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Meta Announces Legs (techcrunch.com) 84

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Meta didn't hold back with their announcements at Meta Connect this year. As Facebook has done every year or so, the company is shaking up their avatar products. From a report: This year as Meta focuses more heavily on the metaverse, the company made a big addition to their updated higher-detail avatars: legs. The announcement that the avatars, which were previously floating torsos with arms and heads, now have evolved to walk was something Zuckerberg was very excited about with his avatar jumping for joy during the keynote. From February this year: Why You Can't Have Legs in Virtual Reality (Yet).
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Meta Announces Legs More

Meta Announces Legs

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  • She's got legs (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    and knows how to use them!

    (now just wrap them around Zuck the Cuck's face and suffocate him!)

  • Yay (Score:4, Funny)

    by ibpooks ( 127372 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @01:24PM (#62957167) Homepage

    Woot, Facebook finally catches up to 30 year old FPS multiplayer. Let's all give them a round of applause.

    • Re:Yay (Score:5, Funny)

      by sound+vision ( 884283 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @01:25PM (#62957177) Journal

      Hey, Third Life isn't going to innovate itself into existence.

    • Woot, Facebook finally catches up to 30 year old FPS multiplayer. Let's all give them a round of applause.

      woah woah. You couldn't even look down in DooM. I distinctly remember think it was weird I couldn't see my legs in Quake. Now, be fair to the Zuck, that was only 26 years ago.

    • Sort of. Games still haven't really solved the problem of feet sliding around or matching sidesteps and so on. (And neither has meta, I'm sure.)

      Look how good these guys did this:

      https://www.youtube.com/shorts... [youtube.com]

      • Sure they have. Dynamic IK for avatars has been a thing for a number of years. Not all games implement this, of course, as it's not easy to do. If you want a quick example, most modern sports games (Madden, etc) spend quite a bit of effort making movements feel realistic. Look at Madden 23 and watch how realistic player motions are.

        The video is funny, of course, but really represents games mostly as they were a decade or so ago, or those that haven't bothered to implement more modern techniques. Here's

    • Woot, Facebook finally catches up to 30 year old FPS multiplayer. Let's all give them a round of applause.

      Imagine the old-school 70s lego addict staring at Minecraft for the first time, watching it actually strain a more modern 3D video chip, all to render visual effects at a blistering (Atari) 2600 FPS...

    • You summed up the quality pretty well, although I was thinking more of mid-1990s CGI animated cartoons, such as Reboot [wikipedia.org]. So Meta still has some catching up to do to reach the quality of the landmark box office flop, Final Fantasy Spirits Within [wikipedia.org]. To be fair, I think the Meta avatars' hand and eye movements are already more natural than what I remember seeing in the FF movie (although it's been ages since I saw it).

  • Buying imaginary legs for your imaginary body in the imaginary metaverse?

    Bought by imaginary crypto?

    I have an imaginary bridge to sell you, real cheap!

    • Buying imaginary legs for your imaginary body in the imaginary metaverse?
      Bought by imaginary crypto?
      I have an imaginary bridge to sell you, real cheap!

      Is it in imaginary Crimea?

    • I know people in wheel chairs that would LOVE to have imaginary legs!

  • Did the announcement look... (Score:3)

    by BackwardPawn ( 1356049 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @01:36PM (#62957205)
    ...something like this: Lady Legasus! [youtube.com]

  • Zuckerberg was very excited about with his avatar jumping for joy during the keynote.

    Does Mark Zuckerberg ever play video games? Because he's acting happy about computer graphics that would have looked decent 20 years ago.

    • Its more akin to when you figure out some programming technique that everybody else uses and you're uber proud of yourself while everyone else just shakes their head. Of course, its playing out on a much larger scale here.

      • I still remember when I figured out Pivot Tables...3 years ago.

        Wow.

        • I've made a point of *not* learning how pivot tables work. My job description doesn't include end user desktop support, but somehow I end up getting roped into it anyway - I don't really want to encourage that trend by becoming "the guy who knows a lot about Excel".

          • I've made a point of *not* learning how pivot tables work. My job description doesn't include end user desktop support, but somehow I end up getting roped into it anyway - I don't really want to encourage that trend by becoming "the guy who knows a lot about Excel".

            It could be worse, you could posses good mechanic skills on the side and feel like you have to wrench on an old 93’ escort wagon, busting up a few knuckles from the rust instead taking it somewhere and making it someone else’s problem. The more you know, the more you suffer.

          • I've made a point of *not* learning how pivot tables work. My job description doesn't include end user desktop support, but somehow I end up getting roped into it anyway

            Oh, how the tables have pivoted.

        • My boss asked me to learn about pivot tables. He was not amused that the lunch room tables are now able freely rotate like casino roulette wheels. On the plus side, it's now much easier to share condiments and stuff at lunch time, but I do wish Steve would bring better lunches.

    • Yes, but 20 years ago did your avatar roll it's eyes when you rolled your eyes IRL? The inward facing cameras in Quest Pro are the real innovation here, allowing your avatar to track your actual facial expressions. It reminds me about a movie featuring realistic blue avatars... what was that movie called again? They are releasing a sequel to it on December 16.

      • The inward facing cameras in Quest Pro are the real innovation here,

        That does have potential to be really cool.

        Let's be clear here: the Oculus Quest is great. The Facebook Metaverse is not. There's other software for the Quest that works better.

      • Avatar wasn't really an avatar. It was a mind upload to a hybrid species which is why the DNA needed to match and [SPOILER ALERT FOR A DECADE OLD MOVIE] also why he was able to survive in the avatar after his human form died.

        • "Also why he was able to survive in the avatar after his human form died?"

          So the movie can happen. /PitchMeeting

          • "Also why he was able to survive in the avatar after his human form died?"

            So the movie can happen. /PitchMeeting

            The movie would have still happened with or without that particular ending.
            It wouldn't have significantly changed the movie if he would have died at the end instead.
            If I remember correctly, it was somewhat subtle so there are some who question whether it actually happened or not.

    • Because he's acting happy about computer graphics that would have looked decent 20 years ago.

      Graphical quality is a secondary concern for VR. The main point of VR, for the time being, is the sense of actually being in the scene. As people get accustomed to the sensation, graphical quality will rise in importance.

      Having legs in VR is a much more difficult challenge than doing the same thing on any other type of device, since the legs, which have no tracking hardware, have to convincingly follow the parts of the body which do have tracking hardware. Even with improved tracking software, it's nowhere

  • ...in the immortal words of Johnny Hart.

  • Is this a joke? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nightflameauto ( 6607976 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @01:43PM (#62957221)

    It wouldn't have been that long ago I could see The Onion posting this article and headline. Now, here we are. What an amazing time to be alive, when multi-billionaires make avatars of themselves jumping for joy to announce they can finally put legs on their avatar.

    It's amazing what passes for news these days. Even for tech news, which is understandably nerdy, and sometimes boring, this feels like a low blow.

    • But, but, but... This is state-of-the-art South Park quality animation without the humour or entertainment value. Now geeks can feel awkward & uncomfortable in social gatherings in the Metaverse instead of at potentially infectious LARP meetings. Zuckerberg's literally jumping for joy!

    • Re:Is this a joke? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by DrSpock11 ( 993950 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @02:32PM (#62957361)

      To me it just seems like Zuckerberg is uniquely unqualified to be in the position he's in. Most successful people have some degree of luck in their careers, but he strikes me as someone who's success is entirely luck - making the right product in the right place at the right time and stumbling into having highly competent underlings (Sandberg) to build the company for him. Now that she's gone and he's holding the reins alone, he is slowly dragging it down into oblivion.

      • Money and business ventures typically wax and wane exponentially. There is a break even point below which failure and financial ruin becomes more and more inevitable with less revenue and above which success is more and more certain. If you somehow luck too far past it the only option is upward failure. Even the worlds biggest morons struggle with losing it all, while those at the bottom never had a fighting chance to begin with.

      • To me it just seems like Zuckerberg is uniquely unqualified to be in the position he's in. Most successful people have some degree of luck in their careers, but he strikes me as someone who's success is entirely luck - making the right product in the right place at the right time and stumbling into having highly competent underlings (Sandberg) to build the company for him. Now that she's gone and he's holding the reins alone, he is slowly dragging it down into oblivion.

        I suspect he is actually pretty damn smart and competent, but I also think he's falling into the same trap as Musk. Once you're super successful it's really hard to escape your own bubble and you start losing touch with reality.

        It's probably the same factors that affect dictators like Putin as well. After a certain point living in a cult of personality with near absolute power you start going loopy.

      • Now that she's gone and he's holding the reins alone, he is slowly dragging it down into oblivion.

        The company itself is doomed. Facebook as the core product is faltering and something else needs to be done. People who create companies don't do so based on qualifications beyond basic business understanding of business. The luck factor is actually quite large.

        The big issue here is that Facebook (built on luck like many companies) can't sustain itself on that one lucky idea. As a result he's burning through money attempting to create new luck by going in search of other markets (one being trying to convert

    • Re:Is this a joke? (Score:5, Informative)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @03:21PM (#62957559)

      No. This is shithouse reporting. The actual announcement is that that Facebook has demonstrated full body tracking without relying on just guessing using inverse kinematics, which is actually an achievement considering the incredible distortion and resulting poor video quality for body that comes off the Quest's lower cameras.

      But this is Techcrunch and Slashdot, obviously nether of them tech related sites.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by _xeno_ ( 155264 )

      Pretty much literally yes.

      The thing with Meta and their metaverse is that a lot of what Zuckerberg's been focusing on with is appears to be in response to people seeing what Meta has created and laughing at it. People looked at the weird floating avatars and made jokes about the weird floating avatars. They looked at the bland cartoony graphics and made jokes about them.

      So now Meta is trying to fix those, by adding legs and improving the graphics. The problem is that the jokes weren't really about the lack

  • Seriously. Like zero interest. Haven't had a facebook account in years either. Ever since they insisted on tying me to a mobile phone number to play farmville.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kellin ( 28417 )

      Well that's your problem.. wanting to play farmville? Sounds like the metaverse is perfect for you.

      • It was a fun way to "z-add 0" back when I was working over a decade ago.

        The entire metaverse thing just seems like a pointless product by a known evil company.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Glad you enjoyed it enough to take the time to reply.

        What did one Dorito farmer say to the other Dorito farmer?
        Cool Ranch Bro.

      • Not going to click on the link but you're welcome.

        It's amazing-- it's like we have this discussion forum where we can post whatever is on our mind.

        And saying meta is pointless and a waste of time is where I'm at.

        There are not words sufficient to describe how little interest I have in the product which they seem to think should be popular but which apparently is pulling less of a crowd globally than your average neighborhood ice house.

  • They’re not just headwear anymore
  • I wonder what the next anatomically correct addition to avatars will be

  • That way it can jump.

  • So they're only a couple years behind the capabilities of 2006 Nintento Wii, then.

    Which was about a decade behind basic PC gaming at the time, or 5 years behind existing consoles.

    What's the point to any of this? So silly.

    • What's the point of Facebook/Meta, really? They could vanish tomorrow and it would be a net positive for me, everything else is a negative.

    • To be fair, Nintendo could have done better. They were limited by their hardware and probably thought their Miis to be a bit whimsical. Anybody remember a short lived Sony project for PS3 that competed with Second Life? I feel like that was light years beyond whatever Meta is doing.

      • I was active in Second Life for a number of years, and then a second virtual world (Blue Mars) that was based on the CryEngine 2 graphics engine. That one never made it out of beta.

        Meta's avatars are about up to Second Life in 2005 or so. Current SL avatars are way way better, and more customizable:

        https://marketplace.secondlife... [secondlife.com]

    • People keep saying stuff like this, comparing bleeding-edge VR headsets with completely different 2D tech.

      You have to remember that 3D, immersive VR requires large resolutions along with fast refresh rates, plus they need to render two separate displays-- and they're doing this all on smartphone hardware. Of *course* the graphics aren't comparable to what you can do at lower resolutions with one flat screen running off a much larger custom computer box, it's not the same thing at all.

      --
      We will soon h

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

        Dude, have you seen what's possible on phones?

        https://www.androidauthority.com/best-3d-games-for-android-280840/

        Metaverse literally looks like The Sims from 2001 or the Wii avatars or some shit like that. Minecraft has better graphics.

        The "heavy lift" for VR 3d gaming is no different than normal 3d graphics rendering... nevermind that today's phone hardware is a dozen generations newer and more capable than the 729 MHz PowerPC CPU, ATI video with 3MB of RAM... current midrange phones have more graphics capa

        • You kinda glossed over the part where I mentioned they need to render two separate displays. That at least cuts in half what they can do compared with a single display for non-VR games, probably more when you consider pipeline overhead and the fact that they need to be synced.

          I'm somewhat playing devil's advocate here-- I definitely agree Meta has egg on their face with the general public for not being able to do better. However, comparing regular gaming graphics with VR graphics without taking into co

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

            I glossed over it, because it wasn't a meaningful point. The fact that it's 2 (non-discreet, btw) panels, because they're predominantly half the resolution of a 5-year-old phone (iPhone X) -

            https://benchmarks.ul.com/compare/best-vr-headsets

            The only overhead there is in software, to create a slightly offset view for half the virtual display than the other. If anything, because it -can- be broken down into 2 displays, it's at a distinct advantage over a single display, because modern GPUs, even mobile cards,

  • can't stand (pardon the pun) for the next round of innovation:

    Crouching!

    Finally, people will be able to do tea-bagging [giantbomb.com] just like in every FPS for the past few decades! Oh wait ... /s

    --
    Icelandverse [youtube.com] -- Why settle for a Virtual reality when Actual reality has better fidelity! /s

  • This is just so sad, how out of touch of the world Zuck is. All the people working on his fantasy, which is a meaningless waste of time and effort. So much good in the world could be done with those resources.

  • Their next big innovation (Score:3)

    by istartedi ( 132515 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @02:41PM (#62957401) Journal

    They're going to come up with a plan that lets you connect to the Internet... over your phone line! Yes. The same phone you use to talk on will connect to the Internet. The prototype was demonstrated for reporters, and they were fascinated by the futuristic electronic noises it made as it synced up. "This is the perfect match for our Avatars interacting online with legs" Said Zuck. We're looking forward to reading more about this in the next issue of Wired, on news stands next week.

    Word is, it might even use VRML.

  • We can now properly show how Meta jumped the shark.

  • From what I've seen of the internet, the legs are the portion of the anatomy most users most want to customize... unless we're talking about third legs.

  • Sorry, Mark (Score:3)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @02:56PM (#62957469)

    Whether it's real life or some animated toy world... you're creepy anywhere, legs or no.

  • No, actually The Sims 2010 looks better than the Facebook Part 2: Meta https://gamerinfo.net/game/the... [gamerinfo.net]

  • FFS Slashdot / Techcrunch (Score:3)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @03:24PM (#62957571)

    Meta announces they get full body tracking functioning without lighthouse trackers and without you needing to strap extra stuff to your legs, and the only thing you can come up with is that avatars now have legs?

    There's an actual tech angle here. There's actual story about modelling the human body from a hugely distorted image. There's actual R&D that went into this, but you focus on the most bullshit and pointless part of the entire thing.

    Which mentally handicapped diversity hire wrote this article, and who approved it on Slashdot?

    • Before you blame any mentally handicapped diversity hire about this, remember that the man at the top of Facebook/Meta was the one who started all this bullshit about legless avatars and lower-than-Wii graphics.

  • Bugger (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    All this time I've been saying Meta is legless, it'll never go anywhere.

  • This is the announcement to make it to the front page? I feel like something somewhat more significant was announced.... Though perhaps the crazy price relegates it to not as relevant as it could have been.

  • I'd like Bulge Deluxe, with VPL, dressed left. Or Camel Toe B and a size 3 mons. We could have peeking pubic hair options and plumber's crack DLC! I'm so excited for the future! It's almost like it's here today!
  • They'd be virtual, so they wouldn't be illegal.

  • A quick glance at these comments makes it all obvious.

    Facebook is too toxic for legs. And perhaps the metaverse in general will have this problem.

    Future feature preview: Legs can be turned off for all users. You will not perceive legs.

    • I'm not sure what else you expect from this troll article by Techcrunch. There were significant things announced, including products and interesting technical developments, and this is what they went with. The comments were predictable.

  • Not that I'd have anything to do with this nonsense, though I'm sure it'll make them a lot of money - P. T. Barnum style.

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