Fixed foveated rendering: Difference between revisions

[[Fixed foveated rendering]] ('''FFR''') is a performance optimization technique used primarily in [[Virtual Reality]] (VR) and [[Augmented Reality]] (AR) applications. It leverages the characteristics of the [[human visual system]] – specifically the high acuity in the center of vision ([[fovea]]) and lower acuity in the [[peripheral vision]] – to reduce the rendering workload on the [[Graphics Processing Unit]] (GPU) without significantly impacting the perceived visual quality for the user.<ref name="QualcommFFRDef">Qualcomm Developer Network. "Foveated Rendering". Retrieved April 25, 2025.</ref><ref name="MetaFFR">Meta Quest Developer Center. "Foveated Rendering". Retrieved April 25, 2025.</ref> Unlike [[Dynamic Foveated Rendering]] (DFR), which uses [[eye tracking]] to dynamically adjust the high-resolution area based on the user's gaze, FFR renders a *fixed* area, typically the center of the display, at the highest quality, while progressively reducing the rendering quality towards the edges (periphery).<ref name="Patney2016">Patney, A., Salvi, M., Kim, J., Kaplanyan, A., Wyman, C., Benty, N., Luebke, D., & Lefohn, A. (2016). Towards foveated rendering for gaze-tracked virtual reality. ACM Transactions on Graphics, 35(6), 179:1–179:12.</ref> This technique significantly reduces the [[computational load]] on the GPU by allocating rendering resources more efficiently, leading to potential improvements in performance, higher [[frame rate]]s, reduced [[latency (engineering)|latency]], and extended battery life in mobile VR/AR systems.<ref name="Bastani2017">Bastani, B., Turner, E., Vieri, C., Jiang, H., Funt, B., & Balram, N. (2017). Foveated pipeline for AR/VR head-mounted displays. Information Display, 33(6), 14-35.</ref>