The hottest new concept of 2021 is the metasverse. On October 29, 2021, Facebook announced that it was changing its name to Meta; On November 1, 2021, Roblox, the “first stock of the Metasverse”, was announced to be back online after a brief adjustment. The heat of the concept of the meta-universe can be seen, both at home and abroad are studying, whether we programmers can use the concept of the meta-universe to extend technology, today this article may give you some inspiration.
What is the meta-universe?
1) The proposal of the concept of the meta-universe
For a long time, the meta-universe existed only in literature and movies. Metaverse is made up of the roots Meta, which means “beyond”, Meta, and Verse, which means “Universe”. Metaverse originally came from the 1992 science fiction novel Avalanche. The novel depicts people in a virtual reality world competing against each other for social status by controlling their digital avatars. Over the next 30 years or so, the concept of the metasemes was introduced in movies and television, such as The Matrix, Ready Player One, And Westworld, as well as in games such as The SIMS. At this stage, the concept of the meta-universe is more ambiguous and is more understood as parallel virtual worlds.
2) Eight elements of the meta-universe
According to Roblox, a public company of metasomes concept, the metasomes should have eight elements: identity, friends, immersion, low latency, diversity, location, economic system and civilization. Most forms of metaverse start with games, and gradually integrate functions such as the Internet, digital entertainment, social networking, and even socio-economic and commercial activities in the long run.
3) The first Roblox stock of the Metaverse goes public
On March 10, 2021, Roblox went public on the New York Stock Exchange under a direct listing (DPO). Roblox describes the concept of a meta-universe as a persistent, shared, three-dimensional virtual space in a virtual universe.
4) Meta-universe summarizes the development direction of early science and technology
Before the emergence of the meta-universe concept, 5G infrastructure, display screens for intelligent terminals, AI chips and other technologies continued to evolve, while industrial Internet, industrial Internet, digital twin, VR games and other concepts continued to mature. The e development of most of the technology in this period can be well summarized after the birth of the metaverse concept.
What is the structure of the meta-universe?
51ASPX believes that the two concepts of the carrier and content of the meta-universe are very broad and can be divided into three parts:
- The underlying metaverse consists of infrastructure and terminal hardware devices, including but not limited to human-computer interaction, 3D engines, GIS, design tools, game rendering, screen rendering, privacy computing, AI, operating systems, industrial Internet, content distribution, app stores, and smart contracts.
- On this basis, the meta-universe also needs a large number of software and technology collaboration, including but not limited to: 5G, 6G, cloud computing, blockchain nodes, edge computing nodes, DPU at the infrastructure end; Router, sensor, chip, VR head display, display, brain-computer interface;
- Based on this, the metasomes can derive corresponding applications and develop potential content carriers based on various metasomes applications.
Third, the development mode of the meta-universe?
1) The development of the meta-universe is a gradual process, with the technological end, content end and carrier end constantly evolving
- On the technical side, blockchain technology is constantly evolving;
- On the content side, the number of metasurse-concept games continues to grow and the ecosystem continues to strengthen, and so does the number of users. The UGC metauniverse concept games represented by Roblox and Sandbox benefit from the participation of players to enrich the content of their games.
- Carrier side, communication technology, virtual reality, chip and other underlying technologies are also evolving.
4. The infiltration path of the metasverse?
This problem can also be understood as the distance between us and the meta-universe. Zhang Ying of Orient Securities said that the content of the meta-universe will focus on the game end and the art end (NFT art collection) in the short term, and in the long term, the infiltration path of the meta-universe is expected to be “game/art – work – life”.
1) Game side: Represented by Roblox
The Roblox platform consists of three products:
- Client: An application that allows users to explore the 3D digital world. (user oriented);
- Studios: A group of tools that allow developers and creators to build, publish, and manipulate 3D experiences and other content accessed by Roblox clients. (For developers)
- Roblox cloud: The services and infrastructure that power the shared experience platform.
Roblox makes most of its money from in-game spending. Players need to top up in exchange for Robux, an in-game token, to access Roblox’s various features, which is where Roblox makes its money.
Moreover, Roblox’s incentives are clear: after taking out the 25% of revenue paid to the APPStore and the 26% spent on various platform expenses, the remaining 49% is split roughly equally between the company and developers.
In fact, the UGC platform concept dates back to Warcraft iii: The Warcraft 3WE map editor allows developers to create many RTS (real-time strategy) and MOBA (multiplayer online tactical battle battle) maps and game genres. But warcraft 3 lacks a reward system for developers, resulting in a low level of overall commercialization.
2) Artistic end: NFT builds the economic foundation of the meta-universe
Non-homogeneous token (NFT) has non-interchangeability, uniqueness, inseparability, low compatibility and item properties. Moreover, the product circulation channel is single, market transparency and price discovery ability have higher room for improvement.
At present, a number of Internet giants are testing the waters in the FIELD of NFT: In June 2021, Alibaba launched alipay payment code skin NFT, and in August 2021, Tencent carried out a series of strategic layout around NFT.
3) On the work side: Facebook vs. Nvidia
Infinite Office is an important part of Facebook’s metasverse strategy. In September 2020, Facebook announced the launch of InfiniteOffice, a VR virtual office application that allows users to create virtual office Spaces and increase productivity.
NVIDIA has launched NVIDIA Omniverse, an open platform for virtual collaboration and accurate real-time simulation of physical properties. Already in use, BMW is promoting the NVIDIAOmniverse platform internally to coordinate production at 31 plants around the world. According to NVIDIA’s website, the NVIDIA Omniverse improves BMW’s production planning efficiency by 30%.
4) Life side: experience oriented scenario
Orient Securities believes that the future of the metaverse lies in exploring the commonality of its application scenarios. These application scenarios all need to consider the user experience. The future business model of metauniverse is similar to that of smart phones, that is, to increase the use time of users through the sense of experience, and then improve user engagement. These times (experiences) form the basis of services in the metasverse.
5. What are the deterministic trends in the Meta-cosmic age?
The main carriers of the meta-universe (infrastructure) mainly include the following parts
1) Network (communication)
5G, as a new generation of broadband mobile communication technology with high speed, low delay and large connection, is a network infrastructure to realize man-machine interconnection.
2) Chip (computing power)
The content, network, block chain, graphic display and other functions of the metasverse all require more powerful computing power.
In cloud computing, DPU chips (data processing chips) provide a secure acceleration infrastructure for various workloads in cloud, data center or edge environments by triage, acceleration, and isolation of various advanced network, storage, and security services.
In terms of terminal computing power, heterogeneous chips can make CPU, GPU, FPGA, DPU, ASIC and other chips in SoC work together to continuously improve computing power and user experience.
3) Cloud and edge computing
Cloud computing and edge computing provide users with the computing resources they need and lower the threshold for users to access the metasomes.
4) AI
AI is widely used in the metasverse. AI can help create meta-cosmic assets, artwork, and other content (AIGC), and can improve the software and processes we use to build all of it.
Vi. How does the meta-universe play its value in the industrial end?
Many Internet enterprises and industrial software enterprises around the world have a long-term layout of industrial metauniverse related technologies, including digital twin, industrial Internet, simulation testing, digital factory, CAD, CAE, EDA and other industrial software.
1) Nvidia: Omniverse platform
The Omniverse architecture consists of Connect, Nucleus, Kit, Simulation, and RTXrenderer, which together with third-party digital content creation tools (DCC) and Omniverse based microservices constitute the Omniverse ecosystem.
Speaking at the Computex2021 online conference, huang said that the metasexes and NFT will play an important role in the intersection of virtual and real worlds in the future. Omniverse platform is mainly for architecture, engineering and construction. Manufacturing; Media and entertainment and supercomputing scenarios.
According to nvidia’s website, The Omniverse platform enables users to perform real-time virtual collaboration, design real-world simulations, simulate environments, and build factories of the future.
2) Microsoft: Digital Twin quest
In September 2021, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduced the concept of a new “enterprise metasomes” in her Inspire2021 presentation. Microsoft’s metasurverse project expects the metasurverse to break down the current barriers between communication and business processes, merging them together to make industrial scenarios more convenient. Even before announcing the enterprise metasomes concept, Microsoft had already built the industrial metasomes base with technologies like Azure digital twinning and AI.
Azure Digital Twin is an Internet of Things (IoT) platform that can be used to create digital representations of real things, places, business processes, and people. Ge Aviation’s Digital Group has built a real-time and automated evolution model using Azure Digital twins, so customers will have ready access to updated, accurate and usable data models for their aircraft. And, with built-in digital traceability, every physical asset and component on every aircraft can be recorded in real time.
3) NENGke Stock: layout simulation and testing
Could share our main businesses include intelligent manufacturing, intelligent electrical two plates, one intelligent manufacturing business is based on the number of twin concept, integration of software and digital IOT industry in the advanced industrial equipment, defined in the virtual world productivity China and, for customers to develop personalized industrial application in the physical world to establish a digital and intelligent production line and test board, To meet the data and business collaboration needs of manufacturing enterprises throughout the product life cycle, and to help enterprises achieve their business goals such as independent innovation, operating cost, production efficiency, defective rate and customer satisfaction.
4) Aliyun: “New infrastructure” for digital factories
As defined by the German Society of Engineers, a digital factory (DF) is an integrated network of digital models, methods and tools, including simulation and 3D virtual reality visualization, integrated through continuous data management without interruption.
Ali cloud industrial digital transformation, the Internet platform to help manufacturing enterprises to build the factory, supply chain, industry comprehensive coordination of the new infrastructure platform, the equipment of the factory, production line, products, supply chain, customer connected together closely, providing reliable basis for the enterprise platform and upper rich industrial application, combined with comprehensive industry support, and help enterprises to complete the digital transformation.
7. Should the metasemes be decentralized?
1) Portability of personal information
In the era of personal information portability, users become key participants. Users initiate and upload personal information data on their own initiative, so as to practice personal data portability, and decentralization becomes an essential condition.
2) Decentralization is not equal to no center and no regulation
Under the decentralized concept, there are still higher level nodes involved in governance or operations, unlike the concept of a distributed architecture that completely abandons the center. Effective regulation and governance can still exist under the concept of decentralization.
3) How to practice decentralization? Refer to the DAO
Decentralized autonomous organization (DecentralizedAutonomousOrganization, DAO) is based on block chain core idea, by the same consensus groups spontaneously create, build, work, sharing the cooperative behavior of derived a kind of organization form, Is the subsidiary product of blockchain to solve the trust problem.
DAO encodes an organization’s management and operating rules on a blockchain in the form of a smart contract, allowing it to operate autonomously without centralized control or third-party intervention. DAO has the characteristics of full openness, autonomous interaction, decentralized control, complexity, diversity and emergence, and can become an effective organization to deal with uncertain, diverse and complex environment.
Does the metasverse require NFT?
1) What is NFT? One of the mainstream assets of blockchain.
NFT stands for irreplaceable tokens, tokens that can be used to express ownership of unique items. NFT allows things like art, collectibles and even real estate to be tokenized. They can only have one official owner at a time, and they are protected by blockchains like Ethereum, where no one can modify ownership records or copy/paste new NFT.
NFT has the characteristics of non-interchangeability, uniqueness, inseparability, low compatibility and object attributes. It can be applied to scenarios such as liquidity mining, art trading, game /VR and NFT of assets under the chain, greatly improving the efficiency of data transfer.
2) NFT application: a potential meta-cosmic economic model
NFT was first used in collections, art, and game Settings due to its digital scarcity. 51ASPX believes NFT will play a key role in the metasverse.
9. Will the Form of the Internet change in the age of the Meta-universe?
51ASPX believes that based on the development of the metasverse, the protocol of the Internet may change, and the Internet will evolve to build a trusted digital base. Blockchain technology is also tackling its own shortcomings: low transaction throughput and difficult communication with the outside world.
What the future holds is still unknown, but the current concepts and technologies are worth exploring. The source code is available at 51aspx.com.
The article is reproduced: wallstreetcn.com/articles/36…
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