At the Connect 2021 conference, Meta revealed a new rendering technology called Application Spacewarp, which is very similar to the Asynchronous Spacewarp technology found in the Oculus PC application. Meta brings the developers the Application Spacewarp, which can improve the application performance by nearly 70%.
The Application Spacewarp allows the applications to run at a half-frame rate, that’s half of 72 FPS and 36 FPS. The system generates a composite frame based on the previous frame’s motion, making the picture look very similar to the full-frame rate. The half frame rate can provide the developer with additional time, which can be used to achieve higher resolution rendering. But of course, the Asynchronous Spacewarp also requires space calculation time required to complete the work. Meta has tested the system by running it through a series of Quest applications. The test findings have led Meta to conclude that its technology can increase the available rendering time by up to 70%.
Meta has also mentioned that developers can use Asynchronous Spacewarp technology and target 36 FPS, 45FPS, or 60 FPS. Neel Bedekar, who is the head of Meta Technology, mentioned that 45 FPS which corresponds to 90HZ is the most suitable for developers. Furthermore, the developer can control the function frame by frame: they can use the technology whenever they need it or simply disable it when not in need. This technology also gives the developers control over depth buffer and motion vector.
Optimization technologies such as Phase Sync, Late Latching, and Positional Timewarp will lower the latency of Quest applications that use Application Spacewarp.
The main difference between Asynchronous Spacewarp and Application Spacewarp is that the Quest version can give significantly better results than the Application Spacewarp.
At the conference, Meta also mentioned that Application Spacewarp will come to the Quest developers in the next two weeks and that the features will support Unity, Unreal, and native Quest development.
