A blockchain-powered virtual reality world is gearing up to launch a huge public update that will deliver a “fully immersive” experience across all major VR headsets.
Somnium Space describes its platform as a “persistent VR world,” meaning players are always in the same server together at any given point in time. The team behind it says its “unique server architecture” ensures that loading screens are never encountered as users explore the metaverse.
According to developers, many multiplayer games in this space lack richness and depth due to the fact that players are often divided into sub-servers or mirrored rooms, meaning they cannot interact with one another in real time. By contrast, Somnium Space delivers what it describes as a “Ready Player One” style experience.
To understand exactly how this makes a difference, the platform compares this to standing on top of the highest mountain within its VR world and being able to see hundreds or thousands of fellow gamers “a few kilometers away, rushing around and exploring the world beneath you all in real time, all in VR mode.”
The potential of VR
Through Somnium Space, artists have the ability to purchase land, build digital galleries using crypto, and share it inside a fully immersive and interactive virtual reality world.
The company behind the project says this brings art consumption to the next level — as exploring sculptures and paintings in VR is nothing short of “amazing.”
Artur Sychov, the founder and CEO of Somnium Space, emphasizes that his team has put a lot of effort into the immersive aspect of its VR technology, giving players the freedom to “get lost in the vast territories of a truly alive world.”
He added: “You can start a business and instantly monetize your ideas, visit the planetarium or museum, touch the water, or go mountain hiking, watch birds flying across the sunset throwing real-time shadows onto nearby standing buildings created by users, stumble upon wild animals or simply enjoy procedurally generated weather changes.”
Sychov says the benefits for Somnium players are clear. “All of that wakes up your body senses and brings an emotional connection to your creations or your friends on the next level,” he adds.
Powered by Ethereum
According to Somnium Space, its decision to embrace the Ethereum blockchain has unlocked several tangible benefits. In-game assets including avatars, wearables and collectibles have been tokenized, and the company notes it is the first VR gaming platform in the world that allows users actually own and trade their possessions.
From crypto art to Crypto Kitties, any nonfungible token can be natively placed inside its universe and explored in full VR. This ultimately means that users “can finally enjoy these items as if they were physically there and share this experience with other Somnium citizens around the globe in real time.”
Moreover, according to the team, users can tokenize their creations and 3D assets such as avatars, furniture, art and more directly from the Somnium PC client and instantly put them on sale on platforms such as OpenSea.
Daniel Viau, engineer at OpenSea, says: “Somnium Space brings deep experience in VR and a polished product to the table.” He added, ”It's a thrill for us to see established projects from outside the blockchain space adopting Ethereum, not just because it's hip, but because it's the best solution to a real and critical problem: providing users with a stable, legitimate, open economy.”
Somnium Space’s fully immersive VR platform is available on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and the Windows Mixed Reality platform. The company is planning to add support for Oculus Quest and Oculus GO within a matter of months.
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