As much as I love my PlayStation VR2, and for everything it does incredibly well – including being perfectly playable and comfortable for full-time glasses wearers to use – I’ve recently discovered the existence of a whole market for prescription lens adapters for just about every virtual reality headset around. Put simply, they’re little lens covers that sit over top of the ones inside your headset and do the same job as your everyday glasses.
Armed with this new knowledge, I immediately began to seek out options specifically for the PS VR2, and in particular one that was shoppable for Australians. I was genuinely surprised at how quickly I found something, given the relative new-ness of PlayStation’s second-generation VR headset, and decided to look into Hons VR.
VIDEO PRESENTED BY PLAYSTATION VR2. CLICK TO LEARN MORE.
Though they’re not based here, Hons VR offered free international standard shipping to Australia so it seemed like a good place to start. They do lenses for a lot of the major headsets like the Meta Quest 2, HTC Vive, Valve Index, Pico, the original PlayStation VR and more. On navigating to the order page for the PS VR2 variety, I realised I’d have to do some homework and find out the details of my prescription, so I called my optometrist and thankfully they were able to simply email that information over to me.
Once I had that, I was still a little confused about how to read my prescription and translate it to what the Hons VR order page was asking for, so I quickly shot through a message with my prescription attached to their Live Chat and almost immediately got an answer with what I needed to fill in which, was super helpful.
I do need to point out that at this stage the folks at Hons VR were kind enough to offer me a sample set to try out, but at less than $90 AUD for the pair I was more than prepared to pick them up for myself, and there are other brands out there if you wanted to do a bit more shopping around.
Once they arrived, installing the prescription lenses to my PlayStation VR2 was deceptively easy. They come in a nice little storage case to keep them safe and clean when not in use, which also contained a lens cleaning cloth to prep my PS VR2’s existing lenses and ensure I didn’t inadvertently trap any dirt or dust in there. Once everything was ready I gently separated the VR2’s visor portion from the headband (did you know you could do that? I didn’t!) and slipped both Hons VR lenses over the existing ones, where they’re designed to sit nice and snug and secure.
Within a minute or two I’d securely attached the prescription lenses over top of the built-in ones in my PS VR2 headset and I was ready to switch it on and give them a go. When I say that putting the headset on without having to work around my usual glasses and finally being able to push my face right up to the 4K HDR OLED screens felt completely liberating it’s not an exaggeration.
Again, wearing glasses inside the VR2 has always been just fine but there’s something to be said of having one less thing in-between my eyeballs and the game. Obviously the prescription lenses add just a touch of extra bulk to the inside of the headset but it’s negligible and completely unintrusive and won’t change how the headset fits or feels. The only real downside will be if you share the PS VR2 with others, as you’ll need to remove the lenses and reinstall them when you want to play, but thankfully they do just snap on and off.
Once they were on and I was playing VR the effect was exactly what I’d hoped – because they’re prescription-based it was just like wearing my glasses inside the headset except immensely more comfortable.
If you’re like me and love playing games in VR but find yourself put off by having to wear glasses inside of whatever headset it is you’re using, I would absolutely recommend looking into some aftermarket prescription lenses. I can readily vouch for the folks at Hons VR for the quality of the product I got and how quick they were to help me figure out my prescription, but there are a heap of options out there to suit everyone’s needs.
