Facebook will soon open the beta version of its virtual reality social platform, Horizon, to members of the general public.
“We’ve been testing Horizon with an early group of creators,” the company said in a post on the official blog for Oculus, the VR device business Facebook acquired for $2.3 billion in 2014. “And in the coming weeks, we’ll start bringing some people from the waitlist into Horizon’s invite-only beta.”
To be eligible for the beta, users must have an Oculus Rift or Oculus Quest headset and a Facebook account. (Technically, you can also log in with a standalone Oculus account, but Facebook recently announced it’s ending support for those beginning in October. Eventually, Oculus users will have to log on to their devices with a Facebook account.) Facebook asks for potential testers’ basic info like gender and country of residence, plus details on whether they have previously created any VR content, and whether they “lead, moderate, or administer an online community” on sites like Reddit, Discord, and Twitch.
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The company did not say how many users it will bring into the beta, but mentioned they’ll receive invites “in the coming weeks.”
For those not familiar with Horizon, it’s basically an ultramodern version of Second Life where users can interact with one another via digital avatars in shared virtual spaces. When a user logs in, they appear on the Plaza, a public hub of users on the same server. From there, users can do things like customize their avatar, launch a Party to hang out with up to eight friends, or jet off to one of Horizon’s virtual worlds.
Some of the starter worlds, as Facebook revealed last year, are multiplayer games designed by the social network. Others, announced this week, are a mix of interactive adventures and environments made by experienced VR creators who had access to Horizon’s closed beta. Those include Deep Sleep, a sci-fi space thriller by Liam McKill, H.A.T. Jungle Adventure from Clint Ferguson, Alien Catacombs by Micah Allen, and Sunny’s Place, a detailed recreation of a luxe apartment by Sunny Ammerman.
In the future, though, Horizon will allow anyone to make their own game or environment using a suite of pick-and-place creation tools. You can see that process in this video:
Users will be able to travel to others’ worlds and invite people to theirs–which is where the other half of Facebook’s beta announcement comes in.
Ahead of letting in public beta testers, Facebook has added several safety features, it said. “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,” the company explained.
To that end, Horizon has a Safe Zone, which can be activated at any time and will pull a user from a public space into their own private room. From there, they can mute, block, or report users and content in their immediate virtual area. When a mute, block, or report is filed, a “trained safety specialist” working for Horizon may check in on the situation in real-time to watch and record what’s happening, and issue bans as needed, Facebook says. (The specialist will not be visible to users.)
One last safety feature that’s incoming but not yet available: automatic recording. “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,” Facebook explained. “When you submit a report, you can include this captured information as evidence of what happened.”
Those interested can see more information about Horizon’s public beta here.
