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Dwango, Pixiv, Unity, More Form Industry Group for 3D Avatars
posted on by Karen Ressler
13 Japanese companies plan to establish a joint enterprise named "VRM Consortium" in February 2019. The goal of the enterprise is to develop the international virtual reality business with a focus on 3D avatars.
The enterprise seeks to advocate the file format "VRM" (based on glTF2.0) as the standard file format for 3D human models for virtual reality. The format is platform independent, free to use, and open-source. The companies hope that the standard will streamline the creation process for games, virtual YouTubers, and other projects that utilize 3D avatars.
The enterprise is also seeking to expand the initiative outside of Japan.
The participating companies range from those focused on technology to those focused on virtual reality contents. They include game development platform creator Unity Technologies Japan, virtual reality development companies IVR and XVI Inc., GREE's virtual YouTuber company Wright Flyer Live, artist website pixiv, livestreaming platforms SHOWROOM and Mirrativ, telecommunications company Dwango, online game sales platform S-Court, virtual YouTuber and amusement development company DUO, VR distribution platform Virtual Cast, virtual event platform developer Cluster, and Vocaloid's music technology company Crypton Future Media. Nintendo is also participating as an observer.
Virtual Cast began streaming a video for the new enterprise. The video highlights the participating companies and their existing virtual reality model creation and distribution platforms, such as pixiv's VRoid Hub, IVR's V-Katsu, Dwango and S-court's Custom Cast, and DUO's IRIAM.
Sources: VRM Consortium's website, Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)
