Under et PlayStation VR-panel ved GDC 2016, forklarede SCEA Senior Developer Support Engineer Chris Norden hvad den eksterne processor, der hører med til PlayStation VR, egentlig gør. Hvis du endnu ikke er klar over det, så er det en lille sort kasse, som skal sættes i din PlayStation 4 før PlayStation VR kan virke.
Åbenbart giver den eksterne processor hverken ekstra CPU eller GPU-kræfter til konsollen som tidligere antaget, og derfor kan den ikke ses som udvidelse eller en opgradering.
Ifølge Digital Foundry, så gør den faktisk følgende:
- It carries out object-based 3D audio processing ("really good and important to VR").
- It displays the social screen - undistorting the VR output for display on TV. Quality is lost in this process, so it scales the image up and crops it so you don't see edges.
- "Separate mode" - a completely separate audio and video stream you can send over to TV, as opposed to the mirrored social screen. It's sent compressed to the PU and then uncompressed by the device and sent to the screen. We're told that this was "an innovation that came quite late" in the development of the system.
- It displays PS4's system software interface in cinematic mode, handling the display of traditional 2D content.