In today's digital world, we encounter avatars in many places - as profile pictures, online game characters or as digital representations in virtual reality. But what exactly are avatars? The term comes from Sanskrit (avatāraliterally "to descend") and originally described the incarnation of a deity on earth. In the digital context, the word took on a new meaning: Avatar was introduced in 1985 in the computer game Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar used in this sense for the first time. Developer Richard Garriott deliberately chose the term to establish a link between the moral responsibility of the player and the digital proxy. Shortly afterwards, other pioneers such as Lucasfilm also coined this digital meaning
Avatars have their roots in computer games, where they control characters in virtual worlds. However, they have long been present in many more forms. In virtual meetings, training simulations, interactive showrooms or in the therapeutic field, they are increasingly taking on tasks - sometimes as an active, speaking counterpart that reproduces body language and emotions in real time.
To make an avatar look as realistic as possible, developers combine different technologies:
Hand tracking for example with Leap Motion or sensors of modern VR headsets.
Face capture via cameras and algorithms (e.g. ARKit) to transmit facial expressions and gaze direction.
Voice interfaces using text-to-speech and speech-to-text systems such as OpenAI Whisper or IBM Watson.
AI-controlled dialog systems such as Convai or Inworld, which allow avatars to react in a context-sensitive manner.
These technologies enable avatars to act as interactive digital personalities.
Whether photorealistic or stylized - the presentation of an avatar depends on the purpose and objective. Tools such as Ready Player Me or Adobe Mixamo simplify the creation of impressive characters. Professionals use engines such as Unity or Unreal to develop avatars with personality, movements and AI flow profiles - and thus create digital identities with expressive power.
A much-discussed obstacle on the way to lifelike avatars is the infamous Uncanny Valley. Masahiro Mori described this phenomenon back in 1970: the closer a depiction comes to human appearance, the more it initially arouses empathy - until it appears almost perfect. In this borderline area, it appears uncanny instead of attractive. Attempts to photorealistically simulate skin structure, eyes or head turns often fail due to microscopic inconsistencies. These subtle errors lead to a feeling of alienation that can actively sabotage trust and emotional closeness.
Whether photorealistic or stylized - the presentation of an avatar depends on the purpose and objective. Tools such as Ready Player Me or Adobe Mixamo simplify the creation of impressive characters. Professionals use engines such as Unity or Unreal to develop avatars with personality, movements and AI flow profiles - and thus create digital identities with expressive power.
Whether in gaming, business, training or medical applications - avatars have long been part of our digital lives. They carry identity, interact and convey content. But their increasing closeness to reality raises new questions: Who takes responsibility for misconduct? How do we protect against manipulation and misuse? How do we safeguard identity and data protection? And: How do we deal ethically with digital self-image?
Avatars are the heart of every metaverse platform - whether in Meta Horizon Worlds, Microsoft Mesh, Roblox or other environments. They embody our digital identity, enable interaction and convey social presence in 3D spaces - in short: no metaverse works without them
While photorealistic avatars are possible on powerful computers, mobile VR hardware such as the Meta Quest 3 clear limits. The graphics performance is not sufficient to smoothly display complex shaders and elaborate rendering processes for skin, hair or eyes. Developers therefore have to make compromises: a low number of polygons, greatly simplified shaders and reduced facial expression tracking. This is the only way to keep the frame rate stable, even when many avatars are displayed at the same time .
Even large systems such as VRChat rely on highly optimized "mobile shaders", while advanced effects such as light sources, particle systems, cloth simulation or dynamic bone movement are completely deactivated on Quest devices Meta itself recommends a limit of around 50-100 units for avatars on Quest or significant performance savings in order to keep the user experience stable
Mobile processors are simply too weakComplex rendering with realistic shaders overtax VR chipsets.
Many avatars at the same time: Dozens of avatars collide in social VR rooms - fewer polygons prevent frame drops
Style instead of realismTo avoid the Uncanny Valley, avatars remain deliberately stylized. As soon as details are missing, you quickly appear "fake" near the reality limit.
Another issue is the interoperability of avatars. Users want to be able to use their avatars across different platforms and applications. This requires standardization and compatibility of avatar formats and data to ensure that avatars can be seamlessly transferred between different virtual environments. A first step in this direction is the Ready PlayerPlayerMe website. ReadyPlayerMe is an online platform that allows users to create personalized 3D avatars that can be used in various virtual worlds and social VR environments, similar to a VRChat avatar. The site offers a growing range of customization options and integrates with numerous VR platforms and games, allowing users to carry and share their digital identities across different virtual realities.
However, Ready player Me avatars are currently all very similar in style and seem to have been taken from a video game like Fortnite.
Avatars are the backbone of the Metaverse experience - without them, identity is missing and dialog does not take place. However, mobile hardware and technical realities still force developers to make major abstractions and performance compromises. Until computing power and graphics quality increase in sync with human demands, avatars will remain an impressive but limited part of our immersive future.
Are you interested in developing a virtual reality or 360° application? You may still have questions about budget and implementation. Feel free to contact me.
I am looking forward to you
Clarence Dadson CEO Design4real
