While streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime have been in operation for a while, cloud gaming services are only now starting to hit the mainstream with the recent launch of Google’s Stadia platform.

But early reviews suggest the unavoidable latency caused by the cloud nature of the platform makes performance less than ideal, and the service is yet to support VR which is even more data intensive.

Cloud computing has the potential to elevate VR games to the next level, the Graz researchers said, while acknowledging that the bandwidth requirements as they stand are “challenging”.

A fluid VR display requires up to ten times more computational performance to generate enough pixels and enough frames per second.

A new technique known as ‘shading atlas streaming’ can deliver VR experiences with significantly fewer bits per second transmitted over the network the researchers claim.

Lead researcher Dieter Schmalstieg explained: “We are not streaming videos, but geometrically encoded data, which is decoded on the VR headset and converted into an image.”

The latency is then compensated for by the system. “It is physically impossible to remove all latency,” said Schmalstieg, “but our encoding allows correct images to be predicted for a small temporal window into the future.

“As a result, physical latency is compensated for, and the user does not perceive any delays.”

Only a few pixel errors from mispredictions remain, which are considered too few to be perceived by users.

In practice, it is important to be able to integrate the new technology into existing infrastructure. For this reason, the researchers use conventional MPEG video compression to encode and transmit the data.

With existing VR headsets already supporting MPEG decoding, shading atlas streaming can be used without investing in new hardware.

The researchers are now working with US chip giant Qualcomm on commercial exploitation of their research results.

Last month a London-based team demonstrated how VR experiences could be used to relieve chronic pain sufferers of their symptoms.

While streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime have been in operation for a while, cloud gaming services are only now starting to hit the mainstream with the recent launch of Google’s Stadia platform.

But early reviews suggest the unavoidable latency caused by the cloud nature of the platform makes performance less than ideal, and the service is yet to support VR which is even more data intensive.

Cloud computing has the potential to elevate VR games to the next level, the Graz researchers said, while acknowledging that the bandwidth requirements as they stand are “challenging”.

A fluid VR display requires up to ten times more computational performance to generate enough pixels and enough frames per second.

A new technique known as ‘shading atlas streaming’ can deliver VR experiences with significantly fewer bits per second transmitted over the network the researchers claim.

Lead researcher Dieter Schmalstieg explained: “We are not streaming videos, but geometrically encoded data, which is decoded on the VR headset and converted into an image.”

The latency is then compensated for by the system. “It is physically impossible to remove all latency,” said Schmalstieg, “but our encoding allows correct images to be predicted for a small temporal window into the future.

“As a result, physical latency is compensated for, and the user does not perceive any delays.”

Only a few pixel errors from mispredictions remain, which are considered too few to be perceived by users.

In practice, it is important to be able to integrate the new technology into existing infrastructure. For this reason, the researchers use conventional MPEG video compression to encode and transmit the data.

With existing VR headsets already supporting MPEG decoding, shading atlas streaming can be used without investing in new hardware.

The researchers are now working with US chip giant Qualcomm on commercial exploitation of their research results.

Last month a London-based team demonstrated how VR experiences could be used to relieve chronic pain sufferers of their symptoms.