Why 100% SteamVR resolution does not match the native resolution of your VR headset

In this video I explain the reason why 100% SteamVR resolution scaling does not match the native resolution of your headset. The principles outlined here can also be applied to almost any other VR headset and its supporting software.

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#VR #BarrelDistortion #Resolution

[ImmersedRobot]

After using it, I'm pretty sure the PSVR2 uses a default resolution scaling of 1.7 in SteamVR to correct for barrel distortion rather than the standard 1.4 (this is an old video where things have changed now). This means that 100% SteamVR resolution scaling when using a PSVR2 effectively means it's rendering at 170% rather than the standard 140%.

[dEEkAykimkubik]

Although this vid is 3 years old, going into PCVR just the other day with the now available PSVR2 for PC, i always wondered why 100% was around 4k*4k pixels while the psvr2 only has 2000*2040. this explains it.

[DevinLeeGay]

Good explanation, and it also makes the case for why foveated rendering should be able to improve graphical performance: your GPU is spending a bunch of time rendering pixels around the edge of the screen that are getting squashed and blurred together in SteamVR anyways, just for them to end up in your peripheral vision where fine details are less noticeable.

[AB-rqrl]

Best explanation I've seen yet. Steam could have saved everyone the headache of this confusion by calling it what it is. That is 140% with the notch there and a little popup note when you hover over the notch that says "140% upscaling of the native resolution of you headset is required to counteract barrel distortion of the lenses"... But noo for developers that would have been too logical, they prefer make things as vague as possible because subconsciously they dispise end users.;)

[mineturte]

Actually legitimately the best unintentional explanation as to how VR headset displays function. Knowing that the barrel distortion requires the image to be stretched beyond the actual render resolution explains why we can't always just render at the resolution the VR headset can ACTUALLY show. Super helpful! :)

[Krazygamr]

This video led me to a solution to finally solve major optical distortion I was getting in various steam games (Pavlov VR in particular). After realizing how much the overlap occurred between the eyes on larger scaling sizes, by reducing it 50% in the game settings, it solved a huge double vision issue I was having when looking down the sights. Thank you for taking the time to make this!

[VRFlightSimGuy]

How did I miss this video! Excellent explanation Gary nice one!

[evilive]

Finally someone make explanation video and it is even easy to process for casual vr user, gonna use this alot on VR reddit. 👾

[XXXXL]

I wonder why the correction of the Barrel distortion can't just be corrected in the game engine? They current solution of rendering at 1.4x X/Y leads to 96% higher resolution, basically cutting the GPU performance in half...

[ChrisM]

THANK YOU! This is, by a huge, gigantosaurus margin, the best explanation I have ever seen. This video needs to be seen by everyone with an HDM. Well done Sir. Take a medal, cake and some pints🏅🍰🍺🍺🍺

[stonesvideos]

Pretty straight forward and point made. Thanks for this short video summing up all necessary information to understand the values used by SteamVR for resolution scaling.

[ViperVenoM]

nice video, yet another reason VR is so demanding on hardware requirement

[spry_guy]

I would consider myself very knowledgeable about VR but this video filled me in on how it works.

[GoFasterHD]

Thanks for clearing that up.
I just need a better VC than the 3090 so I can run my G2 at 140%. Can't wait until next gen VC's are released.

[nimushbimush]

I loved this explanation. I knew the distortion effect and it decreasing the resolution, but I was looking for an exact number to go off of when Im working on my projects. This helped. Thanks

[Veroshi_Sage]

My man you just solved the blurry problem I have been having the past year none of my quest friends could ever help me with thank you

[PixelShade]

Great explanation and to the point. I only had a hunch of why the resolution was higher, but this explains everything really well.... Looking at the Reverb G2 you can really tell why having a rendering resolution of 2160x2160 results in 3024x3024 = 9 144 576px per eye (in comparison to 1080p it's basically 4, 5x higher resolution, per eye) and then you need to render the scene twice (with all the geometry) No wonder VR is demanding. :)

[possamei]

So this explains why running pixel-perfect resolution on my headset makes stuff look blurrier. Thanks!

[FrenchyAU]

Oh, that makes a lot of sense, thank you for this, i saw a guide that said to lower the percentage to thst of exactly your headset resolution (in my case i lowered mine in steamvr to 1440x1440 to match my Lenovo explorer) but it always looked a little off frkm what i expected tho this was my first vr headset, gonna set it back to 100% tomorrow and see how it all looks.

[QuikScholes]

Good vid, not often you see this explained.