Nvidia kicked the year off with a new driver update which introduces an interesting feature to boost performance and visual fidelity in around 20 VR games. Nvidia calls this new feature VRSS, or Variable Rate Super Sampling, and the feature is exclusive to the RTX range of graphics cards.
What is VRSS?
VRSS is just like any other super sampling technique, but it does so in a pretty smart manner. When VRSS is enabled, graphics are rendered at higher resolution, therefore increasing the overall image quality. Just like Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) that uses AI to accomplish the task, VRSS also uses AI to determine which part of the image requires to be rendered at higher resolution and at the same time, leaving the rest of the image unaffected.
Basically, VRSS applies Super Sampling to the center of the image and renders it at a higher resolution. This results in greater image quality while not having a negative impact on performance.
Developed For VR Games
While playing VR games, most of our attention is at the center of the image. This is where VRSS applies Super Sampling to. VRSS can increase the resolution up to eight times at the center of the image. This leaves the rest of the image unaffected, not even slightly reducing the quality. You'll always get better image quality when playing VR games without sacrificing other visual details in games.
VRSS has been developed in a way that it scales automatically based on your hardware's capability. This means you won't suffer reduced performance when using this feature. This is an essential aspect of VRSS as slower framerates can cause motion sickness and ruin immersion. Here is the list of games that support VRSS right now:
- Battlewake
- Boneworks
- Eternity WarriorsTM VR
- Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
- In Death
- Job Simulator
- Killing Floor: Incursion
- L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files
- Lone Echo
- Mercenary 2: Silicon Rising
- Pavlov VR
- Raw Data
- Rec Room
- Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality
- Robo Recall
- SairentoVR
- Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope
- Skeet: VR Target Shooting
- Space Pirate Trainer
- Special Force VR: Infinity War
- Spider-man: Far from Home
- Spider-man: Homecoming – Virtual Reality Experience
- Talos Principle VR
- The Soulkeeper VR
