A head-mounted system (14, 300) comprising: a display lens (82, 303) configured to direct projected light toward an eye of a user of the head-mounted system, the display lens further configured to selectively allow outside light from an outside environment to be transmitted through the display lens toward the eye of the user; a rendering engine configured to generate rendering information describing virtual objects to be presented to the user through the projected light; and a processor communicatively coupled to the display lens (82, 303) and the rendering engine, the processor executing instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising: determining, from a plurality of available functional modes, a functional mode in which to operate the head-mounted system; and responsive to determining the functional mode: i) instructing the display lens (82, 303) to transition from an opaque setting to block outside light to a see-through setting to selectively transmit at least a portion of the outside light through the display lens according to the determined functional mode, and ii) instructing the rendering engine to selectively generate, according to the determined functional mode, the rendering information that describes at least one virtual object (510, 610, 703, 931, 932, 1010) to be presented through the projected light. a display lens (82, 303) configured to direct projected light toward an eye of a user of the head-mounted system, the display lens further configured to selectively allow outside light from an outside environment to be transmitted through the display lens toward the eye of the user; a rendering engine configured to generate rendering information describing virtual objects to be presented to the user through the projected light; and a processor communicatively coupled to the display lens (82, 303) and the rendering engine, the processor executing instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising: determining, from a plurality of available functional modes, a functional mode in which to operate the head-mounted system; and responsive to determining the functional mode: i) instructing the display lens (82, 303) to transition from an opaque setting to block outside light to a see-through setting to selectively transmit at least a portion of the outside light through the display lens according to the determined functional mode, and ii) instructing the rendering engine to selectively generate, according to the determined functional mode, the rendering information that describes at least one virtual object (510, 610, 703, 931, 932, 1010) to be presented through the projected light. determining, from a plurality of available functional modes, a functional mode in which to operate the head-mounted system; and responsive to determining the functional mode: i) instructing the display lens (82, 303) to transition from an opaque setting to block outside light to a see-through setting to selectively transmit at least a portion of the outside light through the display lens according to the determined functional mode, and ii) instructing the rendering engine to selectively generate, according to the determined functional mode, the rendering information that describes at least one virtual object (510, 610, 703, 931, 932, 1010) to be presented through the projected light.