The Metaverse Standards Foundation aims to lay the foundation for the development of an interoperable metaverse. The organization continues to grow fast and has presented its first interim results.

The Metaverse Standards Foundation started its work in June 2022. The consortium is led by the Web3 industry consortium Khronos Group, an umbrella group consisting of key industry players including Qualcomm, Microsoft, Meta, Sony, Adobe, Unity, Microsoft, and Nvidia among others.

Metaverse Standards Forum
Metaverse Standards Forum

The goal of the Metaverse Standards Forum is to have a consensus on the creation of industry-wide operability standards. Metaverse interoperability is seen as a core requirement upon which the growth of the platform will be anchored. To realize interoperability, there will be a need for close compromise and collaboration between disparate platform operators.

The Metaverse Standards Forum is already growing by leaps and bounds. It’s only two months since its inception and it already boasts over 1,500 members including major corporations and the so-called SDOs. The SDOs are the organizations taking part in the standards development. Joining the consortium is free of charge.

The Forum Has Agreed on Work Areas

The MSF says the heightened level of interest in the consortium shows the industry’s conviction that the metaverse needs to be built on “a foundation of open standards” and there is a need for cooperation between stakeholders in order to effectively build these standards. However, a lot has been happening since the initiation of the MSF project.

The Forum has already met severally at regular intervals. They have also agreed on over 200 topics that will be subsequently addressed moving forward. The topics cover a broad spectrum, including avatar animations, physics simulation, decentralized user IDs, ethical standards, and blockchain interoperability among others.

These topics have been grouped into different areas and members of the forum vote on the topics with the greatest impact. These include the following: –

  • User identity
  • 3D interoperable assets
  • Avatars and clothing
  • The integration of the physical and digital worlds
  • XR and user interfaces
  • Privacy, security, and inclusion
  • Teaching and Education
  • Payment systems and economics

The forum’s next phase will entail the formation of working groups for the various areas to be tackled. These working groups will be charged with developing initial guidelines, implementing pilot projects, and sending the findings to SDOs for evaluation.

Metaverse Standards are Still a Long Way from Realization

While the Metaverse Standards Forum is off to a great start, it will take time before these efforts crystallize into something concrete.

The Khronos Group’s OpenXR interface lasted two years from its initial formulation and another two years to see full implementation by leading platform operators such as Meta and Valve.

OpenXR will likely be a more consensual interface than the recently inaugurated Metaverse Standards Forum which is more targeted. Given the trajectory of OpenXR, it will be some time before MSF churns out concrete output.

There are other bottlenecks, too. The leading tech players such as Apple are opting to build their own standards and this could further complicate the development of standards a few years down the line.

https://virtualrealitytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Metaverse-Standards-Forum-600x343.pnghttps://virtualrealitytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Metaverse-Standards-Forum-150x90.pngRob GrantMetaverseTechnologyThe Metaverse Standards Foundation aims to lay the foundation for the development of an interoperable metaverse. The organization continues to grow fast and has presented its first interim results. The Metaverse Standards Foundation started its work in June 2022. The consortium is led by the Web3 industry consortium Khronos Group,...VR, Oculus Rift, and Metaverse News - Cryptocurrency, Adult, Sex, Porn, XXX