As interest in the metaverse continues to grow, discussion about the terminology used to describe the concept of immersive 3D digital environments has also gained momentum. Three terms – metaverse, multiverse, and omniverse – are sometimes used interchangeably, but they take different approaches to virtual reality.
“Each describes a different context and user paradigm, but all technically include virtual realities created by people through their interactions in a digital space. However, they achieve this through different methods,” explained Frank Palermo, vice -Executive Chairman and Chief Technology Officer at Virtusa. , digital engineering consulting firm. The following outlines the basics:
Let’s dig.
Metaverse vs Multiverse vs Omniverse
Kevin Collins, CEO of Accenture, explained that the original vision for the Metaverse was a continuous, embodied digital space. Think of it as a digital space where specific rules apply universally around identity, ownership, and technical specifications. However, that’s not how it’s been so far, Collins said.
“The combination of economic incentives, technical standards and engineering hubris has resulted in multiple independent and non-interoperable domains,” he said.
In other words, the current so-called metaverse is a multiverse, a collection of metaverses with some level of interoperability. Examples include gaming platforms like Decentralized, Roblox and Horizon Worlds.
The omniverse includes all metaverses and multiverses, whether they are interoperable or not. “There is only one omniverse, and it includes everything,” Collins said.
Nvidia’s Omniverse tries to include everything with a new approach to interoperability. We cover this in more detail in a moment, as the approach is generally more applicable to business than to consumers. It’s also worth noting that other 3D platform vendors including Microsoft, Epic, and Unity are trying to do something similar – minus the cool name.
Metaverse
Neal Stephenson coined the term metaverse in his 1992 novel, Snowfall, to describe an interconnected virtual world and economy. This original design is cited as a critical element in many descriptions of the term today.
“Many people believe that there will be only one metaverse and that this new space will include all aspects of our online lives today: games, shopping and social networks, all in one. place, with different companies taking up real estate in their own corner of this virtual world,” said Ramanath Iyer, chief strategist at Akamai, a content delivery network service provider.
Proponents imagine that new decentralized trust mechanisms, such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, will make it easier to move assets, avatars, objects and other items across connected virtual worlds within of a larger metaverse.
Multiverse
The idea that there are multiple universes has existed since ancient times and has been considered by thinkers in many fields, including physics, cosmology, religion, and literature.
Today, people extend the concept that we live in a web of interconnected and parallel physical realities to describe how multiple fragmented digital worlds or metaverses can be woven together or work in tandem.
It seems fair to say that most people have probably not met anyone who has jumped between the physical worlds. In the virtual world, the notion doesn’t seem so far-fetched, Palermo said.
Palermo sees the digital multiverse as separate experiences that could be virtual or even 2D web experiences. He cites the interactions you have with the same person across different platforms — Facebook, TikTok, or an Xbox 3D game — as an example of participating in a digital multiverse.
The catch is that you can’t easily connect identities, groups, or chats between these separate environments. Indeed, this is one of the significant flaws of traditional walled garden architectures that do not connect. A significant advantage is that these siled platforms can better control privacy and security than decentralized approaches.
Nvidia’s Omniverse
Nvidia co-opted the term omniverse to describe its specific approach to integrating large-scale industrial digital twins using the Universal Scene Description file format. The company has been busy developing connectors for all major 3D engineering, design and entertainment applications that allow participants to work on the same file. In the traditional workflow, someone exports a file to view it in another application, and a lot of manual effort is required to keep the different versions in sync.
Nvidia’s approach has been to connect these industrial design tools at the file level. A change in one tool is instantly visible on all other tools connected to the platform. Nvidia, together with Siemens, has recently started calling it the Industrial Metaverse because it unifies the immersive experiences of enterprise design tools.
“It brings commercial value to a concept traditionally focused on entertainment,” said Lucia Mirabella, research group manager at Siemens Technology.
Meta’s Metaverse vs. Nvidia’s Omniverse
Meta and Nvidia broadly outline two different approaches to the metaverse, each playing to their respective strengths:
- The Metaverse of Meta vision leverages its strengths to support a massive online mainstream social media platform.
Meta describes the Metaverse as “the next evolution of social connection and the successor to the mobile internet”, saying its version of the Metaverse “will bring you even closer to feeling like you’re with others”. Users will be able to live, work, play, shop and learn in a huge shared 3D space. The company said it hopes to reach 1 billion people in the metaverse over the next decade.
- In contrast, Nvidia’s Omniverse builds on its strength in industrial AI, large-scale robot training, medical equipment construction, and high-performance rendering.
Nvidia describes its Omniverse as an expandable platform that allows “individuals and teams to create custom 3D pipelines and simulate large-scale virtual worlds faster than ever before.” Nvidia is also building an ecosystem and marketplace to sell cutting-edge expertise in tools, AI models, simulation models, and business workflows to other companies.
The future of metaverse, multiverse and omniverse concepts
What is the conclusion for companies in this haircut exercise? Companies need to determine how well interoperability – or lack thereof – aligns with their business goals and technical capabilities. The metaverse suggests a path to greater interoperability, while the multiverse’s closed approach could be key to protecting competitive advantage.
Collins said greater interoperability provides better UX, with universal interoperability being the optimal scenario. However, there are financial incentives to keep users in a walled garden or at least create interoperability friction. He suggested companies entering the metaverse find the right balance between the two.
Additionally, the Industrial Metaverse concept pioneered by Nvidia and Siemens will continue to gain momentum. For example, Microsoft Mesh technology promises to synchronize immersive experiences across various VR apps and hardware. And gaming platforms developed by Epic and Unity are beginning to bring enterprise customers to support more collaborative and immersive experiences.