Advanced Micro Devices believes that the features of the Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture make it extremely effective when it comes to virtual reality. There are grounds for this: the degree of comfort and realism in virtual reality directly depends on delays — The lower the latent, the more realistic the player perceives the virtual world surrounding him. AMD Radeon has special blocks of asynchronous calculations (Asynchronous Compute Engines (Aces), which allow you to achieve the desired effect.
In his interview with WCCFTECH.COM Head of the AMD Graphic Marketing Department Robert Hallock said that modern Radeon models can provide low rendering latency due to the use of technology «Asynchronous Timewarp», which works on ACE blocks. This term does not have an adequate translation into Russian, and the essence of it can be briefly described as extraordinary planning and the implementation of graphic and computing operations. This is a kind of analogue of extraordinary execution (Out-OF-Order Execution), but in the field of three-dimensional graphics. If we approach the description in more detail, then when using this technique, the frame is drawn first, then, at the last moment, the position of the user’s head is clarified (due to the sensors in the VR helmet), and on the basis of these data, the finished frame is subjected to insanity in this way.To match «A field of vision» player. Due to this, it is possible to achieve latency of about 25 milliseconds, which is four times less than the standard response time of the human nervous system, which is about 100 milliseconds.
Perhaps 8 ACE blocks will help Radeon surpass this indicator?
Oculus Rift developers have achieved such results using solutions based on NVIDIA Maxwell, but it is possible that this indicator can reduce this indicator even more with AMD Radeon. AMD Hawaii and Tonga graphic processors, serving the hearts of the Radeon R9 290 and Radeon R9 285 video cards, have eight asynchronous calculation blocks, while the previous generation in the person of the Tahiti chip (Radeon R9 280) carries only two such blocks on board, which means that, much worse for use in the system of virtual reality of a new generation. As Robert Halllock noted, ACE blocks, in fact, are a necessary foundation in the architecture of the new Radeon. In a number of exhibitions and events, the company demonstrates the work of asynchronous rendering on the example of Alien: Island in the Oculus Rift DK2 helmet, and, according to Kallok, users are delighted if, of course, this term can express genuine fright from sudden and extremely realistic attacks of terribleAlien.
The last thing he sees «An enthusiastic player»
If you reason purely theoretically, AMD has a good advantage in the field of virtual reality, since the solutions of NVIDIA, although they can support asynchronous rendering, but how well they do it in comparison with the latest Radeon models. We know that for Nvidia Maxwell the minimum delay in this mode is 25 milliseconds, but who measured a similar parameter in the case of AMD Radeon solutions? We believe that the final solution to the question of who is a real winner in this area requires standardization of game virtual reality and the fairly wide distribution of the corresponding devices and games in the market.
Source:
- Kitguru.Net