Meta is working on an option to turn off the first person avatar. About a year after the release of this controversial feature.
When you put on the Quest headset last December, you were in for a surprise: You suddenly found yourself in the body of your cartoon avatar, with a cartoon torso and cartoon arms. A modern version of Kafka’s metamorphosis, only with Gregor Samsa waking up in the body of a character from The Simpsons. The online reaction was unanimous: “Can I fucking turn this off?”
This feature was introduced in late November 2022 with system update v47. No one had asked for it, but Meta thought the change was a good idea.
Unpleasant side effects
The first-person avatar can be annoying because Quest only estimates the position of the torso and arms and doesn’t track them. If this estimate and the actual situation are very different, it can be an uncomfortable experience. And at least for me, there are glitches here and there. If tracking fails, I suddenly have Slenderman-like arms or a headless torso floating in front of me. A horror show
At least in Quest 3, torso and arm positioning will become more accurate in the future, as the headset will soon receive upper body tracking. However, this does not solve the problem of identifying with your cartoon avatar.
Clear hands before update. | Image: Meta
Before the update, your avatar was invisible and when hand tracking was turned on, your hands would appear as ghostly outlines. Now Meta wants to at least allow users to go back to this view and turn off the first person avatar.
An option to turn off the first person avatar is in the works
The PTC version of the v59 update includes a corresponding option, as Twitter user Luna proves with a screenshot. The description reads: “When using the headset, your avatar’s hands and arms will be shown instead of transparent hands. This will not affect how your avatar looks in Mirror or others.”
A recently datamined option to disable your 1st person avatar’s hands/body seems to be available in the PTC v59 Metaquest.
Settings > Accessibility > Mobility > Show avatar hands pic.twitter.com/Nb7PkwerNf
– Luna (@Lunayian) October 22, 2023
Since the v59 update has been out for a week and the meta doesn’t mention this option in the release notes, it’s safe to assume that the next update has been rolled out. Maybe it will be released in November. It’s been about a year since the feature was introduced, which shows how long it took the meta to react.
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Image Source : mixed-news.com