Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation
What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about
Valve Software released a general update for its SteamVR platform offering lots of new features, one of which is support for asynchronous reprojection. However, this support is currently limited to graphics chips from Nvidia for now.
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The latest update to SteamVR adds asynchronous reprojection for Nvidia GPUs. Similar to Oculus’ asynchronous timewarp, it mitigates unwanted ‘judder’ when the hardware fails to maintain 90fps.
Available via the SteamVR Beta since October 25th, asynchronous reprojection is a much-awaited feature, particularly for HTC Vive users. The idea is to maintain smooth motion on head orientation when the framerate drops below 90fps. Previously, Valve’s universally-compatible solution was ‘interleaved reprojection’, which capped the rendering at 45fps, reprojecting every other frame to make head rotation still ‘feel’ like 90Hz, but having a negative impact on positional movement and animation. With asynchronous reprojection, a slight drop in performance will not trigger this halving of framerate, instead picking up the previous frame and displaying it again, shifted to match the updated orientation data. The overall result is a major improvement to smoothness and comfort, as situations where framerate is fluctuating just below 90fps are very common.
Oculus Rift owners have been enjoying the benefits of an asynchronous reprojection solution (called asynchronous timewarp) since its launch in March, which already works across all applications (including when using the Rift in SteamVR mode), so there is no impact on Rift users with this update. It’s great to see Valve beginning to offer a similar technology, but they still need to expand the support to AMD cards in order to match Oculus’ complete solution.
Valve has been somewhat reluctant to enable more advanced reprojection solutions, having prioritised ‘adaptive quality’ (e.g. dynamically adjusting resolution and anti-aliasing) to hold framerate, as this caters to a wider range of hardware and other operating systems. Oculus, on the other hand, are Windows only, and have gone a step further in performance mitigation, having recently introduced ‘Asynchronous Spacewarp’, which deals with positional and animation judder that is still apparent with conventional asynchronous reprojection. This has effectively reduced the minimum requirements for VR rendering, as the Rift now works comfortably at 45fps. We can expect to see a form of ‘spacewarp’ from Valve too, as it is not only an effective safety net for performance drops, but it is also important to reduce the cost of entry to VR in general.
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Valve is planning to introduce beta versions of its SteamVR platform for Mac OSX and Linux users within a few months.
One thing’s for sure, if you’re a PC user wanting to indulge in a spot of immersive entertainment right now, the choice of operating systems on which you can do so are mostly limited to just one. Windows dominates the VR PC landscape right now and that looks set to continue for a while longer. However, Valve will soon move to encourage a diminishing of that monopoly, as it plans to bring SteamVR – the company’s Steam-integrated VR platform – to both Linux and Mac OSX platforms within the next few months.
The initiative was revealed by Valve’s Joe Ludwig during a talk at this year’s developer-focused Steam Dev Days event in Seattle last month. During the talk, Ludwig outlined the company’s view that VR should be as open to innovation as possible, touting the benefits for the long term evolution of virtual reality and how Valve, with OpenVR, are trying to keep what Ludwig calls platform “gatekeepers” from (as they see it) stifling progression in the VR space. Additionally, Ludwig stated that it’s been listening to developer and user feedback during SteamVR‘s first year in consumer hands, and says that they’ve heard clearly that a version of SteamVR is wanted on other operating systems.
Ludwig presented a screenshot (seen at the top of this article) of SteamVR running on Linux (distribution undefined), powered by the open source graphics API Vulkan, in turn powering an HTC Vive VR headset. Ludwig goes on to say that “we’re actively working on support for both OSX and Linux and we hope to get support for both of them into a beta in the next few months.”
This is news that will likely delight both open source operating system enthusiasts, Apple fans and Windows detractors alike. However, be aware that although even when these SteamVR OSX and Linux betas drop, application support for those operating systems are still limited. The vast majority of applications that integrate SteamVR right now, are rendered using the Microsoft DirectX APIs – these as you might expect are exclusive to Windows operating systems. In order for a game to run on an OS other than Windows, the game needs to support a graphics API, such as OpenGL and its successor Vulkan. Those games are limited in number right now, although Valve’s move to open up the possibilities for companies to offer versions of their titles to run on other platforms, may now encourage others to emerge.
The debate on the relative benefits of open platforms versus proprietary will rage on of course, but if you’re interested in Valve’s view of the VR landscape both now and in the future, take 20 mins to watch Ludwig’s presentation (embedded above) as it clears up some long standing confusion on just how ‘open’ OpenVR and it’s required SteamVR runtime components are.
In the mean time, Oculus have gone on record stating that any plans for Mac OSX support are “on hold” and the company’s founder has voiced vocally his reservations about the platform, namely Apple’s hardware lineup and its ability to meet the demanding rigours of rendering virtual reality applications.
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Valve has announced a new ‘Site Licensing’ model which allows businesses interested in providing VR experiences to customers as an out of home experience. It seems the company have their sights on SteamVR powering a renaissance in VR-enabled Cybercafés.
Lets face it, VR is still expensive pretty much any way you slice it. And whilst the affordability of immersive technology is improving rapidly, other barriers to enjoying premium VR experiences at home – such as having the space to enjoy room-scale – are still very much an issue.
The next best thing to having your own VR setup? Well, Valve seems to think that you might instead want to pop down the road to your local Cybercafé to get your VR on instead. To that end, the company have just introduced a new initiative which is geared towards making it much easier to give commercial operations the ability to entertain punters in VR on site via Steam and SteamVR.
The Site Licensing Program for Steam allows any operation which intends to offer Steam based experiences, including of course HTC Vive VR titles, to visitors. Those operations could be anything from a museum to an arcade, pop-up store, cybercafé or as Valve puts it “any other place you can think of.” The new license allows the proprietor of said operation to obtain (at a cost) commercial subscription subscriptions to content offered via Steam and also access a growing list of free-to-play titles which Valve are making available via their Free Site Subscriptions list – which already includes a number of VR titles such as Valve’s The Lab and Portal Stories: VR.
This all of course ties in very nicely with HTC’s recent investment in public VR entertainment spaces and their announcement of a similar initiative, also aimed at providing VR experiences at what they call “offline experience centers” via their own content portal platform Viveport. The move was announced at the joint Developer Forum of Alibaba Cloud’s annual Computing Conference in October and follows HTC’s push towards opening 100s of VR café in China next year.
It’s an interesting move from both parties, one that should further help allow those not yet able to afford the investment in space or money to own a VR system of their own to get to grips with immersive technology. As we’ve written many times before, VR has to be experienced to be fully understood, and should the idea of out of home VR businesses take off, that barrier of entry for VR experiences might just come down a notch or two.
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Valve has announced a new ‘Site Licensing’ model which allows businesses interested in providing VR experiences to customers as an out of home experience. It seems the company have their sights on SteamVR powering a renaissance in VR-enabled Cybercafés.
Lets face it, VR is still expensive pretty much any way you slice it. And whilst the affordability of immersive technology is improving rapidly, other barriers to enjoying premium VR experiences at home – such as having the space to enjoy room-scale – are still very much an issue.
The next best thing to having your own VR setup? Well, Valve seems to think that you might instead want to pop down the road to your local Cybercafé to get your VR on instead. To that end, the company have just introduced a new initiative which is geared towards making it much easier to give commercial operations the ability to entertain punters in VR on site via Steam and SteamVR.
The Site Licensing Program for Steam allows any operation which intends to offer Steam based experiences, including of course HTC Vive VR titles, to visitors. Those operations could be anything from a museum to an arcade, pop-up store, cybercafé or as Valve puts it “any other place you can think of.” The new license allows the proprietor of said operation to obtain (at a cost) commercial subscription subscriptions to content offered via Steam and also access a growing list of free-to-play titles which Valve are making available via their Free Site Subscriptions list – which already includes a number of VR titles such as Valve’s The Lab and Portal Stories: VR.
This all of course ties in very nicely with HTC’s recent investment in public VR entertainment spaces and their announcement of a similar initiative, also aimed at providing VR experiences at what they call “offline experience centers” via their own content portal platform Viveport. The move was announced at the joint Developer Forum of Alibaba Cloud’s annual Computing Conference in October and follows HTC’s push towards opening 100s of VR café in China next year.
It’s an interesting move from both parties, one that should further help allow those not yet able to afford the investment in space or money to own a VR system of their own to get to grips with immersive technology. As we’ve written many times before, VR has to be experienced to be fully understood, and should the idea of out of home VR businesses take off, that barrier of entry for VR experiences might just come down a notch or two.
The post Valve Move to Kickstart the VR Cybercafé with New SteamVR Licensing Model appeared first on Road to VR.
I don’t know about you, but I am exhausted. At the speed VR is moving, there’s no such thing as a quiet month, but October in particular has been malicious. We’ve had big events from practically every major headset maker with announcements that mean big things for both the short and long-term futures.
So what was the biggest announcement of the last 30 days? Let’s take a look.
Until now, Gear VR has been the only word in high-end mobile VR, but that will be changing in a matter of days. Daydream, Google’s mobile VR ecosystem for Android, is almost here. The first headset, Daydream View, hits in November, with the first compatible handset, the Pixel and Pixel XL already available. Heading into 2017 you can be sure that Daydream is going to play a huge role in the mobile VR ecosystem as more phones and headsets are added to the list. In the long run, this could be one of the most significant launches for VR so far.
Oculus’ Connect conference was packed with news, but the two biggest headlines were the date and price for its Touch controllers (launching in December for $199), and the reveal of its standalone headset prototype, Santa Cruz, with inside-out tracking. Touch is going to be big for the Rift in both the short and long term, but the prototype for untethered VR is going to be even bigger in the years to come.
Just a week after Google and Oculus shared their news, Valve was ready to show something new for SteamVR. Its Steam Dev Days event played host to the reveal of prototype Vive controllers, that allow you to simulate actually picking up an object with your fingers, rather than simply pulling a trigger to grab something.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for VR this month. Samsung’s anticipated new smartphone, the Galaxy Note 7, ended up being a disaster for the company. Reports of exploding phones lead to an unfortunate worldwide recall but when those problems persisted Samsung called it quits entirely. That means what was meant to be the latest and greatest handset for Gear VR actually ended up not really existing at all. Oh well, there’s always the S8.
It’s hard to believe but all three major VR headsets are now available for you to buy. It’s a moment we’ve only dreamed of for many years but it became a reality in mid-October when PlayStation VR finally launched. As far as headset releases go, it was reassuringly non-disastrous with solid reviews, plenty of units, and early hints at strong sales. With these three out, 2017 is going to be the first major year of consumer VR.
Microsoft couldn’t let October go without one more major announcement. Surprising everyone, the company announced partnerships with the likes of Lenovo, Dell, and Acer to bring new headsets to PC, starting at $299 and boasting inside-out tracking. Obviously wires will limit the impact of those tracking solutions, but it could be a big step forward for PC-based VR. Of course, we haven’t actually used these headsets yet, so they could also be underwhelming.
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It’s tough to pick which of these will prove to be the most significant piece of news in the long-run, though it’s probably safe to say the Note 7 mishap will go down as a footnote in the history of the Gear VR. Personally, I’m probably most excited about the prospect of the new SteamVR controllers, though these too might just be another step on the road to something much bigger. PlayStation VR has had a great start and might be the most popular headset for the foreseeable future, but the answer might lie further beyond.
In all likelihood, the answer is probably a three-way tie under one subject; inside-out tracking. Microsoft sounds like it will be first to market with this essential new means of user-tracking, giving us a first taste of simpler, more liberating VR. Oculus won’t make any compromises in its eventual release of a standalone headset, making it one of the more promising solutions on the horizon. Daydream, meanwhile, might not feature a solution right now, but with Google Tango 3D scanning also seeing its first consumer release in a phone soon, that is likely in the works as well.
Valve's latest SteamVR beta introduces a new "asynchronous reprojection" feature that aims to reduce lag and visual stuttering within supported virtual reality games and applications, ensuring a smoother VR experience.
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Oculus arbeitet schon längere Zeit mit einer Technik, die sich Asynchronous Timewarp nennt. Beim Asynchronous Timewarp Verfahren wird der letzte gerenderte Frame beibehalten und ersetzt den folgenden Frame, wenn dieser nicht rechtzeitig berechnet werden kann. Dieser wiederholte Frame wird aber an die Kopfbewegungen angepasst, damit es nicht zu einem Stottern des Bildes kommt. Somit kann also eine bessere und flüssigere Darstellung gewährleistet werden.
Quelle: Steam
Mit der Asynchronous Reproject bringt Valve nun eine ähnlich Technik für SteamVR heraus. Im neusten Beta Update ist dieses Verfahren schon enthalten und kann getestet werden. Aktuell werden aber keine Grafikkarten von AMD unterstützt. Wenn ihr eine NVIDIA Grafikkarte habt, dann müsst ihr darauf achten, dass ihr die aktuellste Version des Grafikkartentreibers verwendet. Ihr könnt die Asynchronous Reproject Funktion aber auch jederzeit deaktivieren und seid nicht gezwungen, Asynchronous Reproject zu verwenden. Dazu geht ihr einfach in die Optionen von SteamVR und stellt die Funktion unter „Performance“ oder „Leistung“ aus.
Von dem neuen Verfahren wird aber nicht nur die HTC Vive profitieren. Wenn ihr beispielsweise die Oculus Rift mit Steam verwendet, dann wird das Verfahren auch bei der Rift angewendet. Das Verfahren funktioniert mit jedem Headset, welches von SteamVR unterstützt wird.
Um in die Beta des SteamVR Tools zu gelangen, müsst ihr in der Steam Bibliothek auf „Tools“ gehen und dort auf SteamVR klicken und die Eigenschaften aufrufen. Anschließend geht ihr zum Beta Menü und tragt euch für die Beta ein.
Aktuell hat Valve aber keine Pläne, die Mindestanforderungen für VR zu senken. Die neue Technologie soll nur eine reibungslosere VR Erfahrung Gewährleisten und im Notfall einspringen bzw. die natürlichen Fehler glätten. Valve überlässt die Entscheidung für die Mindestanforderungen der Spiels aber den Entwicklern. Wenn die Entwickler denken, dass ihre Anwendung mit weniger potenter Hardware auskommt, dann können sie dies gerne in Steam eintragen.
Der Beitrag SteamVR: Asynchronous Reproject in aktueller Beta enthalten zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!
Valve opened up their SteamVR tracking technology for third-party development in August, and since then, 50 developers have completed the mandatory training course provided by Synapse, the first company to enter the field.
Synapse says that most of the participants have been interested in gaming specifically, but some have expressed interest in applying the technology to the automotive industry, science, sports, education, and general consumer electronics.
Synapse has received more registrations for the training course than originally anticipated, so they’ve added additional slots for the course in November and December. A representative for Synapse said that there are currently no plans to continue the course past December, so interested developers should sign-up as soon as possible to get in the remaining classes.
Synapse will also be presenting a compressed version of their training course at SXSW as part of the VR/AR track in March of 2017.
At Valve’s annual Steam Dev Days event earlier this month, the company laid heavy emphasis on making their Lighthouse room-scale tracking technology available to companies wishing to integrate it into 3rd party products. Valve stated that claiming that those 300 licensees span multiple industries ranging from “entertainment VR to automotive to televisions and toys.” Further, Valve says we can look forward to seeing many of these products appear in 2017.
Shortly after the announcement that the SteamVR Tracking technology would finally begin to open up to third-parties, semiconductor firm Triad Semiconductor announced that it was collaborating with Valve to create the ‘light to digital’ chips that form an important foundation of the sensors and make the impressively accurate tracking and which Valve recommends for use in products integrating SteamVR Tracking.
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Valve premiered a prototype of a new type of VR input controller at Steam Dev Days in order to get some preliminary feedback from developers. They’ve created a capacitive-touch controller that is attached to your hand so that you can open and close your hands to mimic the feeling of grabbing a tangible object. They used a modified scene from The Gallery, Episode 1 demo to show off this new controller, and I had a chance to Cloudhead Games President & Creative Director Denny Unger about it at the VR on the Lot conference. We talked about the Valve’s new input controller prototype, the growing ecosystem of lighthouse-tracked peripherals, his thoughts on the future of non-linear narrative, and an update about The Gallery, which recently won best narrative VR experience at the Proto Awards and has surpassed $1 million in sales.
LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF VR PODCAST
More photos of the new Vive controllers! #SteamDevDays #Vive #VR pic.twitter.com/o99QHPZvvD
— Shawn Whiting (@shawncwhiting) October 12, 2016
Nice hands-on demo video of the capacitive touch features the new SteamVR controllers by Valve's Jeremy Selan. https://t.co/6Wd2Jc6unk
— Kent Bye VoicesOfVR (@kentbye) October 13, 2016
Music: Fatality & Summer Trip
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