MetaMundo launches 3D NFT marketplace for metaverse

MetaMundo has launched its 3D NFT marketplace for the metaverse with a focus on primarily art sales.

The marketplace allows you to collect and own metaverse scenes and assets as NFTs, and it is compatible to use in several virtual environments such as Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, The Sandbox and Spatial.

MetaMundo operates the marketplace for the primary sale of 3D images for use in galleries, villas, music venues, parks, avatars, vehicles and more. 3D artists, architects and designers can sell their 3D scenes and assets on MetaMundo’s marketplace, directly to users of the metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds all interconnected, as in novels such as Snow crash and Ready Player One.

JPEG-based NFT marketplaces are common. But this kind of 3D art market is unique and it tackles the problem of creating an open metaverse – interoperable assets across engines and worlds, co-founder Finn Hansen said in an interview with GamesBeat.

“It’s important that we enable talented creatives, 3D artists, to shape these experiences and be at the forefront of building the metaverse, which really needs to be built because we’re at the very beginning of its existence,” he said. “Today, if you buy a 3D asset on one of the marketplaces that are usually tightly coupled to a virtual world, you mostly can’t use those files in other worlds.”

Interoperability

The company believes there is some progress in terms of interoperability with standardization bodies to come. Avatars in particular should become corss platform, allowing you to take your identity from one place to another.

“Everyone is going to need an avatar, and I think people will want multiple avatars, depending on what mood they’re in, what kind of setting they want to go to and how they want to express themselves,” Hansen said. “You will choose your outfit and wearables. Vehicles get interesting.”

MetaMundo supports standards such as Pixar’s Universal Scene Description, which has been adopted as an open source standard for sharing 3D assets.

The company made it possible to make 3D game assets available as NFTs. It built a custom-built 3D viewer where you can see the different interoperable versions of the same 3D element for each environment. It took over a year of development to build.

“It’s fundamentally a content problem in the metaverse, and that’s something we want to change,” Hansen said. “We do that by collaborating with talented 3D creators, designers, architects and brands to help shape what these experiences are and help imagine what the metaverse could be. The beauty of the metaverse is that it really can be what our imaginations can come up with.”

MetaMundo collaborates with a curated selection of 3D creators, active in design in the metaverse and real life, such as the famous NFT artist Dutchtide, American modernist architect Luis Fernandez and metaverse architect Mila Lolli. At launch, MetaMundo will have weekly curated NFT drops. Each features an editorial in-depth interview.

“MetaMundo’s vision is to facilitate a beautifully designed, interoperable and open metaverse – an immersive 3D social internet, where anyone can own and build parts of it through blockchain technology. The market launch is our first big step towards realizing this vision, said Hansen. “For the first time, we’ve made it possible for metaverse users to collect high-quality 3D scenes – created as NFTs – for use across many virtual environments.”

The first 3D NFT drops include: A brutalist-architecture-inspired Japanese Zen Art Gallery, by Netherlands-based artist Dutchtide; and a sprawling luxury villa by the sea, reminiscent of the work of Adolf Loos and Mies van der Rohe, by Luis Fernandez. The gallery will be auctioned as one of one edition; The villa will be available for purchase from an issue of 100 NFTs.

A marketplace built for 3D NFTs and interoperability

MetaMundo has developed its own NFT built on Ethereum, specifically designed for 3D files and metaverse interoperability – solving a number of problems with 3D files, metaverse and NFTs. Through a flexible metadata structure, several 3D files can be included in one NFT.

“We address the lack of NFT interoperability through a unique architecture we have developed that has a versatile and extensible NFT metadata structure, supports multiple 3D file versions and offers the flexibility to add more file versions later to enable future proofing as 3D technology evolves ,” Hansen said.

Each NFT sold on MetaMundo includes a pack of 3D files compatible with Decentraland, The Sandbox, Cryptovoxels, Spatial, VRChat and more. Over time, new 3D files may be added to NFT, which are compatible with new metaverse environments. MetaMundo takes the 3D file developed by the creator and puts it through a conversion and optimization pipeline, resulting in the creation of multiple metaverse-optimized 3D files.

“MetaMundo addresses the huge demand for creating living environments and virtual cities in the metaverse, by offering a solution that is both scalable and creative, which is also compatible with The Sandbox,” said Sebastien Borget, CEO of The Sandbox, in a statement.

Intuitive user experience for collecting 3D NFTs

Most of today’s NFT marketplaces were originally designed and built to collect 2D NFTs.

“The future of the metaverse is going to be a fragmented smorgasbord of different kinds of experiences,” Hansen said. “We want to accommodate that and make sure that when you buy an asset from a creator or 3D content and you want to go and use it, it’s going to work.”

He added, “We need to be sure that the 3D models we sell won’t become unusable in the long term. We can adopt new file standards if they emerge. And as 3D rendering technology changes, and so on, we’re still in able to deliver interactive functionality across these various popular virtual environments.”

With the rapid growth of metaverse and 3D virtual environments, MetaMundo has designed and built a user experience aimed specifically at collecting 3D NFTs. The MetaMundo marketplace allows users to preview and interact with the 3D files collected in each NFT, via an immersive and interactive display, before collectors make a purchase.

“With the launch of MetaMundo, we’re excited about the possibility of being able to bring together 3D scenes that work across multiple metaverses,” TJ Kawamura of Everyrealm said in a statement. “The unique nature of MetaMundo’s NFTs makes it incredibly easy for anyone to build on our land and create engaging metaverse environments from today’s leading 3D designers.”

Back in November, MetaMundo raised $2.7 million in funding from metaverse funds and angel investors. Lead investor was Animoca Brands, with Hypersphere Ventures, Digital Currency Group (DCG), OP Crypto, Metacartel Ventures, Everyrealm, Marshland Capital, Own.fund, Polygon Studios, Ascensive Assets, Sfermion, D1 Ventures, Cryptomeria Capital, Red Beard Ventures, and Metacollective.

MetaMundo is an online marketplace based in the British Virgin Islands, with a dozen employees. MetaMundo is built on Polygon, the eco-friendly blockchain, which means that minting and selling the assets will have very low gas fees compared to Ethereum and will use much less energy.

What kind of content keeps people coming back to the metaverse?

– We think about it a lot. So this is really at the forefront of our minds. We obviously have these conversations with creators as well. And we will also be focused on further optimizing our 3D model optimization pipeline, said Hansen. “We’re going to make sure they work across these different environments. Creators come to us, or brands will come to us with an original 3D file. We will then take the file, make copies, convert and decimate it through the 3D model optimization pipeline. And then at the end of that we have a bundle of files, which we work with the metadata structure as an NFT. We will continue to automate that pipeline.”

As for metaverse-like worlds emerging, Hansen said he was excited about Wilder World, which is built on Unreal Engine 5 technology. He is also excited about The Sandbox, Nifty Island, and Otherside — First Trip, from Yuga Labs and Improbable.

The crypto winter and the NFT resistance

I asked Hansen about what it’s like to operate in the middle of the current cryptocurrency winter.

“We’re a team of builders, so that doesn’t affect our focus on continuing to build the best possible platform for talented 3D creators and brands to launch interoperable 3D metaverse scenes and elements,” he said. “Yes, there is less demand right now for NFTs, but we have a clear long-term vision to enable metaverse building. There will always be demand for interesting, high-quality 3D experiences, and this is what we will continue to focus on deliver.”

I also asked what he thinks about hardcore player opposition to NFTs.

“As more and more 3D design talent and triple-A game development studios begin to leverage NFT technology, we will see more high-quality NFT games and experiences that are fun, social and engaging,” said Hansen. “This will be the key to winning over the hardcore players.”