A thick layer of smog obscures the view over the city. This could be Paris, judging by the narrow, tall houses with small balconies. Only long cable cars hang above the zinc roofs. A futuristic space capsule whizzes past with a sonorous buzz at eye level. And what does the kilometre-high column that protrudes above the residential blocks do? It looks like a Steven Spielberg animated film. At the same time, I feel the physical sensation of being afraid of heights when I look down at the streets below. Until I take off the 3D glasses and headphones and am back in the VR Zone, a research lab at the Technical University in Delft where experiments are being done with virtual reality. After this intense virtual experience, the real world feels just as strange.
This fantasy city is part of the computer game Half-Life: Alyx, which is two years old but still counts as one of the most advanced 3D animations, says Arno Freeke, head of the VR Zone. “The game industry with its deep pockets is at the forefront of virtual reality development. So this is where we’re going.’ By ‘here’ the scientific researcher is referring to the metaverse, the extended version of the internet where you don’t go ‘on’ but ‘into’. Using VR glasses (Apple is also expected to launch one next year), voice control, motion gloves or even complete bodysuits that directly convert body movements into computer commands, we will soon be physically immersed in a digital illusion. ‘The internet breaks out of the flat screen, so that you can move around freely. Swimming, floating, teleporting: everything is possible, because in the metaverse there is no gravity and you decide who, where or what you want to be.’
A question that then arises: if we all go to camp in that metaverse, who will be organizing the space, and how do you design for a virtual world?
Countless start-ups are throwing themselves into the digital new construction of the metaverse with the presentation of a defined virtual environment or so-called metaspace. In these worlds, users can visit shops, casinos or sports competitions or build their own environment. They pay with bitcoins. The commercial potential of these social platforms is enormous, as Travis Scott’s concert in the popular game already showed in 2019. Fortnite† that attracted eleven million live viewers and the American rapper earned 18 million euros with it.
digital sneakers
Games like Fortnite and above all Second Life are seen as early precursors of what the metaverse may eventually become. Many metaspaces are modeled after these games. With the big difference that users have many more options to design their own domain. ‘Fashion brands in particular are looking at this with great interest,’ says Max Pinas, creative director of Dept, a digital design and advertising agency. With digital sneakers, jackets or dresses, users can dress up their online identity or avatar. Just like in the real world, well-known brands such as Nike, Adidas and fashion houses such as Balenciaga and Gucci are leading the way. ‘The fashion industry has a good sense of the zeitgeist and also has the money to experiment.’ Although the experiment is not too bad. Since almost all digital couturiers use the same design software – Unreal Engine 5 to be precise, a (partly) free program – a recognizable aesthetic of glossy surfaces, synthetic colors and razor-sharp depth dominates.
In addition, users can distinguish themselves with the architecture of their personal domain. There is also a fee for this. Canadian digital artist Krista Kim designed the Mars House, a dreamy space station made entirely of glass. The unique computer files of this digital design villa were sold for 450 thousand euros at an online auction at auction house Sotheby’s, which now has a branch in the metaverse. The owner will soon be able to chill out with his friends or schedule a meeting in his Mars House.
Why pay such an astronomical amount for a house that only exists as ones and zeros on computers? “For the same reason people collect rare football pictures,” says Pinas. ‘To show that you belong or just out of enthusiasm. And who knows, you may even earn money from it. It’s a new status symbol.’ Status and speculation – at least that sounds like traditional real estate. In the metaspace Next Earth, a Google Earth-like environment of the Earth, even existing plots of land can be purchased. Obviously, the French Riviera and the Canal Belt are the most expensive.
Sometimes the digital architecture and design in the metaverse overlap with material reality. The Hortensia Chair by the Argentine furniture designer Andrés Reisinger is a digital chair covered with tens of thousands of flower petals. The design went viral, after which it was taken into production by the Dutch design label Moooi from Marcel Wanders. Then the bizarre situation arose that the virtual Hortensia Chair with a price tag of more than 20 thousand euros is more expensive than the Moooi version made of silk, wood and metal (about 5,000 euros). Nevertheless, there will certainly be buyers for both chairs, Pinas believes. ‘A company can then use the same chair in the metaverse as in the physical head office. How cool is that!’
Blockchain
A crucial difference with a profile on Facebook or a YouTube channel is that the self-built metaspaces are not controlled by one company but by all users together. Anyone who buys a ‘plot’ and then builds their own digital office, house or shop on it, registers this data on countless servers, which is called a blockchain. There is no one who can change this data, and the user of the metaverse always retains ownership of his creations and purchases. Pinas: ‘The metaverse can become an inclusive world in which everyone can participate and be equal. This openness fuels innovation. At the moment, the future of the internet is still determined by a handful of tech giants.’ The big challenge will be connecting all those thousands – and soon even millions – of independent spaces into one comprehensive network. ‘So that as a visitor you can move effortlessly from one place to another, without having to log in again or use a different avatar. If that doesn’t happen, the metaverse will become nothing more than a cool but obscure corner of the internet.’
Still, there are caveats to this decentralized network where users are in control. ‘Look at what is happening on the existing internet with fake news or racist posts. What if no one is responsible for such excesses and there is no longer any supervision?’, says Wouter Nieuwenhuizen, researcher at the Rathenau Institute, which studies the impact of technology and science on society. He is also concerned about an increasing dependence on devices such as VR glasses or voice control. ‘It sounds nice, VR glasses that register whether you are angry or excited on the basis of a trembling voice or dilated pupils. But what if that device then acts on that and suddenly creates a stress-free happy space for you? Is such manipulation desirable? Don’t we get addicted to this escape from reality?’
Things are not going that fast for the time being with the ubiquity of the metaverse. Despite all the trendy e-fashion and digital design villas, the largest metaspace Decentraland can’t match the slick VR experience of games like Half-Life† The pixelated buildings and streets in the popular The Sandbox are reminiscent of computer games like Sim City, which was used to build online cities as early as the 1990s. The appearance of these metaspaces is deliberately simple, so that they are accessible to a wide audience, says Alex van der Baan, CEO of the Utrecht start-up Beemup, which creates ‘immersive experiences’ for companies, a direct translation of the English immersive, which means immersive. ‘You don’t have to be a computer geek to build a place in these metaspaces. In addition, these low-threshold platforms use much less data, so they can run on a regular laptop.’
The Beemup office looks as you would expect from a start-up. A bare workplace in an anonymous business tower with many large computer screens. One motion suit to digitize body movements hangs like a raincoat on a coat rack. But you don’t need expensive VR glasses to experience the spaces that Beemup creates. ‘Only 50 million of these have been sold. In other words, 0.0065 percent of the world’s population. So nothing at all.’ At the start of the corona pandemic, Beemup developed an online conference for a company. ‘Anything is possible, you think. But the client explicitly asked for a room with visitors and a podium with a lectern. If we compare the metaverse with the Internet, we are roughly in 1990, when only a handful of people had an e-mail address.’
augmented reality
The big breakthrough of the metaverse will be just such a fusion of digital and analog, expects Freeke of the VR Zone in Delft. The technology for this is already established. With augmented reality, computer images are superimposed over the real world. A Billy cabinet can be placed virtually in your own living room on a tablet with the Ikea app. ‘The threshold is lower and the possibilities are greater than with virtual reality, where you are in a closed bubble. With augmented reality glasses you can just go out on the street. Sunglasses manufacturer Ray-Ban seems to be developing one. That will of course be a hit.’
Augmented reality is also not without risk, according to Nieuwenhuizen of the Rathenau Institute. ‘Such glasses continuously film other people, which is an invasion of privacy. In addition, it is flawlessly registered where our gaze is directed. It is therefore conceivable that an advertisement will suddenly appear if you look at an object for too long. Or that homeless people are filtered out of the streets. My reality then becomes different from yours, while we are in the same place at the same time. So what is real and what is fake? How do we deal with that alienation? These are questions that we need to think about, because now we can still participate in the decision-making process about how the metaverse will develop. Fortunately, because this technology can have a major impact on how we live together and also enrich our lives.’
Although the possibilities of the metaverse are unlimited, for the time being this digital world mainly responds to the harsh reality. In the VR Zone, Freeke has a digital version of a sea-going vessel played on the VR glasses on which Mechanical Engineering students can practice for their exam. The experience is certainly not completely lifelike. ‘But the advantage is that you can repeat an experiment endlessly.’ The TU scientist is now studying the application of virtual reality in social issues. For example, OMT member Diederik Gommers came by to see with his own eyes how healthcare staff can safely practice treating contagious covid patients using virtual reality. Although Freeke can still completely immerse himself in ferocious VR games. ‘It’s nice to lose yourself in an alternative reality for a while.’