Forum Discussion
Idea - How to get fast head tracking with any frame rate
Here's an idea of how to get low latency head tracking with almost any variable frame rate. Render the scene from the player's point of view with no distortion, but to a larger render target with a...
My main purpose for doing this would be to render the VR environment at a lower speed (perhaps 15 to 24 FPS) while head tracking data can manipulate the rendered data to use the highest available video framerate (currently a maximum of 71Hz on the Rift DK, without color distortion). I am running my Rift at 71Hz framerate, and it is noticeably smoother.
Using a lower-speed VR environment render allows more detail to be maintained, especially on a low power device such as the Raspberry Pi.
Sadly, although the Ras Pi has hardware floating point, it is not supported by Unity3D because it uses an ARM6 processor (with FPU) while Unity supports nothing less than ARM7.
Anyway, decoupling fast head tracked video refresh from slower VR environment rendering like this will not only be worthwhile in the SDK, but perhaps essential on the Ras Pi, to allow "useful" levels of detail (which is why I started my "PTZ Tweening" thread.
Having things in the environment change slower than expected may give them a jerky "robot-like" motion, but as long as you can look around with smooth orientation updates it should be very immersive. Just realistic VR with "poorly maintained" jerky NPCs perhaps, which may add to the realism for robot NPCs, especially if they are grimy with leaking fluids painted on them.
;)
Using a lower-speed VR environment render allows more detail to be maintained, especially on a low power device such as the Raspberry Pi.
Sadly, although the Ras Pi has hardware floating point, it is not supported by Unity3D because it uses an ARM6 processor (with FPU) while Unity supports nothing less than ARM7.
Anyway, decoupling fast head tracked video refresh from slower VR environment rendering like this will not only be worthwhile in the SDK, but perhaps essential on the Ras Pi, to allow "useful" levels of detail (which is why I started my "PTZ Tweening" thread.
Having things in the environment change slower than expected may give them a jerky "robot-like" motion, but as long as you can look around with smooth orientation updates it should be very immersive. Just realistic VR with "poorly maintained" jerky NPCs perhaps, which may add to the realism for robot NPCs, especially if they are grimy with leaking fluids painted on them.
;)