Apple's AR/VR Headset Said to Feature Dual 8K Displays, Eye Tracking, Swappable Headbands, and More

[4nNtt]

Are 8K displays small enough for a headset even possible? What kind of pixel density would that be? Wouldn't it be enough higher than "Retina" (too dense to see the pixels) to be overkill?

The rumors are microLED displays on silicon wafers. They would ideally need to be higher then retina resolution since you can move your eyes.

 

[4nNtt]

None of this will matter if the framerate isn't stable, and 8K is a lot of bandwidth. VR needs stability more than high specs like screen resolution. It also has to be in stereo vision. I can't imagine a big stream like that from a Mac being entirely viable, even given the M1 (or beyond), but I'll happy wait to be proven wrong if that's their plan

They would only render the center of your vision at full resolution, so they don’t need to fully drive both displays.

 

[4nNtt]

3000$ makes sense if you are aiming to make it hyper exclusive and say it is only a "foot in the door" product for now, kind of what the Apple TV box was for a good while.

It especially makes sense when you are developing a nascent technology and are looking to gain your foothold. And when the apps start to get in there and they have the start of a platform and some killer apps, then they release the 599$ Glasses that connect to iPhones and M-class devices. My 2cents...

3000$ is about right, basically an iPhone pro with 2x8k screens.

It’s a great hypothetical price for a M1 Pro Mac with two 8K screens

 

[4nNtt]

I best start saving my pennies now then.

I was postulating before about what would constitute the perfect controller and I guess with 12 cameras on it, they might actually be able to create fluid and accurate hand and finger tracking.

I think they need an optional controller. Motion controls without haptics is pretty awful. It is also nice to have a touch service handy on a controller for scrolling through content easier.

 

[4nNtt]

Apple has a lot of work to do to catch up with Oculus and the Quest 2. I worked for Facebook over the holiday and in my single store. I was selling 20 headsets a day, until we could not get any stock. For the last month of the job I had to send the customer to the service desk to order one and told customers you will not see them in store for a couple of months like the xbox series x and PS5. Oculus is already working on the Quest 3 unit.

Well it may be that Oculus will have a lot of catching up to do when it is released. Apple is estimated to have 2000 engineers working on this and they have an existing ecosystem to pull from. That is way bigger then Oculus.

 

[Jensend]

The rumors are microLED displays on silicon wafers. They would ideally need to be higher then retina resolution since you can move your eyes.

eMagin has shown 3600*4000 OLED displays in a 2.1 inch size. A headset using 2 of these would have almost the equivalent number of pixels as a single 8K TV.
Sony recently announced that they have a prototype 1” 4K square display.
An 8K square display would be eligible for Apple’s Retina qualification if its FOV roughly matches today’s most popular VR headsets. In fact, even 6K square per eye should be enough for “Retina” resolution.