Watch a video of the safety features available when you’re in Facebook Horizon. Do you feel safe now?
http://www.vrroom.buzz/vr-news/social-xr/facebook-horizon-safety-video-fails-make-us-feel-safe
When Facebook Horizon debuted during Oculus Connect 6 (OC6) in 2019, it offered a glimpse at the tech giants plans for a fully integrated virtual world. A closed beta has been running for the past few months but there haven’t been any updates on the social platform until now. Those beta testers have been creating lots of new worlds which Facebook is just starting to unveil.
Facebook Horizon is very much being built around user-generated content, rather than a lot of in house experiences. Users all have exactly the same tools to let their imaginations run riot, whether that’s an environment to hang out with friends in or a fully interactive gaming world. Apart from the central Plaza, everything else is up to the community.
With that in mind before Facebook Horizon launches the platform needs plenty of worlds for new users to explore and understand what the platform is capable of. A new blog posting focuses on four of these worlds and what can be achieved with a bit of ingenuity.
Take Deep Sleep for example by Liam McKill, a sci-fi thriller where you play a spaceship crew member recently awoken from hypersleep who needs to restore power to the craft. Playable solo or with friends, they can either help or betray you whilst solving the various tasks. “A big inspiration behind Deep Sleep was the video game Bioshock, one of my favourite video games,” McKill explains. “The plot twists, sense of isolation, and the eerie atmosphere in Bioshock inspire me to build Horizon experiences.
Alien Catacombs by Micah Allen, on the other hand, is an obstacle course with a fantasy adventure theme. Grab a sword and a few friends to head out on this journey. When asked about a favourite aspect of the platform Allen said: “My favourite aspect has to be the scripting capability. You can create a world and make it do almost anything you want.”
That openness to do what you want is also met with social safety considerations as Facebook wants to maintain a comfortable, friendly environment. These features are laid out in the video below, where users can tap a shield icon on their wrist to enter a ‘Safe Zone’ where they can Mute, Block and Report other people. Facebook Horizon continually captures footage for proof, the last few minutes of your session added to any report you file.
Still in its closed beta sign-ups are still taking place, ahead ofan official launch later this year. That will first occur in the US and Canada with no confirmation about other territories. For further updates you know where to come.
Quelle:
https://www.vrfocus.com/2020/08/getting-creative-with-facebook-horizon-new-details-revealed/
At OC6, we debuted the first look at Facebook Horizon, a social experience where you can explore, play, and create with others in VR. We’ve been testing Horizon with an early group of creators. And in the coming weeks, we’ll start bringing some people from the waitlist into Horizon’s invite-only beta. We’re excited to share what we’ve been working on and continue building Horizon with you—this is just the start.
Explore Worlds of Possibilities
Horizon invites you to explore an ever-expanding universe of virtual experiences designed and built by the entire community. Everything you see in Horizon, including the Plaza and worlds created by our teams at Facebook, has been built with the Horizon creation tools. In Horizon, you can build the things you want to see and places you want to visit.
Our mission is to create meaningful connections between people and foster a strong sense of community for everyone who joins Horizon. That’s why we’re excited to hear your feedback and work with early adopters to evolve Horizon as we begin to grow its community. Horizon is as much about meaningful connections as it is about creating VR worlds and expressing yourself. Eventually, we envision large spaces where many people can gather in Horizon, but for now, up to eight people can share a space.
Horizon makes it easy to meet up with your friends or explore with new people. Once you’re there, you can join a Party to chat together as you navigate Horizon and check out featured worlds in the Horizon Plaza to see what’s new. You can also navigate to the menu, where you can search the published worlds in Horizon by name and find new places to explore.
Over the past few months, we’ve been working with community members to pilot our creation tools and start building worlds. “Walking through your world, and being proud of what you made, has been the most rewarding aspect,” says Horizon creator Clint Ferguson, who built a jungle-themed adventure world. “Easy collaborative building tools bring your ideas to life. Horizon lets you be as detailed and creative as your imagination will allow.”
Over the past few months, Ferguson and other Horizon creators have built all sorts of pioneering experiences that beta users can try out today in Horizon. For a look at Ferguson’s world, and to hear from other Horizon creators, head over to the Tech@ blog.
Safety and Privacy in Horizon
As we push the boundaries for what’s possible in social VR, it’s important to us that people feel in control of their Horizon experience. Everyone in Horizon must follow the Oculus Code of Conduct, and we’re introducing several new features that make it easier to submit reports and address issues.
You can access a personal Safe Zone through your wrist menu at any time in Horizon. Our research over the past few years has found that when people experience something overwhelming or surprising in VR, they want the option to step away first, and then take action second. Once you’re in your personal Safe Zone, you can mute, block, or report people and content around you.
We also know things can happen quickly in VR, and reviewing reports takes time. So, similar to the functionality we launched with Oculus Venues several years ago, we’ve improved our system to provide a helping hand and address issues as they happen. If you mute, block, or report someone, a trained safety specialist, who will not appear as an avatar, may remotely observe and record the situation to ensure your safety. This way, they can submit additional evidence for us to review, and they can temporarily ban someone from Horizon while we review reports.
And finally, we’ll soon introduce a feature to make it easier for you to submit reports in Horizon. We know it’s difficult to record a painful incident while it’s happening, which is why your Oculus headset will capture the last few minutes of your experience in Horizon on a rolling basis. When you submit a report, you can include this captured information as evidence of what happened. This information is collected through a rolling buffer that’s processed locally on your device and is overwritten over time. Captured audio data from this rolling buffer is not stored on our servers unless a report is submitted, however, we may store other data about your experience in Horizon in accordance with the Supplemental Beta Facebook Horizon Data Policy. When you submit a report, our trained safety specialists will use the information to take appropriate action and then delete the recordings.
See You in Horizon
The invite-only beta will be available on Oculus Quest and the Rift Platform in the U.S. and Canada to start. We’ll welcome more people over time, and you can add your name to the beta waitlist.
We can’t wait to continue building Horizon with you. We’ve got a long and exciting road ahead, and feedback from the community is an essential part of the journey. “Make what inspires you,” says Horizon creator Sunny Ammerman. “Don’t feel like you need to meet some popularity benchmark, or cater to what you think other people want. Make something that you want, and your originality and uniqueness will shine through and inspire others. Above all else, have fun!”
Visit the Horizon page for more information, and to stay current on the latest news and updates.
Quelle:
https://www.vrroom.buzz/vr-news/social-xr/facebook-horizon-invite-only-beta-ready-vr-testers
Collaborative building is its most ambitious feature.
Facebook is soon to launch the invite-only beta of Horizon, on Quest and Rift, the company’s latest attempt at creating a first-party social VR experience. We previewed the beta and got to see several user-created mini-games and explored the built-in creation tools.
Horizon is designed as a place for Oculus users to hang out, play together, and create together. You can apply to join the beta here, which Facebook says will begin opening up “in the coming weeks.”
Rather than being one continuous space, Horizon is organized into discrete rooms called ‘Worlds’ which can support up to eight players at a time.
Everything in Horizon has been built with integrated creation tools which allow users to make their own rooms with hand-crafted 3D models and basic scripting, allowing for the creation of some surprisingly complex mini-games. Horizon also allows for real-time collaboration, enabling users to build and test Worlds together.
I had the chance to jump into Horizon, see some of the user-generated Worlds in action, and take a look at the integrated creation tools that make them possible.
Starting in the Plaza
The Plaza is the area where you’ll first appear when you launch Horizon. In the Plaza you’ll find links to ‘featured’ Worlds, which are hand-picked by Facebook. You can also call up the Horizon menu from a button on your wrist and use it to browse and search for other Worlds.
Moving from the Plaza to another World is as simple as clicking a button and waiting a few moments while the new World loads. If you’re in a Party with other Horizon players (up to eight), you’ll all end up in the same instance of a World if you visit at the same time.
Worlds as Mini-games
While Worlds can be as simple as decorative spaces, they can also be fairly complex mini-games thanks to built-in scripting which allows creators to imbue their creations with game logic. In my preview I got to see several examples of mini-games built inside of Horizon.
One was ‘Balloon Bash’ a playful shooter game where each player picks up a water balloon gun and runs around the map shooting down targets worth various points. After a time limit expires, the total points are listed to determine the winner of the round.
Another World I visited, ‘Interdimensional’ was built as an escape-room like experience with multiple puzzles designed for two players. One of the puzzles was a chamber with a cube and symbols on each wall. The goal of the puzzle was to guide a cube into boxes inside the room by changing the direction of gravity and causing the cube to move in the direction of each box. The challenge is that only the player outside of the room has the gravity controls, which means the players need to work together to figure out which controls to activate in which order to achieve the goal.
Creating Worlds
One of the coolest parts of Horizon is that the tools for making new Worlds are built directly into the platform and are easy enough to use that you don’t need to be a 3D modeler or a game designer to figure out how to get started.
When in creator mode you can become a giant to work on large-scale structures, or scale yourself down to work on little details. The core of creating is Horizon is a set of light-weight modeling tools which allow you to combine and modify primitive shapes to build environments and props.
Many of the features you’d hope to see are there: grouping, painting, basic texturing, plane snapping, and axis sliding & rotation. There’s also arrays, which allow you to quickly and precisely duplicate objects or groups of objects, making it easy to make repeating structures like stairs, windows, or entire buildings.
Basic scripting is also possible in Horizon, allowing creators to add game logic to their Worlds. I haven’t had the chance to dive into the scripting tools yet, but from my experience as a player, it seems that they can enable some surprisingly complex behaviors.
For instance, in the water balloon launcher game I played, the launchers would shoot a water balloon with the pull of the trigger, but holding the trigger down allowed the launcher to charge up and shoot further upon release.
In the escape room puzzle game, there were buttons outside of the room which would change the direction of gravity acting on the cube (but not the rest of the world), causing it to fall in different directions.
I’ve also seen Worlds where one object could be used as a sort of ‘remote control’, meaning the movements of one object would be mirrored by a much larger object. This allowed players to ‘puppeteer’ a large robot at a distance.
Building Together on Both Headsets
Unlike some other VR creation tools, creating Worlds in Horizon is not limited only to those running the app on PC. Both Rift and Quest have full access to creation tools, and can even work together collaboratively.
In Horizon you can add friends as collaborators to your Worlds and work with them side-by-side in real-time. While you’re modeling a skyscraper, your friend can work on the colors, or take your completed skyscraper, duplicate it several times, and then arrange the buildings into a cityscape. Or you can both work on an entirely different part of the world while bouncing ideas off of each other.
From my hands-on time with Horizon so far, it feels like a cross between the mini-games of Rec Room and the user-generated creations of VRChat. I expect that Horizon’s collaborative building tools will be nearly as popular as simply experiencing the Worlds on offer, thanks to the relative ease-of-use and collaboration capabilities.
Facebook says it expects that one day Horizon will support many people in one World, but for now there’s a limit of eight. And while its nice that Rift and Quest users can play and build together, unfortunately Facebook isn’t yet committing to supporting any other headsets—making Horizon more of a ‘social Oculus experience’ than a ‘social VR experience’.
Quelle:
https://www.vrroom.buzz/vr-news/social-xr/hands-facebook-horizon-mixes-rec-room-vrchat
Facebook Horizon is shaping up to be an interesting social VR offering with powerful building tools that will allow players to create and share their own worlds. But equally powerful are tools the company has baked into Horizon for monitoring users and enforcing Facebook’s version of appropriate behavior.
While Facebook would like users to think that hanging out in Horizon is no less private than being in a public space, there’s several huge differences.
First, all the users in Horizon are involuntarily recording each other. The last few minutes of everything that users see and hear is recorded on a rolling basis. Facebook says this recording is stored on the headset itself, unless one user reports another, at which point the recording may be sent to Facebook to check for rule violations. The company says that the recording will be deleted once the report is concluded.
Second, anyone you interact with can invite an invisible observer from Facebook to come surveil you and your conversations in real-time to make sure you don’t break any rules. The company says this can happen when one user reports another or when other “signals” are detected, such as several players blocking or muting each other in quick succession. Users will not be notified when they’re being watched.
And third, everything you say, do, and build in Horizon is subject to Facebook’s Community Standards. So while in a public space you’re free to talk about anything you want, in Horizon there a many perfectly legal topics that you can’t discuss without fear of punitive action being taken against your account.
Facebook laid out these observation and moderation tools in a “Horizon Safety Video” and explained them in further detail in an interview with Road to VR.
Transparency & Authenticity
Facebook loves to throw around the word “transparent” with regard to its stand on privacy and user tracking, and they seem to have truly taken the word to heart… after all, what’s more “transparent” than an invisible stranger that may or may not be watching you at any given moment?
Facebook also loves to use the word “authentic.” And what could make a community more authentic than ensuring that all users are constantly recording each other and are just a click away from sending behavior they don’t like to a corporation for analysis?
“Unsettling” is the word that comes to my mind when I think about these features. Yes, Horizon should be a place where people can come and have fun without fear of being trolled or exposed to vile behavior, but is the introduction of another fear—potentially being monitored at any given moment without your knowledge—really the best answer? I don’t think so.
Corporate-approved Behavior
The thing about real public spaces is that what happens in them—beyond what’s outright illegal—is up to the people inhabiting the space. In Horizon it feels much more like the space is making the rules, not the people. And in this case, the space is Facebook.
Facebook’s approach to privacy in Horizon is not much different than if the company tried to police real public spaces by using the Facebook app on everyone’s phone to constantly record their conversations just on the off chance that someone breaks the corporation’s approved social guidelines.
Before I thought about it much, when it came to privacy, I was roughly in the camp of ‘what’s to worry about if you have nothing to hide?’. But at one point someone said something utterly simple that made me understand the naivety of that position: “If you knew you were being watched every time you searched for something on Google, would it change what you searched for?”
My answer is a definitive yes, and I think any honest person would agree. Even though I’m not searching for anything illegal, simply the act of being watched would change my behavior. And this is precisely the issue with Horizon’s privacy model… even if nobody is breaking the rules, being watched—or the possibility of unknowingly being watched—changes behavior.
Don’t Blink—This is the Start of the Metaverse
And you still might say “so what, Horizon is just a game.” But the most important thing to understand about all of this is that Horizon is Facebook’s proto-metaverse. The company has been quite public about its goal of bringing one billion people into VR; the privacy norms Facebook is establishing now will deeply influence the way those billion people interact with each other in the future. Should Facebook get to write the guidelines for how they communicate and decide how private their conversations should be?
Quelle:
In ‘Horizon’ Facebook Can Invisibly Observe Users in Real-time to Spot Rule Violations
Opinion.
Facebook Horizon is shaping up to be an interesting social VR offering with powerful building tools that will allow players to create and share their own worlds. But equally powerful are tools the company has baked into Horizon for monitoring users and enforcing Facebook’s version of appropriate behavior.
While Facebook would like users to think that hanging out in Horizon is no less private than being in a public space, there’s several huge differences.
First, all the users in Horizon are involuntarily recording each other. The last few minutes of everything that users see and hear is recorded on a rolling basis. Facebook says this recording is stored on the headset itself, unless one user reports another, at which point the recording may be sent to Facebook to check for rule violations. The company says that the recording will be deleted once the report is concluded.
Second, anyone you interact with can invite an invisible observer from Facebook to come surveil you and your conversations in real-time to make sure you don’t break any rules. The company says this can happen when one user reports another or when other “signals” are detected, such as several players blocking or muting each other in quick succession. Users will not be notified when they’re being watched.
And third, everything you say, do, and build in Horizon is subject to Facebook’s Community Standards. So while in a public space you’re free to talk about anything you want, in Horizon there a many perfectly legal topics that you can’t discuss without fear of punitive action being taken against your account.
Facebook laid out these observation and moderation tools in a “Horizon Safety Video” and explained them in further detail in an interview with Road to VR.
Transparency & Authenticity
Facebook loves to throw around the word “transparent” with regard to its stand on privacy and user tracking, and they seem to have truly taken the word to heart… after all, what’s more “transparent” than an invisible stranger that may or may not be watching you at any given moment?
Facebook also loves to use the word “authentic.” And what could make a community more authentic than ensuring that all users are constantly recording each other and are just a click away from sending behavior they don’t like to a corporation for analysis?
“Unsettling” is the word that comes to my mind when I think about these features. Yes, Horizon should be a place where people can come and have fun without fear of being trolled or exposed to vile behavior, but is the introduction of another fear—potentially being monitored at any given moment without your knowledge—really the best answer? I don’t think so.
Corporate-approved Behavior
The thing about real public spaces is that what happens in them—beyond what’s outright illegal—is up to the people inhabiting the space. In Horizon it feels much more like the space is making the rules, not the people. And in this case, the space is Facebook.
Facebook’s approach to privacy in Horizon is not much different than if the company tried to police real public spaces by using the Facebook app on everyone’s phone to constantly record their conversations just on the off chance that someone breaks the corporation’s approved social guidelines.
Before I thought about it much, when it came to privacy, I was roughly in the camp of ‘what’s to worry about if you have nothing to hide?’. But at one point someone said something utterly simple that made me understand the naivety of that position: “If you knew you were being watched every time you searched for something on Google, would it change what you searched for?”
My answer is a definitive yes, and I think any honest person would agree. Even though I’m not searching for anything illegal, simply the act of being watched would change my behavior. And this is precisely the issue with Horizon’s privacy model… even if nobody is breaking the rules, being watched—or the possibility of unknowingly being watched—changes behavior.
Don’t Blink—This is the Start of the Metaverse
And you still might say “so what, Horizon is just a game.” But the most important thing to understand about all of this is that Horizon is Facebook’s proto-metaverse. The company has been quite public about its goal of bringing one billion people into VR; the privacy norms Facebook is establishing now will deeply influence the way those billion people interact with each other in the future. Should Facebook get to write the guidelines for how they communicate and decide how private their conversations should be?
Quelle:
https://www.vrroom.buzz/vr-news/social-xr/horizon-big-brother-facebook-always-watching-you
Sign up now to begin crafting your own in-game worlds and activities.
Yesterday marked the launch of Facebook Horizon’s invite-only public beta, offering select players the chance to experience Facebook’s ambitious social VR platform ahead of its official release sometime later this year. With the launch of the public beta comes several new games, features, and environments, many of which featured in new promotional videos released by Facebook.
As previously stated by the company, Facebook Horizon is a social VR metaverse composed of numerous worlds and activities built by the community for the community. As such you’re given access to a variety of internal world-building tools, allowing you to create simple minigames, complex environments, full-blown interactive adventures, and everything in-between.
Once you’ve finished customizing your avatar, you can venture out alone or meet-up with Facebook friends for some wholesome group activities. Players are identified by their Oculus ID rather than their actual names, so there’s still a small sense of anonymity.
In one of the videos provided, you can catch a glimpse of several different multiplayer activities, such as ramen making classes, mini-golfing, dungeon crawling, bank heists, and a dozen other games and experiences. In terms of world-building, it appears as though you’ll have the ability to design games and environments from a “god perspective” while other players interact with your creations in real-time.
Facebook has also provided several major updates regarding player safety. If at any point you feel uncomfortable due to the actions of another player, you can activate a “personal safe zone” to instantly separate yourself from fellow players as well as the environment. Here you can mute, block, and report players as well as content with the simple touch of a button. You’ll also have the ability to report player actions in real-time.
After sending a report, Horizon immediately saves the last few minutes of your session to be used as a reference. This is where things start getting a little murky.
According to the company, Facebook Horizon records every moment of your session, regardless of whether or not you file a report. Supposedly, this footage is never seen by a human being unless you file a report, after which the file is permanently deleted. Facebook will also have company personnel patrolling the metaverse in-game, sort of like digital bouncers.
“Our team of train safety specialists will review the clip to evaluate what happened,” stated a Facebook representative in the official safety video. “They’ll delete it once your report is resolved. Also, if you or someone else raises an issue, our safety specialist may remotely see and hear what’s going on in real-time. They can record inappropriate behavior or content and submit a report for further review. Anyone who doesn’t follow our code of conduct may be banned from Horizon.”
Facebook Horizon is now open to select players as part of its invite-only public beta. Those interested can sign-up over at FacebookHorizon.com.
With Facebook Connect (formerly Oculus Connect) just around the corner, here’s hoping a full release is just around the corner.
Quelle:
Foto: Facebook
‘Facebook Horizon’ Promises A Safety Focused World-Building Experience, Public Beta Now Open