A-Rage VR: Independent VR, AR and Mixed Reality

Key VR Terms Every Player Should Know

These ten terms appear in nearly every headset review and spec sheet, so here is what each one actually means.

• 01 / 106DoF Flip

  6DoFSix degrees of freedom means the headset tracks both rotation and position, so you can lean, crouch and walk in VR instead of only looking around.
• 02 / 10Passthrough Flip

  PassthroughPassthrough uses the headset's outward-facing cameras to show a live view of your real surroundings without removing the headset.
• 03 / 10IPD Flip

  IPDInterpupillary distance is the gap between the centres of your pupils, and setting the headset's lens spacing to match it keeps the image sharp and reduces eye strain.
• 04 / 10Refresh rate Flip

  Refresh rateRefresh rate is how many times per second the display redraws the image, measured in hertz, with 72Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz being common in VR.
• 05 / 10Field of view Flip

  Field of viewField of view is how much of the virtual world you see at once, quoted in degrees, though brands measure it differently, so figures rarely compare cleanly.
• 06 / 10Pancake lenses Flip

  Pancake lensesPancake lenses fold light between polarised layers, allowing slimmer headsets and sharper edge-to-edge clarity than older Fresnel lenses at some cost to brightness.
• 07 / 10Inside-out tracking Flip

  Inside-out trackingInside-out tracking uses cameras on the headset itself to follow your position and controllers, so no external base stations are needed.
• 08 / 10Eye tracking Flip

  Eye trackingEye tracking uses internal sensors to follow your gaze, enabling look-to-select menus, more expressive avatars and foveated rendering.
• 09 / 10Foveated rendering Flip

  Foveated renderingFoveated rendering draws full detail only where you are looking and lowers it in your peripheral vision to save processing power.
• 10 / 10Mixed reality Flip

  Mixed realityMixed reality blends virtual objects with your real room through passthrough, so digital content can sit on your desk or bounce off your walls.