The Metaverse – A Virtual Experience enabled by Powerful Software

Metaverse is a much-discussed topic. No one knows today how the metaverse, which is used as a collective term for digital, three-dimensional worlds of experience, can change the way we live? Where are we at and what is required for this new world to be created and to function?

Powerful tools and equipment are prerequisites

To build and animate a virtual 3D world, artists and production companies need powerful creative software solutions. As a founding member of the Metaverse Standards Forum we are at the forefront of the development. The high-quality tools under the Maxon product umbrella, including Cinema 4D, Redshift and ZBrush have been established as the industry standard for motion graphics, VFX, 3D sculpting and all types of visualization for over 20 years. They already allow customers to participate in the Metaverse as it currently exists, as well as what it will eventually become.

But the users also need suitable hardware and equipment, such as a stable, high-performance Internet connection, special virtual reality glasses, a smartphone that serves as an "entrance ticket" to the virtual world, and exchanges data between "real" and virtual reality, an avatar that represents them as well as cameras and sensors that record their movements and interactions and transmit them to the virtual world. To exchange possessions and goods, non-fungible tokens based on blockchain technology are required. Also, the masses of data have to be processed. This requires data centers all over the world to coordinate the virtual world and its participants and to execute the corresponding computing operations at lightning speed - because delays disrupt the user experience.

Many highlights, but also some challenges

The metaverse brings with it many advantages: for example, users hope for uniform standards and genuine interoperability of the individual platforms through open interfaces. This can break down barriers and create a seamless transition of different virtual applications and from real reality to virtual reality. Given the right hardware, a meeting could be held simultaneously in the virtual and real worlds. With the smartphone, the metaverse can be taken anywhere: By merging everyday life and the virtual world, our world expands significantly. Online games with huge cities populated by players or concerts in virtual reality with hundreds of thousands of avatars, which make online concerts a realistic experience for bands and fans alike, can become part of the virtual experience.

Advocates of the metaverse have high hopes for this concept of an undivided, barrier-free virtual experience, but there are also critical voices: So far, we cannot yet speak of a unified metaverse - instead, we are dealing with many metaverses that are separated from one another and between which no exchange is yet possible. This does not correspond to the original concept of interoperability. There is also the question of ownership of the goods that are acquired via the metaverse. Blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens (NFT) based on this technology offer an answer to this. If this standard is established in the metaverses, the goods can also be transferred. And what about the emotional aspects: Is there a risk of “loosing” our older members of the society, if the modern life becomes even more virtual? And is this virtual life really good for anyone? Experts warn that users run the risk of losing themselves in the beautiful, virtual world and develop an addiction to recognition in the virtual space. Also, a potentially increasing power of companies needs to be carefully monitored and regulated.

A metaverse for everyone

So where are we at the moment? We have powerful software solution to create basically any experience. But the metaverse must further grow together, also to increase acceptance among users. We need uniform standards that ensure interoperability and we need clear rules of the game.

Currently, the metaverse is still more of a trend, and it will be interesting to see it′s next steps in becoming a mature concept or even a turning point in the way we communicate with each other.