Metaverse, a concept that Meta (ex-Facebook) created hype about in 2021, has attracted a humongous amount of attention. Companies from all over the world, whether big or small, are trying to explore opportunities to onboard this technology to keep up with the cutthroat competition in their respective industries.
However, Metaverse is not the only universe that the world is familiar with today. In fact, Multiverse and Omniverse are two terms as well that give the idea of an extended universe beyond what we experience and know of today. To understand Metaverse vs Multiverse vs Omniverse better, we will have to dive deeper into the meaning of these concepts. In this blog, we are answering some questions like how these concepts vary from one another, why should the IT industry bother about them, and how does the future of cyberspace look like.
So, we recommend you stay with us until the end of this blog to have an in-depth understanding of Metaverse, Multiverse, and Omniverse. Now, without further ado, let’s begin!
Table of Contents:
- What is Metaverse
- Features of Metaverse
- What is Multiverse
- What is Omniverse
- Difference between Metaverse Multiverse and Omniverse
- Which technology is here to stay
What is Metaverse?
Now, before we proceed to discuss the differences between Metaverse vs Multiverse vs Omniverse, it would be better to understand these three concepts separately. So, let’s begin with the concept of the Metaverse first.
Metaverse is a concept that leverages virtual objects to offer realistic experiences by using technologies such as blockchain, AR, VR, AI, IoT, and more. Metaverse users have the freedom to buy virtual spaces to create virtual stores. Apart from that, users can also use VR glasses just to roam around in the Metaverse and do activities like hanging out with friends, finding new people, exploring stores, purchasing stuff, playing video games, marketing in Metaverse, etc.
To put it in short, Metaverse is a replica of the real universe that you get to explore and experience from the comfort of your own home. By leveraging technologies like AR and VR, you see and interact with objects that are just graphical representations of something that are either imaginary or copies of something real.
The above statistics by Statista show that Web 2.0 Metaverse had the largest market capitalization by October 2021. With a whopping 14.8 trillion USD market capitalization, the margin was way higher than the capitalization of other leading Metaverse segments like gaming and eSports, and Facebook (Meta).
Features of Metaverse
Well, Metaverse is a massive concept, and it includes plenty of features that are crucial to be discussed to understand this concept well. So, let’s break down its crucial features into pointers and discuss them individually for a better understanding of the concept.
- Virtual reality- Metaverse is heavily dependent on virtual reality even for its basic operations. To enter into this virtual world, users are supposed to wear VR glasses that are smart enough to support all Metaverse experiences. To hang out, interact with virtual objects, and find objects to shop, these VR glasses are the bridge between the Metaverse experience and users. Thus, the successful deployment of Metaverse and its expansion will not only popularize the concept of a virtual but realistic shopping experience but will also positively impact sales of VR glasses and other supporting devices.
- Augmented reality- Not so different from the VR concept, AR does not require VR glasses to explore virtual objects. One can just use the device camera and device screen to view, explore, and experience virtual reality. Metaverse is also leveraging this technology to ensure that users that do not have VR glasses yet can have some limited but amazing experiences as well. If you have used Pokemon GO, Snapchat filters, or some other experiences like that, you might know AR usually puts virtual objects into the real world by scanning the real world with your device camera. These virtual objects that are placed in the real world can be seen through the screen of the device that users are using.
- Cybersecurity- AI is used on Metaverse to offer cyber security. Also, blockchain empowers the cybersecurity features on Metaverse as well by leveraging concepts like transparency, immutability, performance, and more. AI with blockchain keeps an eye on servers in real-time to ensure fast and real-time actions are taken if any suspicious activities are detected. These technologies are handy in protecting transactions, user data, NFTs, cryptos, etc, that are a huge part of Metaverse servers.
- NFTs and cryptos- Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptos are a huge part of Metaverse as they empower the economic side of this technology. NFTs are used to help creators and sellers in keeping ownership and trade rights of objects they own or buy on Metaverse. Metaverse development companies like Decentraland are one of the key players involved in enabling NFTs on the Metaverse.
What is Multiverse?
As the name suggests, Multiverse is a combination of two words- Multiple + Universes. Thus, Multiverse simply means a collection of multiple universes that you can theorize, explore, or experience. In the real world, the Multiverse term is used to describe many fictional universes but in the context of technologies, the meaning slightly differs. In the technological world, there are several platforms that are referred to as various universes. For instance, social media platforms are one universe, and gaming platforms are the other universe. Just like that, you have one universe called eCommerce platforms and another universe where you order food from.
Multiverse is a simple concept to understand. Whatever you do in your video games will not impact your social media content. But some games like Uno provide you with the ability to share your gaming achievements on your social media platforms. That is how you transfer data between two different universes. But because both universes are part of a single Multiverse, it is possible to do that. However, you can not forget that even after being a part of the single Multiverse, both universes have their own set of rules and regulations that are not going to impact one another.
What is Omniverse?
Omniverse is a concept that consists of everything from Multiverses to Metaverses. It is the largest existing concept in the technological world that includes all elements of Multiverses and Metaveverses. The concept allows connecting all Metaverses and Multiverses for better data transfer, technology sharing, collaborations, communications, group projects, remote working, etc. So, in short, it is the largest amount of data collected under a single universe that keeps increasing in parallel as the number of Multiverses and Metaverses increases.
Difference between Metaverse, Multiverse, and Omniverse
On the basis of data size
Well, it is quite easy to understand that Metaverse remains at the lowest level if we compare the sizes of the data that each concept has to store and trade. After all, Metaverse is a collection of data from different sources but still only defines a single universe. It talks about a space where different entities sign up to provide common users with top Metaverse projects based on experiences like entertainment, shopping, education, and more. However, all that is done in a single space that might nor might not expand as requirements rise.
Multiverse, on the other hand, is much greater than Metaverse in terms of the size and capacity of storing the data and allowing data trades. The reason, as mentioned earlier, is quite simple. It consists of multiple Metaverses, and each Metaverse has its own set of rules, regulations, and behaviors. However, the concept is not only limited to Metaverses. In fact, Multiverse is also applied in many fictional sagas, theories, etc.
Omniverse, as we understood earlier, is much more complex and massive in size compared to the Metaverse and Multiverse. Omniverse includes all possible Multiverses existing in the reality, and as Metaverses are part of those Multiverses, Omniverse easily takes the cup of having much more amount of data to store and trade. An Omniverse also supports the concept of enhanced connectivity and data transfer as it creates an environment where everything exists inside of the concept. So, if someone is controlling the Omniverse, then they get access to the information that is existing in all possible parallel storages of data inside the Omniverse.
Technological requirements
Metaverse, as we mentioned earlier uses various technologies like AI, AR, VR, Blockchain, etc. These technologies are used to enable some common Metaverse operations like data storage, security, trading, virtual interactions, cyber security, financial transactions, content ownership, virtual shopping, and more. As new users sign up, new companies get onboarded, and new evolutions are made on Metaverse, the amount of data and the requirement of such technologies increase. But even after all that, a Metaverse still does not match the requirements of Multiverses.
A Multiverse, as it is massive in size, requires larger computational resources that can also enable more storage and more data transfer. Not only that, with such a massive requirement, data transfer speed is also a concern that not an ordinary internet speed can do even if it matches the level of corporate requirements. Depending on the size of the Multiverse of Metaverses, demand for technologies like blockchain and AI is surely expected to increase. Thus, these demands will result in requiring more infrastructure buildings for such technologies.
An Omniverse is what tops the hierarchy in terms of technical requirements due to its size. The concept covers all Multiverses, and that feature enables easiness of connectivity, one governance over the entire data infrastructure, faster connectivity of different platforms, and more. With all these capabilities, Omniverse also raises the requirement for technologies to support all these operations.
Examples
There are plenty of real-world examples existing that can be used as references to define Metaverses. Take Sandbox for example. The sandbox allows you to buy virtual lands, build properties, open stores, and do much more on land that only exists in a virtual world. Whereas there are other famous Metaverses too like Epic Games where users can play several virtual games and hang out with their friends or strangers in an original but organized virtual space.
Multiverse, on the other hand, is a concept that enables the idea of separate entities that have no impact on each other. Thus, we can take games like PUBG for example. Where you play that is not going to impact your Instagram account’s functionality. However, you also have control over the content that you want to share from PUBG like a screenshot, video recording, etc on your Instagram account.
Omniverse, on the other hand, has an amazing real-life example that is much easier to understand. NVIDIA-Omniverse is a concept that has been built to support and connect several industries on a single virtual platform. There are supporting technologies like NVIDIA RTX to enable ray tracing of lights with higher realism along with NVIDIA PhysX to enable higher quality visuals of textures and materials. NVIDIA Omniverse also uses AI that is helpful in deploying much smarter behavioral patterns and interactions for any purpose from entertainment to gaming. NVIDIA Omniverse is designed to enable smarter collaborations and to help enterprises in creating hyper-realistic virtual replicas of real-world objects.
Which technology is here to stay?
Well, among Metaverse, Multiverse, and Omniverse, Metaverse is still seeing a grand rise. The technology is being promoted by key players like Microsoft, Meta, and Google among others. Not only that, hundreds of startups and large enterprises are exploring ways of leveraging Metaverse to build a long-term presence on its servers. Thus, it is safe to say that Metaverse is indeed a technology that might stay for a long time. Also, with expanding adoption of technologies like Web 3.0, Metaverse also has the opportunity to empower itself and make the onboarding of more industries a smoother process than ever before.
Conclusion
Metaverse, Multiverse, and Omniverse; all three concepts are connected to each other but have very different features altogether. These concepts enable the idea of connectivity, massive data handling, data transfer, etc but also separate entities of operations from each other. However, there are factors that are increasing the popularity of these concepts and these factors are increasing digital connectivity of users from all over the world, the demand for more comfortable technologies, the demand for increasing virtual techs, and more. These increasing demands are resulting in an increasing amount of data and thus, the requirement for better connectivity is increasing as well.
In the future, when descendants of technologies like 5G get more popularize, we will be witnessing a huge increase in the normalization of technologies like Metaverse and Omniverse. With the increasing number of organizations, the demand for connectivity will increase as well, and thus, there will be more examples in the real world to discuss under Omniverse and Multiverse.
