low mobile resolution in VR mode (iOS)

[ngokevin]

Description:

#1701 addressed it somewhat, but compared to 0.2.0, the resolution is still degraded.

This is probably webvr-polyfill issues, but need to fix it somehow for the release.

iOS (iPhone 6) / A-Frame 0.2.0

iOS (iPhone 6) / A-Frame Master

• A-Frame Version: master
• Platform/Device: iOS

[dmarcos]

This is a polyfill problem. The polyfill decides what size the canvas is going to have based on a data base of devices. The size is returned via getEyeParameters.

[ngokevin]

Yeah, I noted it is part of the polyfill and marked needs dependencies fixed. Still strongly affects A-Frame. For now, we should hack the polyfill to get the behavior as it was before.

[dmarcos]

Also the polyfill introduces distortion so the image is going to look distorted on your display when not looked through the lenses. You cannot compare both images (before and after) pixel by pixel

[dmarcos]

I notice that the resolution values of the polyfill are also conservative. A compromise between image quality vs performance? Performance takes priority over image quality

[ngokevin]

Yeah, but it is a serious decrease in image quality with no noticeable performance gain on our example scenes. The decrease in resolution doesn't seem worth the distortion when testing side-by-side.

[dmarcos]

You also have an iphone 6.

[ngokevin]

We've been recommending latest smartphones for Cardboard (last two generations). That would be minimum iPhone 6.

[dmarcos]

I would change the title of this bug and remove artifacts. What you call artifacts are the effects of the distortion. You can't compare both images pixel by pixel.

[iKoala]

I made the issue #1541 in another thread and I notice the same thing.
I tested v0.2.0 and the latest master branch in various devices, iPhone 6, Samsung Note 6, Redmi Note 4g and Samsung S6 with Google Cardboard. They all give the same result as @ngokevin testing.
As you guys mentioned it's the problem from webvr-polyfill but I think this is an important bug to A-Frame too.
My team has been trying to build a demo site with A-Frame but we really can't accept the display quality from the master branch, especially for text display. It's almost unreadable when the font size isn't huge enough on the screen.
It may increase the performance on mobile but I believe the current image quality isn't enough for quality production.

[mkungla]

@ngokevin and @dmarcos . perhaps aframe should enable us to set which camera effect is used when in vr mode. Since I have feeling that THREE.VREffect with distortion can't bring the comparable quality in detail as THREE.StereoCamera did in 0.2.0.

Something like
<a-scene vr-effect="default">
<a-scene vr-effect="stereo">
if that makes sense.

[dmarcos]

We did not use THREE.StereoCamera in 0.2.0. The distortion is not done by THREE.VREffect is done natively by the browser or by the polyfill.

[mkungla]

@dmarcos hm some reason I false idea that 0.2.0 used stereo camera by how that looked and prop stereoRenderer but now checking it's clear.

with distortion can't bring the comparable quality in detail as THREE.StereoCamera

translates to then that the distortion made by polyfill to render HQ requires more memory than most mobile browser allow per tab

[ngokevin]

Flat desktop also has low resolution, the buffer scale patch fixes it for some reason...

[ngokevin]

Never mind, separate issues.

[xaddict]

I would like to reopen this, as it's still a problem on iOS 9 and below.

[mkungla]

Yes that is known issue at this point that resolution of VR effect on any mobile is quite low
Related #1873, However using stereo view like in A-Frame 0.2.0 (2 squares ) would make affect experience on Gear VR and Cardboard

[protyze]

This seems definitely not entirely fixed yet. Also on iOS 10 when you switch to VR-Mode when holding the Phone in Portrait-Mode.

I can reproduce it with the following example on an iPhone 6S with iOS 10 like this:

1. Open "https://aframe.io/examples/showcase/sky/" in Safari.
2. Hold your Phone in Portrait Mode & Switch to VR-Mode
3. Hold you Phone now in Landscape Mode --> you will see Blurry Textures
4. Quit VR-Mode
5. Hold your Phone in Landscape Mode & Switch to VR-Mode
6. Perfectly Sharp Textures

Is this still being addressed currently? Let me know if I can help in any way.

[ngokevin]

#2008