Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) launched Atlanta Meta World, the first-of-its-kind metaverse experience of a city destination. This is the first step toward a vision that will provide meeting planners and prospective visitors the opportunity to virtually explore key elements of the Atlanta experience while interacting with other virtual world visitors and representatives of the venues.
What is it?
Atlanta Meta World is a visually-realistic virtual world representation of the as-built environment. The starting point of the experience is the visitor information center in Centennial Olympic Park. This 22-acre greenspace on Georgia World Congress Center’s campus lies in the heart of downtown Atlanta, surrounded by attractions, hotels and restaurants.
Visitors to the virtual world today can explore the many areas of the park and will soon be able to visit and explore attractions, meeting and event venues throughout Atlanta.
Why is it the first of its kind?
Atlanta Meta World is a truly persistent, photo-realistic representation of a destination where users can select an avatar and navigate the virtual experience, interacting with other users in real time. Atlanta Meta World is accessible through a browser, so anyone with a computer and internet connection can enjoy the experience. Atlanta Meta World allows the destination specialists and partner venue representatives to conduct customer presentations to private and public groups before guiding them around the facilities on a virtual tour.
What’s next?
The next step in the process will be to explore building out hotels, attractions and partner venues with a meetings and events focus.
What is the metaverse and is Atlanta Meta World the metaverse?
Atlanta Meta World will be part of the metaverse as defined by Matthew Ball, author of “The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything.” Ball’s definition of the metaverse is “a massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds that can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence, and with continuity of data, such as history, entitlements, objects, communications, and payments.”
Atlanta Meta World meets the definition as it is:
- Massively scaled and can continue to expand with complex and engaging partner experiences
- Interoperable with Ready Player Me avatar integration allowing for interoperability as well as the planned integration of Blockchain and NFT technology
- Synchronous as users entering the world experience the same events at the same time, real time, and can communicate with each other, voice or text (future rollout)
- Persistent because the world is live 24/7, and any changes to the environment are not reset unless done as part of an update
- Effectively unlimited number of users since the number of concurrent users in one instance is practically limited to 100-150 in non-console based metaverse executions, but multiple instances can co-exist simultaneously
- Individual sense of presence with customizable avatars, user-controlled movement, spatial sound and proximity-based interactions
- Continuity of data since user login allows for saving avatars and tracking interactions
Development Partners
Atlanta Meta World was built on a Unity Software technology platform by a collaboration of Exploring Digital and MA Software Systems, both Atlanta-based companies.
Interested in taking your business virtual?
Businesses located in the city of Atlanta which are interested in establishing a presence in Atlanta Meta World can contact us or one of our development partners. We encourage all businesses involved with the meetings and hospitality industry to consider establishing a presence in the metaverse. We would be happy to discuss the range of possibilities available.
VIRTUAL CITY BUILDERS
Mike Aaron
mike.aaron@masoftwaresystems.com
+1 678-666-4531
EXPLORING DIGITAL
Nick Muratore – VP
NMuratore@exploringdig.com
678-231-7368