Meta’s avatar legs roll out to VR beta testers, but only in Quest Home for now

Legs may soon come to the unwashed virtual masses. | Image: MetaMeta has walked out legs to player avatars in Quest Home — but not Horizon Worlds — in a new beta announced last week in the Meta Community...

Aug 30, 2023 - 21:02

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Meta has walked out legs to player avatars in Quest Home — but not Horizon Worlds — in a new beta announced last week in the Meta Community forums (via UploadVR).

Meta communications manager Eliza Kern told The Verge in an email that “people will start to see avatar legs appear” in the VR version of Horizon Worlds “over the next few weeks.” (It wasn’t clear if Kern was referring to the beta program or if players of the full release can expect to see the change soon too, so we’ve asked and will update here as soon as possible.)

Community manager Ryanality posted in the forums that the “Public Test Channel (PTC) for Quest v57 is starting to roll out for Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 2 soon,” though without specifying any new features. Then, yesterday, a forum user named TomCgcmfc reported their avatar had legs.

A post on X (formerly Twitter) from Brad Lynch shows what the legs will look like. For now, beta users can’t see their legs without looking at an in-game mirror, and from the video, it looks like the avatar won’t crouch when the user does so. Although the legs don’t make an appearance in Horizon Worlds just yet, they do exist in betas for a new mobile and web version of Horizon Worlds, which was rumored last month.

Users in the Meta Community forum also reported updated menus that allow hand tracking to position and use them (rather than needing direct manipulation). On Reddit, one user claimed to see improvements to both hand tracking and auto-switching between controllers and hands. NyaVR on X posted that they found code references to new settings, including an extended battery mode (via Mixed Reality News).

It’s been more than 10 months since Meta announced legs would be coming, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying at Meta Connect that legs are “probably the most requested feature.” Zuckerberg said then that the company would need to use an AI model for leg movement because tracking them with the headset’s cameras is tricky. Tricky enough, apparently, that the legs shown in the Connect keynote last year may have actually been prerecorded motion capture.

It’s possible Meta will drop more leg news at this year’s Meta Connect on September 27th. A lot of the show will probably be devoted to more details about the new Quest 3 headset, although there might not be much left to the imagination at this point, considering somebody may have already filmed its unboxing.

Update August 30th, 2023 8:49AM ET: Added confirmation from Meta communications manager Eliza Kern that the company is adding legs to player avatars in Horizon Worlds, as well, over the next few weeks.