https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-oculus-codec-avatars-vr/
For all the progress VR has made over the past decade, a thing like Codec Avatars represents a transition to an entirely new phase of experience—and those in the company who have seen it know that. Each year at the Oculus Connect developer conference, Michael Abrash gets onstage and gives a state of the union about the pace of research and innovation in the company's research labs. Over time, he's settled into being bullish on some VR breakthroughs, bearish on others. This past October, though, one of his habitually ursine stances started growing horns. “I’m not betting on having convincingly human avatars within four years,” he said, “but I’m no longer betting against it either.”
Sitting with Yaser Sheikh now, I ask him how he'd felt about Abrash's proclamation at the time.
"He's right," he says, smiling and sipping his coffee.