MetaSapiens v2: Advancing Real-Time Foveated Neural Rendering via Foveation-Aware Pruning and Stereo Warping

Abstract

Point-Based Neural Rendering (PBNR) is emerging as a promising class of rendering techniques, which are permeating all aspects of society, driven by a growing demand for real-time, photorealistic rendering in AR/VR and digital twins. However, achieving real-time PBNR on VR/AR devices is challenging. This paper proposes MetaSapiens v2, a PBNR system that delivers real-time neural rendering on VR/AR devices while maintaining human visual quality. MetaSapiens v2 combines four techniques. First, we present an efficiency-aware pruning technique to optimize rendering speed. Second, we introduce a Foveated Rendering (FR) method with an efficient primitive for PBNR, leveraging humans' low visual acuity in peripheral regions to relax rendering quality and improve rendering speed. Third, we leverage the redundancy between the two eyes and propose a selective warping method to further reduce the computation overhead in AR/VR binocular rendering. Finally, we propose an accelerator design for binocular FR, addressing the load imbalance issue in (FR-based) PBNR and supporting warping for efficient binocular rendering. Our evaluation shows that MetaSapiens v2 achieves an order of magnitude speedup over existing PBNR models while maintaining the visual quality.