Ultiverse is born
‍Over the last year, away from the spotlight, Beyond the Gate worked on developing Ultiverse, a VR multiplayer platform that uses the power of 5G to obtain experiences of an even greater quality of what is currently available. Our users need to be able to access our experiences as a group while enjoying high quality graphics. To this end, we developed a platform that offers the best of both worlds while using the full potential of 5G in partnership with Vodafone and their Action for 5G 2020 competition.

We decided to join forces with Antony Vitillo, the author of popular XR industry blog Skarred Ghost, and management consultant Federico Balin. We were among the 20 finalists out of a group of over 500 applicants, and we managed to raise more than 200,000 euros to develop our idea – which made it to the final selection alongside five other start-ups. We sadly just missed out on the first prize worth 1m euros which was awarded to a competitor winner of the Polihub accelerator: 5thinginum. We wish them the very best!

Let’s zoom in. How does Ultiverse work?

First of all, the Ultiverse platform offers players an experience in which several of them can interact in one world. This enhances the single player game experience, making it considerably richer – and more fun – by making it possible for users to explore ever-changing virtual worlds with their friends.

Secondly, the quality of the experience is significantly improved by cloud rendering. Thanks to low motion latency and greater 5G bandwidth, the images seen in the headset are of an extremely high quality compared to that of Oculus Quest or HTC Focus. This is because, with Ultiverse, headsets use cloud servers instead of their own built-in processors.

The very first game we developed for this platform was Zone Zero – a game which somewhat strayed from Beyond the Gate’s natural culture-heavy remit.  Zone Zero was a multiplayer, fast-paced deathmatch game with a classic noughties first-person-shooter look – transposed into virtual reality.

Our aim is to combine their cloud rendering, multiplayer technologies with cultural venues. Museums and cultural institutions have been extremely interested in our work – particularly given the lifestyle changes brought on by the pandemic. A number of new projects are on the cards – stay tuned!