In August 2016, the OSVR project — the open-source VR initiative backed by Razer and Sensics — released a screen upgrade kit for its Hacker Development Kit, bringing the display to 2160x1200 resolution, matching the panels of the consumer Rift and Vive of that generation.
OSVR's pitch was different from the closed ecosystems of Oculus and Valve: open hardware you could take apart and upgrade piece by piece, and open-source software anyone could build against. The upgrade kit let existing HDK owners jump to contemporary resolution without buying a whole new headset — a genuinely novel idea then and now.
While OSVR itself faded as standalone headsets took over the market, the resolution race it participated in never stopped: today's headsets used for high-end VR content deliver per-eye resolutions several times what that 2016 upgrade kit offered.
Condensed from our original coverage.