Open Source Metaverses

Open Source (FOSS) and Metaverse are wide and growing topics, but yet the general interest for their intersection is limited.

In this article, I will give a short overview of the subject, with an emphasize of promising and maintained projects.

Platforms

Their was few resources one the subject of Open Source Metaverses and most of them were incomplete on their lists or outdated:

• Opensource VRChat alternative? : r/linux_gaming

At the ends I choosed to take maintained, self-hosted and open source VR platforms:

• Hubs Foundation
• Overte

Also we need to give some reasons of choosing these platforms over VRChat. Some of them are that from a technical standpoint, being closed sourced could limit the innovation and flexibility.

Hubs

Hubs by Hubs Foundation, named before Mozilla Hubs, is a project that use WebXR to be able to have VR social network within your web browser.

Overte

Overte is an open source virtual worlds and social VR software, focused on desktop platforms (Linux and Windows), witch allow a more close experience of what you can get with VRChat.

WebXR

WebXR is an API for XR via web browser, but the main web framework is A-Frame.

For example, Hubs (Hubs Foundation) is actually using A-Frame to be able to have VR.

In that sense a solution like Hubs or using WebXR in general, is more adapted for the market of low specification hardware and general public for XR.

A-Frame is actually something you can try with different hardware:

• Examples – A-Frame
  • Model Viewer – A-Frame
• Showcase – A-Frame
  • A-Painter