Snapdragon 845 VR Development Kit

Snapdragon 845 VR Development Kit
Basic Info
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Type	Head-mounted display
Subtype	Standalone VR
Developer	Qualcomm
Manufacturer	Goertek
Announcement Date	21 February 2018
Release Date	2018
Predecessor	Snapdragon 835 VR Development Kit
System
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
CPU	Kryo 385, 8-core, 2.8 GHz
GPU	Adreno 630
Storage
Storage	64 GB UFS
Memory	4 GB LPDDR4
Display
Display	Single AMOLED binocular
Resolution	1280x1440 per-eye
Refresh Rate	60 Hz
Image
Field of View	110° horizontal, 90° vertical
Horizontal FoV	110°
Vertical FoV	90°
Optics
Ocularity	Binocular
Tracking
Tracking	6DoF inside-out (SLAM)
Eye Tracking	Yes, Tobii EyeCore; two monochrome VGA global shutter cameras
Audio
Audio	Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec (WCD9335)
Camera	Two forward-facing monochrome 1280x800 global shutter cameras with fish-eye lenses
Connectivity
Connectivity	Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Ports	USB 3.1 Type-C with Power Delivery
Device
Sensors	IMU (gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetic compass)
Input	3DoF motion controller; ultrasonic 6DoF controller option

Snapdragon 845 VR Development Kit is a virtual reality head-mounted display introduced in 2018. It is a standalone reference headset and software development kit (SDK) from Qualcomm, built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip, and it is often shortened to Snapdragon 845 VRDK. Qualcomm offered it as a blueprint for companies that wanted to build their own standalone headsets, and as early hardware for developers writing software for Snapdragon 845 headsets. The headset was developed with Goertek, Qualcomm's manufacturing partner for the design.

Qualcomm first showed the reference design in February 2018, ahead of Mobile World Congress, and gave full details of the development kit at the Game Developers Conference in March 2018. Its main additions over the earlier Snapdragon 835 VR Development Kit were room-scale six degrees of freedom tracking using simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), built-in eye tracking from Tobii, Qualcomm's "Adreno Foveation" form of foveated rendering, and a boundary system for keeping users inside a safe play area.

Reviewed 27 September 2026. Re-opened all 16 cited sources and checked every new date, spec, quote, attribution and infobox addition against them; field of view remains an uncited pre-existing value. About review dates.

History

Background

According to Tom's Hardware, Qualcomm introduced its Snapdragon VR developer kit in February 2017. That headset, the Snapdragon 835 VRDK, gave software developers early access to a standalone reference headset before consumer devices reached the market. It used visual-inertial odometry (VIO) for 6DoF motion tracking and eye tracking from SMI. According to Road to VR, the 835 VRDK was the starting point for most of the major standalone headsets of early 2018, including the HTC Vive Focus, the Lenovo Mirage Solo and the Pico Neo. Goertek had worked with Qualcomm on VR headset reference designs based on the Snapdragon 820, 821 and 835 platforms, as members of the Qualcomm VR HMD Accelerator Program.

Tom's Hardware noted that Apple had acquired SMI in 2017, and that Qualcomm therefore had to find a different eye-tracking partner for the 845 kit.

Announcement at Mobile World Congress

On 21 February 2018, Qualcomm Technologies unveiled a new VR reference platform based on the Snapdragon 845, ahead of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Hugo Swart, head of the company's Virtual and Augmented Reality Business Group, said: "With the Snapdragon 845 Mobile VR Platform, we're supporting the next wave of smartphone and standalone VR headsets for our customers and developers to create the immersive applications and experiences of the future." The announcement stated that the continued relationship with Goertek would let manufacturers quickly build commercial designs on the platform. It also included supporting statements from Google's VR and AR group, Oculus and HTC Vive China.

Qualcomm claimed 30 percent faster graphics, 30 percent better power efficiency and more than twice the display throughput of the Snapdragon 835. Road to VR reported Qualcomm's claim that the platform could drive up to 2,000 x 2,000 pixels per eye, and at the time noted that this was rendering potential; the resolution of the display in the kit itself had not yet been confirmed. Engadget described the reference headset as having four cameras, two of them pointed at the wearer's eyes for eye tracking.

Before the public announcement, UploadVR's Anshel Sag saw the new development kit while benchmarking the Snapdragon 845 at Qualcomm. He wrote that it appeared to use a 3DoF controller, with 6DoF possibly coming later, and that the eye-tracking hardware was present but not yet integrated in software.

Tobii partnership

In March 2018, Tobii and Qualcomm announced that they were creating a full reference design and development kit for the Snapdragon 845 Mobile VR Platform that included Tobii's EyeCore eye-tracking algorithms and hardware design. Under the arrangement, Tobii would license its eye-tracking technology and work with headset manufacturers on the optical solution for the reference design.

Game Developers Conference 2018

On 21 March 2018, at GDC in San Francisco, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 845 Virtual Reality Development Kit as a combination of a wireless, standalone head-mounted display and a new SDK for the Snapdragon 845 Mobile VR Platform. Hiren Bhinde, Qualcomm's director of product management, said: "We built the new Snapdragon 845 Virtual Reality Development Kit with application developers in mind, designed to abate some of the hassles of optimizing virtual reality content for mobile deployment, as well as to support easier access to several innovations and technology advancements of Snapdragon 845 Mobile VR Platform."

Qualcomm also announced support for HTC's Vive Wave VR SDK on the kit, which it expected to be available later in 2018. The company described Vive Wave as a set of APIs for building Snapdragon-optimized content across hardware vendors, with a path to selling apps through the multi-OEM VIVEPORT store. Road to VR wrote that this would give manufacturers building on the reference design ready access to HTC's mobile Viveport store without adding Vive Wave support themselves.

Goertek announced the same day that the headset, which it had developed with Qualcomm, was on display at GDC. Goertek said it had provided industrial design, architecture, thermal management, acoustics, optics and electronic circuitry for the reference design. Qualcomm said the hardware and the companion SDK were expected to be available in the second quarter of 2018, and did not announce a price.

Ultrasonic controller option

In April 2018, Road to VR reported that the reference design now offered 6DoF controller input with ultrasonic tracking, citing Goertek's press release. Goertek's release had described a "new 6DOF controller based on ultrasonic technology". Road to VR observed that images of the headset showed what appeared to be six ultrasonic emitters or receivers, three on each side, and said that the timing differences between signals would be used to calculate the controller's position. It was not clear whether the system came from Chirp Microsystems, which had supplied the ultrasonic tracking for the Pico Neo. Each company building on the design could decide whether to include the ultrasonic controllers.

Design and hardware

Display and processing

The headset has a single 2560x1440 WQHD AMOLED display, which gives 1280x1440 pixels per eye, running at 60 Hz. This was the same display specification as the Snapdragon 835 VRDK. The Snapdragon 845 system on a chip includes a Kryo 385 eight-core CPU at 2.8 GHz, the Adreno 630 visual processing subsystem and the Hexagon 685 digital signal processor (DSP). The kit has 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64 GB of UFS flash storage. Connectivity consists of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a USB 3.1 Type-C port with Power Delivery, and audio uses Qualcomm's integrated Aqstic WCD9335 codec.

Tracking

Two forward-facing monochrome 1280x800 global shutter cameras with fish-eye lenses and an inertial measurement unit provide inside-out tracking. Instead of the VIO tracking used on the earlier kit, the 845 VRDK uses SLAM for room-scale 6DoF tracking. According to Tom's Hardware, the cameras capture stereo images at 30 frames per second, and Qualcomm samples the accelerometer at 800 Hz and the gyroscope at 1,000 Hz; the Hexagon 685 DSP combines this data to calculate the wearer's movement. Qualcomm said the system maps and detects obstacles in the user's physical space and can bring real-world objects into the virtual world. TechRadar gave the example of a table in front of the user being shown as a rock in VR.

The SLAM tracking also supports a boundary system, similar in purpose to HTC's Chaperone and the Oculus Guardian, which lets developers see how much real-world space an application needs and manage notifications or play sequences as the user approaches the edges of the play space. Goertek's announcement also mentioned a "new TOF/SLM camera design" as part of the room-scale tracking system.

Eye tracking and foveated rendering

Two monochrome VGA global shutter cameras pointed at the wearer's eyes provide eye tracking, using Tobii's EyeCore technology. The eye-tracking data drives Adreno Foveation, which Qualcomm described as using "multiple technology advancements for multi-view, tile-based foveation with eye-tracking". It renders the area where the user is looking at full detail and reduces detail elsewhere. Qualcomm said this improves performance while maintaining visual quality, and that it helps with power management. Qualcomm also told TechRadar that eye tracking could serve as an input method, make avatars in social VR more expressive, and give developers heat maps of where users look. Goertek said the design also lets interpupillary distance be measured and adjusted easily, to simplify setup.

Controllers

The kit's specification lists 3DoF controller support. MobileSyrup reported that it did not include fully tracked motion controllers. TechRadar reported that Qualcomm was adding controller-agnostic APIs for 6DoF controller tracking alongside the existing 3DoF support, and Goertek's release described an ultrasonic 6DoF controller for the design, which Road to VR said each manufacturer could choose to include.

Specifications

Component	Specification
Display	Single AMOLED binocular; 2560x1440 WQHD
Resolution	1280x1440 per-eye
Refresh Rate	60 Hz
Field of View	110° horizontal, 90° vertical
System on a chip	Qualcomm Snapdragon 845: Kryo 385 8-core CPU at 2.8 GHz, Adreno 630 visual processing subsystem, Hexagon 685 DSP
Memory	4 GB LPDDR4 RAM
Storage	64 GB UFS flash
6DoF tracking	Two monochrome stereo 1280x800 cameras with fish-eye lenses; IMU with gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetic compass
Eye tracking	Two monochrome VGA global shutter cameras with active depth sensing; Tobii EyeCore
Connectivity	Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB 3.1 Type-C with Power Delivery
Audio	Integrated Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec (WCD9335)
Input	3DoF motion controller

Comparison with the Snapdragon 835 VRDK

The following differences are from the comparison table and accompanying text published by Tom's Hardware at the GDC announcement.

Component	Snapdragon 835 VRDK	Snapdragon 845 VRDK
System on a chip	Snapdragon 835 (Kryo 280 8-core CPU at 2.45 GHz, Adreno 540 GPU, Hexagon 682 DSP)	Snapdragon 845 (Kryo 385 8-core CPU at 2.8 GHz, Adreno 630, Hexagon 685 DSP)
Tracking method	VIO	SLAM (room-scale)
Eye tracking	SMI	Tobii EyeCore
Input	Trackpad on right side of headset	3DoF motion controller
Expected availability	Second quarter of 2017	Second quarter of 2018

Reception

Engadget's Cherlynn Low tried the reference headset for five to ten minutes at Qualcomm's MWC 2018 booth. Foveated rendering and the obstacle avoidance system were not yet running, so she could not evaluate them. She wrote that the SLAM tracking gave a more grounded experience, that she felt noticeably less nauseated than in some other headsets, and that the headset was light and comfortable enough for her to duck and dodge during the demo. She called it "a sweet, if limited, preview of what upcoming standalone VR goggles can do."

TechRadar used the headset with a controller at GDC. It reported that Qualcomm did not yet have accuracy data because testing was still ongoing, but that the company said room-scale tracking led to better accuracy and reduced drift. Road to VR noted at the February announcement that no consumer VR headset had yet shipped with built-in eye tracking. In April 2018, it wrote that new standalone headsets based on the 845 VRDK were expected from the second half of 2018.

See also

• Virtual Reality
• Head-mounted display
• VR Headset
• Snapdragon 835 VR Development Kit
• Snapdragon XR1 HMD Reference Design
• Snapdragon XR2 HMD Reference Design
• Standalone VR
• Foveated rendering