Today I feel like writing a post that is less on the tech side, and more on the entrepreneurial side of VR, something that talks about my experience working as an entrepreneur/freelancer in this field. In particular, I want to talk about the attitude that I’m starting to have in my work and that is helping me to cope with this period of uncertainty. Since I know that many other professionals are reading my blog, I hope that it can help also many other people in handling some complicated periods of their working life. This is still a blog, after all, so sometimes I feel the need to vent and share my thoughts with you, hoping that they can help someone or that they can foster an interesting debate. I’ve always been a person that tries to plan things ahead, and tries to evaluate every decision very carefully: what can
The future of the metaverse continues to be a hot topic of conversation amongst tech developers, virtual reality users, and an increasingly digital native population. As we move further towards engaging with a completely virtual online world, tech giants such as Meta and Microsoft continue to lead the way. The question is, what exactly can we expect from the metaverse. And could it become the new normal? What Is the Metaverse? In his 1992 Science Fiction Novel, ‘Snow Crash’, author Neal Stephenson first used the term ‘metaverse’ to explain his version of a virtual reality environment. Defining a 3D realistic world in which he could virtually be a part of, the term ‘metaverse’ was born, and hasn’t been forgotten since. The modern-day metaverse could be described as the fight to achieve a real-life online virtual world that incorporates virtual reality, augmented reality, and holographic forms of communication such as 3D
A source claims the company’s highly-anticipated mixed reality headset will prioritize shorter experiences. Last year rumors began circulating that Apple is in development of its own combination VR/AR headset. As for when we can expect to get our hands on this long-rumored mixed reality device, some sources are reporting a potential 2022 release date, though the company has yet to comment.That said, whileApple CEO Tim Cook has stated that AR technology is “critically important” for the company’s future, it appears as though they have little to no interest in the “metaverse,” aka the future of everything.Image Credit: The InformationIn Mark Gurman’s latest “Power On” newsletter for Bloomberg, the Apple and consumer tech expert claims that Apple has little to no interest in bringing the metaverse to its mixed reality hardware and will instead be focusing its efforts on delivering shorter experiences best enjoyed in small “bursts.” These experiences could include
Wolf3D, the Estonian startup behind web-based avatar creator Ready Player Me, has closed a $13 million funding round. The company says it will use the funds to further build out its avatar creation tools and eventually allow developers to earn money through the sale of in-game assets and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Ready Player Me studio Wolf3D has secured a $13 million Series A funding round, which was led by Wise and Teleport co-founders Taavet+Sten, and features participation from GitHub co-founder Tom Preston-Werner, Samsung Next, NordicNinja, Konvoy Ventures, and others. The news was first reported by Venture Beat.
Read Player Me allows anyone to create and customize their own avatar, which can then be imported into social VR platforms such as VRChat, Spatial, LIV, MeetinVR, and more.
Working on both desktop and mobile devices, Ready Player Me presents an easy way of doing so, letting you use the same skin across multiple platforms—some 900+ apps and games now, the company says.
Image courtesy Wolf3D
With the fresh funding, Wolf3D says in a blog post that it will build out its custom content creation tools, invest in avatar art through additional styles and body types, and improve avatar performance.
In addition to building APIs and SDKs to improve the developer experience, the studio says it will also be focusing on making Ready Player Me a “revenue generator for developers” by allowing third-party devs to sell in-game assets and NFTs—cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain and can be easily bought, sold and traded.
The company hasn’t said when it will roll out its monetization strategy, however it lists it as “coming soon.”
In the meantime, Wolf3D says its scaling up from 30 people today to over 70, with multiple roles offered across Europe and the US. The latest funding round brings the company’s lifetime outside investment to $16.5 million, following a $2.1 million seed round in July 2020.
This article was originally published on roadtovr.com
The tech world is abuzz with news of the metaverse and how it can open up a world of opportunities. It promises a more immersive digital experience for users, and it’s poised to become the internet’s successor. This vast network of virtual worlds is the stuff of science fiction brought to life with today’s technology. If you’ve seen Ready Player One or The Matrix, engaged in crypto or non-fungible tokens (NFT), or played games like Roblox or Fortnite, then you already have a glimpse of things to come. What Is the Metaverse? The term was first coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. In the novel, the metaverse is a shared digital place that people visit to escape their dystopian reality. They use avatars to interact with other users and explore an online world where they can be who they want to be and do
I’ve had the immense pleasure of interviewing Marcus Kuehne from Holoride, one of the most interesting and original XR startups out there: they provide in-car entertainment via VR headsets, with the VR content that has the movements synchronized with the actual movements of the car. I’m following Holoride since when it has been one of the most popular XR companies at CES 2019, and I have even had the pleasure of trying its product at AWE USA some weeks ago. That’s why I wanted so much to speak with people from the company to ask them more details about the company, its vision, its stance of safety, and the opportunity for us developers in creating products for their platform. This exclusive interview contains all of this, and through it, you can discover almost everything you need to know about Holoride. The first part of the interview is about the company
Happy Winter Holidays! It is that time of the year when people relax, eat, and hope for a better future, and while I’m not relaxing that much, I’m for sure eating a lot :D. This week I have written a long post to wish you Happy Holidays and a wonderful new year, and if you haven’t done that, go reading it now, because I’ve also used the word “Christmasverse” in it haha Working-wise, it’s been a great week for me: my article on my hands-on with AR contact lenses had success, and with New Technology Walkers, I have launched the final update of the free demo for our game HitMotion: Reloaded, and until now it’s going pretty well (please get it on App Lab and leave a positive review!). Top news of the week (Image from Reddit)Oculus Quest 2 had a great Christmas The VR ecosystem can end 2021 with a big smile
It’s that time of the year again where I wish you great Winter Holidays! I can’t believe another year has passed by… and it’s been a crazy one for XR. We had the Quest making strides, new intensifying rumors on the Apple headset, a partial reveal of PSVR, Bytedance entering the field with Pico, Valve that may be working on a standalone headset, and many other things happening. We had insane news about people spending $50K to buy a JPEG of a monkey that anyone can copy-paste. But especially we had all the M-word hype that happened as soon as Zuck renamed Facebook as Meta. Everyone now is talking about the “metaverse”, even if no one knows what it means. And everyone invents names that end in -verse, like the twinverse, the gameverse, the musicverse, and other similar abominations. That’s why I wanted to go full dystopia and I coined
Somnium’s PC VR headset allows you to program its sensors and buttons to meet your individual needs.At the beginning of the year, social VR platform Somnium Space began teasing a new VR headset with a unique modular design. During the first-ever Somnium Space Connect event, Artur Sychov, CEO of Somnium Space, gave us a more detailed look at a combination standalone/PC VR headset centered around an open source community-driven software ecosystem.The headset, which Sychov refers to as the “Somnium VR Headset”, is packed with some killer specs and designed specifically for a VR audience that doesn’t want to be tied to a specific app store or be boxed into any sort of platform restrictions. “We wanted to create a headset that you truly own. We didn’t want to lock you down into our ecosystem,” said Sychov. “We didn’t not want to allow you to do things with your own items. If
