Creative software designer Adobe Inc. said today it wants to provide the tools creators need to build new and immersive 3D worlds in the metaverse.

The company believes the metaverse is a space that will increasingly blur the distinction between digital and physical worlds, and it wants designers to use its tools to build it.

To that end, Adobe announced a raft of new metaverse-building features and tools at its Adobe Summit 2022 event that kicked off today. The event itself is fully virtual, powered entirely by the Adobe Experience Cloud.

At the event, Adobe explained that it sees metaverses as virtual worlds that will emerge as the new wave of digital interaction. Metaverses, it said, will provide rich, persistent, shared and interactive experiences where people can meet, socialize and work, and they will have fully functioning economies that enable shopping, gaming, education, job training, remote meetings, cultural experiences and more besides.

“Increasingly, we’re using the digital world to do things that we once only did in the physical world,” said Adobe Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen. “The ongoing conversation on the metaverse reflects the fact that the distinction between what people do in the physical and virtual world is blurring.”

Adobe said its Adobe Experience Cloud already provides creators with many of the tools needed to build these immersive experiences, though it promised its role in the space will expand in future. One of its most useful tools includes the Adobe Substance 3D Modeler that’s designed to make it easier to create 3D environments such as games and augmented reality worlds, now available in beta.

Adobe said Substance 3D Modeler makes it easy to sculpt 3D objects via an interface that combines natural, fluid gestures in virtual reality, with the precision of a desktop interface. It supports the Universal Scene Description 3D art standard that was first developed by Pixar Animation Studios, a leading 3D/immersive file formats for authoring, as well as the Graphics Language Transmission Format for three-dimensional scenes and models. Adobe explained that video games such as “Fortnite,” “Halo,” “Final Fantasy” and “Flight Simulator” were all created with Substance 3D.

Adobe also highlighted how its Adobe Aero tool for creating augmented reality worlds has been used by companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and the Smithsonian Institution to create compelling AR experiences.

The company said it plans to integrate its creative 3D and immersive tools more tightly Adobe Experience Cloud, starting with Adobe Commerce, Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target. It has already announced tighter integration of its 3D content, effects and capabilities across its Creative Cloud portfolio.

“As the web evolves, there will be greater demand than ever for data-driven, immersive experiences that include e-commerce, multi-user functionality and the ability to own and export customized versions of your identity and possessions across virtual worlds,” said Adobe Digital Experience Business President Anil Chakravarthy. “Adobe Experience Cloud will be integral to brands’ efforts to build personalized, immersive experiences such as these.”

Adobe’s big metaverse push was announced alongside a host of other capabilities for Experience Cloud. One of the main additions is a bunch of new artificial intelligence capabilities powered by Adobe Sensei. They include sales opportunity predictions within Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform, AI-driven product recommendations and live search results in Adobe Commerce, and Intelligent budget forecasting and allocation in Adobe’s Attribution AI platform.

The company also found time to announce the general availability of Adobe Experience Cloud for Healthcare, which is a vertical offering that will help healthcare providers, pharmacies and life sciences firms to unlock robust health and behavioral insights. Adobe said this offering will enable healthcare providers to securely deliver more professional “consumer-grade experiences” while empowering consumers to actively take part in their healthcare.

Image: Adobe