Valve Corporation

Aaron Leiby

Alex Vlachos

Kenneth J Birdwell

Kenneth Barnett

David Sawyer

Tristan Reidford

Alexander C Vlachos

Emily Ridgway

Described herein are motion smoothing techniques for a display, or display system, such as a head-mounted display (HMD), to account for motion of moving or animating objects in a way that mitigates judder. The display system may be separate from, yet communicatively coupled to, a host computer where a graphics-based application, such as a video game, is outputting frames for rendering on the display system. The host computer may generate motion vectors representing compressed pixel data for transmission to the display system. The motion vectors can be used by the display system to modify pixel data of a frame. The modified pixel data for the frame is 'motion-smoothed' for rendering on the display system in a manner that mitigates judder of moving or animating objects.

Motion smoothing in a distributed system

Sensory feedback ('chaperoning') systems and methods for guiding users in virtual/augmented reality environments such as walk-around virtual reality environments are described. Exemplary implementations assist with preventing collisions with objects in the physical operating space in which the user acts, among other potential functions and/or uses.

Sensory feedback systems and methods for guiding users in virtual reality environments

Described herein are techniques for adjusting a prediction level and a throttle level, as frames are being rendered on a head-mounted display (HMD), based on an application's rendering performance. The prediction level is increased if a number of late frames, out of a past N rendered frames of (N being any suitable number), meets or exceeds a threshold number of late frames, which causes a compositor of the HMD to predict pose data of the HMD farther out into the future. The throttle level can be increased independently from, or in synchronization with, the increase in the prediction level to causes the compositor to throttle the frame rate of the application (e.g., to a fraction of the refresh rate of the HMD). The prediction level (and the throttle level, if at the same level) can be decreased if a particular number of consecutively-rendered frames finish rendering early.

Prediction and throttling adjustments based on application rendering performance

Described herein are motion smoothing techniques for a display system to account for motion of moving or animating objects in a way that mitigates judder. For example, first pixel data and second pixel data associated with two previously-rendered frames may be provided to a graphics processing unit (GPU) as input. The video encoder of the GPU can process the input pixel data to generate an array of motion vectors which is used to modify third pixel data of a re-projected frame. The modified third pixel data for the re-projected frame is 'motion-smoothed' for rendering on a display, such as a head-mounted display (HMD), in a manner that mitigates judder of moving or animating objects.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Aaron Leiby