Meta's Horizon Hyperscape for Quest 3 is an innovative technology that utilizes the headset to scan real-world spaces and generate high-fidelity virtual replicas. It aims to "bring" your surrounding physical environment into virtual reality, allowing you to revisit or share these photorealistic digital scenes in VR.

Core Technology behind it

The core technology of Horizon Hyperscape is based on ​Gaussian Splatting. This technique generates graphics with a ​photorealistic​ quality from scan data, producing highly realistic visual effects.

Its workflow can be summarized in three main steps :

1. ​Scene Mesh Creation: Users start the capture function on the Quest 3 headset and turn their heads to look around the room, generating an initial scene mesh. This process is similar to setting up the room awareness for mixed reality and takes approximately 10 to 30 seconds.
2. ​Mesh Optimization: This is currently the most time-consuming step. Users move around the room, bringing the headset close to various areas of the 3D mesh to capture finer details and eliminate redundant data. This step takes about 5 minutes.
3. ​Cloud Data Processing: The scan data is uploaded to Meta's servers for post-processing and rendering. All highly complex computations are handled in the cloud. Users typically receive a notification that the scan is complete within 2 to 4 hours.

Application Experience and Future Outlook

Currently, after completing a scan, users can personally view the generated high-precision virtual scenes. Testers have reported that the scanning offers high accuracy, capable of clearly presenting details in the background of a scene, such as accurately showing the view of a garden through a virtual window .

Of course, as the technology is still in its beta phase, there are some understandable limitations. For instance, some fine details (like small text) may appear slightly blurry, and areas not covered during scanning (such as under furniture) might exhibit graphic distortions when viewed in VR .

Regarding the future, Meta has clearly stated plans to add ​multiplayer interaction​ features to Hyperscape. This will enable users to scan their environments and invite friends to visit and interact within these virtual scenes together .