Feeling Nothing To Lose, Nvidia Shares Free Software For Metaverse Artists

JAKARTA – Nvidia Corp on Tuesday, January 4 said that it will give away the software for free to artists and other creators who build virtual worlds for the metaverse. Nvidia has even struck technology deals with several marketplaces where artists sell the three-dimensional content they create.

Metaverse - a loosely defined term that can refer to virtual worlds brought to life using virtual and augmented reality headsets - relies heavily on graphics computing technologies such as Nvidia's flagship semiconductor.

Nvidia is seeking to transform its leading position in supplying computing hardware for the metaverse into a suite of software tools for creating and selling content in the virtual world. This is a business opportunity that has helped Nvidia share value, more than doubling over the past year.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Nvidia said it plans to distribute a free version of its "Omniverse" software for creating virtual worlds to individual artists. Nvidia last November said it would charge a starting price of USD 9.000 (IDR 129 million) per year for corporate customers.

Once artists create three-dimensional content that can be used online, they can sell that content across multiple marketplaces and content libraries.

As reported by Reuters, Nvidia on Tuesday also said it had reached agreements with four of those marketplaces — TurboSquid by Shutterstock, CGTrader, Sketchfab, and Twinbru — to allow their marketplace content to appear in Nvidia's Omniverse software.

Nvidia also said that Reallusion's ActorCore's MarketCatalog, Daz3D, and PlantCatalog e-on software will soon release their Omniverse-ready assets.

Nvidia did not disclose the financial arrangements of its deals with content libraries and marketplaces. Tech companies with large audiences for their software platforms often charge commissions or other fees to content creators who want to sell to their users.