[VR] Foveated Rendering Is Here... If You've Got $8000
So awhile back I posted a brief overview about the current state of VR headsets, and the tradeoff between field of view and resolution. Most of the headsets on the market today have an FoV of 90-110º, which is much narrower than the natural human field of view. It's like wearing a scuba mask. A full human FoV would be about 210-220º, depending on the person. My Index has 130º, and the best of the current crop, the Pimax, can get up to 200º--although in the Pimax's case―I only recently learned―it's not a real 200º, it's simultated through some image manipulation, which creates a visible distortion at the edges. Still better than a scuba mask, but not so hot when you're trying to read a switch label on the side console of your cockpit.
The problem with a wider FoV is more pixels to render, increasing the workload on your graphics card. Decent resolution in VR is already pushing the limits of current-generation GPUs without increasing the size of the viewing area. At the time of the above-linked post, I mentioned that a possible solution was in development called foveated rendering. In which the headset tracks your eye movement, sees where you're currently focusing, and only fully renders what you're focused on, saving on GPU load by not having to fully render the parts that are blurry anyway because you're not looking at them.
Well, there is now a headset actually on the market with foveated rendering and an FoV of 180º. You could order one today. The catch is the price tag―$8000. For just the headset. By way of comparison, my Index cost $1000 and that included the base stations and hand controllers as well as the headset. Even the Pimax 8K X clocks in at $1876 for the full package; the headset alone is $1299. Also, the Index has the best speakers of any VR headset, while this puppy has... none whatsoever. And a headband that prevents using anything bigger than earbuds.
Turns out that while it is available to home users like me, the real market for this thing is the military, for training real pilots. For them, $8k is a bargain. But now that the tech is here and on the market, hopefully we'll see it in the next generation of home consumer headsets.
C'mon Valve, Vive, Pimax... all I want is a headset with the full 220º of human FoV, no distortion, and resolution equal to the Reverb G1―that will run on a 2080 Super GPU thanks to foveated rendering. Checking my six shouldn't literally be a pain in the neck.
The problem with a wider FoV is more pixels to render, increasing the workload on your graphics card. Decent resolution in VR is already pushing the limits of current-generation GPUs without increasing the size of the viewing area. At the time of the above-linked post, I mentioned that a possible solution was in development called foveated rendering. In which the headset tracks your eye movement, sees where you're currently focusing, and only fully renders what you're focused on, saving on GPU load by not having to fully render the parts that are blurry anyway because you're not looking at them.
Well, there is now a headset actually on the market with foveated rendering and an FoV of 180º. You could order one today. The catch is the price tag―$8000. For just the headset. By way of comparison, my Index cost $1000 and that included the base stations and hand controllers as well as the headset. Even the Pimax 8K X clocks in at $1876 for the full package; the headset alone is $1299. Also, the Index has the best speakers of any VR headset, while this puppy has... none whatsoever. And a headband that prevents using anything bigger than earbuds.
Click to viewTurns out that while it is available to home users like me, the real market for this thing is the military, for training real pilots. For them, $8k is a bargain. But now that the tech is here and on the market, hopefully we'll see it in the next generation of home consumer headsets.
C'mon Valve, Vive, Pimax... all I want is a headset with the full 220º of human FoV, no distortion, and resolution equal to the Reverb G1―that will run on a 2080 Super GPU thanks to foveated rendering. Checking my six shouldn't literally be a pain in the neck.