Our Metaverse Is Evolving from Horizon Worlds to Spatial
[9.8.2022 – T. Lee III]
I personally have spent plenty of time building our athlete’s metaverse environments in Meta’s Horizon Worlds and Spatial. Boyd and I released our first metaverse world in February of this year. Below is a picture and video of Boyd and I in our first College Fan Coins metaverse world.
Horizon Worlds, and Spatial have similarities and some key differences.
Similarities:
- Cost: Both have free versions
- Immersive: Both have fully immersive apps in the Meta Platform for the Oculus Quest 2
Differences:
- Development Environment:
- Horizon Worlds –
- Integration with other tools – Horizon Worlds currently has a closed environment. All development is done in the Oculus Quest. This is a big disadvantage for developers that do not have $299 to purchase an Oculus Quest 2.
- Scripting – Horizon Worlds Scripting does include a full featured scripting language that allows for the creation of game type functionality.
- Avatars- Horizon Worlds is built on top of its internal avatar system and integrates Facebook friends. This is a big advantage of Horizon Worlds.
- Spatial –
- Integration with other tools – Custom Spatial spaces are built from 3D models outside of Spatial. Any 3D modeling tool can be used to build a Spatial space. We primarily use Blender.org.
- Scripting – Spatial does not include native in space scripting.
- Avatars – Spatial has its own avatar builder but also uses the popular ReadyPlayerMe ecosystem.
- Horizon Worlds –
In Horizon Worlds you can build whatever comes to your imagination. Some of the things I have built are buildings and homes for athletes, where brands and companies can show NIL support by putting something on that athlete’s wall. It can be a small message, or even a company logo or poster. Inside the metaverse the opportunities are unlimited.
With Spatial, it is everything I mentioned previously, but more. Spatial has one extra twist on it that puts it in first place above Horizon Worlds. You can visit the Spatial metaverse from the Oculus, mobile app or a web browser. You don’t need to purchase an Oculus Quest 2 to operate within the metaverse. That’s huge. Not needing an oculus to access is actually super important. Not every developer can afford to purchase an Oculus Quest 2. But, everyone has a phone, and/or has access to the internet. Also, Spatial has direct NFT integration. With spatial it allows you to create more realistic spaces and has brought a real world feel to the metaverse.
Checkout my Huncho Elite NFT Gallery I created in the Spatial metaverse for the hip-hop moguls Parlae and QuavoHuncho.
I feel like the future of the metaverse is a rich immersive experience that is most similar to Spatial. This rich experience is the main reason that we have started the process of converting our athlete’s from Horizon World metaverse worlds to Spatial spaces.
