Zach began writing for CNET in November 2021 after five years working for a news station in his hometown of Cincinnati. At the age of 6, he fell in love with technology, drawing video game characters such as Yoshi in Microsoft Paint on his grandparents’ computer.
Meta showed off its next-generation avatar with legs at the Meta Connect event, but according to an UploadVR report, the legs shown at the event were pre-animated using motion capture technology before the event.
“To give you a preview of what’s coming next, this section features animations created with motion capture,” Meta told UploadVR.
“Legs are solid,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the event. “We will be adding legs to Horizon [Worlds] first, and as we improve our tech stack, we will continue to bring more experience to them over time.”
In addition to legs, the avatars will display a wider range of facial expressions and reactions to better convey people’s feelings, Meta said. People can also choose more body types and skin tones for their avatars to better represent who they are.
Meta also announced a new feature that allows you to use your avatar in Zoom meetings. Once activated, your avatar will be able to take your place if you don’t want to be in front of the camera but still want to be on screen.
Facebook rebranded itself as Meta in 2021 to signify its ambitious desire to become one of the Metaverse’s adoption factors.
Zuckerberg said at the time: “In our DNA, we are a company that creates technology to connect people, and the metaverse is the next frontier.”
Zuckerberg envisions the Metaverse as a 3D virtual world that you can enter by wearing a headset or augmented reality glasses, such as the Meta Quest 2 VR headset.
To learn more about Meta Connect, check out the CNET Quest Pro hands-on review, read the Meta and NBCUniversal partnership news, and head outside the doors of Meta Reality Labs.
October 12 Correction: A previous version of this story called a feature to allow meta avatars to appear in Zoom calls. This function does not yet have a name.
Post time: Oct-25-2022