Avatar Specialist Tafi Launches Astra SDK for Creators

Tafi Avatars

Want to spend as little time as possible creating avatars for a project? There are a variety of ways you can go about that, the latest coming from Tafi. The company specialises custom 3D content for avatar and emoji systems, announcing today the launch of its Astra software development kit (SDK) for content creators.

Tafi avatars

You may already be familiar with Tafi if you’re a fan of social platform VRChat thanks to its TafiAvatars app, enabling users to create their own using the company’s 3D library of content. The Astra SDK, on the other hand, is designed for developers, whether that’s small indies or more established studios.

The software allows content creators to automatically load, modify, morph, and customize various styles of avatars, reducing the normal time and cost it usually takes. Other features include: “automatic refitting of clothing, automatic hiding of skin behind clothing, streaming assets on demand, dynamic decals, a full ecommerce platform for developers to instantly unlock.” Monetisation is a key part of the SDK, to developers can sell their digital characters.

“Custom-built avatar systems typically require dedicated teams of developers and artists to spend many months, if not years, to complete. Even then, these avatar systems are often very limited in feature sets and capabilities,” said James Thornton, CEO of Tafi. “Our Astra SDK is plug-and-play while delivering comprehensive functionality, a large library of pre-loaded content, and built-in monetization capabilities. This frees up developers to focus on building the best possible game and app experience for their customers. We are proud to announce the launch of our Astra SDK.”

Tafi Avatars

“The power of our SDK is borne from years of experience developing solutions around digital characters, which we’ve distilled into a suite of solutions with features for total customization unlocked at runtime,” said Jon Middleton, Chief Technical Officer of Tafi. “For instance, our smart technology enables the creation of a single wearable asset to be used across any number of avatars that have different body shapes and art styles, while maintaining its visual fidelity. Beyond saving developers valuable hours and resources, the underlying technology, combined with our proven digital goods pipeline and e-commerce backend, allows developers to instantly unlock a world-class avatar system with only a few lines of code — speeding up development, reducing costs, and unlocking new revenue paths.”

Tafi’s Astra SDK has been the only avatar news this week for VR developers. Epic Games announced the Early Access launch of its MetaHuman Creator, a cloud-based platform for building highly realistic characters. If you’re not a videogame developer and just want something simple then there’s always Wolf3D’s Ready Player Me which has just added support for VRChat. For further updates on this topic, keep reading VRFocus.

Facebook Gives Sneak Peek of New Avatar System for Quest, Watch It Here

At the all-digital version of SXSW 2021 today, Facebook’s Mark Rabkin, VP of Oculus, showed off an upcoming new version of its avatar system on Quest.

In his chat with CNET’s Scott Stein, called The Quest Effect: Inside VR’s Next Chapter, Rabkin revealed the company’s next avatar system.

It’s slated to arrive first on its social VR platform Facebook Horizon, and later roll out to the wider Quest ecosystem for other developers to integrate. Take a look below:

Horizon has been in invite-only beta for around a year now, and it appears the company is getting closer to releasing to a wider audience.

Considering Rabkin says this will be rolling out to Horizon and then the rest of the platform, it’s safe to say the results above were obtained by applying many of the advances in AI systems the company has been working on in the past few years, and not by using a separate piece of face-tracking hardware like HTC revealed earlier this month.

Since the launch of Rift in 2016, Facebook has been keen on researching social VR and releasing smaller experiments — that’s of course relatively speaking in comparison to the massive success of third-party social platforms like Rec Room, Bigscreen, and VRChat. Whether Horizon is set to be another such sandbox experiment isn’t clear, however Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is keen on cinching down on “social presence”—the feeling of being physically near someone even at a distance—as the company moves towards its third and fourth iterations of Quest.

The post Facebook Gives Sneak Peek of New Avatar System for Quest, Watch It Here appeared first on Road to VR.

Facebook Working On Quest 3 & 4, Zuckerberg Wants Face & Eye Tracking

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants eye tracking & facial expression tracking in future iterations of Oculus Quest.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Information, Zuckerberg talked about the company’s strategy & direction in the AR/VR space.

He said Facebook is already working on its next VR headsets:

Because of how hardware gets developed, you kind of need to know what your next three products are going to look like all at the same time. It’s not like software where we’re changing it every couple of weeks. We have product teams spun up now working on the next few generations of virtual reality and what Quest 3 and 4 are gonna look like.

Zuckerberg revealed one of his personal most-wanted features in upcoming Oculus headsets; eye & face tracking to drive avatars in social experiences:

One of the things I’m really excited about for future versions is getting eye tracking and face tracking in, because if you’re really excited about social presence you want to make sure the device has all the sensors to really kind of animate realistic avatars so you can communicate well.

Later in the interview he spoke about some of the difficulties in making this a reality:

On the VR side, I think the biggest things that we’re very focused on now are: how do you pack more sensors, to create a better social experience, into the device? To run each sensor requires more CPU power and that generates more heat and creates all these different issues.

When I think about where you’re at with VR today, there’s some pretty great games & different experiences but I’d love to get to the point where you have realistic avatars of yourself, and where you can make real authentic eye contact with someone and have real expressions that get reflected on your avatar.

So what do you need for that? Well you need to be able to do eye tracking to do eye contact. You need to have some sense of face tracking or sense of what’s going on with the person’s expressions in order to be able to have those emotions come through naturally.

VR headsets today with eye tracking or face tracking are geared toward enterprise buyers. Pico’s Neo 2 Eye is the first standalone headset with eye tracking, priced at $900 with a focus on enterprise use cases. HP’s PC-tethered Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition will have eye tracking & face tracking, but is also focused on enterprise use cases with pricing not yet revealed.

Facebook’s Avatar Research

Facebook first showed off its long term research on photoreal ‘Codec Avatars’ back in March 2019.

Powered by machine learning, the avatars are generated using a specialized capture rig with 132 cameras. Once generated, they can be animated in real time by a prototype VR headset with eye tracking & face tracking cameras.

When first presenting codec avatars, Facebook warned the technology was still “years away” for consumer products – shipping this kind of photoreal avatar will require a number of breakthroughs.

Facebook’s Avatars Today

Oculus Quest today has a built-in basic avatar system, Oculus Avatars. It’s used in a few apps like Poker Stars VR and Tribe XR DJ, but not much else. Platforms like Bigscreen, VRChat, and Rec Room use their own separate avatar systems.

Current headsets don’t have eye or face tracking, but Oculus Avatars uses a neural network to simulate lip movement, and developers can set up priority-ranked gaze targets to simulate eye movement.

oculus expressive avatars

Back in September, Facebook announced the new Facebook Avatars system will replace Oculus Avatars. It’s apparently an evolution of the current Facebook VR avatars used in Facebook Horizon and the beta for the new Venues. Staffers working on the project include former Pixar animators.

Facebook Avatars seems to take a step backward in artistic realism, but adds a complete torso and simulated arms.

In today’s interview Zuckerberg announced Facebook Avatars will ship this year, saying it will “get more and more realistic over time”, suggesting the company intends to take an iterative approach. Zuckerberg also commented on Facebook’s low cost hardware strategy.

Oculus Avatars SDK To Be Replaced With New Facebook Avatars

Facebook plans to improve its Horizon & Venues avatars and roll them into a new Avatars SDK to replace Oculus Avatars.

There’s no timeline on when that will happen. For now, Facebook is just showing a single image preview of this new avatar system:

It’s apparently an evolution of the current Facebook VR avatars used in Facebook Horizon and the beta for the new Venues. Staffers working on the project include former Pixar animators.

That means you’ll have a consistent virtual avatar across built-in Facebook social apps and any 3rd party apps using the SDK. Platforms like Bigscreen, VRChat, and Rec Room use their own separate avatar systems.

At UploadVR we use the current Oculus Avatars for our weekly from-VR podcast, as well as virtual interviews. Oculus Avatars was first introduced with a highly abstract monotone style following a “don’t show what you aren’t tracking” philosophy- realistic human appearance without realistic human motion can creep your brain out.

oculus expressive avatars
A current Oculus Avatar

With the release of Oculus Go in 2018 Facebook brought in color, and last year the avatars got a huge update with neural network estimated lip movement, simulated object-based eye gazing, and microexpressions. Some of this core technology appears to have transferred over to Horizon, though in our experience the lips don’t move quite as authentically yet.

Facebook said you’ll be able to use these avatars in its non-VR smartphone apps one day too, presumably including Messenger, which is coming to Quest.

Facebook’s Prototype Photoreal Avatars Now Have Realistic Eyes

Researchers at Facebook figured out how to add natural looking eyes to their photorealistic avatar research.

Facebook, which owns the Oculus brand of VR products, first showed off this ‘Codec Avatars’ project back in March 2019. The avatars are generated using a specialized capture rig with 132 cameras. Once generated, they can be driven by a prototype VR headset with three cameras; facing the left eye, right eye, and mouth. All of this is achieved with machine learning.

While the graphics and face tracking of these avatars are impressive, the eyes tended to have an uncanny feeling, with odd distortions and gaze directions that didn’t make sense.

In a paper titled ‘The Eyes Have It: An Integrated Eye and Face Model for Photorealistic
Facial Animation
‘, the researchers present a solution to this problem. Part of the previous pipeline involved a “style transfer” neural network. If you’ve used a smartphone AR filter that makes the world look like a painting, you already know what that is.

But while this transfer was previously done at the image stage, it’s now done on the resulting texture itself. The eye direction is explicitly taken from the eye tracking system, rather than being estimated by the algorithm.

The result, based on the images and videos Facebook provided, is significantly more natural looking eyes. The researchers claim eye contact is critical to achieving social presence, and their system can now handle this- a feature you won’t get in a Zoom call.

Our goal is to build a system to enable virtual telepresence, using photorealistic avatars, at scale, with a level of fidelity sufficient to achieve eye-contact

Don’t get too excited just yet- this kind of technology won’t be on your head any time soon. When presenting codec avatars, Facebook warned the technology was still “years away” for consumer products.

When it can be realized, however, such a technology has tremendous potential. For most, telepresence today is still limited to grids of webcams on a 2D monitor. The ability to see photorealistic representations of others in true scale, fully tracked from real motion, with the ability to make eye contact, could fundamentally change the need for face to face interaction.

The post Facebook’s Prototype Photoreal Avatars Now Have Realistic Eyes appeared first on UploadVR.

Community Download: What’s The Most Exciting Future Use For VR To You?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know what you’re most excited about for the future of VR?


Here at UploadVR we do our best to not only report on the current state of the VR industry as it relates to consumers, but also to report on what’s coming next. We need to keep an eye forward on the future, especially with a technology that’s still so early in its life with so many changes happening rapidly all the time.

One example is the rise of hand tracking and finger tracking thanks to the Valve Index controllers and the Oculus Quest embedded tracking cameras. People are using it to connect online and communicate with sign language, control their desktops without any controllers, mice, or keyboards, surgeons are using VR for training, and soon we’ll have realistic real-life avatars too. There’s a lot to look forward too, especially if you consider foveated rendering, standalone headsets becoming more of a thing, and so much more.

This leads us to the key discussion question of the week: What are you most excited about for the future of VR? Do you want a big generational leap forward in visual fidelity, are you hoping for a groundbreaking social VR app, or do you look forward to creative use cases more than anything?

Let us know down in the comments below!

The post Community Download: What’s The Most Exciting Future Use For VR To You? appeared first on UploadVR.

Community Download: What’s The Most Exciting Future Use For VR To You?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know what you’re most excited about for the future of VR?


Here at UploadVR we do our best to not only report on the current state of the VR industry as it relates to consumers, but also to report on what’s coming next. We need to keep an eye forward on the future, especially with a technology that’s still so early in its life with so many changes happening rapidly all the time.

One example is the rise of hand tracking and finger tracking thanks to the Valve Index controllers and the Oculus Quest embedded tracking cameras. People are using it to connect online and communicate with sign language, control their desktops without any controllers, mice, or keyboards, surgeons are using VR for training, and soon we’ll have realistic real-life avatars too. There’s a lot to look forward too, especially if you consider foveated rendering, standalone headsets becoming more of a thing, and so much more.

This leads us to the key discussion question of the week: What are you most excited about for the future of VR? Do you want a big generational leap forward in visual fidelity, are you hoping for a groundbreaking social VR app, or do you look forward to creative use cases more than anything?

Let us know down in the comments below!

The post Community Download: What’s The Most Exciting Future Use For VR To You? appeared first on UploadVR.

Watch: Facebook’s Latest Research On Photorealistic Avatars & Full Body Tracking

For the annual computer vision conference CVPR, Facebook Reality Labs released a short clip showing off research towards photorealistic avatars and full body tracking:

Facebook is the company behind the Oculus brand of virtual reality products. The company is considered a world leader in machine learning. Machine learning (ML) is at the core of the Oculus Quest and Rift S– both headsets have “inside-out” positional tracking, achieving sub-mm precision with no external base stations. On Quest, machine learning is even used to track the user’s hands without the need for controllers.

Facebook first showed off its interest in digitally recreating humans back in March 2019, showing off ‘Codec Avatars’. This project focused specifically on the head and face- and notably the avatar generation required an expensive scan of the user’s head with 132 cameras.

In May 2019, during its annual F8 conference, the company showed off real time markerless body tracking with unprecedented fidelity, using a model that takes into account the human muscular and skeletal systems.

Also this week, the company is showing off an algorithm which can generate a fairly detailed 3D model of a clothed person from just one camera.

Don’t get too excited just yet- this kind of technology won’t be on your head next year. When presenting codec avatars, Facebook warned the technology was still “years away” for consumer products.

When it can be realized however, such a technology has tremendous potential. For most, telepresence today is still limited to grids of webcams on a 2D monitor. The ability to see photorealistic representations of others in true scale, fully tracked from real motion, could fundamentally change the need for face to face interaction.

The post Watch: Facebook’s Latest Research On Photorealistic Avatars & Full Body Tracking appeared first on UploadVR.

Sony VR Patent Reveals Work On Face Tracking

A US patent granted to Sony reveals research on VR face tracking, a vital technology for the future of multiplayer and social VR.

Titled Integration of tracked facial features for VR users in virtual reality environments, the patent describes the use of one or more cameras on the underside or nosegap of the headset to capture the user’s mouth and facial expression in real time.

This tracked data would be represented on a virtual avatar, shown to other users online in multiplayer games. Imagine seeing your friend gasp, smile, or laugh inside a shared virtual world- that future is on the horizon. As with previous Sony patents, the headset also contains eye tracking so that your gaze is represented.

The patent describes a few interesting techniques to deal with the occlusion issues- the cameras not being able to see the whole face. A flex sensor pressing against the user’s face is proposed, as well as a way to sense the exact position of the nose flap so that it isn’t detected as part of the user’s face.

Facebook, the company behind the Oculus VR brand, has shown off similar technology over the past few years. Videos released by Facebook show just how much detail can be captured with just cameras on a headset:

There’s no indication that this technology will ship in PlayStation VR 2, Sony’s highly anticipated upcoming headset for PlayStation 5. It could be research for headsets even further in the future. Oftentimes patented ideas by major companies never come to fruition at all. If the headset does contain these features though, it will enable developers to take multiplayer VR to the next level.

The post Sony VR Patent Reveals Work On Face Tracking appeared first on UploadVR.

10 Most Amazing And Relaxing VRChat Worlds To Visit And Hang Out In For Social VR

VRChat is, for lack of a better term, infamous.

It’s been around for nearly two and a half years, and has seen traffic ebb and flow with VR’s popularity since then. But let’s assume that the vast majority of Internet frolickers stopped caring about VRChat just short of that insufferable Ugandan Knuckles meme of early 2018. Alas, memes and anime girl tropes a social VR app does not make. Furthermore, VRChat is actually home to a lot of cool, imaginative content. It has everything from live events to games and luxurious hangout spaces; all available on its free-to-explore online platform.

It’s also a bit dense at the front end. If you’re trying to find some cool worlds, you might quickly find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of options available to you, smack dab on the front page of the main ‘Worlds’ menu. That’s why we’ve put together a list of top VRChat worlds that all virtual visitors should check out on their tour of the app’s offerings.

Note that the criteria used here is subjective, and there are so many worlds and so many creators that we probably missed tons of hidden gems. All of the worlds on this list are exploration-focused or chillout areas, so we haven’t dug into any games here. If gaming inside of VRChat is more your speed, we do recommend trying out the Cards Against Humanity world and various climbing challenge rooms, albeit them not officially making it onto our list. Also, if you’re looking for events rather than worlds, check out the VRChat events calendar.

Ready? Let’s get started with our favorite VRChat worlds.


vrchat japan garden shrine

Japan Shrine (PC/Quest) | By: ITOAR

Representing what is supposed to be a spring day, this Japan Shrine map comes complete with various nooks and crannies to sit down and relax in. If lazing back on a park bench or on a pile of cherry blossom petals doesn’t suit your fancy, you can enter any of the pagoda-topped structures and discover recreations of Japanese dining sets and kitsch decor.

vrchat home of time world 1 vrchat home of time world 2

Home of the Time (PC/Quest) | By: fr1ed

How do I summarize Home of the Time? It’s basically a floating island, surrounded by water, and equipped with an automated day/night cycle. The interior space is spacious and homely for a VRChat world. At the top, you can find an area with beds to hang out in. Outdoors, there is an entire garden area with statues, a patio, and greenery.

vrchat the black cat world

The Black Cat (PC/Quest) | By: spookyghostb

Despite being a figment of the metaverse, The Black Cat feels like a public event hall. The kind you might rent out for somebody’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah, or a wedding reception. It’s basically a social club in VR, and it’s the kind of place you might go to meet other people before staging an expedition into some other worlds.

VRChat Rest and Sleep world

Rest and Sleep (PC/Quest) | By: LOLI

You might not actually fall asleep while exploring Rest and Sleep, but it certainly provides the kind of atmosphere that’s useful for decompressing and relaxing with others. What stands out here is the relaxing neon blue hue of all of the decorations and furniture pieces in the room.

vrchat sombies hangout

Sombie’s Hangout (PC/Quest) | By: Sombie

You could sum Sombie’s Hangout down to a three-story mingling space set to the backdrop of indie artwork and art deco design. It contains hidden passageways, a bar, and all the VR chess and virtual beer pong you can possibly play in one sitting. If you don’t feel like playing social games, sit down in any of the bean bag chairs and kill time chatting it out with other avatars.

The Great Pug (PC Only) | By: owlboy

As you enter The Great Pug, you can almost smell the old wood, newspapers, coffee, and fried eggs. Everything about the main floor is reminiscent of a venerable neighborhood pub; the earthen green and brown tones plus the framed ‘photos’ of notable guests add a comforting aura that should make you feel like you’re walking through a real restaurant. Bonus points if you head on up to The Roost and cozy yourself by the fire.

If you’re on Quest there is a smaller, alternate version called The Great Pug – West designed to be optimized for the standalone VR headset.

vrchat void club world

Void Club (PC Only) | By: Lycon

Of all the VR nightclubs I’ve been to, the Void Club is easily the most active. Music pumps through the venue all 24 hours a day, and there are almost always other avatars running around and dancing. You can explore various VIP spaces above the dancefloor, but don’t forget to check out the club exterior for some vibrant sci-fi vistas.

vrchat room of summer solitude world

Room of Summer Solitude (PC/Quest) | By: Lucifer MStar

The Room of Summer Solitude is more than just any old bedroom. It’s one of the best-optimized bedrooms in all of VRChat, looking nearly as beautiful in the Oculus Quest as it does on PC. That said, this room is gorgeous. The panorama over Hong Kong is as photorealistic as you’re going to get in VRChat, and taking photos inside of this thing made me feel like a bougie travel photographer.

vrchat a rainy night in world

A Rainy Night In (PC/Quest) | By: Lucifer MStar

A Rainy Night In is the more detailed counterpart to Room of Summer Solitude. It’s a messier experience, and I did feel performance take a hit at various points on my Rift (but not on my Quest, strangely enough). However, there’s just so much more to explore here. Seeing as how well-trafficked A Rainy Night In is, social games are a must. On my first go, I almost missed the mysterious spinning bottle lying on the kitchen counter.

vrchat big al avatar world

Big Al’s Avatar Corridors (PC/Quest) | By: Big Al

A maze filled with over 200 custom avatars from recognizable IPs like Rocko’s Modern Life and The Simpsons? Yes please. Wandering through the seemingly endless labyrinth of Big Al’s Avatar Corridors feels a bit like walking into a Party City before Halloween. If you don’t get totally lost, you might walk out with something you aren’t too embarrassed to show your friends. Of course, showing off your avatar in VRChat is never embarrassing because the entire thing is a non-stop costume party. Go hard.


VRChat is one of the most widely frequented (and free) social apps for PC VR and Oculus Quest headsets. If you haven’t downloaded it, you can find it on Steam or on the Oculus Store. And if you don’t own a headset yet, you can still hop into VRChat and join your friends in any of these worlds from the comfort of your desktop.

Let us know some of your favorite worlds down in the comments below!

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