Now in its ninth year of existence, the country of Liberland is being joined by a digital version, the Liberverse. Designed by Mirek Kaspar, developer and entrepreneur, he is providing the citizens of Liberland with a means of engaging with the new country without necessarily having to travel in person to the country.
Mirek is using Unreal Engine, which is used in the development of video games and is quite possibly the most advanced real time rendering technology available. It allows developers to create images in the most photorealistic, interactive manner, so much so that it is hard to differentiate between photography and the images created.
To access Liberverse, please visit Liberserse.net. There are options to download the software or alternatively to stream directly from their browser: the browser does not offer full features but is an easy way to get a quick feeling for the metaverse.
Today we can announce another new development in Liberverse – the Expo – and I decided to explore this new facility in the company of Mirek. He is currently based in Greece (his nomadic life is covered here) and I am in Ireland. So, we started a zoom call and he shared his screen to show me how the Expo works.
It is better to download the software and once done you can personalise your avatar with a range of colours – there are plans in the future to bring in meta-humans which as it sounds can actively and accurately resemble real people.
In the demo, Mirek changed his avatar into the colours of Liberland and then showed me how to move his avatar towards a transport platform.
Confession – I tried initially to do this myself but only using the streaming version, I found it more difficult to move my avatar and after some very funny stoppages where I managed to freeze my avatar, we agreed to let Mirek demonstrate on his screen.
Mirek moved confidently up the ramp onto the platform. There were two choices – Meeting Place and Houseboat Showcase. He opted for Meeting Place and waited for the next pod to arrive. This duly happened in less than 60 seconds and he (we?) boarded onto the pod and soon were sailing through the air to another pod. Looking down it felt familiar. I did visit Liberland in 2019 for the Floating Man Festival and the scenery was just like the rich green vegetation and the blue Danube I remembered.
At the next transport platform, we dismounted and moved to a new platform, marked for Expo. Again it took less than 60 seconds for a new pod to arrive, we boarded the new vehicle and soon again sped across the land until we reached the Expo area.
This is a collection of brightly coloured blocks where Liberlanders can post images or videos of their business or passion. Anyone can just email Mirek on mirek@liberverse.net for more details and he will post the images (512 pixels by 512) on the booth.
Currently it is free but there are plans to charge going forward
It is a great way to showcase the passions of Liberlanders and Mirek has many more features to unveil over the coming months.
For the past month, Mirek has been focused on making the application available to all platforms, enhancing the streaming options and also working on mobile versions. In the future he plans to add an NFT marketplace, create a meta quest using VR as well as allowing developers to create their own apps for the platform (for devs go to the Liberverse.net site and click on the Creator button).
“Anyone can create an app, quest, game for Liberverse and we can integrate it. It’s also very code neutral so you don’t have to be a total dev to have a go,” says Mirek.
Mirek has also mapped out the land into equal segments which are going to be minted into NFTs for people to own. These land parcels will be minted onto the Liberland blockchain and people will need to hold a polkadot wallet to hold them.
“We haven’t quite worked out the details but we encourage people to get involved early,” he says.