Possibilities for a VR compositor

[Pekka Paalanen]

On Sun, 1 Mar 2015 08:12:07 +0100
Max Jensen <maxjen at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> With the Oculus Rift and Valve also likely showing its own VR-headset next
> week at GDC I expect VR to be a big thing in the coming years. Fortunately
> Wayland seems to be quite suitable for creating a VR desktop, there is
> already this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgtba_GpG-U
> 
> However, I think there are even more possibilities and I don't know if
> Wayland already supports them. Is it currrently possible to have two
> buffers for one window (one per eye)? This could open a whole new door of
> possibilities:
> - 3D video players
> - traditional non-VR games that want a nice 3D effect, many already do it
> using anaglyph 3D (even I have experimented with it for my 2D game
> <http://i.imgur.com/qOnwARB.png>)
> - 3D modelers like Blender could actually look even more 3D
> 
> Another idea would be to allow applications to expose their depth-buffer.
> That way I think you could have a game running in the background and have
> your windows placed around you in the 3D world with correct occlusion.
> Imagine this use case: You start a game that supports it, you go to a nice
> place <http://depasquale.deviantart.com/art/BioShock-Infinite-362635121>,
> then you press a key combo and the compositor pulls up all your windows
> around you and you can do some work.
> 
> Anyway, this email is only to make you aware of VR in case you weren't
> already. Valve is heavily pushing Linux with steamOS/steam machines and VR
> is getting bigger and bigger with companies like Facebook, Valve, Samsung,
> Nvidia, Razer and HTC all planning to make their own HMD. And since we have
> Wayland I think this is a great opportunity to enable VR desktops that blow
> everything Windows can offer out of the water.

Yeah, there was this one guy whose name I again forget (sorry) who did
some experiments with passing both stereo and depth through from clients
to the compositor, IIRC with Rift indeed.

There is nothing standard defined for stereo or depth in Wayland yet,
but it's "just" a protocol extension away: more wl_buffer types. And
maybe some EGL extensions.


Thanks,
pq