Meta Releases New Avatar Fashion Items As Questions Are Raised About Its 'Fake' VR Avatar Legs
One might think, given the various questions and controversy around Meta’s metaverse avatars, which I probably want to narrow the focus on for now, just until things start to take more shape.
But that’s obviously not the approach Meta is taking, as it has launched a new set of Liverpool FC fan outfits for Meta avatarsproviding another option to customize your digital doppelganger in all your applications.
ace for Goal:
“Today, Liverpool FC debuted a virtual clothing collection that you can shop in the Meta Avatars store on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and later this year in virtual reality. The collection includes both a Liverpool FC home and away kit, as well as a couple of LFC branded fashion looks.”
Please note that these new outfits are not yet available in VR. That could be because Meta’s VR avatars have come under heavy fire for the company’s metaverse push, following this post from Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg:
goal, which has invested billions in the development of VRSince then, he has been heavily questioned as to why his VR environment looks so bad, and why Zuckerberg was apparently unaware of this fact when he posted this image.
Following this, Zuckerberg clarified that his avatar and VR developments are actually much more advanced than it seems, and he promised to show more at his Connect Conference.
And Meta did, in fact, show off their upgraded avatars in Connect, which also included, for the first time, legs in their VR renderings.
Legs are obviously very difficult for Meta to simulate, because its VR headset doesn’t include leg sensors of any kind, so it has no way of tracking leg movement. But Meta is working on a new process, called questsimwhich will use AI to estimate what your legs are doing as you engage in the VR environment, taking cues from movements that it can track, on your arms and head, to guess where your legs are positioned at any given moment.
And it seems pretty accurate in practice, with Zuckerberg’s demo on Connect.
That’s pretty good, right? Meta’s leg estimation process seems pretty on point, which could be a major improvement for metaverse interaction.
Except it’s not really that good, or at least, it may not be, because this video wasn’t created using QuestSim, it was created using motion capturewhich is a much more advanced and expensive process for capturing body movement.
as goal said UploadVR:
“To enable this preview of what is to come, the segment featured animations created from motion capture.”
Motion capture is currently not part of Meta’s commercial VR offerings, and it seems ridiculous that it would again use this as a means of presenting what it intended to be its leg simulation process that will reach all VR users. Because it’s not, and we have no idea how good QuestSim could be for the same thing.
But Meta needs to show the best version of its metaverse vision to win people over to the project and keep investors impressed. It seems crazy to think that the addition of digital legs will become a key point of contention in the company’s next earnings update, but it likely will be, with some market analysts now casting doubt on the validity of the claims. Meta, since I would again state that improved renderings like this are representative of upcoming consumer updates.
So again, it seems like it’s not the best time for Meta to show off its latest avatar additions. But he is anyway, with his Liverpool FC uniforms adding to the fashion collections already available from Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Browne in your avatar fashion store.
Eventually, Meta sees these digital goods offerings as a new source of revenue for the company and for business promotion, with virtual merchandise that opens up completely new connection options for various providers.
And it’s likely that they will become something, as they already have in Fortnite, Roblox and others.
But Meta still has a few avatar challenges to work through before it can really move on to the next stage.
But, you know, soccer kits. Cool, right?