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Shapespark Metaverse

#1

Hi Guys,

with all the talk of the coming Metaverse it got me wondering if Shapespark is interested in allowing it’s users the ability to turn the scenes we create into digital assets that could have value in the metaverse using existing tools we all know and love from Shapespark already. For example have the ability for people being able to purchase these assets whether for marketing, renting a digital space for commerce to take place, host various events at a digital venue you own for a fee to people interested in doing so.

Currently, the minutes model for 3D Meetings make sense for Shapespark especially for formal meeetings, i get it but if I wanted people to come shop at a virtual store which is linked to an ecommerce shopify store for example thats open 24/7 and give people a more immersive experience, the problem immediately would be that the amount of online traffic you attract into that virtual store even with self-hosting would require the number of participant minutes one would need to be astronomical so that idea quickly gets crushed.

I’m aware that platforms such as OVR and DECENTRALAND are completely different to what Shapespark does because there’s a gaming component and Crypto currency as a form of exchange to it and it’s decentralized, but it was just a thought and I’m curious what the team and all the users in this forum think about the Metaverse and what role we could each play in this new digital economy if we had any interest participating in as 3D Artists and Designers/Architects .

#2

While the majority of Shapespark projects are real world architecture visualizations, there are more and more fully virtual spaces created with Shapespark, things like showrooms, exhibitions, museums. In a near future it is likely that companies that today focus on architecture visualization will have more and more clients interested in creating spaces that are 100% virtual. Web is the best platform for distributing such virtual spaces, as it makes the content easily accessible and enables wide adoption.

We still need to see a killer application that would drive up the demand for such virtual spaces. A virtual store connected with a popular e-commerce platform such as Shopify has potential to become such a killer app. I wouldn’t worry about cost too much. In a virtual store like this, most people would likely want to just explore the items, without talking to anyone, so minutes will not be needed. Minutes could be needed only for some customer-sales person communication. Anyway, overwhelmingly large traffic is really great problem to have. If you worry about hosting cost, we can have some custom arrangement. We are also very interested in exploring such new usage scenarios for Shapespark. It could be good to focus first on a successful prototype of a single store before exploring a generic platform that would allow to sell space templates and other assets. Such platforms usually require large audiences to be viable.

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#3

Hi Jan, thank you for taking the time to reply in such detail I really appreciate it. Your insight on this topic gives me great optimism for what’s really possible in the future and yes Web definitely is the best platform for distributing those virtual spaces. Also with software like UE5 the downside with that level of Photorealism is it would be too heavy to be distributed on the web without most people feeling the gap in performance based on what devices they use so I understand why Shapespark has to strike a balance in terms of Photorealism and Performance.

I do also agree about most people being likely to just want to explore items in the virtual store, a really good point! It really is an exciting time to be a 3D Artist and I’m excited to see what cool things the Shapespark team will add to this great software.