Avatars in Meta's proto-metaverse Horizon Worlds now have legs. However, the display is limited.
The virtual avatars in Horizon Worlds have an important new feature: they now have legs. If you look in the virtual mirror when you start Horizon Worlds, you will now see the full body of your avatar.
You can also see other users' avatars in their entirety. There is one limitation, however: When looking down in first-person, you still can't see your legs.
In addition, it appears that the display of legs will be limited to Horizon Worlds and the Quest Home area for now. Third-party developers who include meta-avatars in their VR applications will not be able to use them at this time.
Why do I only see the legs in the mirror?
This is mainly because Meta Quest 2 and other Quest VR headsets cannot track the user's legs. The movements of the legs are therefore rendered and do not correspond to the actual movements. This can be confusing for some people.
“Having legs on your avatar that don't match your real legs is very disconcerting to people, but of course, we can have legs for other people you can see, and it doesn't bother you at all,” explained Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth a year ago.
Avatar legs a long time coming
Since the introduction of Meta Avatars in Quest Home and Horizon Worlds, virtual bodies have been gliding around without legs. At the last Meta Connect a year ago, Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement in a grand theatrical performance: Meta avatars would get legs and better graphics.
After that, nothing happened for a long time until Meta Quest 2 Beta Update 57 was released recently. Since then, some users have been able to see legs on their avatars for the first time when they look in the mirror in the Quest Home area. However, they are still missing when looking down.