The phrase "one small step at a time" often takes new meaning in virtual reality endeavors like the metaverse. On Meta Quest, avatars sport a head-to-hips look, floating around without legs. Meta promised legs almost a year ago, and "soon" is finally here. Somewhat.
Despite claims from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that "Seriously, legs are hard. Which is why other virtual reality systems don't have them either," other VR systems have long provided legs for avatars, while Meta went with the floating body look. It doesn't help that the graphics on those avatars resemble legless Nintendo Miis.
At last year's Meta Connect VR conference, Zuckerberg promised that both legs and upgraded graphics would improve the Meta avatar look. During the demonstration, Zuckerberg's upgraded avatar seemed to jump when he did, and he picked up his foot to examine it. However, the company had to admit later that this was a staged demonstration.
Now, finally, as first spotted by UploadVR, Meta is rolling out legs. Currently, you can only enable these legs in the Quest home space by enrolling in a public beta test. But you don't need that to see them in the Horizons app. Fire up that app right now, and you'll see legs on your avatar immediately. Well, almost.
You won't see your avatar's legs if you look down. Instead, you can only see them in mirrors or using the selfie camera. But look around, and every other avatar has legs. And there's even a jump button now, though we didn't see anyone jumping during a quick test.
Unfortunately, that's the extent of leg support on Meta Quest right now. You can't use leg trackers to get more accurate walking. And Meta still needs to roll out an API so other third-party apps can enable legs. But it's a step (pun intended) in the right direction.
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