If you are a Horizon Worlds builder, you might have noticed an addition of Desktop Friendly tag in the worlds settings. See the photo below.
This seems to suggest that Meta is planning to release a Desktop version of Horizon Worlds. This would certainly be a welcomed addition since many Horizon regulars have been asking for such app.
What would Horizon World's desktop app look like? There are many unanswered questions at this point but we can speculate about potential features that such move would introduce.
Will this be a Mac or PC app? Both?
Will the app have both player and creator functionality?
In the create mode, will we be able to import 3D models created in programs such as Blender. This has been one of the most requested features by Horizon's builders.
In the player mode, will we be playing from 1st person or 3rd person perspective? Will there be a way to choose between 1st and 3rd person?
In addition to Desktop Friendly, you can also spot a Mobile Friendly tag.
Meta previously confirmed that there will be a mobile version of Horizon Worlds released at some point. The addition of Mobile Friendly and Desktop Friendly tags seems to suggest that Desktop App is a strong possibility.
1st or 3rd Person Perspective?
The biggest question about the Mobile and Desktop apps is the question of perspective. It is not easy to translate a VR native app into a flat 2D screen. Some sacrifices will have to be made. Will we play in a 1st person mode as if playing Minecraft or a FPS ( 1st person shooter) game? Or will we play in the 3rd person mode, which seems to be very popular with Roblox. How do you translate interacting with the world in a virtual environment to a flat 2d screen? There are many intuitive actions such as picking up an object or leaning in to read a block of text that feel very natural in VR but might suddenly feel awkward or be impossible on a 2d screen.
Builders will most likely have to create several versions of their worlds.
If you are a builder you will most likely have to create several versions of your worlds or games if you want Quest, desktop, and mobile users to experience them without any issues. That's what Meta seems to be preparing us for with the addition of Desktop Friendly and Mobile Friendly tags.
Comments