Facebook Sets Aside $10 Million Fund for VR Creators in Horizon Worlds

During The Connect 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a $10 Million Creator Fund for VR creators to build experiences in its virtual reality platform, Horizon Worlds. While Horizon Worlds is still in its beta stage, Facebook, now known as Meta, wants to get Horizon users to make more VR content for the people. Meta hopes that these new creations will offer more experiences to entice people to join its VR community.

 

$10 Million Creator Fund for Horizon Worlds

According to Zuckerberg, the Creator Funds will be given out to VR creators over the next year in three different ways:

1 - Horizon Worlds Community Creations

Meta will run a series of community competitions where users are asked to build "the very best worlds in Horizon." According to the announcement, Facebook will offer up to $10,000 in cash for the top three creators in the competitions.

2 - Creator Accelerator Program

Meta will introduce a Creator Accelerator Program designed to give people from different backgrounds an advanced crash course on creating experiences in Horizon Worlds. The company has already finished a pilot of the program back in September. It is now accepting applications for the next run of the program, which is expected to launch in early 2022.

3 - Funding VR Developers

The third part of the Creator Fund will go to developers interested in creating new experiences for Horizon in a particular theme. This will create opportunities for developers and start-up VR creators to showcase their abilities and become a big part of Horizon Worlds' future development.

 

The Metaverse in Horizon Worlds

As The Facebook Company rebrands itself to Meta, Zuckerberg has discussed his plans for its future. One of its goals is to create a metaverse where people around the globe can interact anytime and anywhere by using a VR gaming headset and controller.

Horizon Worlds, formerly known as Facebook Horizon, was first introduced in September 2019 at the Oculus Connect 6. It is a VR online video game where its users can create games. Horizon Worlds may be played with an Oculus VR gaming headset and a Microsoft Windows gaming computer. Through the motion capture system of the Oculus headset and its two hand-held controllers, players can interact with the objects in the game.

Horizon players can also explore the virtual space around them by moving through the virtual space or using the controller to teleport to a short distance.

Upon starting the game, all players will enter the hub world, known as the Horizons' plaza. This is a space that includes portals that lets you enter into featured user-generator worlds. These words are all created by players using the Horizon Worlds' integrated game creation system.

As of now, Horizon World is in its invite-only beta phase. But with the current development, it might be possible to invite more people to try the game and experience its virtual environment.

 

Expansion of Horizon Worlds - Horizon Workrooms

As part of its metaverse, Meta introduced Horizon Workrooms back in August 2021. It is an open-beta collaboration app that has the primary goal of managing remote-work environments. Its purpose is to help teams collaborate in a virtual space wherever they are. The app features virtual meeting rooms, whiteboards, and video call integration. Currently, each virtual meeting room can accommodate up to 50 users.

You can try Horizon Workrooms by signing up at Oculus Workrooms. Suppose you already have an Oculus Rift S or Oculus Quest 2 VR gaming headset. In that case, you can download and install Horizon Workrooms from the Oculus Store. You can then follow the instructions in the app to pair your VR headset to your account and get started with Horizon Workrooms.

 

The Future of Horizon Worlds

Facebook/Meta promises to further develop Horizon Worlds as a metaverse company. Aside from Horizon Workrooms, Meta has also introduced a Horizon Home. This will bring a social space where users can get their friends to hang out, watch videos, and even play POPULATION: ONE with them.

Meta aims to create a virtual space you can call home in Horizon Worlds. The company aims to make it easier for users to build and customize their own space in its virtual world. Horizon Home will be a corner of the metaverse that can reflect you and your personality.

And with the $10 Million Creator Fund, Meta is set to introduce and make Horizon Worlds a future social platform in the virtual space.