With the aim of creating exceptional immersive encounters, BMW's M Virtual Experience has been optimised for HTC's new VIVE Pro Eye. Unveiled at CES 2019, the headset's eye-tracking features allow for foveated rendering and business intelligence, creating even better visuals whilst providing insight into user behaviour. Developed by ZeroLight with VIVE and NVIDIA, BMW's virtual reality showpiece serves as a prime example of modern experiential marketing.

Originally delivered as part of the BMW M Drive Tour 2018, the VR experience enables potential customers to configure, explore, and sit inside their digital vehicle on a 1:1 scale before taking a real car to the track. Across several scenes, each user goes through a journey around their car whilst interacting with multiple features.

"The BMW M Drive Tour is truly unique in the way it excites and engages BMW's most exclusive customers. At its core, it delivers an exhilarating driving experience which is then enriched through digital mediums to create a truly comprehensive approach to product discovery." - Florian Stiller, Head of Event and Sportmarketing BMW Group Central and Southeastern Europe

"We strive to create experiences that build a connection between the customer and the brand. With the VIVE Pro's new eye-tracking capabilities and NVIDIA's VRS technology, we've been able to enhance the BMW M Virtual Experience, delivering a method of product discovery that excels visually and enables data-led decision making." - Chris O'Connor, Technical Director, ZeroLight

The updates to the experience in conjunction with the release of the new VIVE Pro Eye improve both image quality and commercial understanding. Image quality is enhanced through foveated rendering, a method of rendering that uses eye tracking technology to focus compute power on exactly where the user is looking. In doing so, the area of the display that's in use receives the best possible image, while areas that aren't in use are de-prioritised. NVIDIA Turing-based RTX™ GPUs provide the best solution for foveated rendering through variable rate shading (VRS), enabling super sampling within a target area (explained at the bottom of this release).

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NVIDIA RTX™ GPUs provide a huge step forward in graphical processing, accelerating content creation workflows and applications. Its use within immersive mediums allows developers to create beautiful visuals, increasing image quality without the need for more graphical resources.

_{David Weinstein, Director of VR, NVIDIA}

Eye tracking also enables real-time analytics, allowing brands to understand how customers interact with digital products. Data around viewing the vehicle and options chosen can be displayed on a digital model and allow for further optimisation of the experience.

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The new premium features of the VIVE Pro Eye don't just enable better visual experiences, they also inform commercial decision making. This adds value to the deployment of immersive experiences at the point of sale, enabling live feedback of the way people interact with the brand

_{Dan O'Brien, GM of the Americas, HTC VIVE.}

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ContactJack NoveMarketing Executive, ZeroLightT: +44(0) 191 485 0505E: jack.nove@zerolight.com‍

About ZeroLight
ZeroLight is the market-leading omnichannel visualisation platform for the automotive industry. Pioneering real-time 3D solutions for retail, online and asset creation, ZeroLight empowers OEMs to sell smarter and engage customers with interactive product experiences that enhance the buying process. For more information about the company, go to  zerolight.com

About HTC VIVE
VIVE is a first-of-its-kind virtual reality platform, built and optimized for room-scale VR and true-to-life interactions. Delivering on the promise of VR with game-changing technology and best-in-class content, VIVE has created the strongest ecosystem for VR hardware and software, bringing VR to consumers, developers and enterprises alike. The VIVE ecosystem is built around the best VR hardware in market, supported by VIVE X, a $100 million accelerator for VR and related technology start-ups, VIVEport, a global platform and app store with the world's first VR subscription model that operates in more than 60 countries, and VIVE Studios, its VR content development and publishing initiative. For more information on VIVE, please visit www.VIVE.com.