The Tonight Show: Joshua Topolsky Demonstrates Sony's Project Morpheus

The first time public viewing of Sony's Project Morpheus was made on Friday's episode of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Fallon and actor Channing Tatum enter into the medieval demo game to throw punches, fire crossbows, and meet a not-so-friendly dragon.

[XiSasukeUchiha]

Looks fantastic!

[ZodTheRipper]

What a great idea to put someone like Fallon who was completely overwhelmed into one of these and film it :D

[Talidan]

Fallon's whole shtick is acting overwhelmed and clueless. I don't like watching him...

[Christopher]

In his role, that's kind of what Fallon has to be. He has to be the guy who likes everything or at least only shows comedic contempt for other things. His ability to get guests relies on his ability to never do anything that would make a guest not want to be on the show.

I do enjoy the banter between the cast and there are some good moments. But, yeah, Justin Timberlake's impression of him on SNL was spot on.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

"So great! So great!"

[nveenio]

Fallon is always like, "I LOVE GAMES!" And then he has no idea what he's doing, what a controller it, or where his fingers go. He's the gamer equivalent of a girl that says, "I hate shopping," so you'll continue to date her until it's too late to dump her when she changes her mind.

[UltimateMaster]

I want that game.

[sinspirit]

@Talidan

That's because that is how he is and the producers know what they are doing. It's not like they put bad guests on there and make him act excited. He has awesome guests.

@inveni0

"I love games!" doesn't mean he is a gamer, as in he plays games often. He's mostly into older titles because he grew up with them. He is successful and married with a child and his hobbies are music and impersonating, commonly together.

[alexkoepp]

This made morpheus look so lame, I couldn't stop laughing at how bad it was.

[lalalala]

looks pretty non-laggy

[redwin]

Fallon's character glitched, he was just arms and head, lol. He was less than Rayman.

[3-4-5]

@ Talidan - It's not a shtick, he's actually just a really nice and normal guy who happens to be famous and have many talents.

* He honestly gets really into stuff like that, where have you been ?

[andibandit]

Didnt really give an impression of morpheus, due to fallon trying too hard to be funny

[MysticStrummer]

"This made morpheus look so lame, I couldn't stop laughing at how bad it was."

Given your past comments I'm not surprised, but assuming you're being honest I don't think you were looking at the demo correctly. I think the main point was the accuracy of movement, which looked very good. Also, using the controllers for hands, flexing the fingers. It's not like they were showing off a game, just a very basic demo. I personally wouldn't use Fallon for this stuff, but it is funny sometimes.

[potedude]

I have to agree, this is one of the things I am most looking forward to out of all things in this current generation.

Total immersion!

[Sci0n]

that dragon at the end tho! that would have scared the crap out of me too! lol.

[xx4xx]

I actually thought it looked pretty bad. Sony couldn't have been too happy. That Fallon clown was too busy trying to make bad jokes. It probably shouldn't have been the public demo that Sony was hoping for.

[MysticStrummer]

How could they have been hoping for something different? Do you think they've never actually watched Fallon's past demos? I certainly knew what I was about to see when I clicked on the video, and I'm sure Sony did too when they arranged the whole thing.

I agree that it could have been a much better demo, but the same can be said about most or maybe all of Fallon's demos.

[xx4xx]

I guess my point was that him doing a game demo demo and cracking bad jokes is a bit different than the first real public demo of a tech that Sony has invested in so heavily. If u are showing this tech, which gamers may be behind but not the general public, I probably wouldn't have some second rate comedian cracking jokes and found stupid stuff with it.

I'm for VR, but for consoles I think don't is fighting an uphill battle. I'd want Beyer control over it. The VR looked like a joke on that show. I would want an audience to Ooooh and Ahhhhh not laugh.

[Sano64]

@xx4xx
I just hope Conan gets ahold of it. Hemay not be a gamer but at least he is funny. The review he did of Tomb Rader is a classic!

[chaos-lockheart]

IGN interview Jimmy

http://www.ign.com/articles...

[elazz]

Imagine a God of War game with Morpheus o_0, Image the dissapointment when you look down, after playing, and seeing your real body :p

[NewMonday]

Sony actually did a VR demo of a modded GOW3..

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[rayzorn]

thanks not sure how i missed that video but it was a good watch. even though i have seen bits and pieces of it

[Starbucks_Fan]

holy crap 500 degrees in 3 min

[Christopher]

Yeah. Sorry. There were some issues in pending with sourcing and duplicates. I felt this is something you guys wanted to see and discuss, so helped it get up there. Hope you guys and gals don't mind.

[Talidan]

Great demo. Using the Move controllers with it seems like a perfect pairing.

[Old McGroin]

I'm not trolling here (seriously!) but wouldn't the Kinect be more of a perfect pairing for VR? Having to use two sticks (the Move controllers) as hands seems very unnatural compared to what might be possible with Kinect. Maybe Sony should look in to developing gloves for use in VR? That'd be pretty cool.

OT, the demo for Morpheus looks good, really looking forward to getting one on my head, I'm guessing first hand experience would be a hell of a lot better than watching someone else experience it. On Youtube.

[Jeebus]

The Kinect would be phenomenal with something like this.

Too bad it doesn't work.

[Talidan]

It would be, if not for the fact that you *need* some way to do more than just move your hands.

That's always been my one hang-up with Kinect, because it's incredibly limiting in character movement. It either needs to be on-rails, or have awkward gestures for movement. Hands-only isn't the best way to go.

Ideally, we'd all have the Omni treadmills, in which case Kinect would be just fine, but that's not going to happen any time soon.

[Old McGroin]

@ Talidan

Yeah, guess you're right, forgot you would need buttons for movement and such!

[BISHOP-BRASIL]

Kinect or Eye lack the precision, although definetely, if it worked like people first though it would, they would be the perfect solution. Maybe next gen, but for now scanning your body just isn't efficient enough (specially for smaller gestures with your fingers and hands).

Also, I believe a lot (if not most) people excited about that tech actually want to use it for display and audio output with their good old gamepads, not necessarily as part of a full on motion controller method.

[Phatty]

VR is going to be fun. Can't wait to see what major releases will be like for this and Oculus.

[Eyesoftheraven]

Grrrr! I wanna try!

[KillerPwned]

I could of sworn I saw the PS4 camera their. I am just curious what all you will need for the headset to work. I feel prepared with the camera and 2 move controllers plus a navi controller.

[Christopher]

The PS4 camera is needed with Morpheus in order to track you and the move controllers. My understanding is you don't have to use the move controllers, but it will then track the DS4 controller in place of those.

[Clover904]

Sony has stated that the ps4 camera was made wih the Morpheus in mind.

[b163o1]

OfT That camera was sweet as hell....

[bloodybutcher]

Right?! I'd love to have that!

[kneon]

The Lytro technology is interesting but it has a number of issues.

I've taken 10's of thousands of photos with my DSLRs and there is no way I would want to go through each one manually adjusting the desired focus. Whenever I have a free weekend in some place like London, Paris, Tokyo etc. I can easily take 1000 photos, right now I can just batch process them and get reasonably good quality. I only manually mess with them if I want to print them or sell them.

[andibandit]

Im a complete noob in this area, but why would you process a picture thats in perfect focus for whatever part of it you want to view?

[kneon]

Well all lenses are imperfect, they have color aberrations, distortions etc. But these characteristics are well known so there is software that can fix many of these issues.

And then if you are planning to print a photo there may be even more things you want to adjust even if focus is perfect, cropping, white balance etc.

But focus is seldom an issue for me so being able to adjust it afterwards is of little value. But I can see it being helpful for something like sports photography where you are trying to capture fast moving subjects that are more difficult to keep in focus. But one of the tradeoffs of Lytro is that it requires a high resolution raw image to end up with a medium resolution final image so it's not suitable where high quality large images are needed.

[iceman06]

In about 3 years, it will actually be affordable! It was REALLY damn cool though.

[nycgamer4ever]

It's only $1,599 and $1,499 if you preorder. A decent DSLR will run you that much.

[iceman06]

Still too rich for MY blood.

[ScottyHoss]

Who knows? If this technology really takes off we could see phones with Lytro cameras

[BitbyDeath]

Move controllers need to be switched out for gloves... seriously.

[rainslacker]

That would be pretty epic if it allows separate controls for each finger.

[Relientk77]

Looks good so far, can't wait to see what else they do with this

[DJustinUNCHAIND]

I wish Fallon would stop acting like such an idiot around technology.

[1Victor]

I lol at you're not holding your hands part and he looked like he was about to pee himself at the end

[MasterCornholio]

Boxing games will be amazing with this.

:)

[victorMaje]

Looking good morpheus

[QuickdrawMcgraw]

That was not very appealing...

[elhebbo16]

Jimmy just had to flail his arm around uncontrollably and scream around for the laffs... This is why I will wait for E3 for a proper demo.

[e-p-ayeaH]

the camera was pretty impressive

[mediate-this]

I truly believe project morpheus is a gimmick tacked onto another gimmick, just like the wii, u use ps wii mote things, its cool, and i think it will sell, just comes off as gimmicky to me.

But i could be wrong, ill try it and could think different, but as of now it does not look appealing

[calactyte]

I won't say you are wrong since this is your opinion and you are certainly entitled to it. Just keep an open mind. Having tried the HD version of Occulus Rift (prior to DK2) just believe me when I say once you try it, your mind will be blown. It looks so unimpressive when you watch it off screen. I thought the same thing when looking at Occulus demos until I tried it. The sense of depth is absolutely indescribable.

[_LarZen_]

It will take about 6sec after you have put a VR headset over your eyes what the big deal is a all about :)

It's been almost a year since I tested the Oculus Rift and the memory is so extreme I cant wait to try it again. And for all people that are skeptical to try.

It's a mind opener. Get excited :)

[jXales]

Honestly as others have replied to you, i too am skeptic only because i haven't tried it. And for games i just don't see it going anywhere until at least 3-4 years on and by then will it even be worth it? i dunno.

However i can see some awesome uses other than only gaming. Watching movies in 3d could be crazy, and they could even have a virtual IMAX type screen instead of watching a movie on the TV.

People with sub 50" screens will love this. Hell i have a big screen and even i would love this.

I like that this opens a new way to experience things. How well it's put together will determine if it goes anywhere or not.

but I'm hopeful

[gobluesamg]

I wanna try!!

[Knuckle Duster]

I can understand the Morpheus teem being very excited about all of there hard work and wanting to show what they have been working on. But (IMO) it looks like it still has a long way to go before calling it good to go.

[azure1990]

That's why i won't get a VR. I don't want a huge thing like that on my head

[calactyte]

Remember both Occulus and Morpheus aren't finalized yet. The retail product should be less bulky, and lighter weight.

[THC CELL]

Sony are good at shrinking stuff down, xperia z2 tablet is at mo the thinnest tablet out and just released a phone t3 the thinnest. Won't surprise me if this headset is slimmed down.am getting one regardless

[ScottyHoss]

Yeah dude my Z ultra is lighter and thinner than the Z1 and it's huge! I have no idea how they were able to fit 2GB of ram in there!

[_LarZen_]

Male feminine gamers are so cute.... :P

[muttsurini]

Conan o brien should try this

[Pon4]

No thanks
...

[shadyiswin]

how predictable. This looked like trash,but let's praise it because it is sony,how can you hate kinect but love this? At least so some type of game lol,not a super half demo.

[nycgamer4ever]

You guys really let your hate for a freaking billion dollar company cloud your common sense. It looks unimpressive because you can't feel the depth and immersion looking at this on screen. You have to try it for yourself. Put your unhealthy hate aside for a second and think about the different applications available with this tech, both in the gaming industry and otherwise. You can use this tech for all sorts of training purposes outside of gaming. NASA and the airforce and airlines already use this type of tech to train people. Imagine being able to use this tech and go on an African Safari, or visit the moon, or the deep sea!

[DigitalRaptor]

Oh right.... shall we just cast aside all the praise the Morpheus devkit received at GDC 2014 from technophiles, alongside the Oculus Rift devkit #2, saying that its's a real contender in the VR space?

Or shall we ignore the fact that the early praise this has got, has eclipsed any kind of praise Kinect has received in terms of the ACTUAL GAMING space in its 4 years in the hands of consumers. That's right Morpheus has already done more for the immersion in games than Kinect has in 4 years.

Kinect is a gimmick because nothing Microsoft said about its application in gaming has happened in any real sense. Kinect was a market reaction to Nintendo's Wii motion control hype that no-one really cares about anymore, and something that they've suddenly turned into a glorified remote control for lazy people that could be achieved with a $3 microphone.

Yet, everything Sony has said about VR, they've proved on day one that people got their hands on Morpheus.

With you, this automatically turns into a "Sony is lame" thing before you even know what you're talking about. Go and get an education or continue to be a drain on the gaming community.

[PaleMoonDeath]

I hate these shows, I really do, Morpheus looks pretty cool though, I'd rather we had tech guys give it a demo instead mind you.

[Dspdspes]

OMG!!! It's a freaking DRAGON!!! This is unfair!!!

[larrysdirtydrawss]

jesus H,another nail in ms coffin(as if they weren't already buried 12feet deep)

[modesign]

uncharted will be awesome with morpheus

[feraldrgn]

Not a very good representation of what VR is about.

They should've shown him a more atmospheric game, like a horror, something he'd get more immersed in & demonstrate what it's about, rather than frantically waggling the move controllers.

Made it look shallow, when it has much more to give.
See occulus rift games.

[PS4isTHEkneesOFbees]

So, sony fanboys trash talk kinect, a device that tracks the whole human skeleton and all the joints and the facial features without you needing to do anything, yet are in love with a huge and bulky headset and a pair of glowing dildos on your hands? The whole VR project, including ps eye, the headgear and the dildos will probably be $500 +, yet they think an xbox that includes kinect is expensive. Wow.

[Ipunchbabiesforfun]

What does a camera that tracks your movement have anything to do with virtual reality? Are you really that dense? Kinect sucks, oOo look at me it tracks my movement! Wii did that too, it was also boring if you're older than 6.

[AutoCad]

so people make fun of kinect for waving your hands like a mad man but like this ?

[PS4isTHEkneesOFbees]

yep. sony can do no wrong, apparently.

[deadfrag]

People with glasses cant use this!?

[gameon1985]

That looked liked complete shit.

[shadyiswin]

Lololol! You think Morpheus will be ready year? Try 2016