The Quest 4 may not achieve 90 PPD, 1,400 nits, or a 180-degree FoV, yet Meta’s prototypes at SIGGRAPH 2025 are illuminating the direction it aims to take.
Meta has revealed the prototype VR headsets it will present at the SIGGRAPH 2025 conference next week. The Boba 3 headset features a 180-degree horizontal and 120-degree vertical field of view, surpassing the Quest 3 (110° and 96°). The Tiramisu headset utilizes µOLED displays with 90 pixels per degree, significantly higher than the Quest 3 (25 PPD) or Apple Vision Pro (34 PPD).
We probably won’t see the Meta Quest 4 at the Connect 2025 conference next month, but Meta is keeping superfans engaged with the next best thing: A preview of its VR prototype headsets showcasing remarkable enhancements to visual fidelity.
This Meta blog post details its two main prototypes — Boba 3 and Tiramisu — that will be highlighted at the SIGGRAPH 2025 conference in Toronto on August 10.
Reality Labs’ Optics, Photonics, and Light Systems (OPALS) team has developed Tiramisu, a prototype VR headset that achieves 90 pixels per degree (PPD), 1,400 nits, and three times the contrast ratio of the Quest 3.
This initiative is part of Meta’s aim to surpass the “visual Turing test,” representing a visual experience that is “indistinguishable from the physical world.”
Most existing VR headsets fall below 30 PPD, with Apple Vision Pro (34 PPD) and Samsung’s Project Moohan (reportedly slightly higher) being the closest competitors. Meta’s 2023 Butterscotch Varifocal prototype was the first to reach 60 PPD, the “retinal resolution” standard necessary to clearly display the 20/20 line of an eye chart.
Tiramisu’s ultra-bright, high-resolution prototype exceeds the retinal resolution threshold by an additional 30 PPD. The trade-off is its limited 33 degrees FoV, well short of the ideal for genuine immersion. They also “deprioritized the form factor,” states OPALS scientist Xuan Wang, opting for heavier glass lenses to ensure the best visual quality comparable to HDR TVs.
Tiramisu would be prohibitively expensive and uncomfortable for consumers. However, it serves as both a literal and figurative window into Reality Labs’ commitment to genuine visual immersion for future headsets. We speculate whether it’s one of the “f***ing cool” prototypes that inspired James Cameron to invest in VR filmmaking with Meta.
Conversely, the Boba 3 prototype appears more refined and practical, albeit still a high-end device. Created by the Reality Labs Display Systems Research (DSR) team, it achieves a 180-degree horizontal FoV and a 120-degree vertical FoV, employing pancake lenses to maintain a reasonable weight of 660g.
It also incorporates “high-curvature reflective polarizers” to avoid light reflection, essential since the curved display essentially directs light back at itself along the edge.
Boba 3 offers 30 PPD, slightly surpassing the Quest 3, but achieving 4K x 4K resolution with such a broad display demands tremendous power, notes DSR scientist Yang Zhao. Boba 3 “requires a top-tier GPU and PC system” to fill all that visual space; it “won’t easily reach a mass-market price point,” nor function as an all-in-one Quest-style product.
Nevertheless, it’s striking to witness how the Boba 3 prototype covers 90% of the “FOV of the human visual system,” so much so that you’d hardly notice any darkness surrounding the display.
Will the Meta Quest 4 take cues from these prototypes?
The blog post emphasizes that these are “purely research prototypes, featuring novel technologies that may never be incorporated into a consumer product.”
However, even if the Quest 4 can’t match them, we can certainly hope it will follow in these prototypes’ footsteps and aim for enhanced visual fidelity. If not, perhaps the Quest 5 will.
“We’re working to discover what comes after television and laptop screens,” remarks DSR Director Douglas Lanman. “We’re striving to create something amazing—not just as a demonstration, but as something we’d utilize daily. And that truly represents the definitive Turing test: Are we enthusiastic about our work after a decade of doing it?”
Meta, as a corporation, is undeniably focused on supplanting TVs with its headsets. Earlier this year, Meta’s head of Oculus Publishing stated that by 2027, the company aims to target young adults who will utilize the Quest as a “high-end TV.”
It’s a logical conclusion that the Quest 4 must provide improved resolution and FoV to achieve
