Ready Player Me, the platform that lets you create Avatars in the metaverse, has launched its very first Avatar API with improved interoperability for cross-game avatars that will allow users to carry their avatars with them wherever they enter the metaverse.
The company believes that this new program interface will play an important role in not only building cross-game avatar experiences but economies as well.
Timmu Tõke, CEO of Ready Player Me has revealed that over 4,000 indie game companies are using the platform’s avatars for various applications.
Speaking with GamesBeat, Rainer Selvet, CTO of Ready Player Me stated, “Everybody is talking about interoperability in Web3 and the metaverse. But it hasn’t been practically possible before. In our case, the launch of our API will essentially enable interoperability of our avatars and other cosmetics and wearables, clothing assets, and the wearables of the metaverse for the apps that are already on the network.”
And although creating a solid avatar system isn’t an easy task, it’s far more challenging to create one that works well for thousands of games that also allows users to customize these avatars in detail.
The biggest challenge for the platform would be establishing the right standards that game developers would be willing to adopt and build with.
According to Selvet, “Game companies have avatars with custom character skeletons and different engines. “It’s a Wild West. Every game is implementing something completely differently. We need to figure out a system that is capable of delivering avatars in a way that they remain interoperable across different applications.”
Below are the main features in Ready Player Me’s new Avatar API that’ll allow developers to create proper avatars for their applications:
• Reduce avatar size and memory consumption by setting an upper limit for the size of textures included in the avatars;
• Use the mesh level of detail (LOD) option to reduce the triangle count of the avatars;
• Using the morph targets parameter, you can now decide which of the 90 (?) facial animation morphs to include on the avatar. Or use none for reduced file size;
• Reduce file size by compressing avatars with Draco mesh compression;
• Generate a texture atlas of desired resolution and retrieve single draw call avatars.
Ready Player Me’s Avatar API is a big step towards building the metaverse’s interoperability layer where avatars, wearables and items can be used across multiple applications and metaverse locations. Such a move is seen as vital in order to stimulate a lasting and worthwhile economy in the trade of in-game items.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
