• drhead [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Inverse kinematics isn't THAT hard honestly, when you're a massive company that should be able to afford people who know what they're doing.

    Still isn't going to fix the fact that they have no market for this product.

    • pooh [she/her, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Yeah, VRChat has done legs just fine since forever. Not sure why this is so difficult for Fuckerberg.

      • Anemasta [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Supposedly having vr legs that don't move in sync with your actual legs gives you a weird feeling most people don't like. To actually track legs and body people use those lighthouse pucks you have to attach to a point you want to track. Each of them costs like $100. Musk claims they've developed an AI model that can track legs just from the cameras on the headset, though the demo in OP is faked through usual motion capture.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Supposedly having vr legs that don’t move in sync with your actual legs gives you a weird feeling most people don’t like.

          I can't speak for everyone but I got used to it in like ten minutes. And mostly when you're in VR chat you're just standing around anyway so your legs aren't moving around very much to begin with.

          • Anemasta [any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Interesting. Maybe I'm stupid to assume Facebook has good data on this, but I guess they've figured that for the wide audience they are catering to 'non-sync leg syndrome' can be enough of a problem to go with the initial floating torso thing.

            • invo_rt [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              idk. I have literally hundreds of hours in VRC thanks to COVID and never had an issue with non-sync legs. Most of the time, I'm not staring at my own legs and for other people, the inverse kinematic legs are believable enough. It's not like the game is so realistic that you forget you're in a fake world.

          • Anemasta [any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            That's cool. Still, the Quest idea is that just you put on your headset and it is supposed to work without a PC or other gizmos. There's something to it. If I had one I'd be walking in VR all around my grandparents' dacha instead of my tiny living room.

        • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          To actually track legs and body people use those lighthouse pucks you have to attach to a point you want to track. Each of them costs like $100.

          Yeah, Facebook could release trackable "controllers" for the feet, they probably just can't do it cheap enough to sell.

    • Bobby_DROP_TABLES [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Inverse kinematics is overkill, just a simple walking animation would cut it. Like on a technical level it is so fucking baffling that they not only couldn't figure this out but also bragged about figuring it out like it was something impressive.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      how can the billion dollar facebook company not do basic shit that VR chat has been doing forever

      :marx-hi:

  • build_a_bear_group [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Putting legs on avatars and characters is still beyond us. Quick, try to buy up Blizzard so that we can get access to their original WoW technology.

  • Sasuke [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    a few more billions and maybe they'll crack the technology IMVU had figured out in 2004

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Takes me back.

      Back then, drow/dark elves were everywhere. Yes, including on IMVU. When I was waiting in the satellite student union for my turn at a computer I had to wait for someone to buy drow skins for their IMVU avatar. :agony-minion:

  • macabrett
    ·
    2 years ago

    It looked like they were implying actual leg tracking, which would likely require shit strapped to your legs, which is something people won't bother doing. The Quest 2 has inside out tracking, but it's not like that thing can see your legs through your entire body all the time.

  • Bloobish [comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Are they not able to just use something like small wrap around ankle sensors that can then proportion out a person's height and leg movement? This doesn't seem that hard unless they really don't want to make ankle sensors and think they can do all that with just a fucking headset.

    • half_giraffe [comrade/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      But how are legs even necessary for the function of the metaverse anyway? (and also what even is the function of the metaverse?)

      • UlyssesT [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        (and also what even is the function of the metaverse?)

        :stonks-up:

      • Bloobish [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        More or less to a be newly forced paradigm for Facebook to make billions off of even though people don't want or need the metaverse and just use VR stuff for shits and giggles (if you can even afford a VR headset).

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Yeah. Facebook's new Quest Pro is 1500$ for a heaset. Admittedly it appears to be stand alone so you don't have to also buy an expensive computer, but that's a lot of money when the regular quest is 300 or 400$.

          • Bloobish [comrade/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            That's a lot of money for something that doesn't have a lot of fun games on it, seems something techy early adopters would want but tbh seems this may got he way of stadia if the cost to benefit isn't there compared to what already exists for entertainment.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        They're not and a lot of VR games omit them entirely. You're just a floating torso with arms, or sometimes even just hands. Works fine, people get used to it very quickly, doesn't cause any problems.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Facebook's Quest uses cameras in the headset to figure out where everything is. It's theoretically cheaper than having external sensors or lighthouses, and it makes the system more portable - you don't have to set up the area where you'll be using it. But it's also much less precise and, as seen here, you can't actually see your legs to track them.

      • Bloobish [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Honestly the coolest innovation so far with VR has been the valve index in how it created semi realistic hand representation and tracking.

    • TornadoThompson [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      You don't even need that - as part of the initial SteamVR / Vive setup you place the headset on the ground so it will know the height relative to its position on your head. The leg movement is just software - you're not actually moving, so it can be anything - FPS games handle it no problem.

      • Bloobish [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        True, but I guess I'm thinking in the context of games that could utilize full articulated limb gameplay like kickball (something these peeps likely aren't and don't give a shit about).

        • TornadoThompson [none/use name]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          Yeah, there is tech out there that can do limb tracking up to a point - Vektroid uses Leap Motion Hand tracking with her avatar on her Twitch streams and the fidelity is quite phenomenal. But using it for limbs pushes it to an altogether different realm and is difficult without additional tech like a camera looking at you to capture the movements.

  • Teekeeus [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Did no higher-up of facebook try to stop this dumbass VR world idea at any point?

  • FALGSConaut [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I swear this is all somehow a way for the Zuck to milk facebook meta for everything it's worth before is inevitably comes crashing down. Either that or he's that much of a moron and nobody around him can speak up and tell him what an incredibly terrible idea it is

    • half_giraffe [comrade/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      I'd bet on the latter - I think he saw Ready Player One and looked at the virtual world supplanting the bombed-out miserable real world and seriously believes that he has the ability to give that "gift" to humanity. He has money, it's the legacy that he's hoping on amassing.