The Immersive Wire - 3 October 2021 (Sunday edition)

By Tom FfiskeCurated VR/AR analysis every Wednesday and Sunday 

// 3 October 2021

Releasing for Oculus Quest October 7th!

MAIN STORYAn influx of micro-metaverses

A short while ago, I argued that the difference between a micro-metaverse, and a macro-metaverse. The two are conflated all the time, and there is a sharp difference between the smaller metaverses that people are building, and the all-inclusive one that can come in many years' time. As metaverse discussions are accelerating, and with so many smaller metaverses being built, I wanted to pin down on the former kind for today because it is the one most companies are building. A micro-metaverse is a place where people can meet, but it has very little interoperability and with rules that only matter in its own world. Think of it like Fortnite, or Roblox, or World of Warcraft; its own economies or communities, but bound in their own universes. This is different from the macro metaverse which will be all-encompassing and not held up by one company.A good example of a micro-metaverse is AR mapping. The next evolution of mapping technologies takes the underlying network and associates locations with new data. Searching for review in your local area is a simple metaverse of sorts, where people can contribute their own comments and thoughts about their local area. Ingress, published by Niantic in 2012, took the same locations and added opportunities to collaborate with players around real-world locations. The concept evolved (and exploded in popularity) with the release of their next titles, Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. All the games associated already-established markers on maps with gameplay events and features. That is one layer. AR will unlock the next few layers. Instead of a superficial layer of reviews and points of interest, AR will bring a layer of depth as we can work with the virtual layer of the world.

• Instead of reviewing a restaurant on Google, owners may encourage visitors to paint their reviews on the virtual walls of their location, for anyone with AR glasses to see.

• Or it can unlock new types of games where virtual items can be hidden in places like shopping malls or the local chip shop, to be collected for in-game points.

• Fast-food chains can advertise their menus in not just real life, but in the virtual layer as well – perhaps with virtual games that can only be played in their physical locations, catching burgers that float through the air.

Basically, as Daniel from ReSight remarks, the AR camera will become ‘a visual browser and [will] change how we consume AR content.’ 

New types of games, collaboration opportunities, and a rush of new spaces to advertise. Together, they form a new kind of micro-metaverse where people can collaborate in a shared space. 

More will appear in the Immersive Reality Revelation (book title pending), coming later this year. Keep an eye on the newsletter for more details. 

Enter the whimsical wooden world of Loco Dojo and step up to Grand Sensei’s ‘Table of Trials’ to pit your silliest skills against friends or strangers in this hilariously competitive party game.No friends? No problem! Strive to obtain the fabled black headband in the highly replayable 10 Trials Challenge mode or hone your skills in each minigame in the Solo Dojo.

Available for Oculus Quest & Quest 2 on October 7th!

Q&A

Sergiu Ardelean, Co-founder & CEO of Artivive

What is your background?  After getting my degree, I co-founded an advertising agency together with a friend in Vienna. It soon became a leading agency for augmented reality projects and served clients from 42 countries, such as Volkswagen and Audi. I always loved working in the creative industries, and I was fascinated by the endless possibilities of AR. With that in mind, I became the co-founder of Artivive in 2017. Artivive started with an idea born over a beer and now turned into a global platform serving more than 100k artists from over 120 countries. Our vision is to change how art is created and consumed. With our tool, artists can create new dimensions of art by linking classical with digital art. It only requires a few steps to bring your artwork to life. What are you working on, and what’s a key learning that you’ve had from it? In the first years, we focused on creating an easy-to-use tool for creators, building our client base, and improving our AR app. For the next few months, our goal is to extend our offers for our community, and we are launching a marketplace for augmented reality projects. Through our marketplace, artists, institutions, and art-lovers can connect with each other and make amazing projects happen. One of my key learnings is that bringing change to a sector that is usually considered rather traditional takes time. You have to be patient and persistent, especially with museums and cultural institutions. But I’m sure the right time will come for them to realize that AR is the best tool to educate and entertain the audience at the same time.   If you had to give one piece of advice, what would you give? As an entrepreneur, I get my energy and motivation from the journey not from arriving. See what you can learn and win from the experiences you have down the road. Sometimes it’s more valuable than achieving the goal. If you want to know more about Sergiu, click here to check him out. 

Jobs boardINTERNSHIP, US. The intern will be primarily focused on developing proficiency in the use and application of tools designed for experiences in VR/AR headsets. GRIP-IE interns will assist the Get Real management team and clients in the design, development, and implementation of features within both internal and partner platforms. Interns will follow industry best practices including continuous improvement through code reviews of existing and new code. GRIP-IE interns will also be responsible for managing communication with software vendors on a variety of topics including bug identification, feature requests, troubleshooting, and documentation materials. Click here for more. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, UK. Here at CIRCUS (an award-winning creative agency, specialists of Virtual Brand Experiences) we're on the lookout for an enthusiastic B2B Business Development Manager on a part-time, remote basis. 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Are you looking for a unique challenge working in virtual & augmented reality with a bleeding-edge technology company? Then read on. Click here for more.ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN DIGITAL MEDIA, UK. We are looking to appoint a dynamic and adaptable course director for our BA (Hons) in Digital Media to lead and deliver teaching, learning and assessment on the BA Digital Media and steer  its next phase of growth.  As well as a track record of academic leadership you will have extensive practical experience in digital media such as immersive storytelling (AR/VR/XR), modelling and animation, creative media design / production, or web / mobile app design and development. Click here for more.SENIOR IMMERSIVE LEARNING DESIGNER, UK. Make Real is looking to expand our digital learning team with a Senior Immersive Learning Designer. Your role will be to consult with clients in order to create exciting and imaginative design solutions. Your designs will affect behaviour change in order to deliver on specific learning outcomes, while being achievable within a set budget and timeline. Click here for more. SENIOR UNITY DEVELOPER, UK. As a growing and exciting business, we are looking for full-time talented multi-disciplinary Unity developers to join our expert team in central Brighton. Our ideal candidates will have a broad range of technical experience with a proven track record of delivering interactive Virtual & Augmented Reality projects across a range of HMD & mobile hardware. Working as part of our existing team of designers and artists, the roles will primarily involve the delivery of VR/AR projects for our global clients. Click here for more. Display your vacancy in front of thousands of talented VR/AR professionals in just a few clicks. Click here for more info.

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That's all for this week! Want to have a chat, let me know about a news story, or talk business? Either reply to this email, or contact tom (at) virtualperceptions (dot) com. Have an excellent day!