AMD GPUs to Support Asynchronous Reprojection via SteamVR

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Announced at AMD’s GDC 2017 press conference, Radeon GPUs will support Asynchronous Reprojection on SteamVR in the next update. The technology helps to maintain smooth head motion when framerate drops below the headset’s refresh rate.

Roy Taylor, Corporate Vice President – Alliances at AMD took to the stage with some passionate announcements about AMD and its VR support, promising ‘120+ fps, billions of entities and 16K graphics’ in the future. Today, their focus is on delivering the most seamless VR experience possible on existing hardware, and a much-needed feature is an effective way of dealing with performance drops. Taylor invited Dan O’Brien, General Manager of HTC Vive, onto the stage to announce Asynchronous Reprojection for Steam VR on Radeon GPUs.

amd roy taylor

While AMD’s LiquidVR technology has supported Asynchronous Spacewarp on the Oculus Rift since December, Asynchronous Reprojection for SteamVR has been limited to Nvidia GPUs since its introduction in October 2016. The technique is very effective at mitigating the impact of small performance drops below 90fps, maintaining totally smooth head orientation tracking, which can result in a significant improvement to comfort and immersion. AMD is aiming to include the update in the next release of Radeon software.

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The trial version of Microsoft’s Monster Truck Madness probably had something to do with it. And certainly the original Super Mario Kart and Gran Turismo. A car nut from an early age, Dominic was always drawn to racing games above all other genres. Now a seasoned driving simulation enthusiast, and former editor of Sim Racer magazine, Dominic has followed virtual reality developments with keen interest, as cockpit-based simulation is a perfect match for the technology. Conditions could hardly be more ideal, a scientist once said. Writing about simulators lead him to Road to VR, whose broad coverage of the industry revealed the bigger picture and limitless potential of the medium. Passionate about technology and a lifelong PC gamer, Dominic suffers from the ‘tweak for days’ PC gaming condition, where he plays the same section over and over at every possible combination of visual settings to find the right balance between fidelity and performance. Based within The Fens of Lincolnshire (it’s very flat), Dominic can sometimes be found marvelling at the real world’s ‘draw distance’, wishing virtual technologies would catch up.