Exploring Meta’s New Horizon Hyperscape Demo
Announced at Meta Connect 2024, the Meta Horizon Hyperscape application promises to revolutionize the way we create and explore real-world spaces in extended reality.
Unsurprisingly, the Hyperscape solution didn’t generate quite as much hype as some of Meta’s other announcements this year. After all, Connect 2024 also introduced us to the new ultra-affordable Meta Quest 3S headset, and Meta’s incredible AR glasses prototype.
However, the tool could represent a powerful opportunity for enterprise users looking to create digital twins at speed, and explore new environments in the metaverse. Promising users a unique way to explore photorealistic spaces in virtual reality, Horizon Hyperscape could be one of the most exciting applications available for both the Quest 3 and the Quest 3S.
We tried out the demo, to give you a behind the scenes insight into what this new application could do for your organization.
What is Meta Horizon Hyperscape?
Meta Horizon Hyperscape is an app designed exclusively for the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S, which allows users to explore photorealistic spaces in VR. It’s not just a tool for viewing digital scenes, like Google Street View. Hyperscape generates full 3D spaces you can actually walk through and explore.
The demo version of the app is currently available for free to US users on the Meta Horizon store. It basically combines a mobile app that allows you to scan an environment (such as your office) and upload the data into the cloud. From there, Meta’s cloud ecosystem recreates the space in virtual reality using photogrammetry and Gaussian splatting techniques.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because some XR leaders have already begun experimenting with similar solutions. For instance, Varjo has its Teleport application, which uses similar functionality to Meta Horizon Hyperscape to streamline digital twin creation.
Notably, right now, the demo app is a little limited. You can’t currently create your own digital spaces with the mobile application. You can only explore a selection of six pre-built environments offered by Meta. However, Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed that in the future, anyone will be able to use the tool to build and explore any real-world space in virtual reality.
How Does Meta Horizon Hyperscape Work?
When the Meta Horizon Hyperscape app was introduced at Connect 2024, Meta described it as a revolutionary way to explore photorealistic digital replicas of real-world environments. Right now, you only get a limited experience of what the application can really do, as Meta hasn’t introduced the option to “create” your own environments yet.
However, it’s easy to see the potential of this technology, even in the limited demo environments. Meta hasn’t “recreated the wheel” with its application. It’s really just building on technologies we’ve already had in virtual reality for some time.
Photogrammetry, which powers the heart of the experience is nothing new. However, how Meta is using this concept in Meta Horizon Hyperscape is impressive. The company has done an excellent job of leveraging cutting-edge concepts, like Gaussian Splatting, to really make it feel like you’re being teleported into a brand-new world.
There are some limitations, of course. For instance, you can’t interact with certain components in a digital space much. You can point your Meta controller at certain objects to surface data about them, but you won’t be able to “unpack” a machine and see what’s going on beneath the surface.
Additionally, the visuals aren’t perfect. This is largely a result of the limitations of the Meta Quest 3. Although the fidelity is great in some areas, there are times when things will look a little blurry and distorted. This issue may be more noticeable on the Meta Quest 3S, as the lenses aren’t as powerful, and the resolution is a little lower than on the Quest 3.
The User Experience: Exploring Hyperscape Environments
Since you can’t create your own virtual spaces in Meta Horizon Hyperscape yet, it’s difficult to know how effective the application is going to be at recreating physical spaces. However, the demo environments are still pretty impressive.
When you download the app from the Horizon store and launch it on your Meta Quest 3, it will automatically perform some network checks to ensure you can run the full experience. Since Hyperscape relies on cloud streaming and rendering, it’s a good idea to ensure you have a strong internet connection before you start.
If your network connection isn’t strong enough, you’ll see a dialogue pop-up explaining that you might have some occasional technical issues with the experience. Once you bypass this pop-up, you can choose from one of the six pre-designed spaces to explore.
Selecting a space with your controller will teleport you straight to that environment. Once there, you can use the thumb sticks on your controller to move around the space. Meta will show you exactly how the controllers work, teaching you how to change scenes, rotate, and jump to new locations. Since Meta won’t be tracking your physical movements, you can’t just “walk around” an environment. However, jumping to new locations doesn’t feel particularly jarring either.
In the future, we’d like to see more applications like this supporting connections with VR shoes and treadmills for a more immersive experience, though.
Visual Quality and Performance
As mentioned above, the visual experience isn’t perfect – but it’s very impressive. The use of gaussian splatting techniques for rendering means the reconstructions you can explore do feel extremely realistic. There are some blurry and distorted elements in certain spaces, although this could be an issue with specific elements not being “scanned” properly by the connected app.
Still, the overall visual experience is excellent, particularly when you consider that the Meta Quest 3 isn’t nearly as powerful from a visual perspective as something like the Apple Vision Pro.
The most significant issue you’re likely to notice is lag. Though this shouldn’t be too much of an issue if your internet connection is strong enough, it’s easy to notice that the whole experience is “cloud streamed.” Occasionally, certain elements will load more slowly than others, and you might notice small freezes or issues happening in your peripheral vision.
Of course, Meta could upgrade its streaming capabilities in the future or give companies using Meta Horizon Hyperscape more resources to help them minimize lag issues. Even now, however, there are times when you’ll enter a specific space in one of the pre-rendered environments and feel like you’re actually there. In some spaces, the reconstruction is genuinely excellent.
Plus, it’s worth noting that you do get a true 6-degrees of freedom experience. That’s a world apart from what most people will be used to. Most virtual tour applications still only support three degrees of freedom, so you can only navigate to certain viewpoints. Meta Horizon Hyperscape, on the other hand, gives you full freedom to truly explore your space.
Meta Horizon Hyperscape: What it Means for Businesses
Right now, it makes sense that not many people are talking about Meta Horizon Hyperscape or its overall potential. After all, the demo only gives you a basic idea of what this solution can do. However, once Meta fully upgrades this technology and gives users the freedom to create their own virtual spaces, the possibilities are endless.
Just like with Varjo Teleport, companies, and developers will be able to use Hyperscape to create realistic digital twins of spaces with exceptional ease. Companies won’t need to invest in all kinds of advanced technologies to create virtual environments anymore. Instead, they’ll be able to scan an entire space with a smartphone and recreate it in the cloud in a matter of minutes.
There will be some caveats. For instance, users will need to ensure they’re capturing as much detail as possible with these scans to make their environments more realistic and immersive. Additionally, there may be some limitations in how well users can stream the environments through the cloud, based on their available resources and computing capabilities.
However, just like Varjo Teleport, Meta’s Horizon Hyperscape could mark an important step forward in creating, using, and sharing digital environments. Business leaders can use this technology to onboard new employees and give them virtual walkthroughs of office spaces.
Real estate companies can provide tours of properties like never before, allowing potential homebuyers to examine every room in a home in depth. Companies will even be able to recreate factory floors and create new environments for stakeholders to explore.
The Future of Digital Twins with Meta
Meta might not be the first company to experiment with tools like Horizon Hyperscape. As mentioned above, we already have very similar solutions to explore, like Varjo Teleport. However, Meta’s investment in this area could make digital twin creation more accessible.
After all, this tool will make creating digital constructions of real-world spaces easier, and more users will be able to access those environments through affordable headsets like the Meta Quest 3 and the upcoming Quest 3S.
The potential of technology like this for everything from training and onboarding to customer experience enhancement and even B2B applications is phenomenal. Once solutions like Meta Horizon Hyperspace become more stable and consistent in the experience they can deliver, the impact on the extended reality space will be outstanding.
It’s easy to imagine a future where developers and VR designers rely on applications like this daily to create more immersive, hyper-realistic environments with less cost and complexity.
We can’t wait to see what people from all industries begin to produce in the metaverse with tools like Meta Horizon Hyperscape.
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