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Meta’s Horizon Worlds: Revamping the VR Experience!

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This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter about the dynamic intersection of technology and entertainment, shared weekly with Technology News subscribers.

Meta’s recent Connect developer conference showcased its latest innovation: the Ray-Ban Display glasses. With a lack of new hardware announcements, the spotlight shifted towards the glasses while VR developments took a secondary role. Notably, director James Cameron was present, discussing his collaboration with Meta to adapt 3D content for Quest headsets. Concerns still linger regarding the company’s broader ambitions for the metaverse, prompting a conversation with Vishal Shah, Meta’s Vice President of Metaverse, for insights on their social VR endeavors.

Meta’s challenges with its social platform, Horizon Worlds, have been widely reported. In leaked memos from 2022, Shah expressed concern over low engagement even among Meta employees, questioning how users would engage if their own staff found it unappealing.

In response, Meta has rolled out several new games to enhance Horizon Worlds and has invested heavily to draw VR developers to the platform. During this year’s Connect conference, the company reaffirmed its commitment by launching AI development tools and an entirely new game engine specifically for Horizon Worlds.

The aim of these initiatives is to create a seamless experience that connects different 3D social spaces, accessible across various devices including headsets, mobile phones, and social media feeds like Facebook and Instagram, with the potential of integrating glasses in the future, as hinted by Mark Zuckerberg during his keynote.

Worlds apart: making VR games work on phones isn’t easy

Horizon Worlds debuted at the end of 2021 with a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach, enabling developers to construct games in-game. Unfortunately, this led to simple and visually unappealing experiences—Zuckerberg’s infamous selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower serves as a reminder of the platform’s initial aesthetics. Shah acknowledged, “The ceiling of what you could create was low. It wasn’t engaging enough.”

In 2023, Meta began to pivot. The company invested in developing higher-quality games such as Super Rumble, a PvP shooter created by its in-house studio, Ouro Interactive. The transition included shifting from in-headset tools to a desktop solution for world-building, launching the Meta Horizon Studio, which enables developers to utilize TypeScript for more sophisticated game designs, ranging from haunted houses to competitive sports and fun party games.

Meta’s Horizon Worlds game Super Rumble looks a lot better than the titles the metaverse platform launched with in 2021.
Meta’s Horizon Worlds game Super Rumble demonstrates significant visual improvements compared to earlier titles released in 2021.
Image: Super Rumble

Shah acknowledges the complexity involved in game creation, indicating a need to simplify the process. “That required a skill that not everyone has,” he remarked. In response, the company introduced AI tools that enable developers to generate 3D environments, NPCs, and gameplay mechanics through straightforward text prompts.

Transitioning to desktop creator tools has further extended Horizon Worlds’ reach beyond VR headsets. Meta began offering mobile access to select games like Super Rumble in 2023. Shah pointed out the current dilemma: while VR offers the most immersive experiences, the majority of users are engaging through mobile devices. The hope is that mobile users who enjoy the games will be motivated to try VR experiences as well.

However, drawing users to mobile platforms has proven challenging. Shah admitted that the initial rollout of Super Rumble faced issues with controls that felt off. “The control specs weren’t right; it just didn’t feel right,” he noted.

To improve engagement, Meta has since enabled developers to design games exclusively for mobile users. Reported engagement has reportedly risen fourfold since implementing this change, although Shah admits mobile user interaction remains in its early stages. “It’s smaller than VR, but it’s definitely growing,” he explained.

While the push for mobile games continues, Shah reaffirms that the ultimate vision is not to develop a mobile-centric platform. “This is about cross-platform play. The goal is to ensure users can explore these worlds on any device and in any context,” he stated.

Why Meta built a new game engine

To achieve this goal, the company is also planning to integrate Horizon with its other platforms. Shah mentioned that Horizon games are already accessible through the games tab on Facebook, and efforts are underway to incorporate them into Instagram.

A significant part of this strategy involves transitioning to a new game engine that supersedes the originally used Unity engine. “That was a good starting point for us,” Shah explained. Although Unity caters to single-game development, games like Roblox and Minecraft benefit from custom engines. “We decided a more tailored solution was necessary for our requirements,” he concluded.

The new Meta Horizon Engine facilitates greatly enhanced player concurrency in shared worlds while minimizing load times. This optimization is essential for enhancing the interconnectedness of Horizon, allowing players to transition between experiences smoothly without lengthy wait times.

Shah noted that research indicates users perceive loading times over 15 to 20 seconds as excessive. Keeping these times under 15 seconds significantly boosts perceived speed, and ideally, achieving loading times under seven seconds creates an almost instantaneous experience.

The rollout of the new engine will be executed in phases. One of the initial environments utilizing this engine will be Horizon Central, a hub where users commonly start their journey in Horizon Worlds. The new system also supports enhanced interaction during events hosted in Horizon Arena, Meta’s VR concert venue.

Most Quest headset owners will experience the new engine when Meta launches a redesigned home environment soon. “That home environment is essentially a world,” Shah explained.

Everything is just a world

Describing Horizon Worlds could ultimately become synonymous with the phrase: “It’s just a world.” Be it a comedy club, a meditation environment, or an action shooter; they are all simply worlds. The games on Facebook or Instagram that friends play? Just more worlds. The virtual version of one’s home? Yet another world. As future iterations may allow for avatar-centered experiences across devices like the Ray-Ban Display glasses, it is all likely to fall under the same umbrella of “just another world”.

Transforming Horizon Worlds into an integrative framework for social VR interactions, mobile gaming, and future XR experiences is an ambitious undertaking. This direction will likely require difficult choices that could alienate existing VR enthusiasts.

Meta has undertaken significant changes in its VR strategy in recent times, including ceasing updates for the original Oculus Quest headset in early 2024, discontinuing its fitness tracking service Move, and removing some original Horizon Worlds titles from the platform. More challenging decisions may still lie ahead, as Shah indicated.

“That’s the phase we’re currently in,” Shah admits. “We need to refine many core experiences. I’m dedicating considerable time to assess our entire OS, asking, ‘What elements can we simplify? How do we streamline?’ There’s incredible complexity in our ecosystem, and to broaden our audience, we must simplify.”

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Meta’s Horizon Worlds: Revamping the VR Experience!
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