Forum Discussion
Meta Avatars SDK (Feedback/Issues)
Do you have any feedback and/or issues in regards to the Meta Avatars SDK? Use this place to discuss, as we'll have members of the engineering team reviewing this thread!
Read the blog on the Meta Avatars SDK here: https://developer.oculus.com/blog/meta-avatars-sdk-now-available/
Refer to the Meta Avatars SDK documentation here: https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/unity/meta-avatars-overview/
161 Replies
"I want to confirm a few things." Have you had a chance to confirm yet? I am getting closer to needing to know where OpenXR is in regards to being viable for the Meta Avatars.
Thanks for the help!!!!
Good—that’s a perspective I can appreciate and engage with. I’ll come back to this thread when I have something to discuss, but I can at least say that this is the sort of thing I take very seriously, and shining a light on breakdowns like this is one of the reasons why we have a community team at all.
It has been over a month since we heard from you. Even a reply that you are still waiting for more info would be appreciated and honestly the least Meta can do given the situation. Look forward to hearing back from you this upcoming week.
Could we get an update please Anonymous. Also, I like to point out that at the top of this thread, the second post responding to your former counterpart, was saying pretty much the same things about the Avatars not working right. That was from 2022 and it is pretty clear no one addressed this reasonable request in all these years. I really cannot beleive how bad things have become, but maybe it is going to finally turn around?
Very pleased to read. Thanks CasetAtMeta. Will standby.
I can appreciate the frustration here and as a relative newcomer to Meta, I want to spend some more time here talking with the team and learning about the history. I'm hoping to have more to share next week, I'll try and update the thread here.
That said, I do want to be clear—the point at which this escalates into a legal matter is the point at which I can no longer help you. If that's something you want to pursue then go for it, but I have to close the conversation and refer you elsewhere.
Thanks for the response, Casey.
To be clear, I don’t believe this is a legal issue, pursuing that route would be a fool’s errand given how heavily the system favors large corporations. What I am doing is appealing to you, and to Meta as an organization I supported from the very beginning through the Oculus Kickstarter, to step up.
This situation calls for more than a simple apology and quiet closure. It demands recognition of the systemic breakdown in communication and delivery, a plan for how Meta intends to fix it, and a serious discussion about how to compensate developers for the significant time lost chasing SDK features that were publicly promoted but not functional.
If this hasn't already been escalated, I strongly encourage you to do so. I genuinely hope this conversation won’t just be closed, as I would much rather not escalate further. But at the same time, it’s clear there’s a lot of dry timber here, and ignoring it won’t prevent a fire.
Just want to close the loop on some of this stuff:
First: The issue with USING_XR_SDK has a hotfix coming out which should address RiverExplorer's use-case.
The weirdness we're seeing with the Building Blocks not working properly is a little unusual, because in our own testing (using a combination of Networked Avatar block + Teleporter block from ISDK + Networked Grabbable Object block), we had no trouble getting both locomotion and interaction working in v74. We're not 100% sure yet what's causing this to fail in your implementation, but we suspect it's either the same issue that's being fixed in the above hotfix, or a separate issue with Interaction Profile configuration that has its own hotfix coming out shortly.
Avatars not working with XROrigin is a separate issue which needs a little more clarification, and forgive me if I miscommunicate here because I have a lot of catching up I'm still doing on the technical side. The gist of it as I understand it is that our commitment to OpenXR is focused first and foremost about OpenXR Plugin support, where cross-platform devs would be able to build a single Unity OpenXR Plugin-based app and run it on Quest headsets alongside any other platforms they may be targeting. We're not moving away from OVRCameraRig yet because it would require developers to switch CameraRig per platform and do their cross-platform adaptation themselves. We would like Avatars to be less OVRCameraRig dependent, but we're not 100% sure yet at this stage exactly when and how we want to prioritize this.
Hopefully this provides a little more clarity. This feedback is going to the Avatars team so more questions, feedback, and (constructive) criticism is still welcome!
This is now in 74.0.3 😁
#if USING_XR_MANAGEMENT && USING_XR_SDK_OCULUS && !OVRPLUGIN_UNSUPPORTED_PLATFORM
#define USING_XR_SDK
#endifI also am wondering - are you testing with ONLY the pre-built avatars? They work. And they work because they are the fallback for when the user avatar will not load from meta.
Users want their avatars, not the ones that come in the zip file.
I tried to send you this personally CaseyAtMeta via the message feature here, but it said I reached some personal message limit which is odd as I have hardly ever sent a message here. I could not locate other contact details, so I am replying here instead. Happy to remove and send to you personally for processing if easier. Here is a PDF for ease of sharing.
Hi CaseyAtMeta,Thank you for taking the time to reply. It’s genuinely encouraging to hear internal acknowledgement that Meta Avatars in a networked context are not functioning as originally believed. I’ve been raising this issue since December 2024, and while the silence until now has been difficult, it’s at least a step forward to see this finally recognized.
For now, I can revert to using the OVRCameraRig, as I’m currently focused solely on Quest development. That said, I must ask…what happened to OpenXR?
Version 74 of the SDK clearly states:
“Beginning with v74, it is recommended to use the OpenXR plugin (com.unity.xr.openxr) instead of the OculusXR plugin.”
Additionally, the March 7, 2025 blog post titled Meta and OpenXR reinforced this direction:
“Starting with our v74 SDK... the built-in OpenXR path for all major game engines will be a recommended path for development. Developers building on Unity, Unreal, and Godot can leverage OpenXR to build across platforms and access Meta platform plugins...”
With these statements in mind, I spent the past four weeks, since the SDK’s March 14 release, working to integrate OpenXR, trying to get even basic functionality to work. This is even bigger than OpenXR as there are other SDK issues like getting the Display Name and Profile Photo to no avail and it too is looking very much like it is an issue in the SDK and not on my end despite being told by Dev support it was.
To be blunt, that’s another full month over 200 hours at 10-14hrs a day, including most weekends lost chasing a solution that was not ready, despite Meta publicly saying it was. This is all on top of the six weeks I spent between December and January trying to get Meta Avatar 2.0 working in multiplayer which as we know now, also does not work. Like many developers, I eventually gave up when it became obvious that it simply didn’t function.
Altogether, I’ve now spent over 500 hours on what have proven to be false starts — time that should have gone into advancing my project. For a solo indie developer, that kind of loss isn’t just inconvenient — it’s existential and likely will mean I will miss the Halloween release of my Haunted Castle Dark Ride addition to my Theme Park.
This isn’t just a technical issue. It’s a communication issue. Meta repeatedly assured developers publicly, on stage, and in official documentation, that these systems were ready. They weren’t. No amount of “we’re sorry” is going to make up for the scale of time lost by developers like myself, who trusted what Meta told us. Multiply this by countless other developers, many silent and this amounts to a lot of image damage in the developer community for Meta.
Let’s not forget:
- Meta Connect 2022 | Meta Avatars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2tqbKvWtLc
Ouch...this did not age well. It states at 7:29 “Today, developers using the Meta Avatars SDK on Unity could bring our avatars and their benefits into their VR applications, but we know that interoperability requires that we service even more developers across more platforms. I'm excited to share that we will soon ship support for iOS and Android in the Unity SDK. With this launch, the Meta Avatars SDK will enable more cross-platform capabilities so that developers can reach and service more people on whichever device that they use.
- Meta Connect 2023 | Meta Avatars: Also did not age well but it looks like the Connect 2023 Meta Avatar talk never got published or has since been removed. I was physically at that talk and Meta made even bigger promises about supporting 3rd party headsets which of course would require OpenXR/XROrigin that here in 2025...still not implemented.
- Meta Connect 2024 | Meta Avatars: Aged within weeks of the presentation as Jill at Connect 2024 said there were "dedicated support teams" to help with the migration to the new Meta Avatars by March 30th 2025 and that the SDK would be solid. I asked for that support via many channels and like others, concluded that it does not exist. She even made other promises not kept in the same presentation from just this past October. https://developers.facebook.com/m/meta-connect-developer-sessions/meta-avatars-sdk/
None of these promises were kept. And yet, Meta’s profits continue to grow, off the backs of developers who trusted your roadmap. Many of us spent months working in good faith to implement features you said were production-ready. They were not. That’s not a small oversight, that’s a systemic failure.
I know none of this is personally on you, CaseyAtMeta, but someone at Meta needs to take accountability, because right now, this is the lowest point in my long immersive journey, and I’ve been with Oculus/Meta since the Oculus Kickstarter as a backer.
So I’ll ask plainly: Where can I send my invoice? I'm already set up in your vendor payment system and just need a PO or wherever it is to invoice against.- Meta Connect 2022 | Meta Avatars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2tqbKvWtLc
Appreciate the follow-up here. You haven't been ignored or forgotten—the reason for the delay is that sorting all this out on our end involves a lot of communication between different teams that work in different ways—the internal discussion on this issue has more than 15 people participating! I appreciate your patience, as these first few issues aren't just opportunities for us to make the experience better, they're also test runs where we figure out the best way for our own teams to communicate to make sure that the most important issues get visibility and I can update you on progress in a timely fashion.
For now I can tell you: I believe we have a bunch of the stuff you're looking for in Showcases, but we agree that they should be represented in Building Blocks as well and we anticipate adding them in the near future, time and resources depending. I also believe the Avatars team is planning a hotfix for the issue ImmersiveMatthew and bk_brainiac are highlighting, I will update you when I have more information!
Thanks for the reply CaseyAtMeta. Yes...something like the older Meta Avatars 1.0 Showcase titled Decommissioned, or an updated Building Block BUT with the 2.0 Avatars and more importantly the XROrigin/OpenXR with locomotion/interaction using Fusion/Netcode would be greatly appreciated.
That said, I was just informed by the new Meta Developer Advocate that OpenXR has actually not been fully implemented yet in v74 and that it will not be ready for awhile as conversations have only just started. This was more than a little surprising of course as there has been 3 years of announcements that it is coming, then this recent blog post below and now even the SDK v74 itself telling us to move to OpenXR, yet OpenXR is actually not working as there are still apparently many ties into OVRCameraRig. So OpenXR right now is a dead end and should be avoided by ALL developers.
I have shared my extreme disappointment via the appropriate channels. I will ask that you and others please take the time to ensure the wider developer community is informed to help prevent hundreds if not thousands of hours being wasted across many developers all trying to get this dead end to work. Very disappointed in Meta I must say and makes me wonder how committed Meta is to the Metaverse as the Metaverse is NOT just Horizon World.
Please ping me here when the updated sample projects are ready, but suspect we are talking months here.
I have the same problem. I couldn't get the latest v35 avatars to work with OpenXR. They work fine with OculusXR so I guess I'll use that for now.
I too wasted a bunch of time on this to only discover the Meta Avatars do not work with OpenXR. It used to, so something broke. What is odd is when you install v74 of the All in one SDK, it says the attached.
@CaseyAtMeta said over 2 weeks ago "I've just come on board as community manager for the developer side of these forums and we're still hammering out the processes we're using to make sure questions get answered in a reasonable timeframe, but we are here and we're glad to see you are too." Yet they have not replied to any of my or others questions other than to give someone kudos for sharing community resources. I am having the same issue with the new Developer Advocate Dilmer Valecillos who reached out to me saying they would help and 3 weeks later they are not returning any messages nor have I been given any updates.
What is going on a Meta? I gather they are still hammering out how to reply? Makes no sense, especially the ghosting as even just a we are still working on it would be appreciated and professional.Opps, setting "USING_XR_SDK" ... to my note.
Removed as it was a double reply glitch.
This is exactly what I would love to see from Meta. It even has interactions and locomotion all synced over the net. You follow this, and you are up and running in an afternoon. https://youtu.be/TfxqiSwJWzs?si=kLxyPOpjMxxnS1kR
I got it working!!!! Woo-hoo! Thanks so much RiverExplorer , your suggestion to add the breakpoints in the code really helped me. The OvrPlatform wasn't initializing at all. There were a few things that I did, but the issue may have been a dumb oversight on my part- I didn't have the Meta Quest Link App running on my PC (since I'm at work testing this out ...) I probably should have had running all along? Because that is what starts the OVR background processes in Windows. Once I had that running, and then re-set my separate App IDs for both the Rift (PC) and Quest, it worked. Thanks so much for your input. I've never been so happy to see my avatar! LOL 🍻
I've spent countless hours over the last few days just trying to get my custom Avatar to load, with no luck. The funny thing is, I had it working on the project I was using, but started running into random errors (not with the avatar) so I figured I'd start the project over with a clean slate. Well, whattya know, for the life of me I can't get my custom avatar working again, no matter what I do. I must've created 10 new projects over the past week trying different versions of Unity (including 6), older versions of the Meta all-in-one SDK (69, 72, 74), older versions of Meta Avatars (24.1, 31, 35) and can't get it working. I've done the entire process so many times with creating the app on the Meta dashboard, doing the Data Checkup, copying App IDs, etc.
Mind you, I'm not a total scrub. I work as a full stack developer and have been using Unity for some time now. The level of sloppiness with these SDKs is quite frankly unacceptable. The amount of notes, known issues, fixes that Meta has AS STANDARD PROCEDURE is absolutely mind blowing. At one point the **bleep** Building Blocks wouldn't even show up and Meta's posted in version release notes somewhere "if you cannot see the Building Blocks, create a script and enter this in, and run it". Okaayyyyyyy Meta. I cannot imagine being a beginner developer, thinking Building Blocks would be an easy way to make a VR game only to be left dealing with this slop. No matter which tutorial I follow (either Meta's or youtube videos) nothing works. It's a **bleep** shame.
Cryostriker is right. Meta needs to take all of these tools out behind the shed and put them out of their misery. RIP ⚱️💀 OHH YESSS!
Genuine Feedback. Please don't take this as a joke or an insult. But honestly? I would scrap it and start again. It's woefully over complicated, looks like someone basically took an internal tech demo as samples and said "yep, ship it" like it's a ready product. It's structurally a complete mess, is a nightmare to work with in anything that's not just a clone of the sample project... in fact, you literally have to use a bunch of files that are IN the samples just to get it running. There isn't a redeeming factor. Which is a shame, we really really want to use Meta avatars in our game. But right now? just having it in the project is proving a complete liability. Scrap it. Plan it properly in a USER CENTRIC WAY. And do NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES do any kind of forced asset copies to an assumed structure of a project. It's absolutely wild that this code exists in a publicly released SDK.
[InitializeOnLoad] public class SampleAssetsStartupTrigger { static SampleAssetsStartupTrigger() { // defer until the scene has loaded EditorApplication.update += RunOnce; } static void RunOnce() { EditorApplication.update -= RunOnce; if (!SampleAssetsUPMMover.DoesFileVersionMatch()) { SampleAssetsUPMMover.CopyFilesOver(); } } }
So start again, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO JUST MODIFY WHAT'S THERE! It will just be enforcing the same bad structure that it already has. It really, really needs a redo from scratch. This will take LESS time than continuing to use what you have now, which I'd wager if VERY slow to develop for.And not only did I file it as a bug when it crashes, they said they can not reproduce it.
I have been paid by unity's documentation people multiple times to comment on their documentation. I have said the same thing to them each time. And each time they say "thank you, here is your money for helping us improve meta documentation". The layout of the docs has improved, the content is lacking big time.
I think they need to tell the developers and documentation people that they are not done until a non-insiders can use what they create. Then hold them accountable.
There were actually several people who were paid to review the documentation plus things like the the Meta Avatars 1.0, and what I hear consistently is that none of that feedback was incorporated year 2 years on, AND that the overall documentation has actually gone backwards in the years since, but not as much as the SDK themselves which as I am sure you are aware, are not as polished and relatively bug fee like they used to be.
I just tried v74 of the All in One SDK with v35 of the Meta Avatars 2.0 and it said we are to now use OpenXR versus Oculus XR as it will be deprecated, BUT the avatars that worked just fine in Oculus XR, do not track in Open XR at all and I cannot figure out why!!! Wasted 2 days trying to make it work, and I have concluded that the SDK is broken. We can just add that to the 6 weeks I wasted trying to get the 2.0 Avatars working in December/January as the SDK had/has a lot of issues and no one could get them working till v35 came out. Even then, v35 only seems to work with OVRCameraRig which is odd as Meta keeps telling us we can use the avatars on other headsets, but they REQUIRE XR Origin, not OVRCameraRig.
What the heck is going on a Meta? Seems like they are very checked out at the moment. I would love to be wrong and all is fixed in the coming weeks, but I am not holding my breath as we all know Meta is in a do or die situation with Horizon World and from what I hear, it is an all hands on deck sort of final effort to push that platform. Shame as the real Metaverse is being made by indies but we are wasting our time on broken documentation and SDKs.
