The 3D Software Behind the Metaverse

This is the fourth installment of my series of notes on Metaverse Builders: The Companies Driving Metaverse Innovation. The previous three notes are:

1. 70 Ways to Experience the Metaverse
2. Metaverse App Stores
3. The Metaverse Creator Economy

One of the primary tenets of the metaverse, which I describe in The Metaverse Handbook, is that it will evolve the Internet by giving us the feeling of presence in web experiences. The metaverse is the Spatial Web. Instead of interacting with the web through a 2D scrolling interface, we will enter it via 3D spatial environments.

Digital services, entertainment, and commerce will all have 3D destinations we can digitally walk through and engage with.

Therefore, the metaverse does not exist without spatial computing software which allows us to design 3D objects and immersive environments for these objects (and us) to inhabit. Many of the same engines used to build games like Fortnite are also being used to build the metaverse. Spatial computing includes 3D game and design engines, gesture recognition, spatial mapping, and AI to support it.

Spatial Computing Software

• Autodesk – 3D design, engineering, and construction software
• Blender – Free and open-source 3D computer graphics design tool
• Cesium – 3D geospatial data software
• Descartes Labs – Geospatial data analysis platform
• EF EVE – Volumetric video capture cameras and software
• Epik – Produces premium digital items for businesses and games
• Google AI – AI research and deployment company
• Kaedim – AI for turning 2D images into 3D models
• Matterport – 3D scanning hardware and application
• Nextnav – Precise, floor-level geolocation data indoors and in urban environments
• Niantic Planet-Scale AR – Building an AR platform
• Nvidia Omniverse – Platform for 3D design collaboration and simulation
• O3DE – Cross-platform 3D engine
• Occipital – 3D scanning software provider
• OpenAI – AI research and deployment company
• PresenZ VR – Volumetric VR format and rendering software
• Unity – 3D game development platform
• Unreal Engine – 3D game development platform
• VNTANA – 3D & AR asset optimization platform and content management system