4 ms·

Carmack famously quipped that "I can send an IP packet to Europe faster than I can send a pixel to the screen" [1]. For VR and AR to break through, they're goin

Carmack famously quipped that "I can send an IP packet to Europe faster than I can send a pixel to the screen" [1]. For VR and AR to break through, they're going to have to be in a form factor that resembles normal glasses, and at a much higher render quality (4K+) than anything we've got now. That's almost certainly going to require rendering remotely Stadia / Xbox Cloud style, with some minimal local processing. [1] https://superuser.com/questions/419070/transatlantic-ping-faster-than-sending-a-pixel-to-the-screen https://superuser.com/questions/419070/transatlantic-ping-fa....

Aeolun 6y ago
I don’t know. As long as they can render in 4K the actual geometry can be fairly simple, so maybe my phone would be perfectly capable of that?
Wowfunhappy 6y ago
Well, or you could render on the phone and stream to the glasses. I don’t think even 5G is low latency enough for what you’re describing—not even close. Stadia works because it’s not VR, so they have some latency headroom. For good VR (Valve Index, etc), you get around 20ms for the entire rendering chain.
- ethbro 6y ago
  Depending on bandwidth, you could probably stream an over-rendered viewport (e.g. 3D skybox) that allows for local-device-magnitude latency for critical functions (perspective change & location translation), while being backed by streaming servers (especially of the edge variety).
  - Wowfunhappy 6y ago
    I suppose in the future, anything is possible—but I don't see it. You're asking the local device to do Z translations of a 3D scene when all it has is an already-rendered 2D image. And the local device will just have a 2D image. Even within a single, local PC, multi-GPU rendering is basically dead for video games because no one has been able to get them working reliably. And that is with the full bandwidth and latency of PCIe.

Aeolun 6y ago

I don’t know. As long as they can render in 4K the actual geometry can be fairly simple, so maybe my phone would be perfectly capable of that?

Wowfunhappy 6y ago

Well, or you could render on the phone and stream to the glasses. I don’t think even 5G is low latency enough for what you’re describing—not even close. Stadia works because it’s not VR, so they have some latency headroom. For good VR (Valve Index, etc), you get around 20ms for the entire rendering chain.

ethbro 6y ago
Depending on bandwidth, you could probably stream an over-rendered viewport (e.g. 3D skybox) that allows for local-device-magnitude latency for critical functions (perspective change & location translation), while being backed by streaming servers (especially of the edge variety).
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago
  I suppose in the future, anything is possible—but I don't see it. You're asking the local device to do Z translations of a 3D scene when all it has is an already-rendered 2D image. And the local device will just have a 2D image. Even within a single, local PC, multi-GPU rendering is basically dead for video games because no one has been able to get them working reliably. And that is with the full bandwidth and latency of PCIe.