The Playstation 4 has it´s own VR headset, the appropriately called Playstation VR. It is a great Virtual Reality system in its own right but it has a pretty big drawback, It only works on games specifically made for the Playstation 4, ignoring the whole library of titles available on the PC.
However, this does not need to be so. There is a way to play games on Steam VR with your PS VR headset, although doing so will require downloading and buying third-party software, in this case, Trinus VR.
Trinus is a software that will let your computer, and Steam, detect and use your PSVR headset. It is not a free program, however, and you will have to pay 15 euros to make full use of it. It does have a free trial period that lets you try it out and see if you can make your headset work with your computer.
So, how do you do it?
How do you connect your PSVR headset to Steam?
This program does have a drawback. While it will detect your headset and track its position, it won´t do the same for your Move controllers. You will have to use a gamepad like the Dualshock 4 to play the games (which you can also use on the PC, as we explained before).
This is an important drawback, as a lot of VR games demand that you use motion controllers to move your hands around, and not all of them have gamepad support.
Now, there is a way to play with the Move controllers but it´s a bit more complex, and it requires downloading additional programs to be able to do so. You can check out Trinus´ instructions on their home page and give it a go. You can also find other hand tracking alternatives on that page, such as using an Android phone or configuring your mouse as if it were a motion controller.
If you are interested in reading an infographic about how to hook up your Move controllers to PC, let me know in the comments and we make on in the future.
But wait, some of you might say, I followed all these steps and my computer still doesn´t detect my PlayStation VR headset!
In that case, then the driver might not have installed correctly, reinstalling should fix the issue. To know if the driver was successfully installed, go to Windows Device Manager (you can find this by right-clicking the Windows symbol in the start menu) and then Universal Serial Bus Devices, if it appears as "PSVR Control" then it is working correctly.
If the games are jittery or laggy, then your computer might not be able to handle VR games. As a rule of thumb, you need to have at least 8 Gb of RAM, and your graphics card must be GeForce GTX 970/AMD Series 400 or better. It is inadvisable to try out Virtual Reality if your experience is choppy, as it can give you motion sickness.
If you have any other issues, check out Trinus´ troubleshooting page, you might find the solution there.
And that´s it, you should be able to connect your Playstion Virtual Reality headset to your computer now. If, however, you are still deciding between getting PS VR headset or buying an Oculus Rift, we have another infographic comparing the two of them that can help you decide, give it a read! Do remember that Oculus products now require you to log-in with Facebook.
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