The “real life mode” in TVR2 uses the DepthAPI in order to achieve its depth occlusion. Here’s some of our impressions and notes as one of the first games to deploy with this technology enabled:
The effect only works reliably between 3-5m
if you’re making a game which uses this tech, be sure to keep this limitation in mind! In this image here, you can see the other player is clearly behind cover, but because they are quite far away, the DepthAPI struggles to properly occlude him.
Performance is quite bad
Currently, this system uses a lot of CPU resources. We noticed that lag spikes and were much more frequent when using DepthAPI. This is something Meta will of course fix over time, but keep it in mind as you develop.
It’s only available on Quest 3
Currently this system uses the Depth Sensor which is exclusive to Quest 3, locking out a large portion of the Quest user base. If your game centers around DepthAPI, consider how you can also service the needs of Quest 2 users.
It’s very easy to use!
Meta have done a great job with it - just enable the system and you’re essentially good to go. We had a lot of issues setting up the system due to our custom implementations, but we were able to figure it out eventually. Most likely this won’t happen to you, and you’ll have a seamless experience.
(Unreal) Use the Meta Fork!
The meta fork allows you to enable soft occlusions, which greatly improves the visual fidelity of the system. I really recommend enabling this if you can.
Closing Thoughts
This system is extremely cool and I’m excited to see where it goes in the future, and how games will utilise the unique gameplay potential of it!
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