In one example, a head-mounted display (HMD) device includes multiple display panels arranged in parallel with each other. Each of the display panels is associated with one of multiple focal lengths. The HMD device includes multiple lenses to view a three-dimensional (3D) scene on the display panels. The HMD device also includes a controller to provide a frame of the 3D scene, viewable at the focal lengths. The frames include focal layers generated at one of the focal lengths. The frames are rendered by displaying the focal layers in a sequence on the display panels associated with the focal length at which the focal layer is generated. The controller also allows visible light to pass through one or more of the display panels based on whether the render planes are between an active focal layer and the lenses.