Oculus CTO John Carmack has taken to Twitter to announce a re-release of its Story Studio’s VR short Henry, using new technology to demonstrate 5K x 5K 60fps mobile VR playback, which Carmack says will “set a new bar for immersive video quality.” In an additional tweet, he went into further detail about how the technology works.
“Basically, it makes a 2k x 2k baseline, then extracts the core 5k x 2k section (1k from each eye) and cuts it into ten segments, of which only three plus the baseline are decoded at one time. V-sync locked frame release and low latency fast-path Audio 360 spatialisation”.
Henry was created using Unreal Engine 4 and originally premiered in July 2015, winning an Emmy for Outstanding Original Interactive Program. Oculus Story Studio closed in May 2017.
Carmack stopped short of confirming a time-frame, or revealing further information, such as whether this technology would materialise in a permanent software update, or if it will be exclusive to the Henry re-release.
Analyst Comment
That was indeed the tweet from Carmack, but it’s a bit confusing to me. I wonder if he meant a 5K x 5K baseline, with a 5k x 2k segment cut out (as that is what the user can potentially see) and then using a tiling method to optimise the delivery of video, as is being developed by Tiledmedia, the Fraunhofer and others. (New Tech Promises Live VR QoE). (BR)
