Vireio Perception 3.0.0 Alpha Released

Yes, we know it took longer than expected, but Vireio Perception is always worth waiting for!  We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of Vireio Perception 3.0.0 Alpha.

Vireio Perception users would be horrified if they ever learned how close we came to having to scrap the whole project.  As a consequence of moving with the times, the Oculus Rift 0.6.X SDK removed much of the architecture needed for Vireio to effectively support DirectX 9 games.  We seriously thought we were done for.  It’s with thanks to a lucky find and some sharp programming that Simon Brown was able to reinvigorate our future prospects by using DirectX 9Ex which was introduced with Windows Vista.  Yes, without Vista, Vireio could very well have been done for!

More than this, by upgrading and adjusting the Vireio Perception architecture to compensate, we are also able to introduce new Asynchronous Timewarp features to the drivers which we couldn’t even imagine before (in fact, DirectX 9 wouldn’t normally have been able to support this at all).  We’ve also been able to introduce new “Direct Mode” support so it’s no longer necessary to run games in the more cumbersom “extended mode”.  In the end, what was originally a handicap ended up surging the drivers further ahead.  It’s still very much an alpha driver at this point, but we all feel much more hopeful about them.

The developers have also come up with a way to adjust the projected field of view (FOV) of all matrices. This means you can adjust the FOV in games that don’t normally have this control, and users can improve performance by reducing the game FOV and increasing the Projection FOV.

Believe it or not, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s in the works.  The best is yet to come.