Oculus Rift To Work With Cheaper PCs

Oculus Rift will now run on lower-spec computers thanks to a feature the company dubs asynchronous spacewarp. It will mean a slightly less impressive experience is available on much cheaper machines.

One of the big drawbacks of the virtual reality system was that not only does the headset cost $600, but the original minimum specs (Nvidia GTX 970 graphics card and an Intel Core i5 processor, or equivalent models) meant either a new computer or a pricy upgrade was required for many would-be users. The new minimum specs are a GTX 960 card and an i3 processor.

The difference comes from a feature that cuts the framerate from 90fps to 45fps, thus cutting the processing requirements. Simply halving the framerate on its own wouldn’t work well at all as not only would the difference be visible, but it would destroy the virtual reality effect and even be unsettling.

The asynchronous spacewarp feature instead extrapolates frames, using prior information and the current movement to artificially create the “in-between” frames. The Oculus Rift already did this to cope with the rotation of the user’s head, but the new feature instead tackles other movement such as the in-game camera, the player’s movements and the game controls.

According to Oculus, the technology should work well in most cases but there’ll be a few potential drawbacks, in particular problems with simulated scenes that have rapid changes in brightness (such as a swinging light). However, it believes the technology should be “largely indistinguishable from full-rate rendering in most circumstances.”

The feature will be set up so that it only runs when a computer’s specifications necessitate it.