Meta's new VR prototypes set new standards in resolution and field of view

Meta has presented two glasses prototypes. While Tiramisu is designed to create a visually realistic virtual reality, Boba 3 enables a particularly wide field of vision. Both devices require a PC with a high-performance graphics card.

Tiramisu makes Meta's current VR flagship Quest 3 look old in several areas: At 90 PPD, the prototype delivers a 3.5 times higher pixel density and, at 1,400 nits, a 14 times brighter display. In addition, the contrast is three times higher. This is made possible by two µOLED displays and high-quality glass lenses, which together create a visual experience that, according to Meta, is comparable to that of some HDR televisions.

The prototype comes with two technical compromises: it is bulkier and heavier than conventional VR glasses and, at just 33 degrees, offers a significantly smaller field of vision than standard devices. Nevertheless, it is said to deliver the most realistic VR image to date, thanks to an unprecedented combination of extremely high resolution and luminance.

Boba 3: Small form factor, large field of vision

The second prototype was optimized for the largest possible field of view: It achieves 180 degrees horizontally and 120 degrees vertically, which corresponds to around 90 percent of the human field of vision. By comparison, the Quest 3 achieves 110 and 96 degrees respectively, i.e. around 46 percent of the human field of vision. What is astonishing is that Boba achieves these values in a form factor that corresponds to that of current VR headsets. To achieve this, Meta developed a customized optical design with highly curved, reflective polarizers.

Meta has developed three generations of the Boba prototype over the years. The latest, Boba 3, achieves a resolution of 4K by 4K. However, as the pixels are spread over an extremely large field of view, the pixel density of 30 PPD is only slightly higher than that of the Quest 3 (25 PPD). Meta built two versions of the device: a pure VR version and an MR version with a passthrough function. This allows the extended field of vision to be assessed in relation to both the virtual and the real world.

According to Meta, Boba 3 relies on production-ready displays and a lens technology like that used in the Quest 3, which would facilitate mass production. The VR version of Boba 3 is also lighter than a Quest 3 with an official Elite head mount (660 instead of 698 grams). At the same time, Meta emphasizes that such a device would be expensive to produce and would require a high-end GPU.

Tiramisu and Boba 3 are purely research prototypes and are not intended for commercialization. You can try them out next week at the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in Vancouver. The first images and details of the devices made the rounds back in July.

(mki)