Approximately three in four people in the United States wear some sort of corrective lenses, so it’s likely that if you’re shopping for, or have purchased an Oculus VR product, you’ve wondered how to wear the headset over your glasses. If you do wear glasses, you’re in luck, because all Oculus products are built to accommodate glasses wearers, either to use in tandem over your existing glasses (a practice which has some limitations), or by adding VirtuClear® VR prescription lens inserts to your Oculus Quest, Quest 2, Rift S, or Go headset.
Each Oculus model, including the Quest, Quest 2, Rift S, and Go, is glasses friendly and will fit over most glasses or gaming glasses. But larger eyeglasses may not fit under your headset. To properly fit under an Oculus headset, your eyeglass frames must measure 142mm or less in width and 50mm or less in height. If your frames are larger, the Oculus headset will push against them, which is not only uncomfortable, but also will likely interfere with the VR experience or your vision while you’re wearing the headset. Glasses within the recommended size parameters should feel comfortable under the Quest 2, Rift S, and Go, though the on-ear headphones on the Rift S may require additional adjusting for a comfortable fit. The Go and Quest 2 may be slightly easier to wear with glasses.
The Oculus Quest 2 requires a foam spacer to provide enough room for your glasses underneath the headset. The spacer comes with your Quest 2 and is easy to insert. To wear the Quest 2 with glasses:
To remove the headset, first loosen the straps, and then work from the back to the front to avoid pulling against your glasses.
To wear the Oculus Rift S headset with glasses, you’ll need to follow a few extra steps:
To remove the headset, you’ll follow the above steps in reverse order, first removing the on-ear headphones, loosening the side and top straps, and then removing the headset from the back to the front so that it doesn’t pull against your glasses.
The steps for fitting your glasses under the Oculus Go headset are identical to those for fitting them under the Rift S, minus the on-ear headphones steps:
If you choose to wear glasses under your Oculus headset, it is unlikely, but possible to scratch the lenses of your glasses or the screen surface of your headset. This scratching can occur when you improperly handle your glasses or headset, and cause friction between the hard edges of the glasses and the headset screen. You can significantly reduce the chances of scratching the headset screen or your glasses by following proper handling instructions and the steps outlined above for wearing glasses with an Oculus headset. You can also reduce the chance of scratching your eyeglass lenses by adding a scratch-resistant coating when you purchase them.
If your glasses fog up while you wear them under an Oculus headset, the headset may be too tight. Try loosening the straps to allow for more airflow. If the fogging continues, try ordering a set of VirtuClear® VR prescription lens inserts, which allow you to see with your prescription, but without the need to wear glasses under the Oculus headset.
If you wear corrective lenses regularly, you should wear them with your headset to get the full, accurate experience of the Oculus Quest 2, Rift S, or Go. But wearing glasses under your Oculus headset isn’t the only option for enjoying optical clarity in your immersive VR sessions. You could, instead, wear contacts or VirtuClear® VR prescription lens inserts. Though both options for using an Oculus headset without glasses provide a comparable experience, if you do require glasses with corrective lenses (whether nearsighted or farsighted), it’s not recommended that you use an Oculus headset without them, even though it is not necessarily bad for your eyes.