Often times,
ensuring your PC is truly ready for VR on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive simply
requires upgrading to a higher-end GPU such as the GTX 970 or above. NVIDIA
GeForce’s joint programs with both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive will also
conveniently tell you if you’re ready for VR.
What's the
deal with VR's exotic hardware demands, though? Here are five key reasons why
your PC needs to be VR ready.
1.
Latency
Your brain
is a very sensitive piece of equipment, and it can pick up on the tiniest
mismatch between what it expects to experience and what it's actually sensing,
resulting in discomfort.
What this
means is that if there's too much latency the delay between input in a VR
system, everything's going to feel leggy and swimmy and you won't be able to
bear it for long.
The latest
VR headsets keep latency below a manageable 20ms, but that's only half the
story. They also need a fast GPU to render their VR worlds at lightning speed,
coupled with a good CPU and plenty of memory to ensure there aren't any
bottlenecks in the process.
2. Frame rate
60fps might
be the ideal frame rate for playing games on your big screen, but trial and
error over the last few years has discovered that it's just not good enough for
VR.
Early VR
hardware prototypes suffered from motion blur due to their persistent mobile
displays that didn't clear the screen between frames. This problem was solved
using low-persistence OLED displays, but uncovered a new issue in the form of
flickering, which in turn can give you eye-strain and a headache after
prolonged use.
Both the Oculus
Rift and HTC Vive run at 90fps, which eliminates flickering but also puts added
demands on your GPU.
3.
Two screens
On
top of managing latency and running at 90fps, VR devices generate two screens
at the same time, one for each eye. They are rendered from slightly different
viewpoints in order to create a stereoscopic image.
Both
the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift use a single 2160x1200 display, split down the
middle so that each eye has its own 1080x1200 screen. If you add up the
numbers, this means that the basic demands of a VR system are roughly seven
times that of a PC that can comfortably run games at 1080P and 60fps.
Of
course, if you want blazing fast performance then you can opt for extra power.
For example, NVIDIA's VR SLI part of its VRWorks Technologies enables you to
accelerate stereo rendering by using a separate GPU for each eye.
4.
Maximum detail
Many
VR users have described the experience of being in a VR world as less like
playing a game and more like being in an actual place. They remember VR
adventures as places they've been to rather than things they've seen.
Creating
this feeling of presence, however, comes with its own demands. Developers need
to ensure that they don't skimp on the details. If you pick up an item in the
VR world to take a close look at it, and discover that it's just a low-poly
model with low-resolution textures, then the experience suffers.
Instead,
everything in VR needs to be rendered at maximum detail, without any corners
cut along the way. If you look through the advanced video settings on your
average game and see how many of them are dialed down from maximum in order to
keep the frame rate up, you'll understand just how much GPU power this is going
to take.
5.
Consistency
So,
we have the need for low latency, high frame rates and maximum detail, and all
being rendered on two screens simultaneously. But there's one final detail
that's absolutely crucial for a comfortable and immersive VR experience: your
PC has to do all of this with absolute consistency.
We're
all used to hitting points in games when there's a lot going on at once and the
frame rate briefly falls through the floor. It's annoying but we take it for
granted, but VR simply can't afford to drop its game like that. The experience
needs to start smooth and remain smooth.
The
Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are now available to purchase. Find out if you’re
ready to experience the most exciting new frontier in gaming by checking to see
if your PC meets the minimum requirements to be VR ready.
Source: pcgamer
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