To help facilitate VR development given these increased computational needs, Nvidia has officially released the first version of two VR Software Development Kits (SDKs): Nvidia GameWorks VR and Nvidia DesignWorks VR.
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Just in time for this weekend’s Overwatch stress test and the launch of Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate on PC, Nvidia has released a new set of Game Ready drivers, promising “optimizations” for both games and an SLI profile for Syndicate. Designed for everything from medical imaging to 3D filmmaking, DesignWorks VR includes warp and blend APIs, synchronisation features created to prevent tearing and judder in multi-GPU environments, GPU affinity, and a Direct for Video mode for head-mounted and immersive display use. The SDK is only available to registered select VR headset and application developers.
Nvidia said that GameWorks VR is already being integrated into leading game engines, such as those from Epic Games, which has announced support for GameWorks VR features in an upcoming version of the popular Unreal Engine 4.3.
If you were curious about the company’s GameWorks VR initiatives, especially in light of the fact that they got a former Sucker Punch graphics programmer to start writing detailed technical breakdowns of the tech this summer, now is your opportunity to check things out for yourself.
DesignWorks VR, meanwhile, is for those developing professional VR applications for a range of different industries. In practice developers may indeed find that Nvidia’s multi-res shading technology delivers as much as a 50 per cent performance boost.
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Built into GameWorks VR, the gaming-centric VR SDK, Multi-Res Shading renders each part of the image at a resolution which best matches the pixel density of the image post-warping for headset display.
