Google Is Building A New Foveation Pipeline For Future XR Hardware
Google's R&D arm, Google Research, recently dedicated some time and resources to discovering ways to improve the performance of foveated rendering. Foveated rendering already promises vast performance improvements compared to full-resolution rendering. However, Google believes that it can do even better. The company identified three elements that could be improved, and it proposed three solutions that could potentially solve the problems, including two new foveation techniques and a reworked rendering pipeline.
Foveated rendering is a virtual reality technique that uses eye tracking to reduce the amount of image quality necessary in areas covered by the peripheral vision.
The new techniques mentioned are Phase-Aligned Rendering and Conformal Rendering.
Also at Google's Research Blog.
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(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday December 10 2017, @10:12PM (4 children)
All that, and all I read was "More PATENTS! Yeah!"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 11 2017, @02:04AM (3 children)
So in 20 years we can use these techniques ourselves.
Personally I just need regular (and cheap!) VR headsets, supporting basic tracking and at least 2160p per eye (ideally with quality scaling/sampling features so I can run it at lower resolution with older hardware.)
I mostly want them for johnny mnemonic style virtual navigation, augmented reality (how about some headsets with at least two cameras on the front?!?!?!) and used as a means of 'blacking out' offscreen material while using webcam probes or microscopes on low visibility subject matter.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday December 11 2017, @02:34AM (2 children)
In 20 years time it's likely those techniques will be deprecated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday December 11 2017, @04:42AM (1 child)
and it's still in widespread use.
So is the transistor. Perhaps you're familiar with it.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Monday December 11 2017, @07:30AM
And your point is...? No, seriously, I'm curious.
Because you'll have to make serious effort to find consumer electronics which nowadays use individual transistors (the way they were patented).
(my point was: the "foveated rendering" is a technique to get around the limitations of current hardware.
In 20 years time, it is highly likey the hardware will be sufficiently performative to allow the simplification of the VR headset, eliminating the need of "eye tracker" and simplifying the gizmo. The simpler, the more robust, the lower the cost).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday December 10 2017, @10:33PM (2 children)
That's a lot like how the real eye works (from a perceptual standpoint, not a physical one), peripheral vision and whatnot. It's not nearly as mind-blowing as occlusion culling, which has been around for awhile is always a good trivia tidbit when gayming with non-technical types.
(Score: 3, Informative) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday December 10 2017, @10:54PM (1 child)
It's both, and it's not just "a lot like." It's the whole reason foveated rendering is a thing in the first place.
This is like looking at a cross-trainer and saying "hey, the way those thingies go up and down is a lot like how people's feet move when they run!"
You must have quite a low mind-blow threshold.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday December 10 2017, @10:58PM
Not really. Blurring or otherwise reducing the quality of peripheral vision is a lot more understandable to non-technical types than the explanation that there is some magical black hole netherworld behind everything that is obstructing their vision.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 10 2017, @11:05PM
google will build a database of my eye movements: "citizen unit #666, STOP looking at the boobies!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 10 2017, @11:09PM (3 children)
How will this improve my p0rn-viewing experience? Lets be honest here, it's all that VR is good for at the moment.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Sunday December 10 2017, @11:16PM (2 children)
It will render the boobies or poooooooosy you are intently focusing on, discarding unnecessary details like the lamp in the background that would only lower your "FPS".
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(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 11 2017, @12:15AM
There is a lamp in there ?
(Score: 4, Funny) by rts008 on Monday December 11 2017, @12:41AM
The Lamp!!! Now I know why it makes you go blind!
*note to self: find sunglasses*
'FPS', Faps Per Second?
Double clutching can also lower your FPS. ;-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 11 2017, @02:09AM (1 child)
That was maybe 5 years ago.
Now? He does cyberwar. It's more patriotic and the employment is more reliable.
Actually, I know several game developers doing cyberwar, including one that is Wikipedia-famous.
It could have something to do with game developer supply and demand.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday December 11 2017, @04:57AM
Why control Predator drones with multiple monitors when you can use a VR headset?
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