The avatars in Meta’s proto-metaverse worlds, Horizon Words, have legs now although the display is still limited.

Horizon Worlds’ virtual avatars now have legs, an important new development from the now more familiar legless avatars. When you launch Horizon Worlds and look into the virtual mirror, you will now notice your the avatars have a full body.

Avatars Now Have legs
Avatars Now Have legs

The avatars of other users in Horizon Worlds are also appearing as full-body avatars. The only limitation is that you still won’t be able to see your legs in first person when you look down. You have to look at the virtual mirror to see your new avatar legs.

For the time being, the display of avatar legs is limited to the Quest Home area and in Horizon Worlds. Third-party developers incorporating meta avatars in their virtual reality applications will not be able to use the new virtual legs for the time being.

A lot of virtual reality apps and games already offer users virtual legs in the first and third person. However, no VR headset in the market at the moment offers built-in leg tracking. As a result, virtual legs are currently not matching the actual movement of the user’s real legs. Besides, there isn’t a seamless and gracile way of handling the transitions between sitting and standing positions or of making the avatar legs appear natural when the user moves around using a thumbstick. Although there are some VR users who aren’t bothered by the discordance between the virtual and real legs, many virtual reality users will still find the experience disconcerting.

Two weeks ago, avatar legs appeared in the Quest home space which has been rebranded to Horizon Home) for the Public Test Channel users for Quest firmware. However, they are now available on the Virtual Reality app for the first time.

The new avatar legs are only visible in the virtual mirror as the Meta Quest 2 headset along with other Quest VR headsets are still not capable of tracking users’ legs. The leg movements are, thus, rendered but they do not match the actual leg movements. This can be a confusing experience for some.

According to Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, it is more feasible less bothersome having legs that one can see than having legs on your own avatar which won’t match your real legs and could be concerting.

It Has Been a Long Wait for Avatar Legs

Avatars have been legless ever since Meta introduced the legless avatars that float around in both the Quest Home and Horizon Worlds. In a rather theatrical performance at the Meta Connect last year, Zuckerberg promised that Meta Avatars would soon have legs and improved graphics.

However, there weren’t much developments following the announcement until the recent release of Meta Quest 2 Beta Update 57. Following its release, some users have been noticing legs on their avatars when viewed through a virtual mirror in the Quest Home area. However, the legs still aren’t there when a user looks down in the first person but they are able to sdee the legs on the third party avatars.

Rob GrantGamingTechnologyThe avatars in Meta’s proto-metaverse worlds, Horizon Words, have legs now although the display is still limited. Horizon Worlds’ virtual avatars now have legs, an important new development from the now more familiar legless avatars. When you launch Horizon Worlds and look into the virtual mirror, you will now notice...VR, Oculus Rift, and Metaverse News - Cryptocurrency, Adult, Sex, Porn, XXX