The Meta Connect event has just kicked off, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wasted no time, starting with a groundbreaking announcement: Meta Horizon Hyperscape. Hyperscape is a VR experience that leverages the hyper real visuals that you get from Radiance Fields to help transport people to a place or moment in time.

While Zuckerberg did not explicitly mention the underlying technology, it’s clear that Hyperscape leverages Radiance Field method Gaussian Splatting to deliver its cutting-edge visual experience. (Edit: A post keynote summary published by Meta now confirms they are using Gaussian Splatting)

In addition to the reveal, Meta has launched a public beta for Hyperscape, allowing users to explore several immersive scenes. As expected from Meta, the reconstruction quality is impressive, demonstrating their continued leadership in immersive technologies.

Meta engineer and researcher Jonathon Luiten, who has been working on the project, expressed his excitement on Twitter about the announcement, emphasizing Hyperscape’s ability to create high-fidelity replicas of physical spaces for VR.

“We’re also bringing photorealistic spaces to the metaverse, and we call this Hyperscape,” Zuckerberg said. “It’s pretty wild, and we’re planning on just adding more and more over time.”

Notably, the product page for Hyperscape highlights that all scene captures were done using a mobile device, showcasing just how powerful these devices can be for capturing hyper-realistic environments. Unfortunately users are not able to upload their captures yet.

Some of the featured scenes include virtual tours of renowned artists' studios. Explore Daniel Arsham’s workshop and garage, where his car projects, sculptures, designs, and furniture come to life. Get up close to the tools and machines in Rebecca Fox’s studio, or witness the entire assemblage process in Gil Bruvel’s workspace.

Meta is the latest, albeit largest company to date, outside of NVIDIA to begin offering a Radiance Field experience in VR, joining companies like Pico XR, Varjo Teleport, MetalSplatter, and Gracia.

You can try the demo for Meta Horizon Hyperscape here, exclusively on the Quest 3 if you are located in the US.

Stay tuned for updates as we continue to explore Horizon Hyperscape.