Gaming: Meta's New Framesync Feature Aims To Make Vr A Little Less Nauseating

As performance demands grow for Quest headsets, Meta's updating its frame timing technique.

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Meta is rolling out a new frame timing technique for Horizon OS called FrameSync. It's billed as helping to reduce stale frames and increasing responsiveness in VR, all in the name of a smoother visual experience.

There are three main benefits to FrameSync versus the existing method, PhaseSync, according to Meta:

All of which would be welcome improvements. A delay between a user's movement and obviously stuttering or judder are all contributory to a feeling of unease in VR, especially if you already suffer from motion sickness. The feeling that your vision isn't quite matching your movements, even if only by a fractional delay, can be tough to stomach—literally for some.

If you've ever played a VR game over a wireless connection, or a tethered connection to a PC with weak silicon, you know what I'm talking about.

FrameSync is rolling out as the default option for all apps on the Horizon Store with v203. Developers have some time before then to experiment with v201 to make sure everything works as intended. If not, there is an opt-out available to stick with PhaseSync.

PhaseSync delays rendering a frame until the compositor needs it, essentially making it so there's less latency between when the GPU presents a frame to composite. It's a technique that's been around for a long time now, being introduced in the Rift SDK and working alongside features like Asynchronous Timewarp. Though it runs into difficulty when an app gets much more demanding, especially if this demand is spiky, and when frame rates are lower. This can cause more stale frames if the headset can't keep up with demand.

Hence the need for a new frame timing technique, FrameSync, which reportedly allows for VR apps that are more demanding without sacrificing on user comfort.

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Source: PC Gamer