I assumed that because of the eyetracking module with the 8K, that foveated rendering is being used to make it possible. But I cannot find any information if Pimax is using foveated rending whatsoever. Similar topics only suggest it, but Pimax never used that in their campaign. Only eyetracking. Does someone know how Pimax makes eyetracking possible,even if not foveated rendering?
You cannot find any information about foveated rendering on 8K because there is none. It was never planned. Eyetracking module can be used also for other things, as an input device, which I guess was what Pimax anticipated.
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the module would theoretically enable foveated rendering. However, there is no obligation on pimax to make that happen driver side. The current expectation would be that applications would need to take advantage of it on their end.
In a best case scenario engines like unity and ue4 will make it a main branch feature in which case almost all the small indie games that exist for vr will be able to use it. so if people want the ability to take advantage of it , they will need to start rattling the cages of unreal and unity.
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With the eyetracking module if a game supports it. It should be possible.
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see that’s the mighty fucking rub though haha. support. unless its main engine branch you can count out 95 percent of vr games.
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Well you figure FovVR headset is out there. But like BetaMax not a lot of support & its been out for a long time.
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Darn me. I really did expect that foveated rendering was a par deux with eyetracking. My mistake.
Hopefully ea4 and unity will make it possible so gamedevelopers can use it in their products.
At the moment, with current HMD’s and current GPU’s there is less demand for faster frame rates as we can hit 90fps with existing hardware. So the demand for Foveated rendering is not as high as it could be. If more people buy into lower end VR and use lower end hardware then yes, that is another boost for its use.
But, imo it will become more of a necessity when HMD’s come out with higher resolution than the latest GPU’s can drive. That is when industry pressure will make the game engines take foveated rendering more seriously so we can all enjoy retina resolution on mid to high tier GPU’s. Everybody wins still. Eye tracking can be bolted on to almost any headset these days so everything is in place for it, including backwards compatibility.
Of course NVidia / AMD (and now Intel) could find better ways to pool GPUs transparently for VR rendering but then not everybody has a PC capable of a 2nd GPU on the motherboard. So that option would be less demanding.
Interesting read…
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I think its chicken and egg. If eye tracking was standard major games would support it. You mention hardware can handle 90 fps but it is doing so with many compromises in visuals. Having foveated today is the difference between running a game that looks like dead effect 2 or skyrim without compromise in vr and playing a game that looks like the division 2 or battlefield 5 at 90 fps.
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Yes, totally agree that all gen 2 headsets that are PC powered should have eye-tracking built in, the tech has matured enough for that to be a forward thinking inclusion.
Battlefield 5 in VR could happen as people managed it in 4 
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Doing foveated rendering correctly requires a very high frame rate eye tracker. It also requires the game software be built for it, you can’t just throw it in a driver and call it a day. So no, the 8K doesn’t have it, because it’s not something a headset would have. Does the optional eye tracking add-on have a high enough frame rate for good foveated rendering? Unknown, since we don’t know anything about the eye tracker really.
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I take it this is using something similar to vorpx ? I played bf 4 using it and its fine but its not really vr tbh. Would fucking love to play battlefield in vr
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Arma3 if the engine would be capable…
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Actually, we know that the picture they showed is of aGlass eye tracking and it says right on their website that the speed of tracking is “120~380Hz”. That eye tracker actually has a foveated rendering demo. Interestingly, it only lets you track one eye at a time in the demo. Hey, at least that means that the backers who get free eye tracking will be able to use foveated rendering. Even if they only give us one left or right eye tracker. Off course, it’s only a demo and doesn’t work in games. We have to wait for Nvidia to come up with a driver level solution, or for game developers to implement it. Maybe they’ll enable two eye tracking if they do give us both eye trackers.
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Proper foveated rendering aside , it seems like the 8k would be an ideal device to have fixed foveated rendering for the outer 20-30 degrees on both sides
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True, but I think something like that has to be implemented in the game engine.
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Not necessarily, AFAIK the fove headset does all of its foveated rendering driver side
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The fove headset doesn’t use foveated rendering. It has a smaller 1080p screen in the middle. Everything else is in a higher resolution. So everything outside a small part in the center is actually in higher resolution. Because the 1080p screen is so small, the middle doesn’t have any sde or blurriness. Or at least that’s how I think it works. Not to mention that in the prototype they let Tested use, the clear area doesn’t even move. Eventually they will move the clear area with your eyes.
Different HMD; You are taking about Varjo’s unnamed prototype headset. The eye-tracking equipped one named “Fove”, from a company by the same name, is a much older production one. ( https://www.getfove.com/ )
I highly doubt, however, the belief (expressed above) about it somehow getting foveated rendering done driver-side. (EDIT: Other than the compositor’s own operations, of course)
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Oops my bad xD looool
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