超低延迟虚拟实境眼镜打造身临其境体验

为了能让游戏玩家感受身历其境的临场体验，头戴式虚拟实境(VR)眼镜的开发进展如今已能实现逼近15毫秒的反应时间了。开发人员们展现高超绝技实现了超低延迟，从而催生出新一类的计算机游戏。 在日前于AMD年度开发者大会上，Oculus VR公司首席执行官Brendan Iribe强调，“我们将重新点燃起已在2D屏幕上趋于稳定的 CPU / GPU竞赛。” Oculus VR公司展示的 Oculus Rift 头戴式虚拟眼镜原型在执行时的延迟已低于20ms，并即将迈向7-15ms的神圣目标。“我们目前尚未达到目标，但我们很快就能实现了，”但Iribe并 未透露该公司何时推出众所期待的 Oculus Rift 头戴式耳机。 这一问题就在于用户移动头部的速度通常比头戴式眼镜显示一幅新影像的速度更快。为了尽量赶上与用户头部移动同样的速度，可能造成显示器上的影像变得模糊，甚至让用户感到晕眩恶心。 用户的头部动作以及像素传送至显示器二者之间的平均延迟约有45秒。当今的游戏引擎需要其中约三分之一的时间定义与呈现一格新画面，同时，显示器也需要另外三分之一的时间来激活像素。 因此，Iribe指出，Oculus公司正针对显示器上的影像连贯性进行各种研发。此外，目前的1,920×1,080原型使用OLED屏幕，可支持1ms 的切换时间。Oculus公司使用所谓的时间扭曲(time warping)机制，能以每秒80-95格的最大显示速率呈现画面，明显比游戏引擎快得多了。他解释说，“它其实是用一种欺骗人眼的方式，但带来了极致 的体验。” Oculus公司最近还延揽了John Carmack为公司首席技术官。John Carmack曾经参与《毁灭战士》(Doom)与《雷神之锤》(Quake)等PC游戏的开发。《毁灭战士》与《雷神之锤》加速了PC用3D加速器的兴起。

John Carmack正沉浸于Oculus Rift游戏体验中
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头戴式虚拟实境眼镜可望实现新一类身临其境的游戏以及充满想象力的应用程序。 “游戏原型内部带来的最好的体验之一是让用户真的漂浮在整个空间世界，以及让人赞叹于其浩瀚规模，”他说，“目前已开发出数百种VR游戏了，许多都来自独立制作，因为它是一种全新的平台──VR将改变世界，”他说。 目前看来，想摆脱头戴式眼镜而仍保持与用户动作同步的终极目标，还有很长远的路要走。“你可能会想在虚拟世界中看到你的手，以及透过眼睛追踪，但这在第一版游戏中还未能实现。”但Iribe强调，这些都已经是该公司下一阶段的开发方向了。 此外，在展示现场，一位来宾询问这种头戴式眼镜是否也适用于戴眼镜的玩家？ Iribe幽默地说：“当然，这已经列为我们开发工作的最优先项目了，因为我自己也戴眼镜！” 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Susan Hong 参考英文原文：VR Goggles Play Games With Latency，by Rick Merritt

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{pagination} VR Goggles Play Games With Latency Rick Merritt SAN JOSE, Calif. – Virtual reality goggles are edging close to a 15 millisecond response time in an effort to deliver immersive experiences that put game players into a scene. Developers have a few tricks up their sleeves to get to the ultra-low latency that could give birth to a new class of computer games. "We will reignite the CPU/GPU race which plateaued on 2D screens," said Brendan Iribe, chief executive of Oculus VR in a keynote at AMD's annual developer conference here. Prototype headsets are already running with latency of less than 20ms, edging toward the Holy Grail of 7-15ms. "We are not there today, but we are getting there very quickly," said Iribe who declined to give a ship date for the company's much anticipated Oculus Rift headset. The problem is that users can move their heads faster than the headsets can render a new image. Displays can smear images as they try to catch up, giving users nausea. The average latency between a user's head motion and a new pixel delivered to a display is about 45 milliseconds. Today's game engines need about a third of that time to define and render a new frame and displays need another third to switch on the pixels. Oculus is "doing all kinds of R&D" on image persistence on a display, said Iribe. "Most of the [60 frames/second] view is black with displays mostly turned off except for the 1-2ms when they are exactly aligned" with the user's head, he said. In addition, the current 1920 x 1080 prototypes use OLED screens that sport a 1ms switching time. Also, Oculus uses what it calls time warping, rending scenes at the maximum display rate of 80 to 95 frames/second, significantly faster than the game engine. "It's tricking your eyes, and it's a great experience," he said. Oculus recently recruited as its chief technologist John Carmack, developer of PC games such as Doom and Quake that fueled the rise of 3D accelerator chips for PCs. John Carmack is immersed in work on Oculus Rift. Virtual reality goggles promise new immersive games and fantasy apps. "One of best experiences in prototype internally is literally floating through a space world and being amazed at the scale," he said "There are hundreds of VR games being made, many by indies because it’s a new platform -- VR will change the world," he said. There's a long horizon beyond the ambitious goal of getting out a headset that can keep up with a moving user. "You want to see your hands [in the virtual world] and you want eye tracking, but it's not going to happen for version one," he said. An audience member asked for headsets that can work for people who wear glasses. "It's at the top of the priority list -- I wear glasses, too," he said.