Meta is making improvements to its Roblox-like social platform Horizon Worlds, with the biggest upgrades being the introduction of a new game engine with better graphics as well as the Meta Horizon Studio to help creators to make custom in-game experiences.
Meta is making the metaverse look better
The Horizon Engine powers ‘better graphics’ for Meta’s Horizon Worlds social platform.
The Horizon Engine powers ‘better graphics’ for Meta’s Horizon Worlds social platform.
Image: Meta
is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
Meta Horizon Studio is an editor that lets creators make VR worlds. Creators can already use generative AI tools to create things like textures and audio, and Meta will bring an AI assistant to the editor later this year to help creators with development. In a demo I saw at Connect 2025, a developer had a conversation with an AI chatbot to request changes like a new environment and tweaks to the personality of an AI-driven NPC.
Powering Meta’s new metaverse environments is the Horizon Engine, which “powers better graphics, faster performance, and more advanced” VR worlds, including “much greater concurrency,” according to Meta.
Horizon Worlds hasn’t caught on broadly, even though it’s expanded from VR to mobile. But Meta is trying to get more creators on board with making things for the metaverse, including opening up a $50 million creators fund earlier this year.
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