Why do VR headsets stagnate in terms of field of view?

VR headsets have come a long way in the past decade, but the field of view has largely remained the same. Why is that?

Every Monday we answer a question from our readers. Send your question to tomislav@mixed.de with “Question” in the subject line, and with a bit of luck we will answer it the following Monday.

This week’s question comes from Alexander Veit:

Why doesn’t Meta expand the field of view on its VR headsets?

Dear Alexander,

The question is justified. If you look at the technical development of VR headsets since the Oculus Rift DK 1 (2013), the devices are in many ways much better than ten years ago.

In particular, the resolution is now many times higher and due to the introduction of pancake lenses, the devices provide a sharper image and a slimmer form factor. Headsets like Meta Quest and Pico also eliminate the need for external hardware and cables, which is a huge step forward in convenience.

On the other hand, the width of the field of view has more or less stagnated, at least on the popular Quest headsets. The Quest 3 has the widest horizontal field of view of any Meta product yet, around 110 degrees, but the others aren’t far behind. For comparison, the human eye has a field of view of approximately 210 degrees horizontally and 150 degrees vertically.

Unlike Meta, other manufacturers such as Pimax and Vrgineers have significantly expanded the field of view. For example, the Pimax 8KX and XTAL 3 have a horizontal field of view of 170 and 180 degrees respectively. This is much closer to the natural field of view.

XTAL 3 offers a distortion-free horizontal field of view of approximately 180 degrees, but is bulky and not affordable for the average consumer. | Image: Vrgineers

The field of view is important for immersion and there is a lot of upside potential, so why doesn’t Meta expand the field of view on their headsets?

Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth himself provided the answer in 2022, when he said expanding the field of view comes at a high price and doesn’t feel like the right trade-off. “FOV is very expensive to increase because by definition you are adding a lot of pixels that are not going to be as useful. They are on the periphery and are just as expensive in terms of power,” says Bosworth. said at the time.

Pimax 8KX and XTAL 3 are both wired and get their power from a PC and a wall socket, not from an integrated chip and battery like Quest. They are also significantly more expensive, which is partly due to their optical design. The form factor is also affected: Pimax 8KX and XTAL 3 are very bulky devices due to their wide field of view and are therefore less suitable for the mainstream.

However, Meta appears to still be researching headsets with a wider field of view: Bosworth this weekend posted images of Meta’s research labs testing prototypes. One of the images shows a device that appears to have a particularly wide field of view. However, don’t expect the prototype to become a product in the near future, as Meta makes a lot of prototypes and rarely turns prototypes into products.

Bosworth with a prototype of a wide field of view headset. | Photo: Andrew Bosworth

A few months ago, Bosworth described what Meta Quest could look like in seven years. His comments on the field of view suggest that we should not expect a significantly larger field of view, but that it could grow vertically rather than horizontally.

I will end answering my question with Bosworth’s words:

“So you actually want to have a wide, clear field of view so that you’re not constantly watching the edge of it. And I actually think a wider field of view is more important than a wider field of view for immersion. A wider field of view is certainly more important to us as kind in terms of information density, because our eyes see more horizontally. But vertically is a good way to convince you that you are immersed in a space in a way that is quite misleading.

Kind regards,

Tomislav

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