topic Re: Archicad & the Metaverse in Documentation

Archicad & the Metaverse

Link — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 17:56:36 GMT

I wonder how Archicad will compete in the metaverse?

I think it's going to be increasingly easy to build beautiful structures without real-world limitations or clients to worry about. There will be as much, if not much more, money to be made in virtual worlds than in the real world. The first virtual building has also sold for approximately $512,000 and it will never be built. Or perhaps we sell our models as NFTs along with our real-world deliverables.

I have personally already bought 4 lots in SuperWorld and am eyeing up Victoria VR (the first hyper-realistic virtual, unreal engine powered, blockchain world which is about to drop early next year) next. It's early days, but the digital land rush has begun. Buildings can be sold or rented, or advertising / augmented reality rights can be leased, in multiple worlds.

Web 3.0 is just around the corner. Is anyone else planning to stake a claim? Do you think Archicad will play a big part in it?

Would love to hear more opinions!

Cheers,

Link.

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

Steve Jepson — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 20:16:52 GMT

Selling artificially useful and/or imaginary goods and services is par for the course these days in every industry. But every real dollar extracted out of the Ethereum in this way (Non-fungible tokens) is taking money directly from the pockets of truly productive people who are trying to make a living in a real-world economy. This is because it has the same effect as circulating Counterfeit money. It's really not a new idea to do this, just a new way of doing it. The Stock Market is doing essentially the same thing when imaginary profits on Futures are being bought and sold as if they were real, but no real commodities or services were ever a part of this Digital Alchemy. It's all just one more smoke and mirrors system that is contributing to a global economic collapse.

However, if Graphisoft will accept NFT's as payment for use of Archicad I am all for it 😉.

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

Link — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 22:41:14 GMT

Anyone else?

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

jl_lt — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 03:37:57 GMT

Its an extremely interesting oportunity. I need to read more about it, but on a first take, i think this is where "parametric" buildings could trully shine and finally find their place, becoming buildings that actually move and transform and acomodate themselves for your very virtual needs. Look at the work of pioneers like Marcos Novak and others back in the 90´s who talked about 4d realms and "liquid" architecture before it was cool. Their works are made for virtual worlds unbound by gravity, either for the buildings themselves AND the users.

So no, unfortunately, unless something changes, i see these worlds becoming the domain of free form software like Rhino and the like, who dont care about constructability or economic limitations. Actually i think form, that is, static form as we architects understand it, will become absolutely irrelevant. Form will be determined purely from algorithmic calculations and user input all of which will leave the hands and control of the architect the second after he uploads it.

But not to worry. Archicad shall become king in the real world though, when it finally fight its last epic battle against evil Revit in the Bim Armageddon and comes out with victory

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

jl_lt — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 04:28:12 GMT

Also, more people would comment on this if the topic wasnt randomly lost among other random topics (critique on the new forum layout by the way)

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

Steve Jepson — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 00:13:29 GMT

you can buy Graphisoft Park today for only $465.00 ! I am looking into how to buy it.

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

JaredBanks — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 03:57:59 GMT

I think this is a really interesting take on it. Virtual buildings don't need to be constrained by physics. That means they don't need to be static. In fact why buy a virtual building that can't be manipulated by the end user? It makes me think about Roblox or Minecraft. People who use those games augment their structures at will. What's the value of static buildings compared to that? I clearly don't have any answers, but this is an interesting topic. I'll say this though, making a living building digital structures would be WAY less stressful. No need to worry about leaks or other building failures. Oh and NO permitting. What a dream.

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

Link — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 17:37:59 GMT

That dream will be a reality within a few years at the rate things are developing, which is much faster now, than ever before. While the internet (or Web 1.0) took 10 years to really develop and become mainstream, and social media (Web 2.0) took, what 5-10 years? The metaverse (Web 3.0) will take less than 5 years to be mainstream. All the hardware is right around the corner and headsets will end up being the price of a pair of sunglasses.

Anyone that thinks the goods and services in the metaverse are imaginary is a little naive given that it's already a multi-billion dollar industry and it's only just the very beginning. Events on Fortnite, for example, have a far bigger audience than the Emmys and the Oscars combined. Centralized banking is on the way out and pay-to-watch services, like Netflix, will succumb to paid-to-watch services.

Anyway, back to architecture, here's an interesting article about architecting in the metaverse, especially the section called 'Business Model Change: From Consultant to Content Creator':

https://www.archdaily.com/968905/architecting-the-metaverse

It does suggest computational design and apps like Grasshopper are the way to go, which why I asked the question about how Archicad will fit in. Regardless, I think the people who embrace this notion early are going to have a significant advantage over the people who drag their feet. Of course, architecture will still be required in the real-world, so it's not one-or-the-other, but there will certainly be a massive market in the metaverse. Time to get into it!

Cheers,

Link.

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

jl_lt — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 03:43:19 GMT

I agree completely. Hop into algorithms; its now or never. There was a thread a while ago where everyone kinda went against one guy who was arguing AI will fundamentally change everything (sorry Mr. Podolsky). While there was agreement on the fact that AI will be important and become mainstream, almost no one, yours truly included, agreed to the extent that it will and should replace architects.

Im not so sure now. Although instead of replacing poor old architect, I envision a symbiotic relationship: You draw, the machine proposes options based on your input, and then refine, with algorithms being created in the background. The tecnological leap should occur when everything becomes integrated once again, like when the pencil, the hand and the mind was all an architect needed.

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

DGSketcher — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 10:51:06 GMT

Bring me my VR headset, I don't have time to be messing about trying to save the planet with low carbon & sustainable solutions. You can all burn while I get rich trading in artificial environments with ephemeral content. 😂🙄😳😱

We know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

Laszlo Nagy — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 19:16:45 GMT

If I am not mistaken, that is not the whole Graphisoft Park, it is only a single building (SAP building) within Graphisoft Park.

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

jl_lt — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 20:09:36 GMT

They will find a way to make people comply with fire codes and whatnot even thought its a virtual building 🤣

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

Steve Jepson — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 01:08:07 GMT

Its just one of the lots available. Also, there is not just one of these Imaginary Real-estate companies out there selling the same imaginary plots of land. The whole this is absurd. The entire game is for people who will team up to create an imaginary scarcity buying and selling this stuff to each other back and forth until they find someone who will foolishly pay with real dollars for it - and then they split the real dollar profits with each other. Exactly like real world real-estate :). How long before GS will feel obligated to buy up their own imaginary real-estate before the price goes up ? What happens if Revit busy up the GS imaginary real-estate and that part of the Metaverse becomes a sales tool for them ? We can't have that! The savy investor will buy this imaginary real-estate now before the inevitable price wars for it become hyper-inflated.

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

DGSketcher — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 09:10:27 GMT

I would also assume this will have a problem with parallel universe syndrome. You can buy the virtual plot in one universe, but someone else can set up a duplicate universe and sell the identical plot e.g. Metaverse vs Googleverse vs Appleverse vs Scammerverse. This isn't dissimilar to the Domain Name wars which happened about 25 years ago. The only thing is, does it have any real world impact on Brand protection, which is what eventually stabilised Domain Name management? Visit us at 55MainSt.ScamCity.Scammerverse.

I still think it is a sad reflection on humanity that we've screwed the planet, now some untrustworthy people are suggesting we bury our heads in their virtual world to forget the mess that's being left behind.

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

DGSketcher — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 09:18:17 GMT

On which point, imagine designing a virtual building, getting paid $ millions, and using an algorithm that self-destructs immediately after you cease trading. Any lawyers in the house... caveat emptor

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

jl_lt — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 16:58:21 GMT

I can imagine everything you say, except the part of getting paid millions

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

Link — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 17:23:46 GMT

It's interesting how many of the comments seem to have a negative take on them. Agreed, the computing power required to run the metaverse will be immense, but hopefully, the market will be prompted to adjust sooner? And perhaps with VR, the amount of travel will be lessened? There are so many upsides to the metaverse, especially in the way we can interact with distant friends and family, including improving mental health, educating people more interactively no matter where they live in the real world, remote medical assistance, the list goes on and on. All these worlds need to accommodate people and for that, they need architects, building designers, and interior designers.

In any case, it is all coming and quickly, so we can choose to get ahead of it or play catchup or miss out altogether. I bet the next wave of architectural graduates won't be waiting around. There's probably plenty of them already getting their designs ready for Victoria VR, Insomnium Space, Decentraland, et al. I hope to get a model up to Superworld as soon as my funds clear.

Video Games are forging the way right now, but non-game apps will soon be a major player. I've read estimates that it will be an $800B industry by 2024 and over a trillion by 2025.

Cheers,

Link.

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

Steve Jepson — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 00:26:14 GMT

The internet that connects the real-world with real-world goods, services, and currency is one thing -- buying imaginary real-estate with real-world currency that disappears forever is another.

Should be all be converting our hi-end Workstations into Ethereum miners?

https://youtu.be/djh3Gkyu3mA

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

jl_lt — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 05:27:59 GMT

What would interest me the most is the conection between these two realms, the physical and the virtual and how physical architecture can acomodate these kind new programs while being altered and modified by the virtual.

Surely there are studies about this, as these kind of situations were already architectural fantasies in the late 90´s early 2000. Im really looking forward to it.

Re: Archicad & the Metaverse

DGSketcher — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 09:21:29 GMT

It doesn't disappear forever, it just slips into the back pocket of someone laughing at the gullible who will pay for the "Emperor's new clothes".