Remote Rendering for VR

The aim of this thesis is to study and advance technology relating to remote rendering of Virtual Reality (VR). In remote rendering, rendered content is commonly streamed as video images in network packets from a server to a client. Experiments are conducted with varying networks and configurations throughout this work as well as with different technologies that enable or improve remote VR experiences. As an introduction to the field, the thesis begins with related studies on 360-video. Here, a statistic based on throughput alone is proposed for use in light-weight performance monitoring of encrypted HTTPS 360-video streams. The statistic gives an indication of the potential of stalls in the video stream which may be of use for network providers wanting to allocate bandwidth optimally. Moving on from 360-video into real-time remote rendering, a wireless VR adapter, TPCAST, is studied and a method for monitoring the inputand video-throughput of this device is proposed and implemented. With the monitoring tool, it is for example possible to identify video stalls that occur in TPCAST and thus determine a baseline of its robustness in terms of video delivery. Having determined the baseline, we move on to developing a prototype remote rendering system for VR. The prototype has so far been used to study the bitrate requirements of remote VR and to develop a novel method that can be used to reduce the image size from a codec-perspective by utilizing the Hidden Area Mesh (HAM) that is unique to VR. By reducing the image size, codecs can run faster and time will therefore be saved each frame, potentially reducing the latency of the system