The term 'asynchronous spacewarp'
is the new technology from Oculus, which officially launched on Thursday,
November 10, that’ll let you run the Rift VR headset on much lower-specced
hardware than before, Engadget reports. Typically, you’d need a beefy rig to
run games at 90 frames per second, which is necessary for ensuring a smooth VR
experience. Using frame interpolation techniques, asynchronous spacewarp is
able to deliver similarly smooth gameplay when you’re running at just 45 frames
per second. So, if you’ve got an aging gaming rig, there’s a chance that you
can actually run the Oculus Rift. While the company previously required an
NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD Radeon 290 GPU at the minimum, now you can run any NVIDIA
900 or 1000 series GPU (including the GTX 960), or any AMD RX 400 series card.
Still, Oculus is making it clear
the feature isn’t a complete replacement for a decent rig; it’s positioning it
as more of a stopgap for gamers who have yet to upgrade. Once you’ve got a more
powerful system, you’ll probably never end up seeing asynchronous spacewarp in
action. Developers will also have to ensure their games continue to run at a
smooth 90FPS on Oculus’s recommended computer specs. In other news, the company
also revealed that you’ll be able to create Oculus Avatars starting on December
6 to coincide with the launch of its new Touch controllers. You won’t need that
new gear to design an avatar, but lucky Touch owners will be able to use their
new virtual selves in Sports Bar VR and Kingspray. Developers will be able to
integrate the avatars into their games on December 6, as well.
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