Time into 2023, the previously popular "meta-universe" concept has been muted in the public field, and the market attention of VR has also declined to a certain extent. But compared to the concept, the core of VR is still the product, and the most important VR devices last year were Byte's Pico 4 and Meta's Quest Pro. This year, the optical solution collectively entered the Pancake stage, the display aspect will reach a new level, Meta finally confirmed to launch the Quest 2 iteration after three years, and the much-anticipated Apple will also enter.
Not long ago, at CES, the world's largest consumer electronics show, a large number of terminal and supply chain manufacturers are launching new VR devices and solutions, including old faces such as HTC and Sony, as well as Sharp, Canon, TCL, Lenovo, etc. who "also do VR". Success or failure, 2023 will be a pivotal year for the VR industry.
Apple Reality Pro
According to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gruman, Apple will release its first MR (mixed reality) headset as early as this spring, called "Reality Pro", and finally go on sale in the fall, the first generation is priced between $2000-3000. It can be expected that Apple's first MR will be mainly for developers, business customers and some consumers with sufficient budgets.
The Information began the new year with a lot of product details. Apple still chose the mainstream built-in scheme on the power supply scheme, placing the battery pack in the rear headband, which is characterized by charging through MagSafe; Equipped with H2 chip, it will achieve ultra-low latency with AirPods (second-generation Pro and later AirPods), etc.; In addition to the main SoC, there will be a dedicated image signal processor, all on the 5nm process.
Apple MR concept art, photo by Ian Zelbo
But compared to other existing VR form factors, Apple's bigger breakthrough is in the field of view, resolution and weight.
First, Apple MR provides a 120° field of view far beyond similar products, which can basically cover the visual range of the human eye, and users will basically not feel the existence of the edge of the picture, in exchange for a better sense of immersion.
Second, Sony's Micro OLED display screen is used, providing a high-definition experience of monocular 4K (that is, 8K in both eyes), and the key is that Apple can cram a chip with high enough performance per watt to meet the performance requirements required for 8K resolution.
Third, Apple MR uses ultra-premium materials such as aluminum, glass, and carbon fiber, which may significantly refresh the weight of existing VR headsets. Previous news said that the weight of the prototype is between 200-300g, and Apple hopes to reduce the weight of the final product to 100-200g, which will greatly change the wearing experience of VR form products.
Meta Quest 3
As the highest-grossing VR device ever, the significance of Quest 2 released in 2020 to the entire industry cannot be overestimated, with more than 10 million units shipped in just over a year of release, which not only helped Meta initially establish its own VR ecosystem, but also supported and cultivated a group of VR supply chain manufacturers, developers and content creators.
Now Quest 3 is finally here. Meta founder Zuckerberg made it clear that the next generation of Quest 3 will be released in 2023, and the most likely release time will be the Meta Connect conference in October this year, and Quest 2 and Quest Pro have also chosen to be released at the Connect conference. However, there is also news that Quest 3 may target the release time of Apple's MR and advance to the spring release.
In terms of pricing, Zuckerberg said at the Quest Pro conference last year that "there will be a Quest 3 that will cost between $300, $400 or $500." Considering that the official pricing of the Quest 2 rose from the initial $299 to $399 last year, it is expected that the Quest 3 will also start at $399.
Photo: Tubing @SadlyItsBradley
At the core product level, Quest 3 adopts the same Pancake solution of Quest Pro, which greatly shortens the distance from the display screen to the human eye through the light folding design, and further thins and lightens the VR device. The external camera is also the same as the Quest Pro, which means that the Quest 3 will also have a significant improvement in hand tracking and spatial positioning.
The color perspective MR experience that appeared last year in Pico 4 and Quest Pro is also coming to Quest 3. According to the leaked CAD files, the Quest 3 front 4 cameras and 1 depth sensor, can basically determine the MR experience that supports color perspective function, similar to the implementation in Quest Pro and soon on Apple MR.
Where does the wind blow in 2023?
With the VR industry now underway, some trends have become apparent, and although performance is weaker than PC-VR, all-in-one wireless VR has become an absolute leader in the consumer market. Although there are products like Sony's PS VR 2 wired connection, even Sony is working on wireless VR solutions, and HTC has come up with the Vive Elite XR. In 2023, in addition to wireless and the lightweight that has been pursued, the trend of the VR industry is becoming clearer.
- Pancake scheme
Pico was the first to adopt the Pancake solution in consumer VR last year, and Meta Quest Pro followed suit. Thanks to the design of optical path folding and better display effects, and the higher brightness display screen to offset the serious problem of light attenuation of the Pancake scheme, Pancake is destined to be fully popular in 2023, including a number of new products released at CES into the HTC Vive Elite XR, and the subsequent release of Quest 3 and Apple Reality Pro have adopted this scheme.
Fresnel vs. Pancake scheme, Photo/vr-expert
- Micro OLED
Multiple reliable sources have pointed out that Apple's upcoming MR device will use Sony Micro OLED display screen - the substrate uses silicon wafers of the same type of chip, rather than the glass substrate used in LCD/OLED. The advantage of Micro OLED is higher resolution in a smaller area, resulting in higher PPD (pixels per degree of field of view), and also has the advantages of thinner and lighter and less power consumption. This is also one of the fundamentals of Apple's Reality Pro's ability to support monocular 4K (binocular 8K).
Micro OLED display, pictured by flatpanelshd
- Smart rendering based on eye tracking
The resolution of 8K requires huge amounts of computation and power consumption, and in addition to improving chip performance, Meta demonstrated eye-tracking-based intelligent rendering technology on Quest Pro. In principle, the human eye usually only sees the fixation point clearly, and the visual periphery is blurred, intelligent rendering is based on the tracking of the eyeball and fixation point, only the fixation point is rendered in high definition to reduce performance overhead and reduce power consumption. However, in addition to the need for a camera to track the eyes on the hardware, the biggest threshold for this technology is the algorithm, and Apple is basically sure that it will also be equipped on MR devices to achieve monocular 4K.
Smart Rendering, Figure/HTC
- Color perspective and MR experience support
Last year, Pico 4 and Quest Pro both demonstrated color perspective technology, users do not need to take off the headset to see the real space, on the one hand, to avoid the real demand caused by the frequent removal of the VR headset, such as eating, napping, going to the toilet, etc., including office scenes can also quickly switch between virtual space and real space. On the other hand, color perspective provides the basis for MR experience, and the integration of virtual images and real environments in AR can be realized through algorithms, which has more gameplay possibilities for VR devices.
- 120° Field of View (FOV)
"Immersion" has always been one of the core experiences of VR, and the sense of wrapping of the picture is one of the keys, and the specific data is reflected in the field of view (especially horizontal), and the visual area of the human eye is about 120°. There are many factors that affect the field of view provided, such as Fresnel scheme is generally higher than Pancake, but the edge display and thickness and weight of the picture are not dominant. The Quest Pro with Pancake has a lateral field of view of 106°, the Pico 4 is 105°, and the Dapeng VR with Fresnel is 116°. However, according to the news, the Apple Reality Pro field of view using Pancake has reached 120°, which may become a new industry trend.
Image/Upload
Who can dominate VR?
At this year's CES, a variety of new VR devices can be described as being released, and it is said that it is second only to smart electric vehicles in consumer electronics in terms of the number of releases. On the one hand, this shows that VR or the metaverse still has a strong market appeal, on the other hand, it also shows that there is still a lack of products on the market that can lead the future direction of VR. For example, mobile phones, before the birth of the iPhone, some mobile phones were equipped with physical keyboards, and some used resistive screens; After the introduction of the iPhone, capacitive touch screens became standard on smartphones. Meta and Apple are the two most promising manufacturers, which is the core reason why the Quest 3 and Apple Reality Pro have received a lot of attention. But who can be more successful in 2023, or even completely define VR products? Let's wait and see.
* Image from Pexels