Author Topic: Oculus Announces Asynchronous SPACEwarp - Lowers Min Spec for VR! (Read 2636 times)

Tbone · « **on:** October 06, 2016, 08:12:10 pm »

Most VR enthusiasts are familiar with Asynchronous Timewarp, a trick that simulates a frame based on head rotation when a frame is dropped. Now Oculus has come out with Asynchronous Spacewarp, and it's a game changer.

Asynchronous Spacewarp is able to simulate the position of any tracked object (head and hands) when a frame is dropped, and reposition the frame and animation to compensate. It does this so effectively that you can run VR programs at 45 FPS and use ASW (Asynchronous Spacewarp) to still get 90 FPS.

You know those "fill in the pattern tests"? What's the next number in the sequence: 2, 4, 6, __. Asynchronous Spacewarp is basically doing that with the position/location of everything being tracked. So your hand or head is moving along and there's a hiccup. ASW tracks the pattern of movement and automatically continues it through the missed frame. So instead of a missed frame, you get a simulated frame that shows your hand, head, and scene in the right position. Before it could only do this with rotation of your head. Now it can do this with any tracked item going any direction.

It's actually good enough that you can run games at 45 FPS and do this for every other frame, making it effectively 90 FPS. You have no way of knowing which frame is real tracked data and which is simulated since it happens so fast and is so accurate.

All of this means that instead of needing hardware that can run games at 90 FPS, you only need hardware that can run games at 45 FPS to be "VR ready"! Oculus has announced the new minimum spec to be an i3-6100 and GTX 960! If you have a beefy computer already, this means you can crank up the settings without worrying about positional judder!

Tbone · « **Reply #1 on:** October 11, 2016, 06:59:21 pm »

I tried this with Elite Dangerous on Ultra settings. No judder! Wow!

Saint · « **Reply #2 on:** November 07, 2016, 10:05:36 pm »

Does it help with motion sickness then?

Tbone · « **Reply #3 on:** November 07, 2016, 11:46:15 pm »

Quote from: Saint on November 07, 2016, 10:05:36 pm

Does it help with motion sickness then?

What do you mean? It helps with simulator sickness caused by a frozen frame or stutter frames in the same way that Asynchronous Timewarp does. It does not help with motion sickness caused by artificial locomotion and riding virtual rollercoasters, for example.