Qualcomms 845 VR Developer Kit Announced At GDC 2018

Qualcomm, today at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), announced a new virtual reality development kit, the Snapfragon 845 VR Developer Kit. Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 845 VR headset at MWC 2018, but further detailed the headset this week at GDC 2018 in San Francisco.

The most significant features included are Adreno Foveation and Eye-tracking software and hardware from the folks over at Tobii. Adreno Foveation combines graphics rendering with eye tracking to understand where the user is looking. Tobiis EyeCore eye tracking algorithms are used to create content that utilizes gaze direction for fast interactions, and superior intuitive interfaces. And, for the first time, 6 DoF SLAM (six degrees of freedom simultaneous localization and mapping), which is expected to be a game changer for the upcoming VR headsets of late 2018 and early 2019 since you now have room-scaling abilities. This should allow the headset to put more graphics resources to where the user is physically looking, providing the sharpest visuals possible. Speaking of shapr, the Snapdragon 845 VRDK features an AMOLED WQHD display offering approximately 2 million pixels pixels per eye.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Virtual Reality Development Kits hardware HMD and companion SDK are expected to be available in the second quarter of 2018.