Mar 2

7 min read

Bit.Country Development Update March 2023

TL:DR

Monthly Summary
Metaverse News video
Metaverse.Network blockchain update
Metaverse update
Tech update
Community update
Creative & 3D design update

Metaverse.Network Pioneer is rapidly shaping up to be a leader in providing Metaverse as a Service (MaaS) as we have spent the month preparing to launch our on-chain network governance feature. Soon $NEER token holders will be able to propose and vote to make changes to our pioneer blockchain, suggest sponsorships or partnerships and help shape our ecosystem’s future.

We have also been developing the second generation of our avatars. Avatar 2.0 gives users fine control to customize their digital personality. Users can select to be a male, female or binary avatar. You can then customize the shape of the face, eyes, eyebrows, nose, eyelashes and mouth. Hairstyles and colour, facial hair and skin tone are also customizable. In the same tool, users can dress their avatars in a range of NFT wearables and mint the complete look as an avatar. Multiple avatars can be minted on one account, allowing users to swap between digital identities readily.

*Avatar generation 2 editor in development to allow complete customization of all facial features (Work-in-progress).*

Only 36 days after launching the Kaosland land distribution, this community-owned star metaverse hit a significant milestone of 10,000 landowners. Currently, 10,228 Bit.Country users are also Kaosland citizens. This impressive feat demonstrates the growing popularity of Kaosland as people are embracing the concept and potential benefits of virtual communities.

*Kaosland metaverse map has 10,228 landowners, 3198 followers, 1000 estates and a marketplace trading volume of 162,590 $NEER.*

In addition to our monthly developments, Justin (CEO) and Ray (Chairman) presented at the Digital Dubai event and met with numerous Web3 projects in Dubai to showcase the power of Bit.Country and Metaverse.Network. This event provided an excellent opportunity to highlight the need for Metaverse as a Service (MaaS) and the role that we will play in shaping the future of the Web3 industry.

Ray and Justin presented at the Reports from the Future workshop that Animoca Brands, Digital Dubai and Immersion Consulting hosted.

Metaverse News (Episode 10)

Timestamps

1:18 Latest Metaverse Update — Gardi Rigby (Partnerships)

2:16 Kaosland Map — Daniel Choi (Dev Lead)

3:45 Avatar Generation 2.0 — Daniel Choi (Dev Lead)

7:05 Metaverse.Network Decentralized & Governance Explained — Michael Li (Senior Software Developer)

10:08 Estate Staking Features — Michael Li (Senior Software Developer)

12:42 Event & Campaign Update — Chris Carmona (Head of Growth)

14:36 Presentations and Networking in Dubai — Justin Pham (CEO)

Metaverse.Network Team (By Mike)

Development work complete for Network Governance UI, Estate Staking, in the final testing phase.

*Users can stake Estates to earn $BIT rewards.*

More extensive testing with the public version of the campaign tool, including scalability improvements on Metaverse.Network for a large number of reward participants.
Improvements on the Marketplace metaverse link navigation and Metaverse naming validation.

*The marketplace is under development for the second-generation upgrade release.*

Bit.Country Metaverse Team (By Shannon)

Experience framework — The first game, Monolithic, has core gameplay, multiplayer, sessions and action items. Action items have been implemented that modify the core gameplay loop. Further improvements are made to the experience framework APIs as part of its development.
A spawn point system that allows metaverse owners to configure spawn points. Spawn points can be made available to estate owners (when rolled out) or completely disabled. Spawn points give control over where users can enter your metaverse.

Metaverse owners can create spawn locations (blue dots) on the metaverse map.

Landscapes — extensive optimisation made for landscape, dramatically improving performance for terrain-related operations in the engine.
Updated terrain system and support for adding secondary terrain features to the metaverse. For example, adding a layer of water.
Updated terrain materials to support multiple types of material applied to terrain allowing for greater customization.
Updated LOD system, preparation for a standardized approach for authoring content utilizing LODs. Improvements to LOD selection and handling of edge case meshes.
Updated build menu for better filtering and experience.
General improvements and fixes. Improvements to the shader system. Updates to satellite view on map. Updates to map drawing systems. Improvements to memory management.

Bit.Country Tech Lead Team (By Daniel)

Existing avatar engine — Fixed issue with Kaosland wearable, remove bundle as whole when equipping the bundle, remove the bundle if equipping normal wearable.
Existing avatar engine — Fixed the animation keep-playing issue on the wearable system.
Create an API endpoint for Avatar generation 2 and a backward-compatible API.
R&D for face AI and setup API endpoint Face AI for face analysis.
Created morph target map, and avatar mesh map system in the API, allowing dynamic mapping for avatar face modifications.
Created a labelling system to label wearables, allowing to label of each wearable in the database for AI matching.
Code clean up and refactor for avatar system.

Avatar generation 2 will allow users to create male, female or non-binary characters *(Work-in-progress).*

Community & Operation

Bit.Country Hosted four Twitter Spaces

👉 Pioneering Kaosland. Best ways to utilise digital land & grow fans on the 2nd of February.

👉 Metaverse Musings with James Wo on the 8th of February.

👉 Building the Kusama Kingdon in Kaosland on the 13th of February.

👉 Business opportunities in the Metaverse on the 22nd of February.

Launched the Kaosland Land Royalties Distribution Campaign. A reward for all users that have sold land in Kaosland and contributed to the treasury. Check your eligibility in the distribution list.
Two Staking Booster Rewards Snapshots, along with the distributions, were completed. More than 16,000 wallets were eligible to claim the rewards. The next and final Staking Booster Rewards Snapshot will be taken on the 2nd of March. Users that participated in the 100 Metaverse Projects are eligible for this reward. To maximise your $BIT rewards, you should maximise the amount of $NEER you have staked.
Staking Booster for the 1st 2000 Crowdloan participants was distributed.
Staking Booster for the Odyssey Event Participants was distributed.

Justin and Ray attended the Digital Dubai event and gave numerous presentations, including Reports from the Future hosted by Animoca Brands. This international invitation-only workshop gave insights into Web3, metaverse technological and investment opportunities.

Justin presenting at the Reports from the Future.

Shannon Christie attended an AMA with KryptosChain to discuss the latest and upcoming metaverse features to be released in Kaosland and on Bit.Country.

Shannon talking with KryptosChain in an AMA.

Creative & 3D Design Team

The Kaosland homepage has been upgraded to the white-label solution UI.

White-label enterprises and projects will be able to fully customize their metaverse home page for a better user experience.

The Kaosland terrain has been populated with trees. One tree has been planted in every land unit.

3D artist's impression of Kaosland from an aerial view (left). Tree deployment in Kaosland terrain (Right).

Buildings have been placed in Kaosland CBD to test the spatial feel of the area.

Central business district (CBD) of Kaosland (Work in progress)).

Concept designs for the first metaverse on Continuum have been improved.

Preview of artist’s impression of the first metaverse to be deployed on Continuum (Work in progress).

About Bit.Country & Metaverse.Network

Bit.Country is a platform for user-created metaverses and games with opportunities to earn. Metaverse.Network is the blockchain protocol on top of which Bit.Country is built.