The new Meta Avatars system will launch on Tuesday.
Meta Avatars are used in Meta's own Horizon Home, Horizon Worlds, and Horizon Workrooms, as well as in third-party VR and mixed reality apps that use the Meta Avatars SDK such as GOLF+ and Eleven Table Tennis.
A graphics overhaul was first announced with a pre-rendered mockup by Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Connect 2022 two years ago. At the time he said the overhaul was coming in 2023, but that obviously didn't pan out.
Meta says the new avatars will offer "new ways for people to adjust everything from physical proportions to fine tune details like eye size, nose shape, body shapes, and so much more, including the movement and expression".
For developers, Meta says the new SDK offers "a more detailed avatar skeleton for a richer way to control how avatars move and express".
And some time next year, Meta will allow users to generate a new outfit by typing, leveraging generative AI.
In Horizon Worlds, Meta says it will also support "fantastical avatars", non-human forms which users can unlock in specific worlds.
On Quest 3 and Quest 3S the new version of Meta Avatars will leverage the inside-out upper body tracking capability of these headsets, and on previous headsets they'll use inverse kinematics (IK) estimation. On all supported Meta headsets, the avatars will feature AI "generative legs" for the lower body.
