In April 2021 the NFT wave is still gathering momentum. Much of first quarter of 2021 was dominated by NFT drops and hype as the general public wraps its head around what the digital collectible space looks like. This CryptoPunk was bought for $7.5M.
The major NFT marketplaces, including OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, Foundation, Viv3, and others sprung up as an easy to way to sell and auction 2D NFTs in images or videos. But what about 3D NFTs including models and augmented reality views?
There is a very interesting intersection at the future of content. The future of content:
- Visually: 3D/AR
- Digitally: non-fungible tokenization
2D File outputs:
- .mp4 – Video including audio and subtitles
- .gif – Graphics Interchange Format. It’s a bitmap image format with high compression best used for looping animations
- .png – Portable Graphics Format. 2d images with transparency
- .jpg – most common image format used by digital cameras and other photographic image capture devices
3D File outputs:
- .gLTF – is a standard file format for three-dimensional scenes and models. Supports 3D model geometry, appearance, scene graph hierarchy, and animation.
- .GLB – Binary form of glTF that includes textures instead of referencing them as external images
- .usdz – 3D unencrypted zip file, without compression. USDZ provides a container, or package, to render several objects and tools as one object.
Right now, most NFTs are saved in .jpg. a file format from 1992. Will this make these NFTs interoperable with 3D views like immersive headsets and hologram displays?
If your visual NFT is only available in 2D is it worth less than something thats is also 3D? Should 3D views be baked in?
Storing NFTs can happen in a few ways:
- A link is attached pointing to a media file on a standard cloud server
- A link points to media in IPFS Interplanetary File System.
The Permanence Problem
A huge problem in NFTs is what happens if the file that the link points to is removed or blocked? This further highlights that people are buying the ‘NFT’ not necessarily the image that is attached to it. Images and certainly 3D models carry too much data in them to include in the NFT code on-chain.
The Portability Problem
NFTs add the ability to verify media between platforms. Similar to DRM – Digital Rights Management – NFTs tokenization includes identification that can allow for easy movement of NFTs in transactions, in transfers between wallets and integrations with 3D, games and other applications. But in immersive environments, the file formats provided alongside the NFT need to qualify for how the environment displays 3D.
Hosting 3D and AR Files Online
NFTs add the ability to verify media between platforms. Similar to DRM – Digital Rights Management – NFTs tokenization includes identification that can allow for easy movement of NFTs in transactions, in transfers between wallets and integrations with 3D, games and other applications. But in immersive environments, the file formats provided alongside the NFT need to qualify for how the environment displays 3D.