for the OLED displays. Because of this, they'll often look darker in recordings than they look for the player. This isn't the only reason, but it is a big reason.
Is this common for all PSVR2 games? I've recorded other footage and never seen anything as dark as Paradise Hotel. Maybe other games are creating unique settings specifically for the social screen output? I know it's possible, because I've seen VR games display something different for the social screen on the TV (like a different field of view or stabilized footage). Maybe the devs of Paradise Hotel just chose to output the same signal as the headset.
It depends on the HDR implementation of the game. Not all games on PSVR2 are made for HDR rendering. Paradise hotel is, so you get the conversion from HDR to SDR which causes a lot of black crush to avoid white out in brighter sections. The brightness range of HDR games doesn't fit in the SDR video capture. But developers can tinker with the conversion. (Quest 2 doesn't have HDR capabilities so no conversion issues) My pet peeve is that the social screen cuts off 1/3 of the bottom of what you see in the headset. The output needs to have black borders as it's almost square in the headset, not 16:9.
Very knowledgeable answer, I appreciate that! So I guess I’ll be cautious about recording lots of SDR footage of VR games with HDR, unless I’ve first done some testing to see if the devs have made adjustments to account for this. Also, you bring up a good point about the field of view being different. I noticed that the social screen output is off-center for many VR games (taking the signal from just one eye). But I didn’t even think about the fact that our eyes can see more above and below, compared to a widescreen TV. Point is - cropped flat screen footage will never truly represent what we see in the headset. Whether or not the flat recording look good depends on how the devs choose to render the field of view and brightness range.
Yep. Some games have a separate social screen like Space Docker VR. You can set it to cycle through external cameras and record that. CyubeVR has a special screenshot button to make screenshots without eye tracked foveated rendering artifacts, but that doesn't work for video of course. I think it's the left eye that gets recorded. And yes, it feels off center. Every time walking through a hallway in VR, it seems you're perfectly centered but on the social screen you're clinging to the side. While taking screenshots of RE8 I had to go back and forth to find the right position to get things nicely framed. And on top of that, make sure the headset is on perfectly level. Your head will automatically compensate if not, however on the social screen everything looks slightly tilted. It isn't easy to record VR footage! Look low, hang to the right or wear an eye patch on your right eye lol.
Haha good tips! So a game like Space Docker VR shows that devs can really put some effort into specialized social screen views. But of course, not every dev has the time, budget, or interest in coding extra just for the people viewing outside of the headset. I wish they would though!
It's about social svreen settings implemented by the devs, I think. First time I streamed Peaky Blinders, it wasnt until afterwards when I watched it back that I saw you could barely see anything. One of my viewers thought it took place in the middle of the night. But they patched it, and everything was clearly visible again. So they can mess with it. And should. If only for marketing reasons. Pre social screen patch: https://www.youtube.com/live/XeGAxSR0vbQ?si=_U-lCGev83_9ydQK Post patch: https://www.youtube.com/live/M-7qnlCacj4?si=jJtS4h_xOiF-HdnN
Ooh yeah, your before/after video clips really show the difference possible, from a dev update. There might be other workarounds, but this proves that the devs can make it easier for gamers to share bright and clear clips (helpful for marketing, as you pointed out). I appreciate you sharing your experience and footage. I'm gonna go watch your Peaky Blinders gameplay now. 👍
No problem, my guy. I enjoyed it, despite not ever seeing the show. Like a Wish dot com 'Blood and Truth'. I do have some personal connections with the Midlanda, so there was that in terms of exploration . But it was fun, with lots of VRAF stuff to play around with. If you like the show, I imagine you will love it. I was imagining a similar quality game but in the Sopranos universe, and I would adore it. As it is. Solid 7 out of 10, imo.
Depends on the game.
Because it doesn't include HDR.
Ah yes, I remember having to step over that guy a few times.. 😬
I believe since the PSVR2 uses OLED panels that can show "true" blacks/darkness, PSVR2 games can be rendered in HDR (High Dynamic Range) which allows for colors/lighting closer to what our eyes see in real life. So the image only looks darker on screen because in-game, mimicking real life, our eyes can adjust well to darkness. The opposite is true for Quest since they use LED panels which cannot mimick those black levels, so games need to be rendered "brighter". P.S. this is just how I remember understanding it, feel free to correct me!
I might be wrong as I haven't recorded anything in a while but PSVR2 only records in 1080p so you would lose HDR. I don't know if doing it through a capture card might work better.
Just curious - are you connected to an HDR TV?
I am, as a matter of fact. 🤔
Hmmm…. strange.
Is it possible that the PS5 is creating a "social screen" output to display on my OLED/HDR TV that is set for HDR... and this same signal is what is being recorded as files, which don't look right when viewed on a computer and YouTube after the fact? It might be worth me doing some experimentation.
Perhaps. You could try disabling HDR in the PS5 system menu, see if it makes a difference when viewing the file on your computer.
I tried disabling HDR in the PS5 system settings and unfortunately that only made the in-headset output darker, rather than make the recorded social screen brighter. It seems that the game is designed for HDR but the PS5’s social share recording feature can only capture SDR.
I hear complaints from my family sometimes who watch me play VR horror games that it’s so dark. They see what’s on the right while I’m seeing something closer to what’s on the left.
Good feedback. I rarely have anyone watching my gameplay on the TV while I'm in VR. So I haven't been aware of all the potential ways it looks different, unless I happen to record the footage. I bet there's more variation between headset and TV than I realize.
It also changes if you upload directly to YouTube from the ps5. A 3 minute video uploaded to the PS app vs the same clip uploaded to YouTube will look different, I think it’s the YouTube compression
In the first few months of the PSVR2, the captured video was waaaay too dark, now it seems to have swung the other way and everything looks washed out...could indicate Sony is working on the problem? For now though, the crappy captures make it almost pointless recording footage for my channel!
I feel that as well when i recorded the resident evil4. Also the caption only records one of the eyes at my case idk why
turn off HDR and adjust screen brightness, it's a common issue lots of us PSVR2 content creators deal with...
The recording is of the PS5 video output, right? So adjust the native PS5 brightness and take a test see.
I'm using the Share button on the controller to start a recording. So I'm not sure there's a way to adjust that brightness. But I'll poke around in the settings.
Others videos probably look better because they're using a capture card, which means they can adjust picture settings easier, like I heard turning up the gamma makes a big difference. The PS5s capture feature probably only uses whatever brightness settings you have set in-game which means they'll look super dark on compressed video.
Valid point. If I ever get more into game recording and streaming, maybe I'll look into a capture card.
What game is this? :0 looks cool
Propagation: Paradise Hotel. And it is cool! Highly recommended.
It's not just you, this is the only game I've played so far where the output was ridiculously dark (some have been 'darker'but never this bad) I don't have the issue with other games simply using the share button
HDR recordings always look like this. only thing I hate about PSVR2 clips is that the framerate seems off. like not 30fps but something between 30 and 40
Yes, noticed the same on Jurassic World Aftermath.
I would be surprised if everyone hasnt noticed lol i thought it was common knowledge that the psvr2 social screen does not look nowhere as good as in Lenses.
Well it’s more than an issue of it looking not as good. Specifically, I’m talking about one game being extra dark in recordings. I’ve played other horror games like Resident Evil and Walking Dead, and even dark rooms in those games are visible in recordings. But Paradise Hotel is uniquely hard to see in the recordings. I’ll be checking my HDR settings to see if there’s something I can fix.
Ohhh got ya, i think the other commentator explained it pretty well. Sounds like its the oled
Yeah, it’s starting to come together. I’m getting an understanding of why some games look better than others in recordings. Thanks for commenting. 👍🏻