The most requested feature is finally coming to Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse: Legs.
That may sound odd. But the avatars in Meta’s main social VR app Horizon Worlds move along without any human-looking legs. Instead, avatars float around with no lower body.
The reason why is because movable, walking legs can be hard to accurately animate, and could thus become a distraction. “Seriously, legs are hard,” Zuckerberg said during his Meta Connect VR conference on Tuesday. “Which is why other virtual reality systems don’t have them either.”
Meta’s current solution has been to nix the legs for floating bodies to make the VR system ironically feel more immersive. But now the company is preparing to release full-body avatars to Horizon Worlds by using computer algorithms to accurately place each body part’s position, even though you may be sitting in a chair wearing your VR headset.
Adding legs will address how Meta’s harshest critics have been calling Zuckerberg’s current efforts to build a futuristic metaverse underwhelming, and embarrassingly low-tech. Back in August, Zuckerberg shared an image of his 3D avatar in Horizon Worlds, which many joked had the graphics similar to a 2006 Nintendo Wii.
However, Meta is working to create not only full body avatars, but also photorealistic ones. During the Meta Connect event, Zuckerberg also showed off a cutting-edge avatar that looked no different from his real face.
The technology comes from Meta’s second-generation “Codec Avatar” system, which can build a stunningly realistic 3D avatar of anyone’s face. The same system can also replicate the life-like facial expressions as the avatar speaks while maintaining accurate lighting and shadow effects over the skin and hair.
However, the second-gen Codec Avatars require sophisticated technology to create. So in response, Meta developed a way for consumers to use their own smartphones to produce a Codec Avatar with similar quality.
The so-called "Instant Avatar" process involves taking video of your face from various angles and then making a variety of facial expressions over a couple minutes. The resulting avatars aren’t as expressive, but they still look photorealistic.
It’ll still take time for Meta to iron out the technology, along with the security implications. In the meantime, the company first plans on bringing legs to the avatars in Horizon Worlds before expanding the full body avatars to more VR apps. Next year, the company will also offer tech so that third-party developers can create custom actions and behaviors for avatars.