Announced at Connect last week, Meta is launching its next-generation avatars in Horizon Worlds today, giving users a lot more customization options to choose from before jumping into the company’s social VR platform.

Starting today, users can dig even deeper into adjusting their avatars’ appearance, including features like customizable body proportions, nose shape, eye size, and lip size. Like its previous avatars system, these also work across Meta’s other platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.

The sort of flash marketing images you’ll see with smiling and laughing avatars only really paints a part of the picture though, since the sort of smooth, Pixar-esque scripted avatar animations seen on flatscreen simply aren’t a thing in VR. Still, the new avatar system brings a lot more flexibility to the table, which Instagram user ‘mistermavix’ shows off in a recent video:

 

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A post shared by Mavix (@mistermavix)

Meta says in the most recent Horizon Worlds v182 release notes that world creators should make sure their virtual environments are ready for updated avatars, which includes things like making sure features of their worlds interact with the new avatars’ expanded range of body shapes and sizes.

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Specifically, attachable items, lighting, and interactable objects like furniture may need adjustments to accommodate the new avatars, Meta says, noting that doorways and walkways should also be reviewed to ensure they comfortably fit the varied avatar proportions.

This follows an update in August last year that finally brought legs to Meta avatars, which came amid a greater push to attract more users to Horizon Worlds with the launch of support for Android and iOS mobile devices as well as standard PC browsers.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • VRDeveloper

    It's still terrible since there’s no way to choose the gender of the character. This is clearly an ideological issue, and it makes me very upset. I have nothing against transgender or gay people, etc.

    But when companies remove the gender option just to include those who are offended by the idea of differences between men and women, it negatively affects our experience. You simply can’t create a man in these editors; they always end up looking androgynous. It's disappointing.

    • ViRGiN

      I'll take androgynous Avatar over steamvr toy figures with chopped off hands.

      • VRDeveloper

        I think they both suck

    • Adrian Meredith

      This was so annoying made making an avatar so time consuming because you had to check every variation to see if it's aligns with your gender.

      If they believe gender isnt binary why couldn't they add a slider instead and mask everyone happy?

      • VRDeveloper

        I agree, having to keep looking at dresses when I just wanted men's clothing annoys me a lot.

        But I go further, companies doing this don't actually include trans people. This is literally the cheapest option to deal with the issue, it's practically like doing nothing.

        Because creating a category for trans people, that truly includes all the physical characteristics of a trans person, would be more costly. In other words, it's as if left-wing movements are doing companies a favor when they defend the idea that everything is the same.

        Besides the fact that, 'why should people be ashamed of the unique characteristics of a trans person?' Why try to force something to fit into unrealistic standards? It only makes the experience worse for absolutely everyone.

        This kind of attitude doesn't make me have less prejudice, on the contrary, I constantly get the feeling that the LGBT group doesn't want heterosexual men to be represented in anything, as if we didn't deserve to be part of society.

  • The art style of these avatars look bang on, a little disappointing hearing some of the issues with customizing your avatar for men though.

  • ViRGiN

    The hell are those fingernails? You know she doesn't get any job done.