The race is definitely on to see who can create the biggest and most impressive social worlds, whether that’s Sansar, Facebook Horizon, VRChat, Sensorium Galaxy and others. Somnium Space has been working in this space for several years now and today announced a major series of updates which will give users more freedom to create, expand and invite people inside their worlds.
There are three main components being rolled out over the next few months, with the most important for current users being Somnium Space Worlds. If you already own a parcel of digital land then the feature will allow you to broaden your creative mind, building a new interactive world for others to join.
Created by utilizing the Somnium UnitySDK, these worlds can make use of Unity components such as custom scripts, shaders and other advanced creative tools. Build your own arcade or even a multiplayer game for other Somnium Space players to try out. The only limit to the size of the worlds is the land parcel size you already own. There will be three worlds available: Small (75MB), Medium (200MB) and Extra Large (500MB). Somnium Space Worlds is expected to launch in Q1 2021.
A virtual world needs to attract as many people as possible to build a vibrant ecosystem, so making it as easily accessible as possible is a must. Somnium Space already allows both VR players on PC VR headsets and non-VR players via desktop to interact but in December this will go a stage further with Somnium Space Web. Every piece of land – or Parcel as it’s termed – will get a permanent link so it can be directly accessed via the web.
The feature will offer cross-platform live voice-enabled multiplayer so that those accessing the parcel via a browser can still chat and interact with those using the native Somnium VR client.
“Mobile VR support? WebXR? Of course! We are taking Web experience to the next level. You will be able to visit your WEB PARCEL in Virtual Reality. Simply use VR compatible browser such as Mozilla or Oculus Browser and dive into your PARCEL right away. No installation nor waiting times! VR anywhere, anytime! Fire up your Oculus Quests!,” notes a blog post.
And starting on 1st November will be Somnium Space’s Second Land Offering (SLO), selling a total of 350 land Parcels and 70 Somnium Worlds tokens. For further updates on this expanding virtual universe, keep reading VRFocus.
