Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth talks about John Carmack's departure, upcoming advances in avatars, and the weight of VR headsets.
Every few weeks, Andrew Bosworth takes time to answer questions from his followers via Instagram.
In the most recent round, he answered the question of where he sees Meta avatars in a year's time and holds out the prospect of improvement on a monthly basis in 2023.
"We are investing tremendously in building maybe one of the most flexible rigs in the world, and that's going to take about a year. I think we'll see a lot of progression, every month, things getting better," Bosworth says.
At Meta Connect 2022, Meta announced a new generation of Meta avatars that will look better and be more expressive and detailed than current avatars. Meta also promised that avatars will finally have legs.
An upgrade to avatars would come just in time for Meta. In August, an avatar selfie of Mark Zuckerberg became a meme that could accompany Meta's Metaverse efforts for years to come.
Meta's avatars are one of four tech platforms Meta Reality Labs plans to focus on over the coming years. The others are VR headsets, AR headsets and the EMG wristband, which will control Meta's first true AR headset.
Carmack's departure a "real loss"
Bosworth answered several other questions, such as about John Carmack's departure from Meta. His departure is a "bummer" and a "real loss," Bosworth says.
"He is someone who reliably has great ideas, pushes hard for doing the right thing, always looking at near-term value. What can you deliver today? You don't have to wait, it doesn't have to be better, you can make it work with what you have. It's real loss," says Bosworth.
"We did have disagreements. There's many pieces of work that I really believe in, that John I think believed in, but thought we shouldn't do them yet, we should wait, we should do something differently, in different sequence."
Carmack has had a "tremendous influence" and will continue to have it, Bosworth says, probably in regards to Carmack's AGI plans.
Meta Quest Pro: hardware first, software second
Bosworth also addressed the following points:
- The weight of VR headsets: Bosworth believes it is possible that the housings will one day weigh less than 300 grams, provided the battery is installed in the rear part of the head mount. The biggest weight factor would then be the optical elements. (Note: The Pico 4's housing already weighs less than 300 grams).
- About the criticism of Meta Quest Pro: Bosworth admits that the software lags the hardware and has to "catch up" with it first.
- Ray-Ban Stories: A higher resolution for pictures and videos is possible, but this is limited by factors like heat development and energy consumption.
- The Infinite Display: Bosworth sees this as Meta's attempt to establish a consistent metric for evaluating the visual quality of VR headsets so that it can then be better communicated.