Foveated rendering

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Foveated rendering is when an image is rendered with different resolutions. Some parts of the image would have higher resolution, while others would have lower. In virtual reality, foveated rendering increases the resolution or sharpens the part of the image your eyes are focused on and reduces the resolution or blurs the other parts of the image. This process mimics how humans view the world in real life. Foveated rendering improves performance by saving the processor from rendering unnecessary pixels. While this technology is extremely useful, it requires the HMD to track the gaze of the user.

FOVE is the first HMD to utilize foveated rendering along with gaze tracking.

Foveated rendering and eye tracking

See also: eye tracking

Of a human's field of view, only a small fraction is perceived with great detail. Anything outside of the 5 degrees around the focus our of gaze gradually loses resolution. Because our eyes can move up to 1000 degrees per second, accurate and low latency eye tracking is paramount for foveated rendering to work.