October 2024 - Useful Links

 

Whilst I post interesting Metaverse news to my Twitter feed, I thought it might also be useful to post them here. But since they don't merit a whole post for each one I'll experiment with the idea of a monthly post that I add to during the month as news comes in. We'll see how it goes!

• EU's ideas for Web 4.0 and virtual worlds -  https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3718
• Using AI to turn old video game/virtual world machina (and other) footage into more realistic video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBrAomadM4c
• BMW's M Mixed Reality system - you drive a real BMW round a race track but wear an MR headset which augments the view around the track (as far as I can work out form the description!)
• Ready Player Me launches Player Zero - essentially NFT "collectible" outfits
• Nice summary from Immersive Wire about VR in China, particularly location-based VR.
• Ernst Kline (of Ready Player One fame) is backing a new Battle Royale world called Open (but bet it isn't!) from Readyverse Studios.

Also always worth checking out Immersive Wire for a whole range of stories, only key ones of which I'll repost here.

 

Here's a new way to sample our new book - The Metaverse: A Critical Introduction - by NotebookLM generated podcast. It's about 19 mins long (but still very listenable at x1.5). Enjoy!

https://www.taunoyen.com/media/The%20Metaverse_%20A%20Critical%20Introduction.wav

(apologies for the pronunciation of MUDs and MOOs!)

It's interesting how its remixed the axioms and the end scenarios a bit, but certainly catching the gist, and how the female "presenter" brings in her previous history and experiences in virtual worlds.

Odd that Google haven't work out how to end a podcast yet though!

Server Meshing

 

Given recent announcements by Unreal and other vendors there is growing interest in server meshing in MMOs and virtual worlds  - being able to dynamically assign computer resources to different parts of a world as user (and other activity) in each space increases. The idea of having different servers supporting adjacent parts of a world so that you can walk from one server to another is nothing new, it's how Second Life works, but in SL each server has fixed to its supporting region. The key innovation here is that you have a pool of servers or compute resources and you assign them to regions needed - static regions with no one in them get nothing, busy regions with lots of activity and avatars get lots of compute.

More info at:

- https://nosygamer.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-server-meshing-wars-have-begun.html

The Metaverse in Aviation

 

https://tnmt.com/the-metaverse-in-aviation-the-golden-islands-scenario/

An interesting look at 4 possible scenarios for the future impact of the metaverse on aviation. There 2x2 matrix  axis are very similar to ours in A Critical Introduction, although our second axis focus is more on control than consolidation, although of course both are linked.