Described herein are motion smoothing techniques for a display, or display system, such as a head-mounted display (HMD), to account for motion of moving or animating objects in a way that mitigates judder. The display system may be separate from, yet communicatively coupled to, a host computer where a graphics-based application, such as a video game, is outputting frames for rendering on the display system. The host computer may generate motion vectors representing compressed pixel data for transmission to the display system. The motion vectors can be used by the display system to modify pixel data of a frame. The modified pixel data for the frame is “motion-smoothed” for rendering on the display system in a manner that mitigates judder of moving or animating objects.