The breadth of developments related to the wider metaverse concept and its evolution spans industrial and enterprise sectors, and is heavily impacted by the capabilities of infrastructure, hardware and technologies such as generative artificial intelligence. The S&P Global 2023 World Wide Enterprise Metaverse survey showed that a majority of industrial enterprise business-to-business and business-to-consumer respondents, from a total of 1,004, are already engaged, or plan to be engaged, in metaverse usage in the next 12 months. The breadth of companies and sectors involved creates the need for a regular roundup of developments.
The elements of metaverse discussion range from high-level strategic direction to changes in how our devices might help create 3D content for new devices. There is also much activity from the major enterprise gaming and social platforms. Walt Disney Co. and the NFL are targeting the next generation with new forms of sports content. Revenue models are shifting as everyone jostles to get the appropriate cut, or insight into the growth of the industry. Generative AI is attached to many of the tools and content building approaches designed to make it easier for anyone to start creating. There is no one leading platform or metaverse provider, but the AI tools helping developers and creators build and potentially integrate across platforms look promising.
China creates an action plan for global metaverse influence
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and five other Chinese ministries have announced plans to build three to five metaverse companies with global influence, built around the emerging technologies of AI, blockchain and virtual reality, by 2025. The initiative covers manufacturing, automotive, aerospace and home appliances and is aimed at creating next-generation internet technologies, as well as upgrading manufacturing to be more advanced and greener.
Apple Inc.’s iPhone 15 Pro adds spatial video capture
In a move to prepare people for content creation and consumption on the upcoming Vision Pro mixed augmented/virtual reality headset, the newly announced iPhone 15 Pro will capture 3D spatial video, using a combination of its rear-facing cameras, that is designed to be viewed in the headset. This was a teaser announcement, but adds to the gradual ramping up and socialization of the Vision Pro.
Nvidia provides AI support for USD standard
The emerging Universal Scene Descriptor (USD) standard for interchange and interoperability in metaverse applications gained a boost from Nvidia Corp.’s generative AI ChatUSD model being integrated into its workbench, announced at SIGGRAPH 2023. This large language model has been trained on the capabilities of the USD standard, to help developers understand and build content and experiences in compliance with it. This approach to interoperability could aid in further embedding the standard in tools and applications, with the large language model acting to both mentor and police its usage.
FrameVR scales to 1,000 users
Web-based virtual world application FrameVR announced a leap to 1,000 concurrent avatars in space for its paid enterprise-tier users and is heading to 300 avatars for its premium paid tier. It has also continued to enhance its drag-and-drop environment editor with a Tile Map Editor that creates a layout in 2D and imports it into the 3D environment.
Roblox enhances economic model, brings more GenAI tools to the party
At its 2023 Roblox Developers Conference, the metaverse hub for user-generated gaming content announced that those selling in its Creator Marketplace would be able to keep all the revenue from sales. This marketplace is where specific assets, 3D models and plug-ins are sold to other creators who are making complete experiences and worlds.
The platform will also roll out buying and selling via US dollars alongside its own virtual currency, to make this more business- and accounting-friendly. Other options are being introduced to allow popular creators to run paid “in experience” subscription services for their content, such as fan clubs.
Everyone’s favorite technology term — generative AI — was featured in further announcements relating to the development environment Roblox Studio. This included a conversational AI tool to help generate code in Studio. While much of the basics of the development environment is dragging and dropping objects and behaviors, it can also run more complex code for more knowledgeable developers to create experiences. It described a design tool that will help create content, spatial layouts and 3D objects from descriptions.
Ready Player Me launches AI Copilot and free animation library
Cross-platform avatar creator, manager and brand vehicle Ready Player Me announced its GPT-4 and OpenCopilot-powered developer tool to help with code development and integration of its avatars into other platforms. It also announced its free-to-use Ready Player Me Game-Ready Animation Library of over 200 animations geared to its avatar armatures and models.
Disney creates live 3D animated NFL broadcast
With “Toy Story Funday Football,” viewers will be able to watch a live streamed, but animated, 3D representation of a real match between the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars, played at Wembley Stadium in the UK. This will show all the action and plays, but in the style of Pixar’s “Toy Story.” Pixar is also the originator of the USD standard, which the studio made open source. This application uses live player tracking and statistical data converted in near real time, and is aimed at attracting a new generation of football fans.
Unity causes a stir with a potential user installation charge
Development platform Unity Software Inc. announced plans to charge developers of games and experiences a per-user install rate, although only for certain thresholds of volume and revenue. Unity was also offering reductions in these fees based on the adoption of other Unity services such as its advertising mediating service. Although the tiers appear to only impact the largest of companies, which the company wants to attract into the rest of its ecosystem, the big underlying developer base was unsettled, and clarification is still being issued by the company.
Meta Platforms Inc. rolls out legs
Last year at Meta Connect, the company demonstrated its virtual reality avatars, which have now been extended to show a full body with legs. It is in beta for VR users on its own Quest Home and Horizon worlds platforms, where users will see a fuller representation of a human avatar. Notably, however, they will not see their own legs when looking down, only those of others, or when in a virtual mirror customizing the avatar.
Unlike the avatar hands and arms in the Quest 2 headsets, which are tracked by hand controllers or cameras, legs are a little trickier to follow. A disjoint between the physical world and the virtual world, especially in VR, can be disconcerting for users, known as user cognitive dissonance. Other platforms such as Roblox, which has come to the Quest2 headset, have not had such a rough time with legs.
This article was published by S&P Global Market Intelligence and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.
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