Vircadia is a 3D social software project seeking to incrementally bring about a truly free and open metaverse, in desktop and XR.
For Linux - AppImage - Vircadia Builder
Having a place to experience adventure, a place to relax with calm breath, that's a world to live in. An engine to support infinite combinations and possibilities of worlds without censorship and interruption, that's a metaverse. Finding a way to make infinite realities our reality is the dream.
Many developers have had personal combinations of High Fidelity from C++ modifications to different default scripts, all of which are lost to time as their fullest potential is never truly shared and propagated through the system.
The goal of this project is to achieve the metaverse dream through shared contribution and building. Setting goals that are achievable yet meaningful is key to making proper forward progress on the technical front whilst maintaining morale.
Because of all the options, it is the only starting point that is open-source, cross-platform, fully VR integrated + fully desktop integrated with an aim for quality visuals and performance. It also provides a foundation to build from including components like entity management, full body IK, etc.
WebXR offers the open-source and decentralized aspect but does not have any of the full featured starting points such as avatars, IK, etc. which means that a lot of ground work will have to be laid to make something functional. Far more work will need to be done to create a truly seamless and extensive experience as well.
Platforms like NeosVR or VRChat are not viable from go due to their fundamental closed-source and centralized nature. A metaverse to live in cannot have the keys handed over to any singular entity, if any at all.
We need to do the best we can with what we've got and our best bet as open source developers is to not redesign the wheel if we can help it!
A special thanks to the contributors of Vircadia.