NVIDIA announced the release of version 1.0 of its CloudXR SDK, a suite of tools that enables network operators to deliver cloud-rendered AR/VR streaming capabilities.
Nvidia is constantly preparing its CloudXR system for the emergence of edge computing networks with GPUs and 5G-connected devices.
The company has developed a number of tools that enable these networks (or the operators at the top of these networks) to deliver cloud-rendered AR / VR content to their customers.
Ultimately, the aim of AR/VR streaming is to remove the hardware barrier to VR by rendering the image material in the cloud and transferring it to a host device that does not in itself require particularly robust or expensive hardware.
Nvidia already offers a very similar service called GeForce Now, but it is for traditional games and not for VR. CloudXR is a specialized solution for the unique latency and performance requirements of VR and AR streaming.
Although Nvidia announced the early release of the CloudXR SDK late last year, the company today announced version 1.0, which is said to be ready for first real-world network implementations.
According to Nvidia, the CloudXR system can stream any SteamVR content to end users on Windows or Android systems without requiring any special modification to the streaming application.
This can be game and entertainment content or business and productivity content, such as state-of-the-art 3D visualization or immersive design applications; whatever the operator wants to offer to its customers.
NVIDIA announced the release of version 1.0 of its CloudXR SDK
But the CloudXR SDK is not just a simple client-host video encoder/decoder; according to Nvidia, the system is designed to operate and manage large server deployments and provides a truly scalable solution that can support many clients simultaneously on virtualized hardware.
“CloudXR combines the power of an RTX server with NVIDIA’s Quadro Virtual Workstation (Quadro vDWS) GPU virtualization software to securely enable multi-tenant deployments, a common requirement of telecommunications and service providers. GPU virtualization also allows multiple virtual machines to access a GPU when the workload is lower, optimizing user density and operating costs. Management capabilities are simplified with support for VMware and Red Hat virtualization platforms and support management tools”.
For high-end computing operators looking for a complete solution, Nvidia even offers an ‘RTX Server CloudXR 5G MEC DevKit’ – literally a server box with all the hardware and software needed to stream AR/VRs rendered in the cloud, which can be connected to an existing data center for testing purposes.
It will be some time before we see the CloudXR streaming capabilities offered to real end-users, but Nvidia hopes that this is an important first step towards a viable future for AR/VR cloud streaming.
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