Since 2013, when the Oculus Rift DK1 (Development Kit 1) KickStarter backer rewards first arrived in the Make Real studio, I’ve been collecting selfies of me wearing various VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality) and MR (Mixed Reality) headsets. I’ve used and updated this photo over the last 11 years and used it for social media profile banner images, intro slides and more. Every time someone points at one of the headsets and asks “WTF is that headset?”
Many of these were/are early dev kits or prototypes that never saw the light of day or further development, or the company went under along the way. It might be a bit of a struggle to remember what they all are!
So let’s take a look shall we? From top left corner to bottom right corner, row by row… starting with the top row:
- Oculus Rift DK1 (2013) — the (3-DoF) VR headset that (re)started it all. 1st few tries left me feeling pretty queasy but that was because only RiftCoaster demo was available. Then we made Radial-G lol. Photo taken in Make Real studio #1. {more}
- Oculus Rift DK2 (2014) — the 2nd headset, that added positional tracking. Blind build with a new SDK and no device saw a Radial-G demo on the Oculus booth! Photo taken in Make Real studio #1.
- MMOne & DK2 — Motion chair arm thing that threw the user around to match the experience movement, in this case Trackmania in VR. Photo taken in a workshop somewhere south of San Francisco with a hangover. {more}
- In the Eyes of Animals & DK2 — Marshmallow Laser Feast point-cloud installation with adapted headset inside a black dome helmet with forest bits stuck on the front. Also wearing a SubPac. Photo taken at The Old Market VRLab#1. {more}
- Oculus Rift Crescent Bay (2015) — Interim prototype between DK2 and CV1. Office prototype had to be shipped back to the US after a year. Photo taken in the early Oculus London office.
- Oculus Rift CV1 (2016) — The 1st commercial launch version (this is probably an EVT or PVT to be honest). Arguably the most comfortable VR HMD, IMHO. Photo taken in the 2nd Oculus London office on a dev day about Oculus Touch.
- Oculus Rift CV1 (2016) — Just me dicking about with a construction hardhat for shits & giggles around training use cases. Photo taken in Make Real studio #2.
- Oculus Rift S (2019) — Like a CV1 but without the need for external sensors, using HMD-based cameras for tracking. Photo taken in Make Real studio #5.
- Lithuanian Prototype (2019) — Need to find the name of the company but this HMD had physical screens that switched out to give different focal depths (like what Oculus were doing with the Half-Dome prototypes) using eye-tracking. Mind blown. Also *very* heavy. Photo taken at VR-something event in Amsterdam that year.
- Sony PlayStation VR (2016) — The 1st modern foray into VR for Sony. Not a fan of halo straps, makes my forehead itch. Photo taken in Make Real studio #3. {more}
- Sony PlayStation VR2 (2023) — Some weird design choices, likely down to BoM costs, and seemingly now left for dead without real support by Sony. Photo taken at home. {more}
OK then, onto the next row, second one down:
12. Razer OSVR HDK1 (2016) — Open-source headset with a couple of iterations but generally let down by cheap hardware and poor software and SDKs. Photo taken at Make Real studio #2. {more}
13. The VOID (2018) — This was another adapted DK2 inside (with a Leap Motion tracker on the front,) but the headset was designed for LBE (Location-Based Experience/Entertainment) VR with ease of operations. The date here is the date I took the image from a team day out visit to the Star Wars experience in Westfield shopping centre. Photo taken at Westfield. {more}
14. Google Cardboard (2014) — Actually this is a larger piece of cardboard over the HMD with the phone inside, promoting NDreams Gunner game during one of the early VR Brighton Meetups. Arguably a poison chalice for early VR adoption; low-cost, yes, high-nausea, also. Photo taken at what was the empty attic space of the old Brightwave office. {more}
15. Samsung Gear VR (2015) — A step up from Google Cardboard with a dedicated VR-mode for specific Samsung phones and improved HMD unit, and 3-DoF (Degrees of Freedom) controller. This was the 1st of 4? iterations. Photo taken at AppsWorld London. Am actually sitting on a VRGO seat. {more}
16. VR Walking Rig & Gear VR (2016) — Can’t remember the name of the system / company but was designed to be a low-cost walking rig for VR. Photo taken at Develop: Brighton conference expo.
17. Oculus Go (2018) — Arguably the best 3-DoF VR HMD all-in-one standalone device that enabled many enterprise and non-gaming use cases to flourish. Photo taken at Make Real studio #2. {more}
18. Oculus Quest (2019) — Also now known as the Meta Quest, the headset that started the standalone wave, removing wires, external sensors and faff, opening up VR to a new audience who had dismissed it before. Photo taken at Make Real studio #4. {more}
19. Oculus Quest 2 (2020) — Updated Quest with cheaper price point and millions sold. Most important to me as it released at the same time as the update to my 2nd VR game Loco Dojo Unleashed. Photo taken at home.
20. Oculus Quest Pro (2021) — Early colour passthrough and eye-tracking offered a lot but asked a lot of the wallet. Mine is now an expensive desk paperweight. Photo taken at home.
21. Oculus Quest 3 (2023) — Nailed the colour passthrough with subsequent updates, pancake lenses and more horsepower, this is currently the best standalone HMD. Photo taken at home.
22. Oculus Quest 3s (2024) — Released as a cheaper option to replace Quest 2 but with colour passthrough and better Mixed Reality support. Photo taken in the Unity Brighton office.
Nearly halfway, onto the middle row:
23. HTC Vive VK1 (2015) — A complete pain in the arse to setup with cables everywhere but offered the 1st taste of roomscale VR. Photo taken Make Real studio #2. {more}
24. HTC Vive (2016) — Commercial launch in competition with the more tracking-restricted Oculus Rift. TheBlu is still the best, followed by TiltBrush although these were my first demos back at EGX Rezzed in 2015 and most memorable to me. Photo taken at a VRArcade somewhere.
25. HTC Vive Pro (2018) — Higher resolution and better built-in audio offering. Photo taken at Loading Bar (formerly C:\SideQuest).
26. HTC Vive Focus (2018) — Standalone offering early passthrough and Mixed Reality but was generally underpowered compared to Oculus Go/Quest around the same time, with less polished SDKs. Photo taken Make Real Studio #2.
27. HTC Vive Focus Plus (2019) — Added two tracked controllers as standard, following on from the add-on made available for the OG model. Photo taken HTC Vive booth at MWC that year.
28. HTC Vive Focus 3 (2021) — Was a while before used one, used widely in LBE VR spaces these days but I never found a way to wear it comfortably. Feels indestructible though, hence the LBE VR use. Photo taken Make Real studio #6.
29. HTC Vive XR Elite (2023) — The 2nd device that made me question whether I should get contacts or have laser surgery as glasses no longer fitted. Dial-in optics allowed a mostly prescriptively clear view. Convinced me to join HTC Vive but the rest is another story for another day. Photo taken at home.
30. Varjo VR1 (2019) — Easily the best resolution at the time but this initial version had the visible hardware bubble in the centre of the view. Photo taken at… a VR event somewhere? {more}
31. Varjo XR3 (2021) — Amazing hand-tracking and occlusion but heafty price-point and monster PC specs required. Photo taken at System Active.
32. Pimax 5K Plus (2018) — 1st ultra-wide FoV HMD I tried and put me off the idea for life. Stretched, swimmy visuals at the edges and questionable build quality and support. Photo taken at Kiwi’s house. {more}
33. Nintendo Virtual Boy (1995) — OK not really a VR headset, was a stereoscopic display in a table-mounted unit. Fun concept and part of the history. Nintendo came back with Labo VR cardboard HMD for Switch in 2019… will they attempt a 3rd time? Photo taken in Make Real studio #3. {more}
Row four!
34. PICO G2 (2018) — Alternative to the 3-DoF Oculus Go at the time, using an inferior SDK based upon the HTC Vive Wave SDK, before branching off. Photo taken Make Real studio #2. {more}
35. PICO Neo 2 (2020) — Alternative to the Oculus Quest, as above. Photo taken Make Real studio #2.
36. PICO Neo 3 (2021) — Became more popular with enterprise uses as operation and management at scale was easier whilst Oculus / Quest for Business floundered for a few years. Photo taken Make Real studio #2.
37. PICO 4 (2022) — Quest Pro competitor with enterprise options. Could be viable non-Meta alternative if they could just work out how to release a consumer version in the US market. Photo taken at home.
38. Acer AH101 WMR (2017) — Low-cost entry for Windows Mixed Reality with basic stock WMR controllers. Photo taken Make Real studio #2. {more}
39. Samsung Odyssey WMR (2017) — Higher-end WMR HMD with better controllers. Photo taken Make Real studio #2.
40. HP Reverb WMR (2019) — 1st iteration of HPs WMR offering with greater resolution than other WMR HMDs. Liked by flight sim people. Photo taken at a VR event… somewhere?
41. ??? — No recollection what this was called but it was an early Android-based all-in-one standalone device I tried at Oculus Connect 3? Photo taken in the food hall area of Oculus Connect.
42. Lenovo Mirage Solo (2018) — It was much later than release year when I got to try it (& take selfie) but was a solid attempt at standalone before Quest dominated the following year. Photo taken at Old Market Theatre, VRLabs. {more}
43. Lenovo Star Wars: Jedi Challenges AR (2018) — Used a tracked object to tie the “AR” to but was an expensive bit of fun for 5 minutes. Photo taken Make Real Studio #4. {more}
44. Apple Vision Pro (2024) — Again, made me consider contacts or laser eye surgery or at least convincing work to pay for the prescriptive lens inserts as the beautiful 4K-per eye screens were totally lost on me. But after many years of speculation and Robert Scoble insisting it was coming, it came! Photo taken Unity Brighton office. {more}
Final, bottom row!
45. Epson Moverio (2018) — Android-powered puck for smart glasses. Very much not AR, just data overlay. Later versions can be used for drones apparently. Photo taken Make Real studio #2. {more}
46. Cast AR prototype (2016) — Early low-cost gaming AR device prototype from the brilliant mind of Jeri Ellsworth after buying the patent from Valve for $100. Photo taken at Cast AR office. {more}
47. Tilt Five AR (2023) — After a relaunch and new company, Cast AR > TiltFive and delivered final units through a KickStarter. Photo taken at ICO Partners office. {more}
48. Passthrough VR/AR HMD I can’t recall the name of now — Was promising, have vague recollection of some drama around the company. Photo taken at a random elearning event I think…
49. XYZ Reality Atom (2021) — Construction-orientated AR HMD using SteamVR lighthouses for tracking. Photo taken at Digital Construction Week event on day of their reveal. {more}
50. Magic Leap One (2018) — Due to lack of availability in the UK, took a while to try one and again made me question wearing glasses without having access to the costly prescription inserts. Photo taken at a telecommunications event somewhere supporting Vodafone. {more}
51. Microsoft Hololens (2016) — Whilst hard to put on and nearly impossible to get a human being to recreate the L-shape finger air tap gesture, even with limited FoV it was a promised start to visor-based passthrough. Photo taken at Wired Sussex / Fusebox space. {more}
52. Microsoft Hololens 2 (2019) — Great improvements all round but upon shipping commercial units, it seemed manufacturing yeald quality left a lot to be desired with many visual issues seen in a number of initial units. Photo taken at the MWC Microsoft reveal event.
53. XREAL Air 2 (2023) — Phone-powered AR glasses that could do positional tracking in a fairly lightweight unit. Photo taken at home as part of the XREAL #AR_Jam judging. {more}
54. Snap Spectacles 4 (2021) — 4th iteration of Snapchat / Snap Spectacles which added AR features via more cameras, sensors and positional tracking to view “Lenses”. Photo taken at VRDays (AKA Immersive Tech Week) in Rotterdam. {more}
55. Magic Leap 2 (2022) — Updated version aimed more at enterprise after the failed consumer launch of the ML1. Again couldn’t see much without my glasses on and no prescriptive inserts available. Photo taken at Unity Brighton office.
So there you have it, 55 xR HMDs. A couple I can’t recall the names of, be sure to let me know in the comments if you can! For more information about all these HMDs, check out vr-compare.com website for useful tables of data and feature comparison for 99% of these and more.
Headsets Missing Selfies
For one reason or another, there’s a number of headsets over the years that I’ve never had the chance to either try, or take a selfie whilst wearing it. Probably the most surprising is the Valve Index (2019). When it was released, most of my work focus at the time had switched away from PC VR to standalone devices and so there was never need, desire or budget to get one. Even to this day (late 2024) I still have never tried one.
Other headsets include iterations of the Varjo VR/XR devices, some of the HTC Vive iterations like Vive Pro Eye (had one at work just never selfied it), the full range of the Windows MR-compatible HMDs and most of the Pimax variants, or other ultra-FoV HMDs like the VRGineers one.
Oh and of course, the 3DHead…
