Category: meta avatars

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Meta Avatars Finally Get Legs on Quest

Meta released a Quest software update via its public test channel (PTC), which lets users opt-in to try new features before they’re pushed out to everyone. Among the v57 PTC update is a feature that’s been notably missing from Meta avatars: legs.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised at Connect 2022 that its avatars would eventually be getting legs, putting an end to the platform’s characteristic floating torsos at some point in the not-too-distant future. At the time, Zuckerberg showed off his on-stage avatar jumping and kicking, although it was revealed later this was actually created using some fairly common external motion capture tech.

In short, Quest can’t track legs yet, which means the v57 PTC update is packing a pretty standard implementation of inverse kinematics (IK), resulting in the sort of body positioning guesswork you see in apps like VR Chat. Still, nice to see a full body in Quest Home for once, right?

X (formerly Twitter) user Lunayian shows off the new avatar legs after installing the v57 PTC update.

YouTuber and tech analyst Brad Lynch also tried out the new legs, showing off some of the limitations currently. Notably, you won’t see your avatar’s legs when looking down directly at them—they’re only viewable via the mirror, and ostensibly by other users—and the IK system still doesn’t account for crouching.

According to data mined by X user NyaVR, the v57 PTC update also includes the ability to enable and disable the avatar mirror, a new Horizon Worlds Portal in home, an Airplane Mode, and an Extended Battery Mode.

The comes alongside a wider push to attract more users to Horizon Worlds, as Meta recently took its first steps of ending Quest-exclusivity for the social VR app with the launch of a closed beta on Android mobile devices. It’s also set to arrive on standard PC browsers too at some point.

Additionally, Meta seems to also be investing more in first-party content for Horizon Worlds, having released Super Rumble late last month, a hero shooter which feels more in line with the sort of sticky content that ought to attract and bring users back more regularly.

We’re sure to learn more about Quest software features and Horizon Worlds stuff at the company’s annual Connect developer conference, which takes place September 27th.

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Luxury Brand Valentino Launches Meta Avatar Clothing

Meta and Italian luxury brand Valentino have partnered to launch a new line of digital clothing on the company’s Avatar Store.

When the Meta Avatars Store launched in late 2022, the company offered digital outfits from a number of luxury clothing brands, including Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Browne.

Now the prestigious Roman fashion house is among them, bringing a range of patently Valentino outfits inspired by its recent IRL collection, including two mini dresses, a skintight jumpsuit, a suit jacket, a bomber jacket, a t-shirt, a pair of jeans and a pair of shorts.

All of its digital outfits are priced at $5, making it basically the cheapest thing you can buy with the name Valentino attached to it. Second place goes to two physical items, the Rosso Valentino Mini Lipstick and Stick With Me Glitter Primer, both of which will set you back $25.

Like all of the digital clothing available on the Meta Avatar Store, users can dress their avatars across Quest, Instagram, Facebook, as well as in Messenger via its new avatar calling function, which lets you use your avatar in place of your camera for video chats. In VR, users can show off their digital purchases in the company’s Horizon Worlds social app.

If you’ve never perused the digital racks, follow these steps to sort through the store’s paid and free digital clothing:

  1. Put on your Meta Quest headset.
  2. Select your profile picture from the navigation menu, then select Edit avatar.
  3. Select Store. From here, you can filter by brand and price.
  4. Select the item that you want to get, then tap Save or Buy.
    • If you’re buying an item, enter your device PIN and confirm the purchase.
  5. Select Save.

Your avatar will be updated automatically with your new items. You can go to your closet any time to view and change them.

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Meta Rolls out 3D Avatars Across its Apps

Whether it’s a videogame or the metaverse, avatars are an essential part of the whole process allowing users to create their own digital self; lifelike or not. Today, Meta has announced a new update to its avatar system rolling out its 3D avatars across Facebook, Instagram (Stories and DM), and Messenger.

Meta Avatar Visual Updates
Image credit: Meta

Having released more expressive virtual reality (VR) avatars almost a year ago, Meta’s other platforms are getting the avatar treatment. So you can create one avatar and use it across all of Meta aforementioned apps as it continues implementing its metaverse vision. Make a new Facebook profile pic or pop yourself on a sticker, for example.

The avatars will feature a limited rollout, to begin with, available to users in the US, Canada and Mexico. Today’s launch also adds more options to make Meta’s avatars even more inclusive. Wheelchairs, cochlear implants and over-the-ear hearing aids (for one or both ears) have been added.

You’ll also notice a general refinement in the avatar design. Facial shapes and skin shaders have been tweaked so you can create a more accurate digital you. This isn’t a flatscreen update either, the VR version is getting the same improvements.

Instagram Super Bowl Avatars
Image credit: Meta

“We’re updating Meta avatars with a lot more expressions, faces and skin tones, as well as wheelchairs and hearing aids,” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. “We’re starting to experiment with digital clothing too, including official NFL shirts you can wear for the Super Bowl. You can use your avatar across Quest, Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. One day you’ll have multiple avatars ranging from expressive to photorealistic. Looking forward to sharing more soon.”

When it comes to those NFL shirts, they’re available until 28th February in three flavours. The two Super Bowl LVI contenders branded shirts for the dedicated fans and a neutral shirt for those who just like to watch American Football.

As for the wider rollout, Meta says the update will be globally available in the next few months. For continued updates keep reading gmw3.

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Meta Visually Unifies Avatars Across Quest, Facebook & Instagram in Metaverse Push

Meta released its new Quest avatar system last year, bringing a big upgrade over the previous in terms of expressiveness and customizability. Now the company announced it’s standardizing those across all Meta platforms—Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram—essentially letting users build and use the same 3D avatar for VR and social media.

Starting today, Meta says the visual style for 3D avatars on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram will be “the same look and feel as the avatars you’re already familiar with on Quest.”

The company says its avatars don’t sync across its various properties yet, with the only exception being between Facebook and Messenger, and also Instagram Stories if you choose. For example: if you build an avatar for Quest, it won’t be ported over to your Facebook account. You have to manually build the 3D avatar there, and vice versa.

The update includes things like more expressions, faces, skin tones, over-the-ear hearing aids, cochlear implants, and NFL football shirts in preparation for the Super Bowl.

 

One thing that won’t be available to Quest users for now though is the inclusion of wheelchairs, which are coming to 3D avatars on its traditional social networks.

The 3D avatar update is gradually rolling out starting today, the company says. Users in the US, Canada and Mexico will be able to access it today, while other countries will follow.

The quasi-unification of its avatar systems across Quest and Facebook is ostensibly part a wider push to position its immersive tech closer to the core of its business. It’s also hoping to build more bridges to these platforms, or so we’ve gleaned.

In a Digiday interview earlier this month, Meta said it would be opening its social VR Horizon apps to non-VR devices at some point in addition to bringing its various experiences together in a more seamless way.

We haven’t seen that happen yet, however the entrance of uniform 3D avatars puts the company even closer to making that cross-platform space—the company’s vision of the metaverse—a significant step closer.

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