A Look Under the Hoodie - A Technical Deep Dive on Full Body Avatars
The full body avatar beta is now available for everyone! To celebrate, we wanted to share some of the nerdy details on how we made the full body avatar work and a refresher on why we did it.
Why we decided to make full body avatars
- More self-expression - One of the main reasons for introducing full body avatars in Rec Room is to create additional opportunities for players to express themselves. The classic bean avatars, while iconic, can sometimes be limited in conveying the widest possible range of emotions and actions.
- Easier to understand what’s going on in the game - Our beloved beans are amazing, but sometimes it's a little hard to visually understand what they're doing outside the context of Rec Room. Full human silhouettes with connected limbs make it easier to understand visually what’s going on.
- Easier for creation - Soon, creators will be able to make their own avatar items to wear and share in Rec Room. Doing the work for the full body avatars allowed us to update the skeleton shared between beans and full body avatars to better match the industry standard so it's easier for our creators to make custom shirts, pants, hats, gloves, shoes, etc.
- Third-Person is better with full bodies - While controlling and watching your avatar in this improved third-person mode, gameplay and social interactions are just more fun with the full body.
- Adding new features we’ve wanted in our avatars - Adding new features like noses, adjustable glasses, adjustable body shapes, and eye gleams help breathe new expression into our avatars. These small details contribute to the overall relatability and expressiveness of the avatars, giving our players more options for how they want to look.
- Adds more ways for all of us to make money - By adding noses, eyebrows, fingers, arms, legs, and feet, we are expanding the kinds of things we and eventually our creators can make and sell to our community.
This was the initial concept art we created as a target for what full body avatars could look like. We’ve made a lot of tweaks and improvements since then, but we feel like the original charm remains.
Click on the following section cards to learn more about the specifics of how Full Body Avatars came to be and what we have in store for the future!