Introducing The VIVE Pro Eye
The VIVE Pro Eye has launched. Developers will now be able to create more immersive experiences using precision eye tracking and foveated rendering. The headset features 120Hz tracking and 0.5°–1.1° accuracy for amazing eye tracking performance and is the preferred VR headset for NVIDIA Variable Rate Shading (VRS).
Needless to say, eye tracking is an exciting new technology. It allows for enhanced gameplay interactivity and simplified input and navigation—with our SDKs, you can make hand controllers entirely optional. Plus, eye tracking enables foveated rendering, which empowers developers to improve performance and enhance visual fidelity in virtual and extended reality experiences.
Let’s dive in and see what it can do for you.
SRanipal SDK
To get started building experiences for the VIVE Pro Eye, developers can download the SRanipal SDK and SR runtime here: https://hub.vive.com/en-US/profile/material-download
The SRanipal SDK allows developers to track and integrate users’ eye and lip movements, empowering developers to read intention and model facial expression. The SRanipal SDK requires the SR runtime which runs in the notification tray to show the current eye tracking status for VIVE Pro Eye. Plugins for Unreal and Unity are included in the eye tracking SDK along with sample code for native C development.
If you have any questions, you can join the VIVE SRanipal SDK forum to engage directly with our developer relations team and other VIVE Pro Eye developers:
https://community.viveport.com/t5/Vive-SRanipal-SDK/gp-p/ViveSRanipalSDK
Foveated Rendering
Compatible with: Turing based GPUs. (GeForce RTX and Quadro RTX)
Foveated rendering allows VR developers to increase performance and visual quality by supersampling where the user's eyes are focused and undersampling the peripheral vision. Pushing the limits of VR rendering is important to developers—that’s why we made integrating the plugin straightforward. VIVE is releasing a separate foveated rendering plugin for Unity and NVIDIA will launch the Variable Rate Shading or VRS Wrapper, which is part of the VRWorks Graphics SDK. The new VRS Wrapper NVAPIs assist developers in integrating foveated rendering within their application more easily, with less code.
[Foveated Rendering Unity Plugin]
https://github.com/ViveSoftware/ViveFoveatedRendering
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/particles-effects/vive-foveated-rendering-145635
Here is a quick example of foveated rendering integration with the Unity plugin:
Import the VIVE Foveated Rendering plugin.
Attach ViveFoveatedRendering.cs to your main VR camera.
Click play. Foveated rendering should be automatically enabled if your system meets the requirements.
! NOTE: Requires Eye Tracking Plugin: Vive-SRanipal-Unity-Plugin.unitypackage
For more information regarding NVIDIA Variable Rate Shading and Foveated Rendering:
https://devblogs.nvidia.com/vrs-wrapper
https://developer.nvidia.com/vrworks/graphics/variablerateshading
https://devblogs.nvidia.com/turing-variable-rate-shading-vrworks/
SDK Features & Use Cases
Eye Tracking SDK Features:
- Pupil Position
- Pupil Diameter
- Eye Openness
- Focus Object
- Gaze Ray
- Eye Blendshape Morphs
- Foveated Rendering (requires plugin)
Enterprise Use Cases:
- Training
- 3D Design Tools
- Medical
- Cognitive Function Testing
- Analytics
- Expressive Avatars / Character AI
- Visualization
- UI Controls
Gaming Use Cases:
- Foveated Rendering
- Gameplay (Aim Assist, Object & Menu Selection)
- Avatar Eyes
- Recording Eye Animations
- Analytics & Visualizations
To purchase a VIVE Pro Eye and see official specs, please visit
https://www.vive.com/us/pro-eye/
