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What is Horizon Worlds? Here’s what to know

milaeryomina

The company formerly known as Facebook finally released Horizon Worlds, its virtual reality (VR) world powered by Oculus. This social/virtual space offered limited access as an invite-only beta, but people aged 18 years and above from the US and Canada may now experience it for free. More importantly, should you try it yourself?

I’ve said that the Metaverse is becoming mainstream, and the Meta company wants to lead in its creation. It is already trying to change how we interact with each other and even how we do business. You should keep yourself up-to-date with the latest Metaverse trends. Let this article be your guide!

I’ll start by explaining how you can sign up for Horizon Worlds, covering details such as the steps and tools required. Then, I will explain how the features work, from interacting with friends to building a personalized space. I’ll compare it with some popular video games and apps to make this platform easier to explain. Of course, the best thing to do is try it yourself!

What can you do in Horizon Worlds?
Before I explain the features of Meta’s new platform, I will have to talk about how you can start using it. First, you will have to own an Oculus Quest or Oculus Quest 2 VR headset.

You may buy it from the Oculus website or third-party retailers like Amazon. After that, perform the following steps to get started with Horizon Worlds:

Go to the Horizon Worlds registration page.
Select on Sign In.
Login via your Oculus or Facebook account, the same one linked to your headset.
Type your username. Make sure it’s a good one because other Oculus users will see it!
Assign a 4-digit pin code and password.
Include an email that will allow you to recover your password if you can’t remember it.
Proceed to finish the registration process.
Again, you may only use this VR app in the US or Canada. Meta plans on letting the world experience this new platform soon, so look out for updates.

What can you do in Horizon Worlds? It lets you interact with your friends or play VR games together. As the name suggests, it also offers a world-building feature.

How does socializing in Horizon Worlds work?
Users have avatars or characters that represent them in this online space. Also, each player has a world that their friends may enter. I’ll focus on the social aspects first:

You may add other folks as friends by clicking on the icon above their heads. Once they accept, you will be able to send messages to each other via the Oculus app.
Horizon Worlds has a party system that lets you travel between groups and worlds. It also allows you to communicate with people in your party even if they’re in other worlds. To form a party, just stretch out your hand on top of another player’s hand. That will create a sphere or orb that will let you join a party once it finishes.
The platform also lets you capture moments in the app as photos. Alternatively, you may take selfies with your friends.
If you’ve played Second Life, you’d feel right at home. Otherwise, this is simple enough for non-gamers to have fun with this online platform.

How can I create worlds there?
Now, we can talk about being creative on Horizon Worlds. You start with a space, but you will build objects in there, block by block.

The headset comes with touch controllers that let you interact with this virtual space when you get the headset. It has buttons assigned to the following tools:

The Grab tool lets you drag and place 3D objects in your world. Also, it lets you select multiple objects to edit them quickly.
Meanwhile, the Lock tool lets you pin objects in place, so you won’t accidentally tamper while creating other objects.
The Duplicate tool allows you to “copy and paste” objects you’ve already made. Let’s say you’ve made trees in your world, but you want to create a mini garden. Just use the duplicate tool instead of making several new ones.
As the name suggests, the Paint tool lets you choose colors for your objects. What’s more, you can go beyond just colors by changing how objects interact with light. For example, you could make a long grey block less reflective to look more like a stone wall.
What is playing Horizon Worlds like?
Horizon Worlds tried to make world creation as easy as possible. However, I think it might not satisfy both newbies and artists. The customization options could overwhelm first-timers.

You might have an easier time if you have some experience using Adobe Photoshop and coding in Python. The Paint tool options have similar features to the photo-editing app.

For example, both of them have an eyedropper tool that lets you select colors from your other objects. That way, you’ll have an easier time maintaining a unified look for them.


You could adjust your objects to act in a certain way once conditions are met. These are Operators, and prior coding experience will come in handy in using them.

That’s because you will have to get used to forming the logic for your operators. If you’re not used to creating a flowchart, you’ll have difficulty making the objects behave how you want.

On the other hand, you might feel limited by the features in Horizon Worlds. The objects maintain this Lego-like appearance to make it accessible for more people.

If you want your world to look differently, you might have to look elsewhere. Still, it would be best to try such platforms for yourself.

Final thoughts
As I said, the Metaverse will eventually change various things in our lives. That’s why it’s a good idea to learn its tools and apps, specifically Horizon Worlds.

Meta is a huge tech company that wants to lead the Metaverse, so it would likely determine how this technology will turn out in the future. In response, you must see how it may achieve this.

Aside from trying Meta products and services, there are other ways you can learn about the Metaverse. Reading the other Inquirer USA articles is a great start!