7.9. Virtual Reality

Android includes APIs and facilities to build “Virtual Reality” (VR) applications including high quality mobile VR experiences. Device implementations MUST properly implement these APIs and behaviors, as detailed in this section.

7.9.1. Virtual Reality Mode

Android handheld device implementations that support a mode for VR applications that handles stereoscopic rendering of notifications and disable monocular system UI components while a VR application has user focus MUST declare android.software.vr.mode feature. Devices declaring this feature MUST include an application implementing android.service.vr.VrListenerService that can be enabled by VR applications via android.app.Activity#setVrModeEnabled.

7.9.2. Virtual Reality High Performance

Android handheld device implementations MUST identify the support of high performance virtual reality for longer user periods through the android.hardware.vr.high_performance feature flag and meet the following requirements.

  • Device implementations MUST have at least 2 physical cores.
  • Device implementations MUST declare android.software.vr.mode feature.
  • Device implementations MAY provide an exclusive core to the foreground application and MAY support the Process.getExclusiveCores API to return the numbers of the cpu cores that are exclusive to the top foreground application. If exclusive core is supported then the core MUST not allow any other userspace processes to run on it (except device drivers used by the application), but MAY allow some kernel processes to run as necessary.
  • Device implementations MUST support sustained performance mode.
  • Device implementations MUST support OpenGL ES 3.2.
  • Device implementations MUST support Vulkan Hardware Level 0 and SHOULD support Vulkan Hardware Level 1.
  • Device implementations MUST implement EGL_KHR_mutable_render_buffer, EGL_ANDROID_front_buffer_auto_refresh, EGL_ANDROID_get_native_client_buffer, EGL_KHR_fence_sync, EGL_KHR_wait_sync, EGL_IMG_context_priority, EGL_EXT_protected_content, and expose the extensions in the list of available EGL extensions.
  • The GPU and display MUST be able to synchronize access to the shared front buffer such that alternating-eye rendering of VR content at 60fps with two render contexts will be displayed with no visible tearing artifacts.
  • Device implementations MUST implement GL_EXT_multisampled_render_to_texture, GL_OVR_multiview, GL_OVR_multiview2, GL_OVR_multiview_multisampled_render_to_texture, GL_EXT_protected_textures , and expose the extensions in the list of available GL extensions.
  • Device implementations MUST implement support for AHardwareBuffer flags AHARDWAREBUFFER_USAGE_GPU_DATA_BUFFER and AHARDWAREBUFFER_USAGE_SENSOR_DIRECT_DATA as described in the NDK.
  • Device implementations MUST implement support for AHardwareBuffers with more than one layer.
  • Device implementations MUST support H.264 decoding at least 3840x2160@30fps-40Mbps (equivalent to 4 instances of 1920x1080@30fps-10Mbps or 2 instances of 1920x1080@60fps-20Mbps).
  • Device implementations MUST support HEVC and VP9, MUST be capable to decode at least 1920x1080@30fps-10Mbps and SHOULD be capable to decode 3840x2160@30fps-20Mbps (equivalent to 4 instances of 1920x1080@30fps-5Mbps).
  • The device implementations are STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to support android.hardware.sensor.hifi_sensors feature and MUST meet the gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer related requirements for android.hardware.hifi_sensors.
  • Device implementations MUST support HardwarePropertiesManager.getDeviceTemperatures API and return accurate values for skin temperature.
  • The device implementation MUST have an embedded screen, and its resolution MUST be at least be FullHD(1080p) and STRONGLY RECOMMENDED TO BE be QuadHD (1440p) or higher.
  • The display MUST measure between 4.7" and 6.3" diagonal.
  • The display MUST update at least 60 Hz while in VR Mode.
  • The display latency on Gray-to-Gray, White-to-Black, and Black-to-White switching time MUST be ≤ 3 ms.
  • The display MUST support a low-persistence mode with ≤5 ms persistence,persistence being defined as the amount of time for which a pixel is emitting light.
  • Device implementations MUST support Bluetooth 4.2 and Bluetooth LE Data Length Extension section 7.4.3.