Rec Room‘s current avatars are pretty basic, consisting of a head, torso, and hands, but in a brand new feature, the social VR platform allows you to create full-body costumes with arms and legs!
Scott Hayden wrote in a July 13th, 2021 story on Road to VR:
Ever since the social VR platform Rec Room launched in 2016, its avatar system has notably lacked full-body inverse kinematics like you see in its contemporary VRChat, which essentially leaves users with a stylized appearance lacking arms and legs. Now the studio says it’s releasing an update that will allow you to buy more articulated avatar outfits which should add more flexibility to how you can look in the game.
The studio tells us that the new costumes will let you look like “almost anything imaginable.”
Here’s an 8-minute YouTube video walking you through the process of creating a full-body costume:
Full-body costumes will no doubt be added to other user-generated content such as avatar accessories, rooms, and gadgets, which form part of its Community Commerce initiative. Scott Hayden points out:
And the name of the game is content creation, it seems. The studio says it now hosts over five million user-generated rooms. With its mounting currency-earning opportunities for users, the company seems to be well on its way to paying out to creators what it says should amount to $1 million by the end of 2021.
This content expansion follows a landmark $100 million financing round, bringing the company’s valuation to $1.25 billion. This makes Rec Room one of the most valuable VR companies outside of platform holders Facebook and Sony.
In the coming months, Rec Room is also readying an Android version which will feature cross-play with all supported platforms, which include iOS devices, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC via Steam, Oculus Quest, and all SteamVR-compatible headsets.
It would appear that Rec Room is going to strength to strength! The social VR platform is especially popular among the highly-desired youth demographic, attracting many children and teenagers with easy-to-use in-world building tools. The addition of full-body costumes will provide a new way for users to flex their creativity!
For more information about Rec Room, visit their website, join their Discord, or follow them on social media: TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and YouTube.
