Qualcomm To Release Snapdragon 845-powered VR Developer Kit In Q2

Qualcomm has taken advantage of the ongoing Game Developers Conference in San Francisco to usher in its next-generation VR development kit, starring the just-released Snapdragon 845 SoC. As always, Qualcomm’s goal with its VRDKs is to provide developers with the ideal setup for producing and experiencing VR content. The better the development kit, the easier it will be for a developer or content creator to do their thing.

Besides the fact that the Snapdragon 845 chip is included, there are a handful of updates that properly take Qualcomm’s VRDK to the next level. Part of that includes room-scale 6DoF SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping), allowing users freedom to move around, rather than be forced to a seated experience.

Because Qualcomm’s VR solution is completely wireless, it needs to be as power-efficient as possible. That’s where a technology like Adreno Foveation comes in. Our eyeballs are only ever focused on one object, and it’s going to be the one we’re looking at – that means that all of the noise around that object isn’t appreciated as much as it could be, so it doesn’t matter that to your eye, it’s a blur.

That’s the idea behind foveated rendering: save performance by only rendering what the person is looking directly at in high-quality, and render the rest in a lower resolution so as to improve performance. Even though the outer edges would always be lower quality than the center of wherever you’re looking, it effectively wouldn’t be noticed at all – outside of direct screenshots, at least.

Further, this kit also includes eye tracking, thanks to the help of our friends at Tobii. We’ve been very impressed with this company’s products at the past few CESes, so it’s great to see a partnership like this one secured with a giant like Qualcomm.

Also new is a boundary system that will allow developers to set spatial limits, and if the user is about to exceed them, the application or game would be able to react accordingly – either with a notification or some other mechanic. Finally, it’s worth noting that Qualcomm is supporting HTC’s Vive Wave VR SDK, which paves a path for having VR content shared between platforms. Sounds good, huh?

Qualcomm expects to have its latest VRDK in the hands of developers at some point during the second quarter.