Have you always wanted to try the metaverse, but were too afraid to ask? Now you can build it in to your 2D website to offer customers a metaverse-like experience to get them used to the concept.
US company Croquet Corporation has launched a free Metaverse Web Showcase, a fully immersive multiuser Metaverse world that can be embedded interoperably in any 2D website in less than 15 minutes, according to the company.
Web Showcase is designed for the websites of service providers such as agencies, consultants, non-profits, web developers or designers and provides a rich, highly interactive capabilities showcase that displays company presentations, video testimonials, customer references and next steps in the business process.
It enhances existing 2D websites, which depend upon scrolling and menu navigation, with an immersive environment that lets site visitors move freely throughout a showcase gallery to learn about the business and its capabilities. The result is significantly increased engagement by site visitors.
The system is cross platform and can be accessed by any internet device regardless of operating system, including desktops, tablets, phones and VR headsets. It is a multiuser space where site visitors can easily invite friends and colleagues to join them to collaboratively browse the space and converse using Dolby.io Spatial Audio Chat. Together this creates a completely immersive 3D world that can be published on any website, and is available for free at www.croquet.io/webshowcase, along with a working demo of the showcase in action.
Designed as a low code implementation – where web site designers grab a snippet of code, deploy it to an iFrame in the site and identify the location of assets – the customisable capabilities gallery is immediately available and has a powerful feature set that will fit the needs of many sites.
“Our web development team at Root Marketing got the Showcase customized and up in no time, and feedback from early site visitors is they love it,” explains Jim Jonassen, Founder of JJA, an executive search firm serving growth-stage tech and digital companies and early user of Web Showcase. “We are hoping to build it out in the future to host office hours in the Metaverse for clients and candidates.”
Web Showcase is built on Croquet OS, the operating system for the Open Metaverse, using Croquet’s open source Microverse World Builder. Developers can create additional customization beyond the core feature set provided, including new functions and interoperable portals, using World Builder (available on GitHub) and a free developer API key from croquet.io. This is just one example of many ways that developers will integrate the Metaverse with the 2D web using Croquet.
“The Metaverse will be made up of millions of individual spaces and worlds working together interoperably,” says David A. Smith, Founder and CTO of Croquet. “The web will be the foundation for many of these worlds and Web Showcase gives developers a very rapid, low code, zero cost way to implement the Metaverse effectively in websites today.”
Croquet OS is the only open, browser-based operating system that unites the web and the Metaverse. The OS loads instantly from any URL or QR code during entry to a virtual world with web, mobile or AR/VR devices. It uses synchronization, live data and persistence services from its globally deployed Croquet Reflector Network to enable ultra-low-latency, low-bandwidth shared experiences. Any Metaverse developer can integrate Croquet OS as infrastructure to enable multi-user shared experiences and achieve perfectly synchronised shared social interactions.
