The asynchronous time warp for virtual reality on consumer hardware

Abstract

To help create a true sense of presence in a virtual reality experience, a so called "time warp" may be used. This time warp does not only correct for the optical aberration of the lenses used in a virtual reality headset, it also transforms the stereoscopic images based on the very latest head tracking information to significantly reduce the motion-to-photon delay (or end-to-end latency). The time warp operates as close as possible to the display refresh, retrieves updated head tracking information and transforms a stereoscopic pair of images from representing a view at the time it was rendered, to representing the correct view at the time it is displayed. When run asynchronously to the stereoscopic rendering, the time warp can be used to increase the perceived frame rate and to smooth out inconsistent frame rates. Asynchronous operation can also improve the overall graphics hardware utilization by not requiring the stereoscopic rendering to be synchronized with the display refresh cycle. However, on today's consumer hardware it is challenging to implement a high quality time warp that is fast, has predictable latency and throughput, and runs asynchronously. This paper discusses the various challenges and the different trade-offs that need to be considered when implementing an asynchronous time warp on consumer hardware.