Dominant-Eye-Aware Asymmetric Foveated Rendering for Virtual Reality

To address the increasing computational demands of high-resolution virtual reality headsets, foveated rendering reduces pixel sampling in the peripheral regions of the visual field. However, existing methods have not fully leveraged binocular vision, particularly the dominant eye theory. In our prior work, we proposed Dominant-Eye-Aware foveated rendering optimized with Multi-Parameter foveation (DEAMP), which divided each eye’s visual field into fixed eccentricity layers ([0, 10]°, [10, 22.5]°, [22.5, 45]°). The non-dominant eye received greater foveation within the same layers compared to the dominant eye. We further argue that the eccentricity ranges should vary between the eyes due to inter-eye, individual, and scene-specific differences. In this article, we introduce an enhanced method, Dominant-Eye-aware Asymmetric Foveated Rendering (DEA-FoR). This treats eccentricity as a new variable, allowing users to select eccentricity sets tailored to their eyes and supporting asymmetric configurations between the two eyes. Experimental results demonstrate significant improvements in rendering speed over our previous method while maintaining perceptual quality. Additionally, we found that individual differences and scene texture complexity significantly influence the eccentricity settings. This work offers new insights into perceptual differences in binocular vision and contributes to optimizing virtual reality experiences.