Horizon Worlds: Meta finally adds legs to its avatars

Horizon Worlds avatars will soon have legs, and Meta makes creating and sharing them much easier.

Meta has announced several avatar updates that it wants to use in the metaverse and beyond. And yes, these avatars will finally have legs! At least in the virtual sense of the term, if not in the physical or metaphorical sense.

Horizon Worlds avatars will soon have legs

Meta explains that “legs have been one of the most requested features on our roadmap and have been a big part of our work lately.”These updated avatars will initially be available in Horizon Worlds before being released by Meta to other developers.

Because of this, Meta has created an SDK so that avatars can be used in third-party VR apps and other applications. Which is quite logical, finally. The meta will never be able to create a true metaverse if it keeps its ecosystem closed. In fact, the SDK will soon include Unreal Engine compatibility for VR and Unity support for iOS and Android. The SDK will also bring what Meta calls “natural facial expressions”to Meta Quest Pro – a high-quality VR headset will be able to replicate your facial expressions on your avatar.

And Meta makes it much easier to create and share them.

Meta also wants to make it easy for you to create an avatar. The giant explains that you can start with a video selfie using your smartphone’s camera. After that, you will have the opportunity to change the avatar at your discretion. Of course, you definitely don’t want to have an avatar that looks exactly like you, there’s nothing stopping you from doing what you want. There are also a number of basic avatars that you can start working on.

In addition, soon you will be able to create your meta avatar and share it on WhatsApp. Avatars will be available in Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp video calls next year. They will mimic your expressions and movements during calls, in a way similar to Animoji.

However, it’s the legs and the overall improvement in avatar rendering that will draw attention. In early August, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a screenshot of his Horizon Worlds avatar, prompting much ridicule. Someone even compared it to “a 2002 Nintendo GameCube game called World Baby”. Mark Zuckerberg was quick to say that “major updates”to VR are on the way, and we’ll find out more today during the Meta Connect event.

The strange floating avatars now seen in Horizon Worlds will soon be history, but Mark Zuckerberg’s avatar will no doubt be remembered for a long time.

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— Meta (@Meta) October 11, 2022