News hardware Metaverse: these 4 giants are building the virtual world of tomorrow
We’re witnessing the beginnings of the Metaverse, but it’s already the subject of large-scale capital inflows, which don’t necessarily represent the reality of the industry. With an estimated market of 5,000 billion euros by 2030, several players are interested in the possibility of a future virtual world in 3D – and this, despite the current reluctance of a majority of people. Here are 4 giants who have made it their hobbyhorse for years to come.
If the project of a 3D digital environment was just a movie script a few years ago, since Facebook renamed itself Meta, the project has become more tangible. Indeed, nearly a year ago, the group proudly showed its ambitions for the metaverse through a name change.
With this ambitious approach, Meta wants to become a forerunner of the metaverse. A not unimportant initiative if you know that the social network has a total of three billion users.
There are several approaches around the famous metaverse. In concrete terms, Meta wants to develop this world from the perspective of social interactions. So, the goal of Meta is to create a 3D internet enhanced with virtual reality. With the acquisition of the VR headset company Oculus, the guideline seems to have been found.
“You can think of the metaverse as an internet incarnate, where you’re not just viewing content, you’re there… It’s a new phase of interconnected virtual experiences using technologies like virtual reality and reality,” explains Mark Zuckerberg.
In this digital world, people can meet and exchange. Horizon World, the metaverse of Meta, already offers various activities in virtual reality. Here it is possible to work, play or even chat in a 3D VR room.
However, despite the multitude of possible interactions, the metaverse is often the target of criticism regarding the graphics …
Nvidia’s mission is to make the metaverse a bit more realistic to convince more users. Indeed, who better than a company that specializes in graphics hardware to give the virtual world the realism it needs?
These graphics cards could make the company the ideal candidate to provide the computing power needed to generate a large realistic virtual world – the main argument for a future metaverse.
In this logic, Nvidia has already seized the opportunity of the metaverse through various initiatives.
With its Nvidia Omniverse graphics collaboration platform, the company has launched a host of innovative new tools to aid the development of immersive 3D spaces. In particular, these programs, intended for creators and developers, will make it possible to make the digital world more realistic.
This Omniverse kit contains tools to meet the expectations of metaverse users, namely the quality of avatars and their interactions. According to Nvidia, its tools will allow developers to create real “accurate digital twins” for users. Specifically, the kit allows to develop an immersive experience by enhancing the animation of faces during social interactions in the metaverse. This allows users to display their emotions as faithfully as possible via their avatar in the virtual world.
Also, the company is close to other metaverse giants. In particular, Nvidia borrowed hardware for Meta’s supercomputer: Research SuperCluster (RSC). In this sense, it does not seem unlikely that a synergy will be exploited with regard to a future metaverse.
Talking about the metaverse, it’s hard not to mention the case of Epic Games. With its Battle Royal Fortnite, the publisher has been able to create several immersive experiences, especially through virtual concerts. It is therefore certain that Epic Games will not stand on the sidelines in developing a metaverse.
First, the video game giant regularly invests in the sector. Earlier this year, Epic Games raised $2 billion from big names to fund the development of a future metaverse. Recently, the company also participated in the fundraising of Hadean, a London start-up specializing in metaverse infrastructures.
In addition, Tim Sweeney has never hidden his ambitions around the metaverse. Last August, the boss of Epic Games expressed a desire to establish a common platform for brands. The CEO’s vision speaks of a metaverse breaking away from monopoly – ubiquitous in the web2.
Therefore, Epic Games could participate in the development of an ecosystem that allows all developers to create a virtual world according to their rules. This idea of a “metaverse of metaverses” would theoretically offer the possibility of having gateways between digital worlds and interoperability of elements.
The company founded by Bill Gates reveals a more technical ambition about the metaverse. The solution proposed by Microsoft combines reality and virtual to provide businesses with tools. In other words, Microsoft’s metaverse enables industrial companies to increase their efficiency in production or repair chains.
To do this, the computing giant relies on augmented reality embedded in HoloLens helmets – Microsoft’s VR helmets. With this kind of functionality, for example, employees can be guided virtually without having to leave the production line of a product.
The project is at a more than advanced stage as Kawasaki is one of the customers of “Industrial Metaverse”. Holosens augmented reality headsets provide additional tools for workers as they assemble robots. Companies like Heinz and Boeing also use Microsoft’s industrial metaverse.
The metaverse project represents a colossal construction site. Despite the giants working on it, not all aspects can be handled by a single entity. As a result, these four giants are part of a collective of different companies working to develop standards for the metaverse of the future. Under the name Open Standards Forum, the organization strives for a worldwide agreement on the metaverse of the future. Under this alliance, there are several giants such as Nvidia, Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Epic Games or Adobe.