Meta is preparing to showcase a range of advanced virtual reality (VR) headset prototypes at the upcoming SIGGRAPH 2025 conference, offering a glimpse into what could be the future of immersive digital experiences. While its consumer-level headsets, such as the Meta Quest 3, are already known for delivering strong performance at accessible price points, these latest research devices aim to significantly push the boundaries of visual fidelity and field of view.
Breakthrough realism with the Tiramisu headset
One of the key highlights is a prototype headset named Tiramisu, which Meta describes as a major leap forward in realism for virtual reality. According to a recent company blog post, Tiramisu features extremely high contrast, approximately three times that of the Meta Quest 3. It also boasts an angular resolution of 90 pixels per degree (PPD), which is 3.6 times greater than the Quest 3, and can reach brightness levels of up to 1,400 nits—14 times brighter than the current consumer model.
Despite these advancements, the Tiramisu headset does come with some limitations. Meta acknowledges that the device is noticeably bulkier and heavier than existing consumer-grade headsets. Additionally, it offers a narrower field of view, which may impact its usefulness in certain applications. However, the company maintains that the visual experience is the most lifelike it has ever created, describing it as “the closest we’ve come to a visual experience that passes the visual Turing test yet.”
Expanding the field of view with Boba 3 prototypes
Alongside Tiramisu, Meta is also introducing two other prototypes: Boba 3 and Boba 3 VR. These headsets are designed with a much wider field of view in mind, making them better suited to replicating natural human vision in a virtual setting. For context, the Meta Quest 3 has a horizontal field of view (FOV) of 110 degrees and a vertical FOV of 96 degrees. The Boba 3 prototypes significantly improve upon this, offering a horizontal FOV of 180 degrees and a vertical FOV of 120 degrees. Meta notes that this brings the experience much closer to the roughly 200-degree horizontal FOV of the human eye.
The Boba 3 models also feature upgraded display resolution. Each eye is equipped with a 4K by 4K display, which surpasses the 3K by 3K per-eye resolution of the earlier Boba 2 prototype, and far exceeds the 2K by 1K resolution per eye of the original Boba 1. These upgrades are made possible by utilising displays currently in mass production and lenses similar to those found in the Quest 3, suggesting a potential path to consumer adoption in the future.
Research today, consumer tech tomorrow?
All three headsets—Tiramisu, Boba 3, and Boba 3 VR—are expected to be featured at the SIGGRAPH 2025 conference. Meta has clarified that these are research-focused devices, stating that they are “purely research prototypes, with novel technologies that may never make their way into a consumer product.” Still, the features demonstrated in these prototypes could eventually shape the direction of future consumer VR headsets.
