Oculus launches new 'expressive' avatars for more realistic VR representation

Oculus VR is getting closer to realistic representations of human beings in virtual reality, and today society has announced a new stage in this quest: the "expressive avatars". These new avatars will be even more realistic, using "simulated eye and mouth movements and micro-expressions," says product manager Lucy Chen, who will help her feel like she's interacting with a human around the world. real. The news was announced at the Oculus Connect developer conference this morning in San Jose, California, alongside the company's new standalone Quest helmet.

Oculus announced its first Rift avatars in 2016. At the time, they existed as ghostly and translucent characters with a colorful hue – in other words, far from a realistic self-representation in virtual reality. Over the past two years, Facebook and Oculus have been working to make avatars more realistic, using software to simulate eye and mouth movements, and small, almost imperceptible, changes in expression that help virtual representations to overcome the scary in the strange valley.

Oculus's new expressive avatars look like an original, higher-fidelity avatar design mix with Facebook's cartoony version of the avatars he uses for his Spaces VR hangout app. Avatars can be used in Oculus Home, in the virtual lounge where you launch a Rift headset, and in social apps that allow you to communicate with your friends. As part of today's announcements, Oculus says you can have up to eight friends who hang out in VR at the same time using Home as a hub. Oculus says developers will have access to its new Avatars SDK later this year.

In addition to expressive avatars, Oculus is also updating Home with a suite of new features coming out of the beta version of Core 2, the underlying operating system of the Rift. With Core 2, users can now personalize their personal space with hundreds of new items and themes. Oculus has also improved Home's performance, so lighting and graphics will be noticeably better.

Image: Oculus VR

You can also import custom 3D renderings, as well as animations. The company works in partnership with selected developers to integrate custom development elements into Home, starting with titles such as Solitary echo and Superhot VR. All this happens with Core 2, which is entering the public test channel today and for each Rift user starting next month.