Meta Avatars Getting Legs Soon, And A Graphics Overhaul Next Year
Meta Avatars are getting third-person legs soon, and a major graphics overhaul next year.
Legs will arrive in Horizon Worlds first later this year, and then be available to all developers via the SDK next year. You’ll only see other people’s though, not your own.
Many third-party apps & games give you virtual legs, but since no current VR systems have built-in leg tracking they don’t match the movement of your real legs. Some people don’t mind this, or even prefer it, but it feels disconcerting to many.
There are still major challenges to even showing third-person legs though, such as how to gracefully handle the transition between sitting and standing, and how to make the legs look natural when moving around with the thumbstick. In many apps today avatars look more like they’re shuffling and sliding than really walking.
Meta Avatars will also get support for Quest Pro’s eye tracking and face tracking, so your gaze, blinking, and facial expressions are mapped to your avatar in real time.
Mark Zuckerberg also announced that the complete graphics overhaul he first teased in August will arrive later next year. What was shown still looks like concept tech art, but the goal is clearly a significant increase in graphical fidelity over the simplistic avatars of today.
Meta also shared progress on its long-term research & development of photorealistic “Codec Avatars”, but as always cautioned this is still far away from shipping.
