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[Pico4] Weird stitching effect when taking screenshots or videos using the screenshot button
How to reproduce:
Take a screenshot or video of anything while Steam Link is connected to a PC.
It could be your Steam VR Home, or just the menu if you have your VR home disabled.
You will see a stitching effect like a smaller screenshot being stitched to a larger screenshot.
Changing the settings didn't seem to do anything, and this only happens at Steam VR Link.

Other Info:
Pico OS 5.13.7S
Steam VR: latest beta
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Originally posted by Packetdancer:
This is because VRLink uses foveated streaming, meaning the 'main' part of the scene is in full resolution, while the rest is in a lower resolution. (This is handled by actually streaming a given eye in a lower resolution, and then streaming only the 'main' part in higher resolution.) This is part of what allows VR to be streamed with a low enough latency to still respond to head movements.

Taking a screenshot on the SteamVR side (e.g. the host) will not show this, because the foveation is a product of the streaming system. But taking a screenshot on the headset side will, because... well, that lower-resolution at the edges is literally what it's displaying.

For headsets that support eye-tracking, this actually will ensure only the specific part of the scene you're looking at is in focus, and if you watched the stream itself (or recorded things as video on the headset side), you'd see the sharper bit move around matching where your eyes are. This generally means you cannot actually perceive the effect.

For those that don't support eye-tracking, it'll just be the center of it with the edges in the lower resolution.

Hopefully that helps clarify?
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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
RuriSapphire
May 29 @ 10:38am 
The screenshot button is the one on the Pico 4 controller (the right one). I prefer using this to take quick videos without opening OBS.
#1
The author of this thread has indicated that this post answers the original topic.
Packetdancer  [developer]
May 29 @ 2:00pm 
This is because VRLink uses foveated streaming, meaning the 'main' part of the scene is in full resolution, while the rest is in a lower resolution. (This is handled by actually streaming a given eye in a lower resolution, and then streaming only the 'main' part in higher resolution.) This is part of what allows VR to be streamed with a low enough latency to still respond to head movements.

Taking a screenshot on the SteamVR side (e.g. the host) will not show this, because the foveation is a product of the streaming system. But taking a screenshot on the headset side will, because... well, that lower-resolution at the edges is literally what it's displaying.

For headsets that support eye-tracking, this actually will ensure only the specific part of the scene you're looking at is in focus, and if you watched the stream itself (or recorded things as video on the headset side), you'd see the sharper bit move around matching where your eyes are. This generally means you cannot actually perceive the effect.

For those that don't support eye-tracking, it'll just be the center of it with the edges in the lower resolution.

Hopefully that helps clarify?
Last edited by Packetdancer; May 29 @ 2:01pm
#2
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Steam Link > Meta / PICO / HTC VR Headsets > Topic Details
Date Posted: May 29 @ 10:34am
Posts: 2
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