If you paid attention to the launch of our new Pascal-based GeForce GTX 1080 and 1070 GPUs, you are aware that VR had a huge influence on their creation.

VR is extremely demanding on the GPU. VR applications must render high resolution images at 90 frames per second to two screens simultaneously, one for each eye. Even the slightest graphics stutter will reduce your sense of presence.

In designing GeForce GTX 1080, NVIDIA’s architects looked for unique ways to increase performance so that developers could maintain 90 FPS while still making VR graphics as detailed as graphics in traditional AAA PC games. The result was the new Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP) engine.

Today, we are excited to officially release VRWorks SDK support for two new features that are based on the SMP engine -- Lens Matched Shading and Single Pass Stereo:

Lens Matched Shading Uses Simultaneous Multi-Projection to provide substantial performance improvements in pixel shading. The feature improves upon Multi-res Shading by rendering to a surface that more closely approximates the lens corrected image that is output to the headset display. This avoids the performance cost of rendering many pixels that are discarded during the VR lens warp post-process.

Single Pass Stereo Traditionally, VR requires submitting and tessellating the geometry in a scene twice, once for each eye. Simultaneous Multi-Projection streamlines this by allowing geometry to be shared across both eyes. The GPU takes the geometry, processes it once, then projects one viewport for each eye. This means the tessellation and vertex shading work is only processed once, reducing the GPU’s geometry workload by half.

Developers

VR and game developers have already begun working with GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs and VRWorks to bring a new level of immersion to their experiences.

"Forward-thinking features in NVIDIA VRWorks enable us to push the limits of photoreal graphics, bringing higher immersion and presence to virtual reality.” Kjartan Pierre Emilsson, CEO, Sólfar Studios

“We are looking forward to bringing NVIDIA’s new VRWorks features to Valkyrie to take the game’s visuals and performance to another level.” Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO, CCP Games

The GeForce GTX 1080 is the most powerful graphics card in the world and, now combined with VRWorks, unlocks an incredible new level of performance for VR developers.

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