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Getting 'Showdown' To 90 FPS In UE4 On Oculus Rift

Posted by timothy on from the cutting-all-corners dept.

An anonymous reader writes Oculus has repeatedly tapped Epic Games to whip up demos to show off new iterations of Oculus Rift VR headset hardware. The latest demo, built in UE4, is 'Showdown', an action-packed scene of slow motion explosions, bullets, and debris. The challenge? Oculus asked Epic to make it run at 90 FPS to match the 90 Hz refresh rate of the latest Oculus Rift 'Crescent Bay' prototype. At the Oculus Connect conference, two of the developers from the team that created the demo share the tricks and tools they used to hit that target on a single GPU.

30 comments

  1. Getting 'Snowden' To 90 FPS In UE4 On Oculus Raft by ls671 · · Score: 2

    "Getting 'Snowden' To 90 FPS In UE4 On Oculus Raft" is what I read first. Well time for a break I guess...

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  2. Re:Getting 'Snowden' To 90 FPS In UE4 On Oculus Ra by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well time for a break from trolling I guess...

    maybe you could retire to your cold fjord ?

  3. Excellent news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not that this is especially insightful or anything but: That's what you can do when you have programmers tasked with writing something run as well as possible instead of writing something to be as cheap as possible. The performance we are getting out of our PCs is nothing close to what the hardware would actually be capable of with properly programmed software. We all know this already, so I'm not sure why I'm bothering to post it... As a comparison, I run a Tri-Def on a pretty decent rig, and running games in stereoscopic mode usually means a massive frame-rate hit: Typical performance in these configurations is 1/3 to 1/2 the frame-rate of what you get with stereoscopic off. I see 30-45fps in Skyrim in stereoscopic mode, meaning I had to build a rig capable of maintaining 90fps as a minimum without stereoscopic mode engaged... At any rate a steady 90fps is an amazing achievement in stereoscopic gaming. My understanding is that stereoscopic gaming is equally hard on the CPU as the GPU: So you're looking at excellent coding to get 90fps...

    1. Re:Excellent news by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Insightful

      One thing I don't quite understand is why these headsets don't have eye trackers. I find it quite obvious that as the demands go further up, it might eventually be necessary to match the quality of portions of the rendered scene with the resolution of portions of your retina. Why waste computing power on peripheral vision? It makes even more sense as the frame rate increases to reduce the artifacts introduced by by head movements, since the extra frames mean fewer operations per frame, while the increased frame rate allows you to quickly "un-degrade" the new portions of the scene picture as you're shifting your view.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re:Excellent news by Ceriel+Nosforit · · Score: 3, Informative

      The excellent coding has been around for a while. It's asset creation which is uncomfortable. Large studios with big budgets go at it with the sweatshop approach, so there is little demand for procedural workflows.

      It's mostly fine art in concept and Z-brush, and then a series of atrocities conducted against the artists' vision as the assets get shoe-horned into a console.

      So good luck Sony... You'se gots problems.

      --
      All rites reversed 2010
    3. Re:Excellent news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If I understood you, what you are suggesting would actually require more processing power from the gpu than actually render everything including peripheral vision.

    4. Re:Excellent news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Because it's not trivial and there aren't decent eye trackers that will work in a goggle configuration. Bascially Oculus would have to invent something.

      I am sure at some point in the future eye tracking will come to VR.

    5. Re:Excellent news by BlackHawk-666 · · Score: 1

      I run an SLI setup and also have 3D glasses, the NVidia ones. Switching to a stereo rendering mode drops my framerate by only a few percent in general. If I'm getting 60fps on normal mode, then i'll probably get 56fps in stereo.

      Of course, the Rift doesn't like SLI because SLI works by processing the next two frames on the two different cards, giving you an input lag of one extra frame. In most games this is hardly noticeable, if at all, but in the Rift it is vomit inducing.

      --
      All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
    6. Re:Excellent news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you watch the Future of VR from the Oculus developer conference you'll see that eye tracking is definitely on the list, if you've got a good system for it then I expect they'll be happy to hear from you.

  4. 90FPS might be too high by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am very skeptical of what we will get whenever the consumer version of Oculus Rift hits the market. I read the article regarding this demo and I still feel the requirement for a desktop version of Nvidia 780 as fairly limiting. Not many people have this expensive card in their system (just check Steam HW survey).

    First impressions count: Make it work with not high end computers. Otherwise there will be a lot of customers with a bad taste in their mouths and the project will go down the drain.

    I see the push for 30FPS in the consoles of today: it really really looks tough to get 90FPS at higher resolution than 1080p. And do not forget: software needs to stay at 90FPS all time.

    1. Re:90FPS might be too high by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, GTX980 and not GTX780. Still a high end desktop card.

    2. Re:90FPS might be too high by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The problem with this is that there's a significant difference between 30FPS in VR and not.

      30FPS not in VR = this looks reasonably smooth, a little slow at parts.
      30FPS in VR = my brain doesn't like this and now I want to hurl.

      I think keeping the requirement very high is the best thing they can do, because otherwise your statement that

      there will be a lot of customers with a bad taste in their mouths and the project will go down the drain.

      is going to be very true, and quite possibly in a literal sense.

  5. Why 90 FPS? by Rooked_One · · Score: 1, Funny

    Because otherwise you'd see the 1 frame marketing ads.

    1. Re:Why 90 FPS? by Thanshin · · Score: 1

      Because otherwise you'd see the 1 frame marketing ads.

      1 frame?

      You've not been in youtube recently right?

      I think they prefer their ads to be of the several hundred frames high volume persuasion.

  6. Whatever happened to Id Software? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Quake can get 500+ FPS on a modern GPU, it should work fine with these new fangle-dangle headsets. Can I get the one with the beer cans on the sides?

    1. Re:Whatever happened to Id Software? by vux984 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Whatever happened to Id Software?

      The graphics engine programmer from ID, John Carmack, works for Oculus Rift. It was kind of newsworthy around here.

      So if you think they should source programming talent from Id... your a bit late to the party. Unless you think they really need John Romero too... ?

    2. Re:Whatever happened to Id Software? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where is John Romero? I need to win the game. I need to get out of this nightmare. ARGHHHHH.

    3. Re:Whatever happened to Id Software? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whatever happened to Id Software?

      The graphics engine programmer from ID, John Carmack, works for Oculus Rift. It was kind of newsworthy around here.

      So if you think they should source programming talent from Id... your a bit late to the party. Unless you think they really need John Romero too... ?

      Of course not. What we need is Bennett Haselton!

    4. Re:Whatever happened to Id Software? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

      With John Carmack on board, I just find it interesting that Oculus Rift is using UE4 from Epic Games and not the id Tech 6 from id Software.

  7. Re:Getting 'Snowden' To 90 FPS In UE4 On Oculus Ra by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Well, I've read it as "slowdown"... ;-)

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  8. What's the FPS of diminishing returns? by Hussman32 · · Score: 2

    I try to view my vision as analog, but I've seen experiments where I miss a single frame because I'm over the age of 40. What is the maximum FPS we can view before the video looks the same? I would be guessing less than 90...

    --
    "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
    1. Re:What's the FPS of diminishing returns? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's not about the ability to see frames. The time between frame redraws is the minimum reaction time to user input. With a huge amount of predictive motion blur, a game could look okay at 24 frames per second, but it would play absolutely horribly. That's because your input would be delayed, jittery and slow in comparison to 90, or even 60 fps.

      Head tracking is even more susceptible to this annoyance. When you look around in real life, there is no noticeable delay between your head moving and the image changing. This is one of many things that potentially cause nausea.

    2. Re:What's the FPS of diminishing returns? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Infinity? Your eyes don't see in frames per second.

      VR is different from a screen and low FPS is way more noticeable and causes way more problems (the biggest one is being simulation sickness).

    3. Re:What's the FPS of diminishing returns? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, if it is only about latency there are things you can do with specialized hardware.
      If you synchronize your code with user input reading you can overclock the hardware like hell to get a short time between input and updating and then let it cool off until next frame. For such short time frames it is mainly the average heat that matters so getting a latency similar to the 90 fps while only outputting 30 fps shouldn't generate much more heat than something that generates 30 fps without bursting.
      Then again that would require an operation system that supports synchronization all the way from user input to dumping the data to the screen so it is probably easier to just output 90 fps constantly.

    4. Re:What's the FPS of diminishing returns? by Lord+Crc · · Score: 2

      There are several things at play here.

      One is the latency as mentioned, which is very important for VR. Heck even playing with a mouse and a regular monitor I can feel the difference between 60 Hz and 120 Hz, not to mention 30 Hz. At 30 it feels like my mouse is submerged in honey. At 60 it's decent but if you switch suddenly to 120 it you do notice that 120 is quite responsive in comparison.

      Then there's also motion blur. Due to the way most LCDs currently operates, they introduce a lot of motion blur. This is beause the image is shining for almost the entire frame ("sample and hold"). The eyes tracks the motion, expects to find the object has moved but get's conflicting data because the monitor is still displaying the same old frame. This causes a perceived motion blur.

      This is unlike "modern" CRTs for example, where the image faded quickly (within 2ms or so). For the rest of the frame the monitor was effectively black. That is much better for the eyes, and results in smoother perceived motion at the same framerate.

      Even at 120Hz motion isn't completely smooth if you use sample and hold. Newer LCD monitors can strobe the backlight to get an effect similar to CRTs and thus reducing motion blur.

  9. Variable frame rate technology by Guppy · · Score: 1

    Any chance we'll be seeing variable frame rate technologies like G-sync / Freesync on the Occulus? There have been some rumors, but I don't think there's been any definitive official announcement yet.

    1. Re:Variable frame rate technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I believe that at some point they said that those technologies were bad for VR experiences. Not sure when but I think it was in the valve developer conference.

    2. Re:Variable frame rate technology by grumbel5969 · · Score: 1

      Carmack is trying to convince Samsung to produce such screens/firmware (see his talk at Oculus Connect). It even goes beyond G-sync, he wants to have programmable interlacing, so that you can't just tell when something gets refresh, but what parts (i.e. every third line). So it's definitely on their radar, but it might still take a while till we go from re-purposed phone screens to screens specifically made for VR.

  10. Re:Getting 'Snowden' To 90 FPS In UE4 On Oculus Ra by Thanshin · · Score: 1

    maybe you could retire to your cold fjord ?

    FNORD!

    Oh, fjord. Ok, nothing to see here. Move along.

  11. Re:Getting 'Snowden' To 90 FPS In UE4 On Oculus Ra by ls671 · · Score: 1

    Isn't our brain a wonderful engine?

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.