Meta announced its VR Glasses at Connect last month, which is looking to appeal more to productivity and casual content by virtue of its high pixel density micro-OLED displays. They do however serve up a noticeably lower field of view (FOV), but how noticeable?
As someone who’s gone hands-on with Meta VR Glasses, there’s really no optimal way of describing its FOV. It’s simply one of those “see it to believe it” sort of things.
The company’s tethered standalone, which offers a ~100 g of on-head weight, is coming sometime in Spring 2027. Before you fork over the $1,300 in hopes of an upgrade, you might want to check out its 70-degree horizontal FOV yourself.
To get a good idea, Duuro Plays has put together a WebXR app that you can run on Quest 3 that lets you click between Quest 3’s full FOV and VR Glasses reported FOV, according to Meta. Simply click the link above when in Quest’s own native Internet browser.
More precisely: Quest 3 has a 110° horizontal × 96° vertical, which translates to ~119° diagonal FOV. VR Glasses have a 70° horizontal × 66° vertical, which translates to ~88° diagonal FOV. You can see the full spec sheet and launch info here.
If you don’t have a Quest 3, Meta has also published its own developer tool and provided a short clip of it in action. It’s arguably less useful than seeing for yourself, although this should give you some idea:
Note: Quest 3’s larger FOV is thanks to its comparatively bulky pancake lenses, which are placed roughly 40 mm away from large LCD panels. Along with battery and compute, it makes the whole on-head package 515 g.
Contrary to Duuro Play’s explanation in the link above, Meta VR Glasses also use pancake lens optics, albeit smaller ones coupled with micro-OLED panels, and not silicon carbide waveguides as stated in the FAQ. The creator of the tool has confused Meta VR Glasses with the company’s Orion AR glasses prototype.
AI vibecoding has caused a veritable explosion in the VR modding scene. The latest to benefit: PSVR exclusive and critically acclaimed platformer Astro Bot Rescue Mission (2018).
The News
VR modder ‘Bigmak94’ has released another mod, this time bringing Astro Bot Rescue Mission to Quest 3 and PC VR.
Also known for their Super Mario Galaxy VR mod, Bigmak94 asked AI agent Claude to modify shadPS4, an open-source PlayStation 4 emulator for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
The modder reveals in a Reddit post that Claude effectively output two versions: a native Quest 3 version you can sideload and play on-device, and a PC VR version you can stream to other headsets. Check it out in action below:
Like all VR mods, users need a copy of the game in question, which needs to be dumped from the console. You can find information on that and how to install the so-dubbed ‘AstroQuest’ mod via the project’s GitHub.
Notably, the mod includes 6DOF headset tracking, native controller mapping, and immersive spatial audio. While the standalone Quest 3 build is considered fully functional and playable, the headset’s mobile GPU is “pushed to its limits,” Bigmak94 says. Native standalone visuals are said to run at lower resolutions and visual fidelity compared to the original PS4 hardware or the PC VR mode.
What’s more, users can also pair and play via PS5 DualSense controller, which stands in for the PS4 controller the game expects, including the proper buttons, sticks, touchpad, motion sensors, rumble and light bar.
My Take
When Sony unveiled PSVR 2 in February 2022, I was fully expecting Astro Bot to get a port, an upgrade—something—if only based on how successful and critically acclaimed the plucky little platformer had proven to be only four years earlier on the original PSVR. After all, it was Sony’s own Japan Studio to develop the game, so it seemed like a shoe in.
Sadly, it never was ported to PSVR 2. And its sequel, Astro Bot (2024), was a flatscreen-only game, underlining just how little Sony cared about bringing one of its most successful VR titles to the new platform. And while Astro Bot isn’t abandonware by virtue of the fact you can still buy it on the PlayStation Store, it’s pretty close.
Now, with the ability for more users to explore the often byzantine process of modding and decompiling games now thanks to AI agents like Claude, Astro Bot is really only the tip of the iceberg. Users have been following this same basic workflow with a number of games, including the recent VR mod for Titanfall 2 (2016). And I can’t wait to see (and play) more.
Legendary movement shooter Titanfall 2 is now available in VR thanks to mod maker CircuitLord who has created a full VR conversion mod that adds head tracking, weapon aiming, mech weapon controls, and even manual reloading to the game’s entire roster of weapons.
Among non-players, Titanfall 2 (2016) is probably best known for its mechs, which come hurtling down out of the sky, ready for players to use like a giant walking tank.
But those that have played the game know it’s about much more; even if mechs weren’t part of it, Titanfall 2 is an innovative first-person shooter in its own right. When you’re not inside a mech, you’ll find fast-paced combat with a roster of great weapons and an exhilarating sense of fluid movement thanks to abilities like wall running, double-jumping, sliding, and grappling.
The interplay and contrast between the combat of big bulky mechs and agile foot soldiers has cemented Titanfall 2 as a legendary game that’s still enjoyed by thousands of players daily, even a decade after its release.
Granted, as one of gaming’s fastest movement shooters, Titanfall 2 in VR is not going to be for everyone—or probably even most people. The amount of motion in the game goes above and beyond even a regular flatscreen shooter. A snap turning option is included in the mod, but there’s only so much that can be done to mitigate the potential motion sickness of running along walls and whipping through the air on a grapple.
For those that do have the stomach for it, the Titanfall 2 VR mod is getting high praise for its comprehensive reworking of game’s controls for VR. One of the best parts is surely interactive weapon reloading for every gun in the game, including a gesture-based reload for weapons like the Wingman (which we love to see after the Wingman VR interaction experiment from Road to VR’s Ben Lang several years ago).
Our friend Gamertag VR has a solid breakdown of how the mod works and feels to play, if you want a taste before considering hopping in:
For now the mod only supports the game’s single-player campaign, but we’ve reached out to the creator to ask if there’s any plans for multiplayer or other additions in the future.
EVANGELION: Δ CROSS REFLECTIONS is the upcoming XR game based on the hit ’90s anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995). Find out why I’m excited to play when it arrives next year.
I went hands-on with an early build of both the game’s ‘Story Mode’ and ‘Battle Mode’, which proved to be an exciting look at what could be one of the bigger games to release in recent memory.
Notably, when asked how long Cross Reflections will be, I was assured it would be a “full” game, and not simply a short sampler of cool things. The first installment is coming early next year, although the entire game is slated to follow the original 26-episode series: memorable characters, massive city-destroying Angels, and locations ripped straight from the anime.
Narrative & Exploration
As a NERV officer cadet—let’s call you not-Shinji—you have to defend your NERV home base and battle the stunningly massive forces of evil.
It seems the game will follow a pretty tight narrative like many other visual novel VR experiences, which means there is a lot of directed cinematic scenes interspersed with moments of bespoke interactions, like Angels bounding over you and destroying the city as you gun it down in a sort of mini-game.
That’s not gameplay below, although it does seem to give clues on the sort of immersive interactions to expect.
That said, there are some serious ‘wow’ moments here. Granted, I was wearing a bHaptics Tactsuit haptic vest and bangles, which did some of the immersive heavy lifting, although Pixelity has absolutely nailed the scale of the Angels and Evangelions.
For the demo, exploration around NERV was fairly limited right now, although it did showcase a novel locomotion method using hand-tracking. Simply point in your desired direction, and you’d smooth move as if you were pushing forward on a thumbstick. To go backwards, simply raise your finger upwards. I can’t say it’s the most intuitive method, but it certainly gets the job done.
Road to VR
Pixelity tells me the hand gestures shown in the preview are not final, and that the team has been actively researching and testing different gestures to make the controls more responsive, intuitive, and natural for each interaction. Still, the current implementation for locomotion (and combat, more on that below) actually seems to be a pretty good fit so far.
As with exploration, combat is all about hand gestures. Again, they may not be entirely intuitive (or final), but are actually quite clever and effective once you get to grips with them. At least in the combat tutorial I played, fights took place in a single line, like you might see Olympic fencers do. It’s a smart way to bottleneck the user and build around its locomotion and combat scheme, which requires you to punch your hands to dash forward and hold your left thumb up to dash backwards.
Melee is done by physically punching, and shooting is done by holding you right palm open and mimicking holding onto the foregrip of the air-rifle. Shooting requires pulling an air-trigger with your curled index finger, which both aimed and shot surprisingly well.
Road to VR
Probably the easiest to remember was raising a temporary shield by holding up both hands in a blocking gesture, allowing you to defend against incoming punches and projectiles. Again, not the final implementation, but surprisingly effective.
Meanwhile, executing all of my best moves unlocked a slot-style upgrade UI, which gave you random buffs, heals, and even special weapons, like an ethereal throwing spear that you can lob right into the heart of your Angelic foe. All in all, it was a fun little workout, and way more involved than I thought it would be. I want to learn more about the buff system, upgrades, all of the little things designed to flesh out combat beyond the punch-block-shoot trope that, at least so far, worked pretty well.
Excited? Yes.
It has been so long since I properly sat down to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion, but with Cross Reflections on the horizon, I honestly don’t think I even want to. I’d much rather be just a little surprised at how much I remember, meanwhile engaging in what thus far feels like interesting and seemingly novel VR stuff.
In any case, I’ll be looking out for EVANGELION: Δ CROSS REFLECTIONS when the first installment launches sometime next year. Pixelity hasn’t mentioned any official target platforms yet, although demos took place on Quest 3.
Samsung’s long-awaited smart glasses have cleared FCC testing, suggesting their release is right around the corner.
The News
Two distinct SM-O200P and SM-O200J have appeared in FCC filings, which is typically one of the last steps before commercialization.
Those two product codes indicate Warby Parker and Gentle Monster frames, respectively, as they’ve been seen on pre-production models viewed by Android Police and others.
Built in collaboration with Samsung and Google, the forthcoming fleet of smart glasses are set to be the first to run Google’s Android XR operating system.
Much like Meta’s range of smart glasses, the Warby Parker and Gentle Monster frames will include onboard cameras, microphones and off-ear speakers for doing things like taking calls, listening to podcasts, and interacting with Google Gemini.
While an official spec sheet isn’t available yet, Samsung’s fleet of smart glasses are said to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chipset, a single 12MP front-facing camera with indicator LED, and up to 9 hours of use per charge, with a portable charging case providing extra charge.
No pricing or launch date has been announce yet outside of the Fall 2026 release window.
My Take
Samsung is looking to take on Meta’s exponentially growing slate of smart glasses, which thus far not only includes Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Meta-branded camera-clad smart glasses, Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, but also now audio-only smart glasses that omit the camera entirely.
Meta’s multi-year lead over most of the competition will be difficult to shake, so it will be interesting to see whether Samsung’s smart glasses can go beyond simply being the ‘not-Meta’ choice and offer anything meaningfully different.
As a consequence, this will also soon open Samsung to the same public scrutiny that Meta has experienced over the past year, which thus far includes a number of US states and cities taking action to ban the devices from public government buildings. How Samsung (Warby Parker, Gentle Monster and co) handle that will be interesting to watch.
Maybe it’s too little, too late for the whole camera-clad smart glasses category? Maybe the whole ‘creeper glasses’ phenomenon is a little overblown? Whatever the case, we’re sure to learn more as Samsung enters the market soon, as the company no doubt hopes to attract a whole new set of fashion-conscious, tech-forward users.
Mighty Coconut, indie studio behind hit VR game Walkabout Mini Golf (2020), announced another round of layoffs affecting ~35% of staff.
“This is an incredibly hard message to write, but I want to continue to be transparent with the Walkabout community,” writes Mighty Coconut CEO Lucas Martell in a company blog post. “Due to the current state of the games industry and especially VR, Mighty Coconut will need to downsize, and over the next several months we will be saying goodbye to 10 talented people who have helped make Walkabout what it is.”
This follows a round of layoffs in January that affected 25% of the studio, effectively reducing Mighty Coconut to just 27 at the time, also coming alongside a DLC price hike that raised all forthcoming DLC by $1, with new courses moving from $4 to $5.
“While we already downsized last January, I failed to anticipate just how rapidly and deeply this trajectory would continue,” Martell continues. “The amazing courses and worlds created by our talented team have allowed us to fare better than many studios who have had to close completely, but without a steady stream of new players coming into VR and Walkabout, the scale at which we’ve been operating is no longer sustainable.”
Martell maintains that “Walkabout isn’t going anywhere,” as the studio promises to continue its steady release of DLC courses, albeit “a little less often due to the reduced team size that returns us to the small and scrappy way we started.”
Martell says that in the meantime, the studio is diversifying revenue with continued work on Walkabout Dungeon Golfer, an upcoming hybrid VR/flatscreen roguelike dungeon crawler featuring golf mechanics, and GRASS, a flatscreen co-op lawn-care simulator.
“While incredibly painful, this is the only course of action that allows us to keep the game alive, the servers active, and hold on to as much of our team as possible,” Martell maintains.
Mighty Coconut is far from the only studio currently under pressure from a contracting VR games industry; this year alone has seen a number of VR studio closures, reductions, and cancelled projects.
Meta’s XR Reality Labs division saw a reported 10 percent staff layoff earlier this year, which included the closure of Sanzaru Games (Asgard’s Wrath), Armature Studio (Resident Evil 4 VR port) and Twisted Pixel (Deadpool VR).
Meta VR Glasses can play all of the same games you might on Quest, whether it be through integrated hand-tracking or by pairing optional Touch Plus controllers. But if you’re planning on getting active, Meta says they’ll be selling an accessory for that.
We haven’t seen any images yet, however at Connect 2026 last week the company not only announced Meta VR Glasses, which are coming in Spring 2027 for $1,300, but also the answer to the question of how users will be able to play active VR games.
The solution: a cinching strap that connects the tips of both of the glasses’ temple arms together, more securely fastening it to the user’s head, i.e. not an entirely new strap system like is often the case with Quest.
Courtesy Meta
As it was described to me, it will physically connect to the temple arms, the tips of which actually can be detached for more modularity.
And with a glasses form factor, it needs it. During my hands-on with VR Glasses at Connect, it did feel fairly solid on its own, with no nose-slipping or ear-clipping as some glasses-type headsets are wont to do.
Anything that requires fast head or body movement, or looking down for extended amounts of time though, and you’d probably want a good way of keeping the glasses snug, not only so they don’t fly off your head, but also to keep their relatively narrow sweet spot in place.
Thus far, the only other extras mentioned to me include a light blocker accessory that magnetically attaches to the glasses for greater immersion and prescription lenses from Zenni Optical.
I expect we’ll see those and more accessories closer to its launch next year, and also hopefully learn whether the strap will be a paid add-on, or it will come in the box.
