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Enabling Mobile Virtual Reality Gaming
Know Your Hardware!
Nizar Romdan
Director of Developer Ecosystem
16th February 2016

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About ARM
Apps Processor
Cortex-A5
Cortex-A9
Cortex-
A15
Cortex-A7
Mali™-400
Mali-T760
Mali-450
Mali-T604
Cortex-
A17
Mali-T720
Mali-V500
Mali-
DP500
Power
MgmtCortex-M3
Cortex-M0
Bluetooth
Cortex-M3
Cortex-M0
Cellular
ModemCortex®-R4
Cortex-R5
Cortex-R7
WiFi
Cortex-M4
SIM
SecurCore®
SC300™
GPS
Cortex-M3
Cortex-M0
Flash
ControllerCortex-M3
Touchscreen
& Sensor
HubCortex-M0
Cortex-M3
Cortex-M4
Sensor Hub
Cortex-
M0+
Camera
Cortex-M3

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The ARM Business Model
2-3 years
ARM research
and development
Cost
incurred
2-3
years
Partner chip
development
License
revenu
e
$
20+ years
Multiple applications
development and
sales
Royalty
revenu
e
$

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Real presence scales emotions 10x
The feeling of actually being there

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VR is not new – People were discussing VR the 90’s
 Expensive and bulky hardware
 Inadequate technology offered limited graphics capabilities
 Virtuality – Sega VR – Nintendo Virtual Boy
VR is now accessible
 Emergence of low-cost hardware based on existing platforms
 Mobile platforms offering console-like performance offering
more realism
VR is about immersing users into Virtual worlds
 All the virtual world is graphically rendered
Introducing VR
Virtuality
Sega VR

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VR Use Cases
Games Experiences Training
Education TV/Film
Advertising

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ARM Ice Cave VR Demo
Frozen ice cave demo developed in Unity 5.0
High-end graphical showcase in Virtual
Reality
 Geomerics Enlighten
 Reflections, refractions, soft shadows, …
 OpenGL ES 3.0
 Artwork from AAA art studio (RealtimeUK)
 Optimised for Mali-T760 MP8 and above
 Implemented camera streaming from GearVR
device to another device (other people can
see what the player is doing)
 Alpha version shown at APM 2015
 Final at Unite Boston 21st September 2015 Screenshots from Samsung Galaxy S6

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VR Opportunities
Could Hit $30B by 2020 – Likely to be mainly from Gaming & Hardware

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VR Hardware Landscape Worldwide

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Virtual Reality Segmentation
Samsung Gear VR Zeiss VR One Google Cardboard
Oculus Rift Sony Morpheus HTC Vive (Steam VR)
Mobile
Desktop/Console

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 Headset based on Smartphone
 Partnership between Samsung Mobile & Oculus
 First version for Galaxy Note 4 (Mali-T760)
 Second version for Galaxy S6 (Mali-T760)
 Resolution 1080p – 60 Hz
 First VR appstore
Introducing GearVR

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China VR Headsets – DeePoon Case Study

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2020 Opportunity in Mobile Computing
Mid-Range
Smartphone
Entry-Level
Smartphones
Premium
Smartphone
650m
devices in 2020
450m
devices in 2020
1,000m
devices in 2020
Laptops
and 2-in-1s
250m
devices in 2020
Tablets
450m
devices in 2020
Source: Gartner and ARM
estimates

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How Long Until Desktop GPU Compute Is In Mobile?
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018
GFLOPS/Sec
PS3
Xbox 360
Current mobile compute capability very near console
Mobile Today
PS4
XboxOne

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Stereoscopic Display (via headset) – Providing wearer with a sense of depth
 Render left eye and right eye independently
 Barrel distortion effect applied to rendered output via post processing
Sensor input for head-tracking – To add realism to the output image
Sensor input for interaction (hands-tracking) – To provide an immersive
experience
How Virtual Reality Works
Left eye
Right eye
Eye gap (IPD)
Left eye Right eye
Lens
Lens
2x
CPU
Processing
2x
Vertex
processing
Increased
Fragment
Processing

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Virtual Reality Technical Challenges

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ARM Graphics Developer Centre –
malideveloper.arm.com
Supporting Mali
developers with a
full range of
resources through
one, easy-access
portal

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• API Trace & Debug
• OpenGL® ES,
OpenCL™
• Debug and improve
performance at frame
level
Mali Graphics Debugger
Mali GPU
- Timeline
- HW Counters
- OpenCL visualizer
ARM DS-5 Streamline
• Analyze shader
performance
• Generates binary
shaders
• Command line tool
Mali Offline Compiler
• Emulate OpenGL ES
2.0 and 3.0
• Windows and Linux
• Khronos Conformant
OpenGL ES Emulator
• Command line and
GUI
• ETC, ETC2, ASTC
• 3D textures
Texture Compression
Tool
Integration with
partners’ tools
Third Party Tools
Mali GPU Software Tools
Performance Analysis, Debug, and Software Development

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ARM Guide to The Unity Developers – Released
Available under http://malideveloper.arm.com/armunityguide
Released at Unite Seattle 2014, and regularly updated and expanded at each key
Unite event
 ARM-specific and general advice
 Optimization process
 Profiling and Debugging
 Advanced Graphics Techniques

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ARM Mali VR SDK v0.1 available now under
http://malideveloper.arm.com/resources/sdks/
 Tutorial – Introduces the concepts of stereoscopic vision
 Fundamentals of stereoscopic rendering
 Effects of lenses and methods for correcting lens distortion in software
 Calibration
 Sample code
 Eye separation – Viewing distance – Size of screen – Lens separation
ARM Mali VR SDK v0.2 to be released mid Dec 2015
 Support for using OVR_multiview extension
 Foveated rendering
ARM Mali VR SDK v1.0 planned for Mar16 @ GDC’16
 Expose functionality as a user-friendly framework
 Add support for priority contexts
ARM Mali VR SDK under Development

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Thank You!
malideveloper.arm.com