Not content with the market dominance its Meta Quest 2 device has brought, Meta is apparently pushing into new technological territory with a trio of device prototypes: Butterscotch, Flamera, and Starburst. Butterscotch is Meta’s attempt to nail varifocal VR graphics with the belief that it will offer viewing experiences that feel much closer to actual human vision.
Coming Into Focus
All currently available VR devices feature fixed focus lenses. Butterscotch would give each eye a distinct perspective that would converge or diverge to keep a stationary object in correct focus. A user’s eyes would decide what part of a VR environment would be in clear focus, with Meta claiming distances of 25cm to infinity are possible. Although Mark Zuckerberg claimed in 2022 that varifocal tech would not become commonplace in the VR industry until “the second half of the decade,” Meta is committed to being first past the post. Having already shown a prototype it was calling Half Dome back in 2018, Meta (then-Facebook) used eye-tracking to prompt physical movement of each headset display to adjust focus according to what a user was looking at. Mechanical movement proved to be an approach that carried complications too numerous to make it to market, however. One year later, Half Dome 2 had come and gone, and Half Dome 3 was the best hope yet. Using layers of liquid crystal in its lenses, Half Dome 3 applied voltage to the lenses to shift them into accommodating varying focal distances. It appears Meta is now moving into another arena with Butterscotch.12K and Beyond
Meta claims Butterscotch will not only feature varifocal tech but near-retinal resolution. These combined could offer the most realistic and convincing VR experiences yet. Though still in development and merely a prototype that, according to Meta, “may never make their way into a consumer-facing product,” this research is definitely something that should excite porn fans.
With the recent release of the world’s first 12K VR porn experience – Pheromones Temptation by VRBangers – any increase in device resolution is exciting, but with the addition of varifocal tech, the potential for a solid advancement of the VR and AR porn forms seems right around the corner. Fully realized large-scale experiences will not only be more accessible to creators but realistic and deeply immersive to VR users.
WackaMole says
Soon VR will be clearer than RL.
vrjoeker says
Sounds like a nice progression and tech evolution.