by 0x5e5d9d1dfd87e9b8b069b8e5d708db92be5ade99 (paralax)
This proposal builds upon the feedback received in the previous one titled “Should Decentraland transition to a single realm?” It incorporates the feedback gathered from various comments and conversations.
The problem
Decentraland currently operates with multiple realms, presenting a challenge in understanding how to meet other users within the world. To successfully connect with another user, one must understand realms, realms navigation, location coordinates, and the concept of islands or user clusters, all these must match in order for a user to be able to interact with a friend. This fragmentation hinders the platform’s potential for social engagement, collaboration, and the sense of a unified metaverse experience. There have been press reports that highlighted instances where high-profile events hosted in Decentraland did not witness expected user numbers or engagement due to participants unintentionally joining realms with a low user base.
Solution
The new proposal is to transition from the current 11 realms in Decentraland to a better system that focuses on connecting platform users to enhance social engagement. Additionally, it aims to provide the option for solo users to explore the world individually, allowing them to experience scenes without being inundated by a high volume of users or chat messages.
While transitioning to a default realm would require a new communication service, the commitment is to maintain decentralization by making the service open source and easy to launch, allowing anyone to operate their own realm.
Apart from configuring the realm service and moving the comms responsibilities from the Catalyst to the new communications service implementation, it is important to note that the Catalysts nodes will remain fulfilling their role as the decentralized content layer for the platform and ensuring the preservation of the existing decentralized infrastructure.
How would the default realm work?
Upon joining Decentraland, the existing content download and upload processes will remain intact, utilizing the decentralized catalyst network as it does currently. Additionally, the client will establish a connection with the default realm service, similar to how the chat system operates.
The default realm service will group users based on their positions in the world, enabling seamless communication within the groups (aka islands).
After logging in, users will have the option to switch to solo mode. In solo mode, users will have the freedom to navigate the world without being visible to or encountering other users. Furthermore, they will not receive or have access to voice chat or ~nearby chat channels. This mode provides users with the opportunity to experience a solitary exploration, free from the presence of others and without the distractions of real-time communication.
By offering both the default realm service for social engagement and the solo mode for independent exploration, Decentraland will be able to provide a flexible and immersive experience tailored to individual user preferences.
In addition to this, catalyst owners will have the flexibility to utilize either the default realm service or create and integrate their own custom realm service. However, users will initially be directed to the default realm. In order to join a different realm, users will need to perform a manual action (like using the /changrealm command).
Note about performance
While considering the transition to a single realm, individuals expressed concerns regarding lag, performance, and reduced computational power. Adopting a single or a default realm does not imply relying on a single server to handle all platform communications. On the contrary, this approach involves implementing a distributed network of small services that can effectively scale to accommodate the growing user load (the existing catalyst model runs all the services in a single computer). The platform experienced performance could be affected by many factors such as the computer resources, internet connection/congestion, scene implementation, physical distance to the server, client version (web vs desktop) as well as the communication service performance. As of today, the communications service performance is not negatively affecting the platform and the service used for the proposed default realm will remain to be LiveKit, preserving the existing service level experience.
Decentralization
Another concern in the comments was about service centralization, it’s important to remember that the platform decentralization comes from the consensus layer and from all the smart contracts and blockchain data. There are several existing services running to support the platform that have a central instance but they are open-source and can be run by anyone. This ensures that the platform and its services can be sustained by any individual if the need arises.
Benefits
- Unified and Connected Metaverse: A single realm fosters a more unified and connected metaverse, enabling users to seamlessly interact, collaborate, and engage with each other.
- Enhanced User Experience: With a single realm, users no longer have to navigate multiple realms to meet with friends, reducing confusion and complexity. This streamlined experience improves user satisfaction, encourages longer engagement periods, and makes the platform more accessible and appealing to new users.
- Simpler and More Accurate Hot-Scenes Calculation: Currently each catalyst node must gather communication information from all nodes in the network and perform its own hot-scenes calculations, resulting in potential delays and slight variations in the data across realms. A single-realm model reduces the number of necessary requests and increases the accuracy and consistency of real-time data.
- More scalable solution for the communication service: current implementation hosts all services on a single computer, the catalyst node, which has some physical limitations like the number of concurrent open connections. By adopting this approach, it becomes feasible to scale the communication service by adding additional computers to support more users.
- Create the default realm and solo mode
- Keep everything as it is
- Invalid question/options
