Microsoft enters the Metaverse

[Zenbane]

For those of us following the Metaverse developments prior to Facebook's announcement and brand change to, Meta, you are likely aware that there are other players in the Meta-world (har har?). Microsoft and Google are among the tech giants that are "all-in" on the Metaverse. I suspect we will start seeing more and more news of organizations both large and small releasing their own Metaverse contributions.

Microsoft Teams gets 3D animated avatars, because metaverse

Microsoft wants a piece of the metaverse, too, so at its Ignite conference today, the company announced 3D avatars for those Teams meetings where you don’t want to be on camera. Those animated personalized avatars are part of what Microsoft calls “Mesh for Teams,” which combines the company’s Mesh platform (not to be confused with Windows Live Mesh) for powering shared experiences in virtual reality, augmented reality and elsewhere, with Teams and its built-in productivity tools.

Full Article:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/02/microsoft-teams-gets-3d-animated-avatars-because-metaverse/

[Nekto2]

Cool. Great for remote work meetings.

You could show some inspiring background also. Need not spent time to change real room to business style. 🙂

Long way to go still. Until we see some APIs and protocols.

[DaftnDirect]

Interesting.

It seems like MS are taking a software-first approach to the Metaverse, Meta taking the combined hardware/software approach.

I wouldn't be surprised if the software approach gets the best initial traction but will need VR hardware to become popular enough to get beyond a certain level of versatility.

I wonder if people will eventually live in one of these metaverse and wonder if other parallel metaverses exist.

[Nekto2]

> I wonder if people will eventually live in one of these metaverse and wonder if other parallel metaverses exist.

That could only happen if you can't log out 😄

I hope there could be some screen recording feature, so you could play those in other *verses 🙂  But... people may think of it as a fake 😄

[Nekto2]

I think we need to create a new Metaverse version from scratch every year (or less).

Actually it could be one Metaverse-Hub and several Digiverses of different versions.

Metaverse-Hub could hold some services used by all Digiverses but will have no visual user interface (something like DNS is used in the Internet). And Digiverses could be like email servers with users. Then every Digiverse could be optimized for current state of hardware and internet link speed. And Metaverse-Hub will allow slow data exchange. First Metaverse will hold some services used by Digiverses, but more of them will be moved to it in next years (as they will become a standards).

You could have only 1 or 2 formats supported for images, video, sound, 3D objects, textures etc. And a fixed set of codecs and sized supported. That will allow fast development. And you could always add new format/codec/size in the next Digiverse version if you found it essential. Same way you could delete any old format or codec without any need in supporting them in new version.

But you could copy an object or any other media to Digiverse. You will need to convert it from source format to those supported by Digiverse.

Avatars and person "presence" will be copied to new/other Digiverse also. They will be converted and filtered according to features and rules of those Digiverses. People could select which of data they like to be copied. Old Digiverses will not be deleted if there are people who will pay for servers to supports them. So a person could select which of Digiverse to log in and spend more time in it. Companies could run their own corporate Digiverses to provide data safety. They could use existing Digiverse software on their servers and control which data could be copied to other Digiverses and servers.

New empty version of Digiverse will be beta. Only authors will join it. They will draw guides how it will expand when it opens to all people. That will allow Metaverse to evolve. If you will not allow evolution inside of Metaverse it will happen outside of it.

There could be Metaverse-Data-Storage to hold all sources for media files and objects. You could not see those objects without conversion, but you could put photo realistic avatars, high detailed objects and art creations there to be used in later Digiverse versions (or for high detailed video/film rendering). Then you convert and copy objects and media to any Digiverse you like. In opposite that Digiverse will provide some data back (it will hold source object/media ID to link data). Also it could prove that you are the original art creator even if someone will steal low detailed copy of your art. Storage could be distributed to many companies, but will use global index (NFT?). Also there could be a service to calculate differences between digital objects so it will be easy to know that one object is like other by 70% (using NFT will not solve it). Author could add a link to other objects or media to show that his art is based on other artwork. But there could be copies of real world objects digitized by different authors which looks like the same (statues, ancient buildings, sounds, animations, dances etc) but they will not be "stealing" if they will provide some source data to prove it was done independently .

Actually you could think of 3D object (or media) not like "it's an object" but "it's a service". Like apps long time ago were "objects" but now they are "services" with updates and different OS versions with the same content. Same way author of a 3D object could create a record in Metaverse-storage but it will be updated in the next years to support higher details or new features (like "touch textures" or whatever there be). There could be preconverted version of an object/media to any Digiverse (or even manually optimized by the author). Also you could have "news objects" or even "adv objects" which are updated frequently. They will send feedback data from a Digiverse back to Mataverse-store on interactions and view counts (by people and all counts). Some additional stat could be sent (like how visible or distant it was). But any other 3D object/media could subscribe to have those stats also. Authors could see if their art are popular (same to avatars, wearable objects or avatar parts etc).

You could have different policies and rules for every Digiverse. If you think some policy or rule is not ok you could change it in next Digiverse version. Corporate Digiverses could have more strict rules (like avatar style and sizes) but will provide more safety (like remote descktops with VPN do). Some Digiverses will check object authors as NFTs and will not copy objects without confirmed source. Or you could have themed Halloween Digiverse where only Halloween styled avatars are allowed. There could be Digiverses themed for chess games or for startupers communication. If you go there and have no avatar of that style you will be provides with a default one from a list which resembles your selected avatar. MS/Meta/Nvidia could have their own avatar styles and yours will be converted to their style if you go (copy/convert your data) into it. We could have some stye lists like Unicode emojy are (for a certain Unicode number you could have different emojy images in OSs but they show same emotion/symbol/etc). So Metaverse could hold those style lists and conversion rules (which avatar appearance will corresponds to which in different Digiverses). It could be list of a whole avatar styles or their features (like hair style etc). This will help to make a video cast or screenshots look stylish (not like a a bunch of different style avatars/objects).

List of login types could also be a standard in Metaverse-Hub/Registry. There could be "person" (with a real identity), "clone" (of a real person with other Nick name, but confirmed to be real), "AI bot", "work login", "corporate representative login" (any from allowed list could use it), "vr job login" (have access to some data but with restrictions and control), "kid" (with parental control and data filters), "advertising person", "moderator", "helper", etc. Any login type could have their features and restrictions. Rules could apply differently.

"Helper" is a person who could help you with VR inside it. Just think that you put your headset on and first you see is a real person helper who will help you to selects apps and find new friends in VR. So you could just talk to, no need to read manuals. It could be a paid VR-job for helping people. Or a company could provide helpers for their workers free of charge. Person could rate a helper (1-5 stars) or set a "gravitation" (1-7 if he like to see this helper next time or not (for nice voice or avatar), that will not be rating and will not be public but will increase or decrease probability to see again). Helper will see persons world, but some personal objects will be filtered (and replaced with placeholders) so they will not even be transferred to helpers headset (same could be for 18+ content or owned art).

There could be "stylist" VR-job. Some people will not be able to create own avatar (or will not have time for it). So Stylist could have limited access to their data and make those avatars for them.

So I think Metaverse could be a name to describe a number of services connecting Digiverses. Digiverses will use those services and other services (like maps, video/film/music/photo providers, weather data, news, messengers, email, identity checkers, live streams, game servers and other APIs). Company running Digiverse will have agreements with those services providers (terms and payment, usage data stats etc). So a person will not have to talk to those services directly. Digiverse will provide safe space and check if those services are ok. Actually ... Digiverse could be not a "VR world" even 🙂 You could have access to it from any device type. But most of them will be VR worlds 🙂

Will you like to be in it? 🙂

Have you suggestions? Let's discuss! 🙂

[Zenbane]

Great stuff @Nekto2 !

It will take me awhile to dissect all of that, but I wanted to comment on this part:

Metaverse-Hub could hold some services used by all Digiverses but will have no visual user interface (something like DNS is used in the Internet)

Interesting perspective. For me, I tend to think of the Metaverse as the Internet itself (not just a DNS). The concept of "The Internet of Things" comes to mind here. Where the Internet started to become part of more than just computing. Such as connecting your Refrigerator and Coffee Maker to the Internet (so that they can be controlled by a Mobile App or even Alexa/Google Home).

The Metaverse functions the same to me, where other services - of all scales, from Monolithic to Micro - can integrate and become "part of" the Metaverse in any form they choose: Audio only, Video only, VR immersion and presence.

I'll slowly read through the rest of your post and comment more soon. Thanks!

[Nekto2]

Thanks! 🙂

> For me, I tend to think of the Metaverse as the Internet itself (not just a DNS).

I agree to that. DNS is a part of the Internet.

It's more like "if you ask ordinary person what Internet is, most of them will not tell you that there is DNS". They will think of those things they could see. That will allow not to bring much attention from all people to technical side and protocols. And it will allow to have external and distributed management to DNS (or "Hub" in Metaverse).

So core services could be common, but will not be at a highlight. I think.

And that all in sum are really a Metaverse. 🙂

ps. some of services and software could be OpenSource and community supported. But OpenSource Digiverse software will have less resources to develop. Still it will allow to have more experiments and research with less limits.