Nvidia wants its first SaaS product to help power the metaverse

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Nvidia has become the latest company to start prepaing for the metaverse with a newly-announced Omniverse Cloud.

Announced at the recent Nvidia GTC 2022 event, the company’s first software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering is designed to support developers design, publish, operate, and experience metaverse apps.

Omniverse Cloud does away with the need for localised computing power while offering high-performance capabilities like 3D workflows, with more than 700 companies and 200,000 people already signed up.

Nvidia Omniverse Cloud

Nvidia used autonomous vehicle engineers as an example of the type of developers who will particularly benefit from its new SaaS, being able to generate physically based sensor data and simulate lifelike environments in order to test their safety systems.

Omniverse Nucleus Cloud is the key component that allows designers to access shared 3D data. From this, users can use Omniverse App Streaming and Omniverse View for creating and reviewing projects, and Omniverse Replicator to generate synthetic data.

Other tools include Omniverse Farm for teams looking to utilize multiple cloud compute instances; scalable robotics simulation app Nvidia Isaac Sim; and Nvidia Drive Sim for running multisensor simulations for the likes of autonomous vehicle development.

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Already onboard is Croatian hypercar company Rimac, of which 10% is made up by Volkswagen subsidiary Porsche. CEO and founder Mate Rimac compares Nvidia’s metaverse offering to electric car motors which can “adjust in an instant”. He continues to explain in a press release on the company’s website that the 3D car configurator experience provided by Omniverse Cloud “unlocks endless possibilities for customization without having to manually render each layer, which saves time and money.”

Marketing services organization WPP is another early adopter of Omniverse Cloud. The company has already launched automotive marketing services with the SaaS to deliver custom, 3D content, which chief technology office Stephan Pretorius says is more sustainable thanks to the low-emission production process.

Omniverse Farm, Omniverse Replicator and Nvidia Isaac Sim are already available on for self-service deployment on AWS using Amazon EC2 G5 instances, with A10G Tensor Core GPUs. More broadly, Omniverse Cloud will be available as Nvidia managed services via an application-based early access program.

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With several years’ experience freelancing in tech and automotive circles, Craig’s specific interests lie in technology that is designed to better our lives, including AI and ML, productivity aids, and smart fitness. He is also passionate about cars and the decarbonisation of personal transportation. As an avid bargain-hunter, you can be sure that any deal Craig finds is top value!