Blenderverse?
I see Metaverse and Omniverse practically flopping, and not surprised. It's all new stuff and there's not that many people available to do the work. With such a thriving Blender community, I can't help but think a Blenderverse is a real possibility. It would be a similar type of online virtual worlds portal specific to artists/animators - that's the distinguishing feature. And because the people who are content creators for this are already content creators, the adoption, at least within the community (to start) would likely be VERY high as artist are certainly going to want to showcase their works. If it was a "requires funding" type of membership, then that could be an additional source of ongoing funding for future development. Though would need the initial funding oc to create it. Either way, I think it would strengthen the community, and doesn't have to do everything that the bigger guys might do. I don't really even know enough yet about all these environments (metaverse/omniverse) to comment too much yet, and maybe this is something best left to a third party like Ubisoft, but would be a great central place for blender artists to showcase their work. On the simpler side, that could also be a website that blender artists can showcase as much of their work as they choose. This could possibly be paid as well to support funding.
A real simple starting "blenderverse" could just be a place where artists can upload a .usd (or is it .usb - haha, jk), and it would show up at their chosen location in some virtual world. Or, as I see it, perhaps 2 USD scene files. One sort of represents their front door. What you see out in the main navigation 3D world where you can see everyone, then the other USD is the scened when you enter their world. And there could possibly be loading of other USD's within their world triggered by events (mouse clicks) Something like that should be do-able. Once in the world, they might be able to "apply interactions" - wire up some events (click on model performs some action for like playing an animation. a few action types to choose from - at this point in time). And when I say "play animation", I mean real time animation (not a render) that could be viewed from any of the included cameras - something like that. Later down the road could start adding more functionality like physics. Tiny mvp to feel it out. Could just build on top of an MIT licensed game engine - most likely (godot / bevy are both good options, but there are certainly more). Only supporting baked materials, and vertex colors to start. Later, down the road, could have some procedural node stuff done.
Going to set example pricing: $299 USD/year buys you a slot (a location in the world) $999 USD/year buys you a VIP slot.
Discount pricing available for members who are located in certain countries as a way of balancing out the pricing and making it fair for all.
Self-sustaining... Overflow funds (membership fees collected minus opex) go towards main blender dev fund (for more features to blender)
Trainers could have video training, and then you test it out right there - various interactions, possibly in VR. Oh, what a time to be alive! (wait, was he kidding when he said that?)
Since 90% didn't make it this far down, here's a special invitation to the rest of you that did. It's like a secret handshake. The phrase is "Premultiplied Alpha". The inviter asks the invitee if they know the PA handshake. The invitee then specifies, "Yes, I know what Premultiplied Alpha is dingbat." If it's any other answer it's not correct. Once you're one of us, you're in.
7 Comments
Any type of socially interactive 3D space is a major undertaking that requires an incredible amount of maintenance and developer interest. I don't think you'll find that interest here. RCS is focused on actionable proposals that relate to Blender's direct usability, the scope of this proposal is probably far too hefty.
There's some nice micro-scale thinking here though. VRChat is an existing platform that is very open/free and most creators there already use Blender in their workflow. They also have robust scripting tools. Although I don't think you'll find what you're looking for on RCS, maybe you could try realizing some of your ambitions on that platform instead? Just a suggestion :)
Agreed. I think the idea is interesting in the abstract, but the social side probably isn't the best fit for Blender. I think there could maybe be space for some integration with an online 3D warehouse like I think you can do with Quixel, but all open source.
A prefab asset pack to download alongside Blender has been proposed in the past, but a bridge application along the lines of Quixel would actually be very interesting. If not as a part of Blender, than as a mainline community-based addon with support from the Foundation. Blender Cloud is a good example of a community-based online resource somewhat along the lines of that.
So, I think it could be kind of a cool idea, to have a place where you can host models online and visit other people in a VR type space. I think you could make it function like any first-person video game where you can walk around and interact with things without needing VR, although maybe that could be an option. I've got to say though, the idea of having a paywall is a huge turnoff, so it would have to be free to enter to make it accessible and attractive for people to try out.
I think one big worry I would have though, is that it would be extremely difficult to moderate and to make it safe. Maybe having a system of reputation points like forum platforms use to keep it under control could be an option. What you are talking about is building a social media platform and so it comes with all the dangers inherent with it. Maybe that's where a paywall could come in handy. idk.
The basic idea could be pretty cool though and I could see it being really useful for designers and people who want to work collaboratively or to show off their work. You could have public lobbies as spaces for people to gather and then have rooms that you enter that people can populate with model assets. I could see it working almost like Animal Crossing where you have a space that's yours that you can change and add to. Maybe the lobby has a featured artist's installation or sculpture that everyone can see that rotates every week.
Maybe the way it works is you start with a small space and then you can pay to increase the size of the space or add features. IDK how you could deal with hosting and processing all the textures and so on, so you would probably have to have a file size cap. It could be interesting, but I think you need to start with safety in mind because I could see that going off the rails pretty easily. Maybe to think about it more like an art gallery with curators? You can work in a space that is yours but for other people to access it you have to be approved by a moderator. You could maybe even sell the art as NFTs or downloadable assets like you would in a store or a gallery.
You bring up a lot of interesting points, that would need to be thought through, like moderation, but modding the posts (model/mesh updates) is part of what is paid for. The benefit of a paid model is not everyone is gonna be part of it, only those who are serious about showcasing some of their work. I don't know if this would necessarily be tied into a collaborative workflow like omniverse or ubisoft's blender product/service. Anyone can connect and view everythign in the blenderverse and perhaps buy things in the blendervese like you suggested with the NFTs, downloadables. It's basically a platform. Perhaps with even ability to purchase on the fly generated content related to something you developed and possibly with user customizations that are worked into the render. Perhaps Blender artists can sell animations for viewing launched from the blender verse - like $2 for a random 10 minute something - and they'll get to like the artisrts (you know rate them). Just gotta start thinking of all the possibilities. There's a lot here. Once physics is integrated down the road, it would be pretty cool to just go explore what people make. Like interactive art. And perhaps that's a sale right there ... Interactive art "game" for $2. And people could explore in groups where they are able to interact with other members of their group, and invite other groups. That could be 1 way of exploring anyways.
Perhaps instead of a yearly, it could be based on percentage of sales (like blenderverse gets 25% of assets sold). The problem there tho, and it is a problem, is it gets all clogged up with millions of users ... I think paid is likely the best, with perhaps a percentage still. Pay keeps out the riffraft who just started yesterday.
Think of this like "gaming", but more for people that like to exploring the world (that might be very animated) - so it's a lot like gaming in a way, but less interactive, more explorative - art can react to user's presence - ie, when they're within x distance of some object, then trigger an animation that could include sound oc. Think of VR especially. Like a haunted mansion ... Perfect example.
So, to wrap it up, online interactive animations as a form of entertainment versus games. Get people's mind off life. A getaway.
So is it like a mmo game where people who use Blender pay from 300 to 1k USD to post 3d models in the game world?
Maybe it's just me, but I fail to see the interest of such a project. Furthermore, who would make and maintain all of that?
The idea is really a central place for blender artists to showcase their talents. They wouldn't need to learn anything new, but functionality would be limited for a while. They could offer discounts and give aways, and stuff up on their world. I don't really know all the business possibilities yet, but I certainly do think there's something here. I mean, yeah, you could just go on artstation or something like that to check out artists' works, but it's a lot more fun to be cruising around in this virtual world doing so. They could even make it a market place for people to sell digital art or animations. At some point, VR will take over, and these virtual worlds will be a big part of our online. With maintenance (funding), the idea is that it's self-funding via memeberships.