According to reports, Sony recently revealed that the PSVR 2 is equipped with Fresnel lenses and two independent display screens, compared with traditional lenses, Fresnel lenses have a series of optical advantages, but also produce additional artifacts, such as "divine light" and edge glare, in order to deal with such problems, Sony proposed related solutions, which makes PSVR 2 may be the first VR headset to truly eliminate "god rays".
With the exception of the PSVR 2, almost all of the mainstream consumer-grade VR headsets on the market have shifted to Fresnel lenses, but unfortunately, they have one major drawback, and that is the "God Light". This is a visual artifact that stands out particularly in high-contrast elements, such as white text on a black background, that show striated light radiating outward from the center of the lens. This is a lens-dependent issue, and no matter how much resolution you load in the monitor or which monitor you use, the image is always negatively affected by visual artifacts.
The entire industry seems to be leaning toward Fresnel lenses because they offer greater flexibility for lightweight and compact optical designs. High-end optical systems, such as lenses for DSLR, typically stack multiple lens elements in a row to achieve the desired optical characteristics, but VR headsets largely avoid this situation with multi-element optics due to the additional cost, complexity, and size that can come with it.
A patent granted by Sony in 2020 proposes "a method of making a Fresnel lens that can suppress the 'divine light'", the patent states that adding a "light absorption part" to the surface of the Fresnel lens (which does not affect the overall shape of the lens), which in theory will prevent light scattering and thus reduce the "divine light", the patent also shows several arrangements of the light absorption part, which can be located on the surface of the lens or embedded in the lens.
Sony's patent proposes several different ways to make such lenses. One of them involves applying a "mask" (blocking light) to the entire lens surface and then using some sort of exposure technique to remove only the part where the light is desired to pass.
Another approach recommends starting with a light-absorbing material that has already been formed and then forming a lens around it so that the ridge is aligned exactly with the light-absorbing structure.
As always, big companies like Sony have filed many patents, but many of them have never become products. We do not know whether the method described in the patent is practical in mass production. So it's hard to say if this technology will appear in the PSVR 2, but at least we know that Sony has applied for a special patent to deal with the "divine light" problem generated by the VR headset Fresnel lens, which also makes us look forward to this new VR headset that is expected to be launched this year.