by While giving a talk at Display Week 2022, Meta display engineer Cheon Hong Kim revealed several details about the Meta Quest 2 (formerly the Oculus Quest 2), including that its resolution isn’t exactly what we thought it was.
The Quest 2 uses a 1920 x 1832 screen resolution for each eye, but due to its lenses, that’s not the resolution we actually see (via UploadVR). For starters, the lenses are circular while the screen is rectangular, so the corners are cut off, and Meta has literally cut off the corners of the screens to remove unnecessary bulk.
In addition to this, as you switch the lenses between their three IPD settings, which changes the distance between them, the section of the screen that can be seen through them also changes.
When the lenses are closer to each other, the outermost parts of the screen will not be visible, and vice versa when the lenses are as far apart as possible. To save on processing power and battery power, these invisible parts of the screen are not turned on.
However, as Meta explains, the fact that we’re not seeing full screen resolution isn’t really a problem. It is not the resolution of the screen that matters, but its pixel density.
through the screen door
One problem with VR headsets is something called the screen door effect. Because screens use an array of pixels in a repeating pattern, you may notice lines in the image, an effect that makes you feel like you’re looking through a screen door, especially when you’re very close to them.
While this effect can never be completely eliminated, it can be made much less noticeable by improving the pixel density of a screen. With tighter pixels in the same area, the gaps become much less noticeable.
As such, Meta aims to use high pixel-per-inch displays and foveation technologies to steadily push pixel-per-degree counts beyond 60PPD (the limit that humans can perceive).
According to current rumours, Project Cambria is expected to use new 2.48-inch mini LED screens with 2160 x 2160 pixels per eye. This should bring the new headset’s pixel-per-inch to 1230 PPI, compared to 773 PPI on the Quest 2.
To calculate Cambria’s pixel per degree, we’d need to know its focal length, which we don’t know, but assuming it’s the same as Quest 2’s, we’d be looking at a PPD of 33. That would be a good distance. 60PPD target, but significantly closer than Quest 2’s 21PPD.
That said, there’s a strong possibility that Project Cambria will have a more compact design based on what Meta has said, so its focal length will likely be different. So, as with all speculation, we’ll have to wait and see what Meta officially announces.
However, improving the quality of its displays is clearly a priority for Meta, so expect to see plenty of improvements when the Cambria and its future headsets (such as the Meta Quest 3) launch.
