Decentraland's Community Summit: Unveiling the Future Together
By Decentraland, , in Announcements
Over May 22-24, the first-ever Decentraland Community Summit took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina—the birthplace of Decentraland. Fueled by the excitement of a new Desktop Client and set against the stunning backdrop of Argentina, the Summit was a celebration of innovation, collaboration, and the vibrant Decentraland community.
Held at a pivotal moment for Decentraland, the Summit showcased the first reveal of a revolutionary new Desktop Client set to transform the user experience and usher the platform into its next era, as outlined in Decentraland’s 2024 Manifesto. The Community Summit allowed for a truly magical experience: Creators, builders, and explorers—who have grown alongside Decentraland over the years—were able to meet each other and the Foundation team in person for the first time. They celebrated, established stronger connections, and together, witnessed the unveiling of Decentraland’s future.
See for yourself the convergence of digital identities and real-world connections as passionate community members shared their insights, celebrated decentralization, and explored the boundless potential of Decentraland in the recap of the Summit below.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/gh22bJDdMiI
Community building manifested
Decentraland’s Community Summit set out to enhance human connection within the community, celebrate achievements, gather insights & feedback, and look towards the future—it's fair to say the event was successful on all fronts!
https://twitter.com/Murphjestic/status/1794799677398745226
Spanning three days of planned activities, the Summit provided the perfect opportunity for community members to connect, learn, and take part in a piece of Decentraland history. The first day focused on presentations from the Foundation and DAO and was streamed in its entirety to the Decentraland community at large. If you missed the livestream, watch the recordings here.
Day 1 presentations started with a retelling of Decentraland’s early beginnings and journey up to the current day from Decentraland Foundation Executive Director, Yemel Jardi, followed by a close look at Decentraland’s DAO and what’s planned for the future from Gino Cingolani, DAO Product Lead. After a group lunch of Argentina’s famous steaks, the moment everyone had been waiting for was at hand.
Decentraland’s Desktop Client 2.0 alpha was unveiled as Foundation team members showcased new features, improved performance, and discussed the next steps in bringing the new Client to launch. The energy in the room was electric as community members eagerly headed over to the Summit’s computer stations to try it out. The historic moment will definitely be remembered as a turning point in Decentraland’s journey!
The Private Alpha will kick off in July and members from the community will be invited to participate. Apply now for your chance to be a part of the early testing group.
The following two days of the Summit saw workshops from community members, the Foundation, and the DAO, more time with the new Client, a buildathon where multidisciplinary teams built scenes using the new Editor in SDK 7 (you can explore their ‘Summit City’ here), and of course, a Decentraland party with live performances from community members Zino, FiFi, and DJ Trax!
https://twitter.com/CanessaDCL/status/1795085420075638932
The three days of the Summit were packed with learnings, bonding, meaningful discussions, and lots of hugs, the memories of which will be sure to keep sending waves of positivity and hope out into the community for a long time to come. Given the community’s feedback on this first edition, the Foundation plans to organize smaller, more regional events in the future, so stay tuned in case one is planned by you!
https://twitter.com/CheddarQueso3D/status/1794722006463811756
Decentraland’s Desktop Client 2.0 unveiled
If you haven’t yet had a chance to watch the full presentation of Decentraland’s new Desktop Client alpha yourself, you may be wondering, “Has the new Client changed things that much? Is it really such a big deal?” In short, yes!
Decentraland originally launched with a Web Client for accessibility, however, this approach came with technical and performance constraints. While the current Desktop Client improved graphics and performance a bit, it was essentially a port of the Web Client and so still faced the same restrictions. To truly elevate the Decentraland experience, a new foundation for the platform was necessary.
Decentraland’s Desktop Client 2.0 stands on its own as an entirely new product, built from the ground up in Unity, and presents a completely upgraded virtual social world. Not only are the visuals more beautiful and detailed, but they also load seamlessly, far into the distance, allowing for a truly immersive experience. On top of these already game-changing improvements, new features have been added to enhance exploration, immersion, and social connection and as the Client is still just in alpha, many more are on the way. So far, some key enhancements to the Decentraland experience include:
Improved Visuals and Performance
The new Desktop Client boasts improved graphics with high-quality textures, a new shader for avatars, and support for PBR materials, making everything look more vibrant and detailed. Even the content of empty parcels has been upgraded to present procedurally generated, picturesque landscapes that entice you to linger awhile. Additionally, the framework to support future expansions like facial, hair, and Wearable animations is in place. Most importantly, performance has been significantly optimized, with the new Client maintaining a 60 FPS frame rate and handling more avatars and scenes simultaneously without lag.
Immersive Exploration
In addition to being able to see scenes that are far away—enticing you to explore new horizons—movement, such as walking, running, and jumping has been refined to give you more control (which also expands options for game designers!). Camera modes have been improved so that you can see more around you when exploring and transitioning between views is smoother. You can even modify the time of day to get the exact vibe you’re looking for; relaxing night walks, golden binary sunset contemplations (yes! binary!!), high noon standoffs—it’s up to you! Finally, further increasing the feeling of immersion, avatars respond dynamically to their environment, turning heads in sync with the camera, adjusting their feet on uneven ground, and placing hands on surfaces.
Enhanced Social Features
Conversations with your friends will now be able to break free of the chat box to float above your avatar in chat bubbles, making it easier to see who’s speaking and feel like you’re really there. Adding a touch of fun, a long-requested feature, emojis, has also been added to the chat system. Additionally, the multiplayer experience has been greatly improved to be smoother and more in sync, so you and your companions can easily explore as a pack without anyone getting left behind or even dance around in a conga line!
Thinking of the future, the new Desktop Client has been designed with expansion in mind. Now that it is based on a stable, streamlined foundation, it will be possible to develop Clients for other platforms such as mobile, VR, or other consoles. The possibilities are limitless!
What’s next
The alpha Desktop Client reveal is just the first step in the journey to bringing the new Decentraland experience to the public, but work is progressing full steam ahead! With the most complex part of the Client—the foundation—now built, developing and fine-tuning additional features will proceed more quickly. Already, Foundation teams are continuing work to bring the Desktop Client 2.0 to parity with the current Clients and beyond.
Starting in July, the Client will undergo alpha testing, which you can apply to be a part of here. If you’re waiting to experience the new Client in a more refined state, you can look forward to exploring the new beta version of Decentraland later this year in Q4. Until then, make sure you’re following Decentraland on social channels and are subscribed to the newsletter to ensure you don’t miss any big news or future sneak peeks of new features!