|
|
|
|
||
PlayStation’s Dominic Mallinson on next-gen VR, wireless, gaze tracking, foveated rendering, and ARhttps://venturebeat.com/2019/05/23/playstations-dominic-mallinson-on-next-gen-vr-wireless-gaze-tracking-foveated-rendering-and-ar/ 2. VR tech is changing rapidlyThis is the takeaway Mallinson talked about the most, both onstage and in our follow-up. He gave three examples of evolutionary hardware improvements first, and offered his predictions. “The first is resolution,” Mallinson explained. “This is more pixels per degree. It’s about the sharpness and the clarity of the display. And you have to be able to match what people expect to see today with high definition. I would expect the resolution to roughly double in the next set of VR products.” “Along with that, we also need a greater field of view,” he continued. “The human visual system is out to about 180 degrees. Most VR headsets today are about 100 degrees. There are diminishing returns to get wider. But I would expect the next set of products to be roughly 120 degrees in terms of field of view. “And finally, HDR. In the TV industry, HDR is already incredibly important to creating the best experiences. The human eye sees an enormous range of light from bright sunlight to deep shadow. Today’s VR panels only capture a tiny fraction of that. So in order to increase the sense of presence, I do expect to see HDR adopted in the near future.” And with that, Mallinson quickly moved to revolutionary changes. Foveated renderingThe other reason Mallinson is so bullish about gaze tracking is because it enables foveated rendering. “More pixels needs more rendering performance,” Mallinson explained. “If you just brute force it, it requires a lot of extra rendering performance. The human eye has a part in the retina called the fovea, which is responsible for our super-sharp vision. We don’t see very much in the peripheral vision. So if we can match our rendering performance to the fovea, we can deliver higher effective resolutions, and also better quality images. So gaze tracking is a win-win in this respect.” Gaze tracking thus “pays for itself.” It brings a new user experience, and enables the hardware optimization of foveated rendering. All of the above together consists of the rapid improvements in technology that Mallinson expects will drive wider adoption of VR. |
return to message board, top of board |