Beyond Meta Quest 4: Meta Reveals Future Tech Of VR Headsets

Forbes

4 days ago

Meta has offered a glimpse of two of its prototype VR headsets, which offer clues as to what we could feature in a future Meta Quest 4 — and its successors.
Ahead of the SIGGRAPH 2025 graphics conference, Meta posted a blog that details a couple of current VR headset prototypes. They go by the codenames Tiramisu and Boba 3.
Each digs deep into a critical area of the VR experience, field of view and the sheer detail of the VR image.
Meta Tiramisu VR
Tiramisu deals in the latter, which Meta says marks 'a new milestone for realism in VR.' The prototype headset has 3.6x the pixel density of the Meta Quest 3, 16x the brightness (1,400 nits) and three times the contrast.
It uses micro OLED panels and glass lenses, rather than the usual plastic, to maximize optical sharpness, and has image density far in excess of even the Apple Vision Pro. That headset provides 34 pixels per degree, compared to 90 pixels per degree in Meta's Tiramisu.
While the technology sounds fantastic, there are major compromises. This prototype's field of view is just 33 degrees by 33 degrees, compared to 110 horizontal by 96 degrees vertical in the Quest 3.
This means the image will only take up a relatively small chunk of the wearer's vision. Meta also says that despite this, the Tiramisu prototype is 'is bulkier and heavier than today's consumer VR headsets.'
Meta's goal here is a concept any VR fan should find exciting, though.
'Our mission is to create a virtual display that is almost indistinguishable from being in a place physically, allowing for social presence using a compact and comfortable VR headset,' says Reality Labs Research's Optics, Photonics, and Light Systems team's Ying 'Melissa' Geng.
Meta Boba 3 VR headset
Meta's other VR prototype, Boba 3, digs into developing field of view rather than image sharpness, and may be something we see in consumer VR before Tiramisu's amazing visual acuity. It offers a field of view of 180 degrees (horizontal) by 120 degrees (vertical).
The goal is to so completely dominate the wearer's field of view that it eradicates the porthole effect of today's VR headsets. Meta explains that this project has been in the works for a long time but now uses currently mass produced components, and this latest iteration has 4K by 4K resolution.
That gives it slightly higher contextual resolution than the Meta Quest 3, despite the massive field of view. But while it sounds like Meta could produce a headset based on the Boba 3 without too much trouble, this isn't going to be the blueprint for something like a mainstream-friendly Meta Quest 4 just yet.
'It's something that we wanted to send out into the world as soon as possible, but it's not for everyone,' says Meta Optical Scientist Yang Zhao. "It's not going to easily hit a mass-market price point. And it requires a top-of-the-line GPU and PC system.'
What Meta actually puts into its next mainstream VR headset is yet to be seen. But a combination of the visual fidelity of Tiramisu and the immersive field of view of Boba 3 gives VR fans plenty to daydream about. Both Tiramisu and Boba 3 are currently being shown at the SIGGRAPH 2025 conference, which ends on August 14.