Meta demonstrated two research headsets at SIGGRAPH 2025 in Vancouver: Tiramisu, which pursues extraordinary visual clarity, brightness, and contrast, and Boba 3, which targets an ultra-wide field of view. Neither is a retail product, a confirmed Quest successor, or an announced headset buyers can purchase.
The demonstrations matter because they address two of VR’s biggest remaining display compromises from opposite directions: Tiramisu makes the central image far more realistic, while Boba 3 attempts to fill much more of the wearer’s peripheral vision without using an impractically distorted form factor.
The short answer
- Tiramisu: Meta’s reported approximately 90 pixels-per-degree prototype, with up to 1,400 nits of brightness and roughly three times Quest 3’s contrast, but an extremely narrow 33° × 33° field of view.
- Boba 3: A PC-connected prototype targeting approximately 180° horizontal × 120° vertical field of view, 4K × 4K resolution per eye, and about 30 pixels per degree.
- Availability: Both are Reality Labs research demonstrations. Meta has not announced a price, consumer launch, product name, or release schedule for either headset.
Meta’s SIGGRAPH 2025 demonstration was therefore a look at possible future display technologies, not a product announcement.
Why VR still has a display problem
Modern headsets have become substantially better at tracking, mixed reality, wireless operation, and image quality. However, two visual limitations remain obvious.
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First, the image is not yet consistently as sharp, bright, or contrast-rich as the real world. Fine text, distant detail, dark scenes, and bright highlights can still reveal the limits of the display and optics. Second, most consumer headsets show only a relatively narrow portion of the surrounding visual world. Users often turn their heads to see something that would be visible in peripheral vision outside VR.
Quest 3 is a useful reference point rather than a direct rival in this comparison. Reported figures put it at approximately 108° × 96° FOV and around 25 PPD, while most widely used consumer headsets remain in roughly the 90°–110° horizontal FOV range. Tiramisu and Boba 3 each attack a different limitation.
Tiramisu prioritizes visual realism
Tiramisu is associated with Meta Reality Labs’ OPALS group—Optics, Photonics, and Light Systems. Its goal is to make the image itself far more convincing, rather than to maximize the amount of the world visible at once.
Reports describe a prototype reaching approximately 90 PPD, up to 1,400 nits of reported peak brightness, and roughly three times the contrast of Quest 3. It reportedly uses high-resolution micro-OLED displays and specialized refractive optics. The figures come from prototype reporting, not an independently verified consumer specification sheet.
PPD, or pixels per degree, describes angular resolution: how many display pixels occupy each degree of the user’s view. A higher number can make text, edges, and fine textures appear more detailed. Around 60 PPD is often used as a rough shorthand for “retinal” resolution, but it is not a universal perceptual cutoff. Reaching 90 PPD does not mean the headset perfectly reproduces human vision.
Resolution is only part of Tiramisu’s appeal. More brightness can make highlights and light sources look more convincing, while higher contrast can improve dark scenes and perceived depth. Coverage of the demonstration described clearer text, brighter highlights, and darker shadows than Quest 3; those are reported hands-on impressions rather than laboratory measurements by this publication.
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The major Tiramisu compromise
The prototype’s extraordinary central image comes with a severe optical limitation: an approximately 33° × 33° field of view. That is closer to looking through a small window than using a conventional immersive VR headset.
Reports also put its optical stack at roughly 63 mm thick, compared with approximately 23 mm for Quest 3’s pancake-optics stack. The thick refractive design and associated hardware make Tiramisu unsuitable as a straightforward consumer replacement in the form demonstrated.
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| Attribute | Tiramisu prototype | Approximate Quest 3 reference |
|---|---|---|
| Field of view | 33° × 33° | About 108° × 96° |
| Angular resolution | About 90 PPD | About 25 PPD |
| Reported brightness | Up to 1,400 nits | About 100 nits in the cited comparison |
| Optics | Thick refractive optics | Pancake optics |
| Optical-stack thickness | About 63 mm | About 23 mm |
| Availability | Research prototype | Retail product |
Meta reportedly reused elements of existing Quest-era tracking hardware in Tiramisu so researchers could focus on the display and optical system. That should not be interpreted as evidence that the prototype is product-ready.
Boba 3 prioritizes peripheral vision
Boba 3 comes from Meta’s Display Systems Research group and takes the opposite approach. Its stated target is approximately 180° horizontal × 120° vertical FOV, close to the breadth of human vision in practical terms, with around 30 PPD and 4K × 4K LCD resolution per eye.
A wider field of view can make virtual environments feel more present because the scene occupies more of the user’s peripheral vision. It could be particularly valuable for racing and flight simulators, room-scale experiences, competitive games, social VR, and telepresence. It may also reduce the need to turn the head simply to inspect something nearby.
According to UploadVR’s hands-on report, Boba 3 uses very large dual-element pancake lenses with a high-curvature reflective polarizer and commercially available high-resolution LCD panels. That is notable because the approach is closer to current VR manufacturing methods than Tiramisu’s more exotic optical stack.
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Boba 3 specifications and practical limits
- Approximately 180° × 120° field of view.
- Approximately 30 PPD.
- 4K × 4K LCD panels per eye.
- About 840 grams in one mixed-reality configuration.
- About 660 grams for a reported VR-only configuration.
- PC-connected operation rather than standalone Quest hardware.
- Manual per-eye IPD adjustment, eye-relief adjustment, and visor-tilt adjustment.
- No battery in the research configuration described by UploadVR.
The weight figures are configuration-dependent. One report lists approximately 840 grams, compared with about 698 grams for a Quest 3 with Elite Strap, while another identifies a lighter VR-only version. Weight alone also does not determine comfort: forward torque, strap design, face interface, heat, and cable routing would all matter in a commercial product.
Meta researchers reportedly emphasized that Boba 3 is not a product or a product prototype. It required a powerful PC and GPU, and the demonstration reportedly used a top-end PC with NVIDIA DLSS. The prototype’s manufacturing approach may appear more practical than Tiramisu’s, but it still lacks the battery, standalone processor, thermal design, software validation, and supply-chain work required for a consumer headset.
Why ultra-wide VR demands so much rendering power
A wider field of view increases the amount of visual space that must be rendered. Maintaining high detail across that larger view, at high refresh rates and for both eyes, can place heavy demands on the GPU. Lens-distortion correction, compositing, tracking, foveated rendering, display bandwidth, and low latency add further requirements.
A 4K × 4K display per eye does not necessarily mean that every frame is rendered natively at 4K × 4K per eye. Upscaling technologies such as DLSS can reduce the native rendering burden, but they do not make the overall system requirements disappear. The headset still has to drive the displays, correct the image for the lenses, track the user, and maintain a stable low-latency view.
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The Boba research line shows progress in maintaining a very wide field of view while improving pixel density and refining the optical system.
| Prototype | Reported FOV | Reported resolution or density | Approximate weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boba 1 | 200° × 70° | 2K × 1K per eye | 874 g |
| Boba 2 | 180° × 120° | 3K displays; about 25 PPD | 845 g |
| Boba 3 | 180° × 120° | 4K displays; about 30 PPD | 840 g |
| Quest 3 | About 108° × 96° | About 25 PPD | About 698 g with Elite Strap |
The important trend is not a promise that these exact specifications will reach consumers. Boba 3 reportedly retains Boba 2’s ultra-wide geometry while moving to higher-resolution displays without a major increase in prototype weight.
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- NEARLY 30% LEAP IN RESOLUTION — Experience every thrill in breathtaking detail with sharp graphics and stunning 4K Infinite Display.
- NO WIRES, MORE FUN — Break free from cords. Play, explore and exercise in immersive worlds — untethered and without limits.
- 2X GRAPHICAL PROCESSING POWER — Enjoy lightning-fast load times and next-gen graphics for smooth gaming powered by the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor.
- EXPERIENCE VIRTUAL REALITY — Blend virtual objects with your physical space and experience two worlds at once.
- 2+ HOURS OF BATTERY LIFE — Charge less, play longer and stay in the action with an improved battery that keeps up.
Tiramisu 2 suggests a middle ground
Meta also reportedly showed a still-in-development optical stack called Tiramisu 2. As described by UploadVR, its development targets include approximately 90° FOV, 60 PPD, 700 nits, and about 26 mm of optical thickness.
The reported design combines refractive and diffractive elements in an attempt to preserve much of Tiramisu’s visual quality in a more usable form factor. These are development targets, not final specifications. There is no confirmed product, price, launch schedule, or guarantee that Tiramisu 2 will ship.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThis makes Meta’s research more nuanced than a simple choice between sharpness and width. A future system could combine moderate improvements in both areas, although cost, comfort, brightness, efficiency, manufacturing yield, and rendering demands would still determine whether such a design made sense commercially.
Side-by-side: what each prototype is trying to prove
| Category | Tiramisu | Boba 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Primary objective | Extreme image realism | Peripheral immersion |
| Reported FOV | 33° × 33° | 180° × 120° |
| Reported PPD | About 90 | About 30 |
| Display approach | High-resolution micro-OLED | 4K × 4K LCD per eye |
| Optical approach | Specialized refractive optics | Large dual-element pancake lenses and reflective polarizer |
| Brightness | Up to 1,400 reported nits | Not the headline objective |
| Form-factor trade-off | Very narrow view and thick optical stack | Heavy, large, PC-connected visor |
| Commercial status | Research prototype | Research prototype |
Which prototype matters more?
There is no meaningful overall winner because the prototypes optimize different goals.
Tiramisu is the more important direction for reading small text, professional visualization, medical or industrial imaging, high-fidelity simulation, HDR-like virtual environments, and reducing the screen-door effect. Its demonstration asks how close VR can get to a convincing window onto another world.
Boba 3 is the more important direction for racing, flight simulation, competitive play, telepresence, room-scale awareness, and general immersion. Its achievement is making peripheral vision a first-order display goal while retaining roughly the shape of a conventional headset.
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Wide FOV is not automatically better. It can expose rendering weaknesses, aliasing, low-detail assets, and peripheral optical artifacts. It can also increase weight, cost, fit sensitivity, and GPU requirements. Similarly, extreme resolution is not enough if the field of view is so narrow that the experience no longer feels naturally immersive.
What this means for future Quest hardware
Tiramisu and Boba 3 do not confirm Quest 4 specifications, a new Meta product line, or a launch window. Research components may appear separately over several product generations—or never reach a consumer device in their demonstrated form.
The prototypes do show that Meta’s Reality Labs teams are investigating display improvements beyond simply adding more pixels to a familiar Quest design. The eventual commercial priority could be a balance of clarity, FOV, comfort, battery life, thermal efficiency, manufacturing cost, and software performance rather than the maximum number in any one category.
Meta’s broader Reality Labs strategy provides context for why such demonstrations matter, but it does not establish specifications or a roadmap for these particular prototypes.
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What buyers should do now
Do not delay a headset purchase on the assumption that Tiramisu or Boba 3 is coming soon. The demonstrations provide technology signals, not purchasing guidance.
- For standalone VR and mixed reality: Quest 3 is the closest mainstream Meta option, although it does not approach Tiramisu’s brightness or clarity or Boba 3’s field of view.
- For lower-cost access to Meta’s platform: Quest 3S is a platform-access choice, not a substitute for either research display.
- For enthusiast PC VR and simulation: Pimax Crystal Super is relevant to users willing to accept PC dependence and enthusiast hardware complexity. It is not a retail Boba 3.
- For professional XR: Varjo XR-4 is aimed at enterprise and professional workflows, not ordinary consumer gaming.
- For compact PC VR: Bigscreen Beyond represents the opposite priority—small form factor—while requiring external lighthouse tracking and a gaming PC.
No current headset reproduces the combination of Tiramisu’s reported brightness and clarity or Boba 3’s reported ultra-wide field of view.
Conclusion
Tiramisu and Boba 3 are best understood as complementary research tracks. Tiramisu demonstrates how VR might become dramatically sharper, brighter, and more contrast-rich. Boba 3 suggests that much wider peripheral vision may be possible without resorting to the most extreme headset shapes.
The eventual breakthrough may not be either prototype exactly. It may be a commercially balanced headset that borrows Tiramisu’s visual fidelity, Boba 3’s wider view, and the comfort, battery life, price, and reliability expected from a consumer Quest.
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