It’s hard for Meta’s virtual-reality avatars to have legs, says Zuckerberg

Why is it so hard to build a metaverse avatar a visual representation of ourselves in the digital world that walks on two legs?

I think everyone has been waiting for this,” said a cartoonish digital version of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, unveiling his new avatar legs and jumping up and down at a virtual-reality event Tuesday. “But seriously, legs are hard. Which is why other virtual reality systems don’t have them either.

Early avatar models introduced by Meta, as well as Microsoft, have been ridiculed for appearing as legless, waist-up bodies floating around their virtual worlds.

That’s in part because tech companies have been eager to show off their progress in building out virtual-reality environments while still working on the technical challenges of making avatars more human-like and realistic.