Meta shared extra particulars about its Boba 3 ultra-wide FOV VR & MR analysis prototypes, in addition to a “hyperrealistic VR” prototype referred to as Tiramisu.
Meta Exhibits Off Sensible Extremely-Vast Area Of View Headset Prototypes
Meta constructed two prototype headsets with 180°×120° subject of view in a comparable type issue to right this moment’s Quests, and can demo them at SIGGRAPH 2025.
When you missed it, final month Meta researchers revealed three prototype headsets throughout two paper abstracts.
One paper is from Show Programs Analysis (DSR) crew. It is referred to as ‘Vast Area-of-View Blended Actuality’, and presents VR and blended actuality variants of a headset design with ultra-wide subject of view in a comparable type issue to right this moment’s Quests.
The opposite paper is from Meta’s Optics, Photonics, and Mild Programs (OPALS) crew, and is known as “Hyperrealistic VR: A 90-PPD, 1400-Nit, Excessive-Distinction Headset”. OPALS say they’ve mixed above-retinal decision with excessive brightness and excessive distinction for the primary time, a mix they declare achieves “a brand new milestone on how sensible VR experiences will be”.
The total papers are set to be revealed simply earlier than SIGGRAPH 2025 subsequent week, the convention the place Meta will demo all three headsets to attendees.
UploadVR will probably be at SIGGRAPH 2025, and we plan to go hands-on with all three headsets to convey you our impressions.
Now, Meta has revealed the names and key particulars of those three prototype headsets, in a weblog submit that features quotes from key members of the DSR and OPALS groups.
Boba 3: Extremely-Vast Area Of View VR & MR
It seems the sensible ultra-wide subject of view headset proven visually within the summary was referred to as Boba 2, and that Meta is definitely presenting a sleeker and better decision model referred to as Boba 3 at SIGGRAPH.
Boba 3 achieves a 180° horizontal by 120° vertical subject of view.
“Boba 3 seems like breaking via to the following stage of immersion, opening up the periphery and displaying off what you didn’t even know was lacking.”
For comparability, Quest 3 has a subject of view of lower than 110° × 96°, whereas Quest 3S has lower than 96° × 96°, and human imaginative and prescient may be very roughly 200° × 135°, relying on the form of an individual’s face.
In easier phrases, Meta claims Boba 3 covers roughly 90% of human subject of view, in comparison with 46% for Quest 3.
Meta’s Boba 3 sensible ultra-wide subject of view headset prototype.
Progress on attaining sensible ultra-wide subject of view comes after a decade of stagnation on this entrance.
Again in 2018 DSR confirmed off the unique Half-Dome headset which, in addition to having varifocal optics, had a subject of view of 140°. Subsequent variations of Half-Dome had a smaller subject of view, nonetheless, with Half-Dome 2 specializing in compactness and Half-Dome 3 transferring to an digital varifocal strategy with no transferring components.
Till lately, we hadn’t seen any Meta prototype with a large subject of view once more in any respect. Then, in October 2024, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth shared a photograph of himself holding a headset with a really huge curved physique, suggesting an ultra-wide subject of view. He later mentioned that it had a horizontal subject of view of round 210°, however repeated his long-standing view that an ultra-wide subject of view is not well worth the tradeoffs on “weight, type issue, compute, and thermals”.
Meta now says this prototype was referred to as Boba 1, and had a show and optics stack from “about 9 years in the past”.
Boba 1 had 2K×1K per-eye decision, in keeping with the corporate, and it appears ultra-wide subject of view took a again seat till final yr, when Boba 2 arrived with 3K×3K.
Boba 3, the headset being demoed at SIGGRAPH this yr, has a decision of 4K×4K per eye, which Meta says can lastly ship ample central angular decision to make ultra-wide subject of view viable.
Particularly, Boba 3 has a central angular decision of 30 pixels per diploma (PPD), in comparison with 25 PPD for Quest 3. For reference, human retinal decision is mostly thought-about to be 60 PPD.
Meta’s walkthrough of Boba 3.
However as we famous when protecting the summary, what makes Boba 3 really fascinating is that it achieves the ultra-wide subject of view with out the shape issue tradeoff seen in each different try to date, together with Boba 1 and the unique Pimax headsets.
Meta says the blended actuality Boba 3 variant with passthrough weighs 840 grams, whereas Boba 3 VR with out passthrough weighs 660 grams.
Provided that these figures embrace the inflexible plastic strap, they need to be in comparison with Quest 3 with the Elite Strap: 698 grams.
“It’s one thing that we needed to ship out into the world as quickly as attainable, however it’s not for everybody,” DSR Optical Scientist Yang Zhao notes.
“It’s not going to simply hit a mass-market worth level. And it requires a top-of-the-line GPU and PC system.”
Meta says attaining the ultra-wide subject of view with out considerably rising weight and bulk is feasible because of “a customized optical design leveraging high-curvature reflective polarizers”. The design builds on its decade-long funding in pancake lenses, the corporate says, and leverages shows which can be already in mass manufacturing.
Thus, it appears like Meta might theoretically ship Boba 3 as a product if it actually needed to. Nevertheless it would not be low-cost, and it could require a high-end gaming PC to drive a viable angular decision for a subject of view that enormous. So Meta will not be delivery Boba 3 any time quickly. Not as a result of it could not, however as a result of it is not focused on making PC-only VR headsets anymore.
Tiramisu: “Ultrarealistic VR”
The headset that mixes above-retinal decision with excessive brightness and excessive distinction is known as Tiramisu, and it comes from Meta’s Optics, Photonics, and Mild Programs (OPALS) crew, a “sister crew” of DSR.
Meta has proven retinal decision earlier than in a single headset, and ultra-high brightness and distinction in one other, proving the perceptual advantages of every. UploadVR has even gone eyes-in with each headsets. However what makes Tiramisu particular is that it has all three qualities in a single headset.
Starburst: Eyes-In With Meta’s 20K Nit HDR Show Tech
Is high-dynamic vary (HDR) the important thing to subsequent era VR shows? Palms-on time with Meta’s newest demo and an interview with the top of show techniques analysis suggests it’ll be fairly key. Learn on for particulars. On the current SIGGRAPH convention in Vancouver David Heaney and I went
Palms-On: Meta’s Retinal Decision Varifocal Prototype
We tried Meta’s Butterscotch Varifocal prototype which has dynamic focus, retinal decision, and dynamic distortion correction. Learn our impressions right here:
Meta says Tiramisu has 3.6x the central angular decision of Quest 3, 14x the brightness, and 3x the distinction.
Particularly, Tiramisu has a central angular decision of 90 PPD and brightness of 1400 nits. That compares to 25 PPD and simply 100 nits for Quest 3. And once more, for reference, human retinal decision is mostly thought-about to be 60 PPD.
For the demo, Meta is utilizing “the most effective real-time graphics that Unreal Engine 5 can produce”, together with Nvidia’s DLSS 3 neural upscaling, in order that the software program aspect additionally gives “hyperrealistic” visuals.
Nonetheless, Tiramisu makes numerous sacrifices to realize what Meta describes as “a brand new milestone for realism in VR”.
The headset has a subject of view of simply 33° x 33°, a comically giant type issue, and makes use of heavy and costly glass lenses.
However like its Orion AR glasses prototype, Meta describes Tiramisu as “a time machine”. Its objective is to analysis the sensation of hyperrealistic VR, and this may inform the corporate’s priorities for future headset merchandise.
Meta’s walkthrough of Tiramisu.
It is a key step in the direction of Meta’s acknowledged purpose of at some point passing the “Visible Turing Check”, whereby you would be unable to inform whether or not you have been sporting security goggles or an XR headset.
“Tiramisu isn’t one thing you may actually perceive simply by studying an summary,” says DSR Director Douglas Lanman.
“It truly is like the primary time you see 4K TV or an HDR TV, or the primary time you go on a extremely immersive theme park trip that sprays water in your face. It’s one thing new, and it’s onerous to grasp this mixture of numbers on a web page actually feeling completely different. Actually, it’s the primary headset shortly that basically offers me a way of surprise. It’s essentially the most sensible VR picture I’ve seen but, with very spectacular specs that add as much as one thing that does look extra sensible than something we’ve seen in VR earlier than.”
