Apple Vision Pro has the same effective resolution as Quest 3… Sometimes?

This article is a partial-rebuttal/partial-confirmation to KGOnTech's Apple Vision Pro's Optics Blurrier & Lower Contrast than Meta Quest 3, prompted by RoadToVR's Quest 3 Has Higher Effective Resolution, So Why Does Everyone Think Vision Pro Looks Best? which cites KGOnTech. I suppose it's a bit late, but it's taken me a while to really get a good intuition for how visionOS renders frames, because there is a metric shitton of nuance and it's unfortunately very, very easy to make mistakes when trying to quantify things.

This post is divided into two parts: Variable Rasterization Rate (VRR) and how visionOS renders frames (including hard numbers for internal render resolutions and such), and a testbench demonstrating why photographing the visual clarity of Vision Pro (and probably future eye tracked headsets) may be more difficult than a DSLR pointed into the lenses (and how to detect the pitfalls if you try!).

Shiny Quagsire

I did it. I think I managed to find an article that isn't just over my head, but also over most of your heads.

How's that feel?