Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth revealed a mysterious wide-field-of-view (FOV) headset that was prototyped last week at the offices of Redmond, Washington-based Reality Labs. Bosworth now reveals that the research prototype has something close to a 210-degree FOV, but wide-FOV displays are a critical trade-off the company isn't ready to make.
And if you're hoping this is a wide FOV Mission yet to come, you'll probably be disappointed. In a recent Q&A on Instagram, Bosworth revealed that the device is actually a mixed reality but he tempered expectations by calling the prototype “very, very,”. A lot “low resolution” specifically contained “huge gaps where there is no image on the screen”.
Bosworth hinted that Meta won't pursue such a wide FOV because there are too many conflicting tradeoffs.
“I know how much you will love the field of view and want more. I'm with you. I like. I get it, I get it. Here are the swaps For this reason bad. Tradeoffs between weight, form factor, compute, and thermal capabilities… All Bad,” Bosworth said in the Q&A.
Enthusiast-oriented wide-FOV PC VR headsets like the Pimax Crystal Light ($699), Pimax Crystal Super QLED ($1,799), and Somnium VR1 (€1,900/AU$2,050) don't need to worry that much about those things because they rely on dedicated GPUs and generally don't need to fit into tight compute and power envelopes like the Quest. And as we know, Meta no longer makes headsets solely for PC VR either.
Bosworth puts this down to price, because producing a significantly larger FOV alone beyond the typical 110 degrees horizontal increases the costs of all relevant components.
“Field of view is one of the most expensive things you can add to a headset. And by definition all that cost — that quadratic cost — goes to the least important pixels,” Bosworth said, referring to the perimeter of the display.
Even so, Meta doesn't seem ready to revisit higher price points just yet—at least not by retiring the Quest Pro, which launched just two years ago for an eye-watering $1,500 and was slashed to $1,000 less than a year after its launch. after separating. In the near term, the company is pinning its hopes on the Quest 3S, the most affordable standalone mixed reality yet.
“It's a really difficult trade to exploit. We care about line of sight and that's why we're doing this research. We are looking for different ways to approach it, attack it and make it cheaper […] and more affordable and not so expensive,” Bosworth said.
Bosworth, who summarizes the issue with wide FOV titles, says, “There is a practical reason why we are in this field.”
The prototype was developed by the company's Display Systems Research (DSR) team, led by Doug Lanman, who is also known for his work on varifocal prototypes. In 2020, DSR said its newest varifocal prototype, with static varifocal displays and folded optics, was “almost ready for prime time.” The team also demonstrated display prototypes with higher display ranges, providing better contrast for more immersive visuals. None of these technologies have left the laboratory yet.
Instead, Meta appears to be continuing its march to reach the masses with mixed reality, acting as a lower-cost foil to Apple's $3,500 Vision Pro (an emerging XR competition whose battle lines are still unclear).
– – – – –
A report recently published by Information Meta claims it could launch a Quest 4 in 2026; This will give us a better idea of how Apple hopes to respond to similar reports of a cheaper follow-up to the Vision Pro rumored to arrive in late 2025.