Despite the rise of VR and AR devices and the ubiquity of generative AI tools, the metaverse hasn’t been talked about much these days. Generative AI could ultimately change virtual worlds like Roblox. How AI influences how players and creators design games, objects, and worlds could influence what the future Metaverse space will look like. Roblox expands on an effort it started earlier this year, adding more generative AI, including new AI assistants for creating and coding. The news was announced at Roblox’s latest event. developer conferencecurrently held in San Francisco.

Roblox is already on the Quest VR headset, launching in beta this year and moving into its final version on Meta’s app store this month. Roblox just announced at its developer conference that the app is coming to PlayStation in October, a move that further pushes the platform’s small game world multiplicity beyond phones, tablets and PCs.

But one of the most interesting new features also adds avatar chat. Roblox Connect, coming by the end of this year, will use cameras to track facial movements and map them to Roblox avatars, enabling avatar chat similar to how Microsoft added avatars to Teams. .

Admittedly, Roblox is primarily for kids. But more and more they seem to be aiming for more.

Generative AI Accelerates World Creation

Sony once had its own world creation platform with Media Molecules versatility (VR ready). dreamended online support in early September. Is Roblox ready to enter as the next big cross-platform world-creating service that also supports VR? If so, what would it look like?

Roblox begins adding generative AI to Creator Tools Earlier this year, But the upcoming update will be even more ambitious. A new AI assistant with generative AI analyzes your code and guides you through creating games and experiences. The platform also opens up the creation and sale of objects, including those made with generative AI, to premium Roblox subscribers with authenticated identities. That may mean an explosive increase in new sales. These objects will gradually begin to become visible across Roblox experiences, with the goal of becoming ubiquitous items in the spirit Meta has long promised in its Horizon Worlds Metaverse plans. There is a nature.

“We believe generative AI will make creating these complex objects much easier,” Nick Tornow, vice president of engineering for Roblox’s Creator Group, said in an interview with CNET. “It could be a boat. It might make a fabric pattern. You could pick that fabric pattern that you designed and make a coat that you really like. You can even create an entire independent shop that works.”

This spirit sounds familiar. Similar to Meta’s Metaverse Vision, or even the original Metaverse Platform for many years, such as: second life. However, Roblox’s team promises that when these items start appearing in other experiences on the platform, they may still link to their original creators.

“If you build the best hat-making experience on Roblox, every time someone inspects a hat I buy from you, or made with your experience, they say, ‘Oh, that’s why I’m going to Scott’s Hat Shop Experience.’ Build something similar,” said Tian Lim, VP of Products at Roblox Creator Group and former VP of Google Play. “So, all of a sudden, we created the ability for every creator and experience to have a calling card. We can use this to create supply chains and demand webs.”

Roblox’s multi-stage plan is to apply these cross-platform sellable items to avatars, then to objects that can move between experiences, and then to larger works and worlds. Generative AI for Roblox could be the accelerator that Meta’s Horizon Worlds effort has so far lacked.

Generative AI will be available on multiple levels to create things and help with coding. Roblox is already embracing other forms of generative AI in experiences. But Roblox puts the responsibility of creative originality on creators. “We think of generative AI as a tool. Just like we have paintbrushes, we have generative AI,” Tonau says. “I think you can make a lot of great things with it. I think you will love it.

It could also accelerate the process of creating new experiences on Roblox. “In fact, today there will be a very engaging interaction between our creator community, generating more assets and even more ideas that will help us create these things faster.” added Lim.

Will Roblox turn into a destination for VR and AR?

Between Roblox Connect’s cross-platform avatar chat calls and generative AI, there’s a lot going on, especially for me (a dad who always sees his kids playing with Roblox but has never been a very active participant himself). There is a lot to take in. Again, I’ve lived in many virtual worlds that have slowly faded away, including Microsoft’s. AltSpace VR with Shutter And the PlayStation dream. And I see my kids playing Roblox all the time while talking to friends on FaceTime (Roblox Connect is restricted to ages 13 and up, but much like Meta’s VR age limit, eventually I’m curious how many kids will end up chatting on his Roblox (parent account).

VR is just one platform in a vast toolbox right now. “Roblox is already one of the largest platforms in the country, available on an astounding number of devices, and our general goal is simply to be ubiquitous for operators and users,” said Lim. noted the platform’s unique advantages for younger players. too. But while AR isn’t on the roadmap yet, it could be next.

“We have a completely different approach to the whole problem,” Lim said. “Roblox is not a game or an app. Roblox is and aspires to be an operating system for metaverse applications.”

Roblox is starting to look like a sort of massive metaverse platform that could possibly become the place where more virtual theaters, conferences, and whatever else happens. More cross-platform, more creative tools, and VR support all sound promising.

“One of the things that Roblox really excels in when it comes to VR and AR is that it’s avatar-centric,” says Tornow. “Fundamentally, the experience is about you. In VR and AR, it’s inherently happening in a more connected way. So I think the platform is a great fit for that.”

When it comes to AR and mixed reality, we’re not quite there yet.but Apple’s Vision Pro and meta quest 3 will usher in a new wave of mixed reality-enabled VR headsets, but Roblox hasn’t announced anything in that regard at this time. But it looks like Roblox will turn to the creative community to discuss it when the time comes.

“I don’t think I understand exactly how things work, especially in the AR world, and I don’t know if anyone does,” Tonau said. “As AR devices come along, heaven knows what our creators will build with these tools.”

“The creativity of this community is amazing. We just need to expose a few things to make placing objects in AR and physical environments a little easier for the community. And the community will be experimenting soon.” It helps us understand what is fun and useful,” Lim added.

These avatar-based communication tools and creative additions powered by generative AI could very well be the backbone of the next wave of Roblox AR that will inevitably come.