No Man's Sky Cosmos Update Adds PC VR Eye-Tracked Foveated Rendering

Hello Games has released the Cosmos update for No Man's Sky, which brings support for eye-tracked dynamic foveated rendering to PCVR via SteamVR. Hidden roughly a third of the way down the 'Rendering' section of the patch notes, the new additions state that the game has added support for foveated rendering on PCVR, utilizing eye-tracking technology to concentrate rendering resources directly at the center of the player's vision to sharpen and beautify details.

This functionality mirrors features previously brought to other hardware. Hello Games previously added foveated rendering to the PlayStation VR2 version of the game in August 2023 via the Echoes update, which helped resolve player complaints regarding blurry visuals. While multiple PC VR headsets have featured eye tracking for years—such as the Meta Quest Pro, Pimax Crystal Super, and Vive Focus Vision—recent hardware surveys indicate low current user percentages for eye-tracking devices on Steam. However, industry attention remains focused on the anticipated launch of Valve's eye-tracking supported Steam Frame headset.

Running No Man's Sky smoothly in VR on PC has historically presented significant performance hurdles due to heavy procedural generation taxing both CPU and GPU resources. The newly integrated eye-tracked dynamic foveated rendering aims to alleviate some of this rendering overhead. The No Man's Sky Cosmos update is available now across all supported platforms, including SteamVR and PlayStation VR2.