Virtual Reality (VR) chatis an online virtual world similar to Second Life, but with key differences. First, unlike Second Life, VR chat does not require a monthly subscription or any sort of payment to use the platform. Second Life is also free in the base plan, but it’s hard to really enjoy the platform without a home and other awesome items, and you need to pay for them. Secondly, it allows users to customize their avatars, making them look realistic and more life-like. Thirdly, users can take part in activities such as arcades and games that are built into the system.
Virtual Reality (VR) is a rapidly growing technology that has recently been introduced to the public. VR Chat is a popular online social platform that allows users to communicate with each other in a virtual world. It is gaining in popularity due to its innovative features and user-friendly interface. Compared to other virtual reality platforms such as Second Life, VR Chat offers more immersive experiences and greater interaction with other users.
Virtual reality (VR) technology has taken the world by storm. In recent years, VR chat sites such as VRChat and Second Life have become increasingly popular amongst gamers and tech-savvy users alike. While both platforms offer unique, immersive experiences, there are distinct differences between the two that set them apart. VRChat is a self-contained world of users, while Second Life gives users the ability to create their own worlds.
Virtual Reality (VR) chat provides an exciting way to explore the world of simulated social interactions. It is a virtual environment where players can interact with 3D models, avatars, and other players. Compared to Second Life, VR chat offers more options for customization, more realistic interactions, and the ability to explore different worlds with a wider range of activities.
VR Chat offers a great range of free features to its users. These include access to different environments, customization options, and various activities such as mini-games, quests, and challenges. Players can also create their own 3D models, or customize their avatars to look however they choose. Additionally, users have access to a wide range of emotes, allowing them to express themselves in a more immersive way. Players can create their own avatars, choose from a variety of different clothing and accessories, and customize their virtual home. They can also join various chat rooms to meet other people and engage in activities such as mini-games, role-playing, or simply having conversations. Additionally, users can purchase special items or avatars from the in-game store, giving them greater freedom to express themselves in the virtual world.
VR Chat also offers a unique form of virtual photography. It allows users to take pictures of their avatars, their virtual homes, and the different environments they visit. This digital photography can then be shared with others or uploaded to a website such as Flickr, where you can find a strong and growing community of VR Chat photographers. Photography in VR Chat is not just about capturing the perfect moment; it’s about creating an image that captures the virtual environment and the unique experiences you have in it.
VR Chat has become increasingly popular since its launch in 2015, and it now boasts over 21 million active users. The immense success of VR Chat is due to its easy accessibility, its low cost of entry, and its wide range of customization options. Moreover, the developers have achieved a good balance between a vibrant community and a safe environment, allowing people to explore the virtual world without worrying about security issues. As a result, VR Chat has become a popular destination for socializing, playing games, and creating stunning virtual photos.
Flickr, a longstanding image hosting service for shutterbugs and digital art enthusiasts, has unveiled a new tag: virtual photography. The announcement comes this morning with an explanation of how it'll work:
When you upload content to Flickr, you need to choose where it “fits,” a category that accurately describes what you’re sharing. Until now, Flickr offered three options for content categorization: photos, illustration/art, and screenshots. Today, we’re introducing a fourth category, virtual photography, because “screenshots” didn’t quite meet the needs of this creative and growing community.
Virtual photography has been on the rise recently. With games becoming more than about just a playthrough, titles like Cyberpunk 2077 have capitalized on implementing a photo mode that lets users explore and express themselves when they aren't engaging with quest-related content. Red Dead Redemption has a similar feature, resulting in beautiful images that can reveal either the violent or quiet side of Rockstar's simulated countryside.
Virtual fashion photographers such as Gogo have been at it for far longer, though. A major writer and reviewer of metaversal products for Second Life, Gogo is the owner of the blog Juicybomb (disclaimer: the editor of The Metaculture is a former contributor to the website). She turns out technical and evaluative summaries of new releases for interested customers, prioritizing what makes avatars look attractive and what keeps users coming back to the game. Gogo has also been a subscriber to Flickr's pro service for years.
"As a Second Life resident who uses Flickr strictly to store my virtual photography, I've always felt that there was a lot of negativity from 'real photographers' on the platform," Gogo explains to The Metaculture. "They openly criticized Second Life photography as not real photography and wanted us filtered out, so Flickr made a Screenshots category to do just that. I guess it's nice that people who want to search for Virtual Photography can do so now, and people who want to filter it out can do that too."
While not entirely happy with the change, Gogo admits it's probably what Flickr thought best to pursue. "Of course Flickr is a business, so they'll do what's best to retain their users, if this is a solution to keep everyone happy."
"I think it's a smart move on Flickr's part," offers creator Whiskey Monday. Whiskey has been a fine art photographer for years now, utilizing Second Life to fashion exploratory pieces that focus on the realm of self. "Virtual art is being talked about in new ways, and appreciated by whole new audiences. This move will help better normalize virtual art, and some virtual artists gain better recognition."
"I think virtual art is a broader term than most people know, with so many VR, virtual world, and now AI platforms where people can create. Flickr is including Virtual Art in their long running World Photography Day contest, and that's another great move. Mixing in our virtual art with other, more traditional photography forms will help to elevate virtual art in general."
"I changed all of my work over to the new Virtual Art category, where it used to be uploaded as straight photography. They used to have a 'screenshot' category, but that felt like it was demeaning what I did to create the work. I never used it."
This year, Flickr clamped down on non-premium photo slots to encourage customers to purchase their pro plan, which includes unlimited uploads. Originally taken as a sign for the site's deathwatch, the new virtual photography category just might keep the website running and attract new customers in the process.
Our series of music round-ups covers sound you'll only find in virtual reality, produced by artists who socialize and work there. From acoustic to hardstyle techno, what's sonically relevant is being documented with us.
If you find an artist you like, click through the track information to give that person a follow (and buy something!). Your support is what keeps them making music–and we always love new sounds.
King Deluxe Releases Equilibrium
Our first selection for this music round-up is a new compilation from the King Deluxe label. Equilibrium is an effort of artists including Pìccolo, ryuuji!, Zero Tep, and VR-based musician WAKARAN GIRL.
King Deluxe has been steadily building their music releases with a roster of talented artists to enjoy music by, as well as hosting album release parties right in VRChat. You can catch WAKARAN GIRL playing at the King Deluxe-run VR venue, The Core, on August 6/7. The last album release party at The Core was highly praised by the general XR community, so it's highly advised to arrive at this show early in case there's a crowd.
As for the EP itself, it's a delight. Sharpened production with plenty of moments to get moving, it brings serious heat and plenty of attitude. Check out Equilibrium on Apple Music, or on the Spotify embed below.
Broadway Comes Home With Non-Player Character
As the music community grows in VR, it crosses paths and blurs its boundaries with other segments of the performance world. This time, acclaimed TV and VR actor Brendan Bradley has published an abridged version of Reprogram Me, a catchy tune from the VR production Non-Player Character.
And, actually? This song doesn't feel so far from the likes of Porter Robinson. We can easily hear a singer like Naku cover this, or it getting remixed by Laxcity.
CYNTHESZR Goes Heist Mode
We can pretty much set our clocks to betting that CYNTHESZR will become one of the biggest producers of this generation of online musicians. The proof? Repeater, another release of dark drums, fast tempo, and intense presentation. We also noticed this song being released under the techno label Heist Mode. Heist Mode has been hosting events in Los Angeles with some impressive names already, with one act linked to Detroit's Movement Festival. We hope this means more opportunities for CYNTHESZR to grow in the future.
Note: While you check out Repeater, you should also hit up their new collab with Ghozt, Yo Quiero Bailar.
The Alligators Roar Again In Chromatophores-02
The cranial side of the VR music scene rears its head once more with the return of Xenon Chameleon. His latest release, Chromatophores-02, is stated as a deeper dive "into Reaper and Renoise to make tracks heavily inspired by dub techno, jungle, breakcore, and IDM."
"On June 11th, we had a VR Chat release party for this mixtape at Ragehauz featuring a ton of talented DJs, both veterans of the VRChat scene and new performers," Xenon writes. "I am finishing a Masters Degree in a couple weeks, after which I will continue working on this series and likely diving into modular synthesis."
Chromatophores-02 features a smoother take on those familiar reptilian sounds. The blends are more sophisticated, and at times it's hard to tell what's a sourced alligator sample and what's actually a processed beat–which is pretty damn clever.
The nights at virtual venue Concrete have been dizzyingly electrifying, with plenty of bangers gracing the speakers and transforming each performance to be outright iconic. Part of that is due to the guidance of Pain Princess, one of Concrete's resident DJs. Their take on pop remixes, paired with beautifully reminiscent visuals of early 00's RnB music videos, helps to create a dreamland where everyone on the floor is a diva.
Club Lotion brings some of those hits home for listeners to enjoy. Although it's always better to catch a DJ mixing in-person, this EP is a fresh assortment to what people have been dancing to lately, at one of the hottest clubs in virtual reality.
Glass Persona has been seeing some success in performing in VR and real-life shows in tandem, and it seems their popularity is growing. Their new offering is Psychotropic, heavy thumps and thoughtful melodic interludes.
"This EP is a 5 track exploration into a hypnotic melodic techno sound that I had never done before," the composer explains. "I spent a lot of time and energy on making this release as trippy and engaging as possible."
The result is uplifting and beautiful. Hear it below:
K1N Transforms An EDC Hit
We love a good remix at The Metaculture. Thankfully, K1N's supplied another opportunity to enjoy a comparison with his remix of Ray Volpe's Laserbeam.
Volpe's original track relies on melodic synth and kicks to lead in, and has a lighter sound overall despite the plentiful stomps throughout. K1N takes the track and adds real bass and volume underneath, giving it a much-worthy extra punch:
H4UNTER_ Takes The Initial Vow
A new musician joins the virtual fray, and his name is H4UNTER_. With Vow of Confidence, H4UNTER_ leads in with melodic synth and a story on his heels.
"This song was based on becoming who I am today and the challenges I have faced since then. All that stress and stuff builds up, but once you get the hang of things you bloom and break fr
ee. That's what this song is about," the artist explains.
We think he's got talent already, and look forward to more music in the future.
That's all for the music round-up this time! We hope you found something you liked here.
There are bodies piled around the main hallways of LambdaMOO when I visit. I step over them in moving north, east, northwest. Room by room, there is always another player sleeping that I pass by. When they last log out, they are left slumped over where they are. Staying off the grid means they'll rest there forever.
Not all text-based virtual spaces have this feature. For most, you disappear when you close your client, but you can also lose your inventory on the next server wipe. For others, you might get deleted if you don't log back in within thirty days. There are also worlds which have rented apartments where you or your items are parked; let the timer run out on your next in-game payment, and everything you have either ends up in the trash or on the street for active players to take.
My home in the social platform ChatMUD is free. Ever-there, ever-faithful. I leave the main area open for visitors to explore its pop-art-styled confines, while I lock myself away in a separate space to sleep. And when I wake up again, there is always something in the space that's changed. The streets just outside grow in detail, the builders staying busy for the love of creation.
When I last logged in, ChatMUD was just a cozy, simple house with a few connected rooms. Now, it has become a sparsely populated city. I can explore forever without bumping into anyone–and that's actually what I like about it.
"Reality" does not necessitate being 3D; it doesn't even need to be visual to exist.
A MUD, Mush, MOO, Muck, etc (all referred to as MU* for short) is a text-based virtual world. They are connected to with telnet clients or programs, such as MUSHClient or Mudlet, in order to view them. MU*s are useful for those who cannot access 3D VR worlds, or those just like a place that's more writer-friendly. Many players who connect to MU*s nowadays are retro enthusiasts, diehard users, or are sight-impaired.
BatMUD is one of the most commonly known text worlds out there due to its listing on Steam. But there are plenty more hanging around; Mudstats.com reports around 8700 players currently connected to its list of monitored text-based worlds. Those are only the ones registered with its system–many more are hidden with stats unavailable, so a true count is never known to anyone.
MU*s can be social, combat based, or both. Care to place yourself in a persistent crawler where you can fight and die over and over? Lensmoor has plenty of missions and monsters to slay. Want a place where creating your own MU* is easy, and sort of like using Twine? Written Realms is browser-based and even works on your phone.
Does not a world with permanence and immersion with multiple users get to be considered a metaversal world? Is it only that when it contains graphics?
ChatMUD has a lot of sight-impaired users who hang around on the server while they play other games. They employ screenreaders to learn about the rooms they're in, what those areas look like, and where the exits are. To them, a virtual world like ChatMUD is no different than VRChat, although they do get curious about 3D VR. They often ask what it's like when I mention it. I talk to them about how 3D VR can accommodate blind users by implementing sounds for walking, preventing footsteps when a user hits a wall to let the player know when they've reached a point where they can't walk any further.
Notes On Blindness, the VR app that educates sighted users on what it's like to be blind, also hints that sound can help sight-impaired players to map out the world around them and navigate it more easily.
I describe to those curious that VRChat is a lot of sound and music. They won't see the lights and colors, but the people there are still other users they can hear and talk to. With the right plugin, a sight-impaired desktop user can access these spaces just like a sighted user can. It just takes a bit more work to make it accessible.
The sight-impaired playerbase are an important part of text-based worlds, because they help to remind sighted users that virtual reality is a more uncanny thing than one might first think. We often consider VR to be something you can see, 3D and fleshed out. "Reality" does not necessitate being 3D; it doesn't even need to be visual to exist. Does not a world with permanence and immersion with multiple users get to be considered a metaversal world? Is it only that when it contains graphics?
Body permanence when a user sleeps in LambdaMOO and ChatMUD can make the user think about their "self" in that space, and care for that body when they're away. Moreso, in a combat-enabled world where the feature is still present. There's some care about that; written text about other concerns of body permanence exist about LambdaMOO, although it won't be linked here for the sake of its upsetting title.
But the permanence and care for those bodies speak of caring for your "self" in that world, and thus makes it more real to you. Even without that feature, there are others–missing the other players, your items, your custom spaces. The place in that world you like to visit the most. Even just the care of logging in enough so you won't get deleted there.
It's a world, and it shouldn't be discounted for its archaic format.
A ruined obsidian gate awaits me as soon as I head east from ChatMUD's recently-constructed town square. There's a ladder; I head up. The system's delay in messaging tells me a multi-limbed creature called an alhoon studies me carefully. Because I don't know who the builder of this room is, I get ready to type "d" for down again in case this thing tries to kill me.
It does nothing after a few seconds, and so I kick it. It turns out, it's just an NPC–no combat installed on it, so it can't hurt me. There's nothing else in the room and I wonder why the NPC was built at all.
Actually, it's like any other world out there. Wander Second Life's mainland and you'll find some strange curiosity sitting on a parcel, the rent paid up until oblivion. VRChat's endless maps c
ontain experiences often meant to be enjoyed solo. Beyond the main city of ChatMUD lies a wasteland, where the last details of the grid wither away into nothing.
It's all the same, whether flat for fleshed-out. No matter what platform you're on, you can always find loneliness ready to accompany you.
If you look up the phrase "No No Brush" on Google, you'll find a picture of a smiling green monkey with bristles on the side of its head, a familiar figure that blew up on social media in 2020. Shortly after its viral debut, it appeared on Youtooz as a collectible plushie. The demand for its likeness is still going; Youtooz' No No Brush series can currently be found on resale sites such as StockX for around $122.
The famous (or infamous) green brush avatar is just one of many things VR developer Blueasis has created. Though not all receiving such shockingly popular feedback from users around the internet, Blueasis' work has helped to establish a defacto friendly look for VRChat itself. Many of his avatars are also available on VRChat's public use row. You'll often see Blueasis' work on a friend's main or fallback avatar slot before you meet the creator himself.
But he's never far. His latest project is a team-up with fellow developer Faxmashine for the multiplayer-friendly release Super VR Ball. There's also Hook Junkers, a vast map that can be explored with the help of swinging around via grappling hooks, courtesy of Blueasis and Phasedragon. And then there's a colorful, exploration-friendly junkyard Blueasis has created that suits parkour and platform enthusiasts.
It's amazing to think how someone has created so much for a virtual space, the work becomes as ingrained with the game as stone steps in a garden.
And yet, Blueasis is so casual when he talks about it.
The Metaculture : Many people know you by your creations, but might not know your name. Can you please formally introduce yourself?
Blueasis: Hi I'm Blueasis, or Blue, or Asis, or John, call me whatever. I make 3D art, typically inside VRChat.
M: What drew you to VRChat? How did you get started creating in VR?
B:Ethosaur, my good friend, introduced me to VR when he borrowed a Vive from his stepdad and pranced around in VRC, then convinced me to buy a Lenovo Explorer.
M: Your work has a distinct, colorful, and cartoonish style. Where does inspiration come from for this design approach?
B: I haven't really thought about it, I like cartoons and videogames from the early 2000s, I feel its somewhat underrepresented in VRC. I'm also just bad at realism.
M: What's one thing you wish all designers knew when starting out making 3D work for social worlds?
B: Make yourself happy first, entertaining one person is the same as thousands, you live and die the same.
M: Your latest accomplishment is co-authoring Super VR Ball with Faxmashine. How did you and Faxmashine think up the idea and concept?
B: I had the idea to make a Monkey Ball clone in VRC because I wanted to make levels for it. I pitched it to Fax a while ago and we didn't really act on it. Then the VRChat jam rolled around, and the theme was "obstacle". We kind of just started without much conversation, just like "we are doing this now".
M: What was the split in labor for the process in finishing that project? Who handled what?
B: I did 3D art assets, texture work, level design, essentially all visual asset work. Fax did programming and music. We split the game design, and sound design I'd say [we split] pretty equally.
M: Were you surprised by the reception of Super VR Ball's release?
B: Not really, I knew it was fun. I was confident it would vibe with some people. Even if it didn't, it vibed with me, and it is a lot of fun to work with Fax.
M: You also created a popular avatar that is known to be singularly associated with VRChat now. Please tell us how the green brush avatar came about.
B: Brush is a character I designed back in college (four years ago), a silly sketch I did of a marmoset I saw while at the zoo. I was thinking about avatars I wanted to make for the VRChat default avatar row, and for some reason it came to mind. I made it and submitted it not thinking much of it. I showed it to Ruuubick and he said it might be denied because it has nipples. From what I understand, the internal discussion was very short, and it was accepted.
M: When did you realize you first had a hit on your hands with it?
B: I was sent a TikTok video several times, of a person who was in a green morph suit and had two green floor brushes taped to either side of their head reenacting a Youtube video.
M: Did you regret creating and releasing the avatar at any point? How do you feel now?
B: No, never. I feel the same as I did back then, when you make something and it takes on its own identity its like it doesn't belong to you anymore, but in a good way. It took on a life of its own completely detached from me, and that's fine.
M: Your avatar creations all have a distinct fashion to them. What's your favorite real or digital fashion house and why?
B: Much like my affinity for early 2000s for cartoons and games; I love Y2K fashion, Y2K Aesthetic Institute, Chloma, etc.
M: What is a real-life fashion trend you wish were more popular in VRChat?
B: More funky strange unrealistic stuff, its a videogame after all. I like seeing what people choose on their own volition, you can tell a bit about someone from their avatar choice.
M: Where do you see your work going from here?
B: I'm not sure, I'm content currently so I'm inclined to say I don't care a whole lot. I'm going to just keep making stuff I like.
M: Thank you so much for answering our questions. We want to leave room for you to plug what you're getting up to next. Please promote whatever you like.
Virtual Market is the largest virtual convention in VR, but their newest endeavor might cause a change of attitude for XR in general.
On May 6th, 2022, HIKKY, responsible for Virtual Market's line of popular events that take place within VRChat, announced the start of beta testing for Vket Cloud. A game engine rather than a convention, Vket Cloud is designed to be a self-hosted XR space for users to house and sell virtual goods.
3/ <What is Vket Cloud ①> Vket Cloud is not a platform, but a game engine specialized in web browsers. You can develop metaverse contents that are accessible only with a single click on a URL from a smartphone or PC. Voice and text chat are available too! pic.twitter.com/MMYSbBrDEB
— Vket Cloud Community / metaverse engine (@VketCloud) May 6, 2022
Vket Cloud aims to work on PC and smartphones. In the original announcement thread, it was also noted the engine has "no limitations in the use of NFTs". The reference to this pertains to Vket Cloud's terms of service.
However, the announcement of HIKKY's expanded initiatives and open terms of service are two things that might, over time, affect a change of policy when it comes to mainstream social VR platforms and their acceptance of blockchain.
Currently, most VR platforms either accept blockchain technology or don't–it's a hard line with some pretty even division with drastically different audiences in either sphere. While creatives can inhabit either type of social platform in VR, companies either keep clear of the subject or jump in entirely.
HIKKY's decision with Vket Cloud will possibly mark the first time an XR company has been open to NFTs and blockchain, yet won't embrace it to the point of it changing the establishment's identity.
We sat down with Lhun, Global Team's Technical Marketing Director at Vket and HIKKY, to talk about Vket Cloud and the company's future plans.
HIKKY recently announced Vket Cloud, a game engine that allows users to display work in a self-hosted instance with their own domain. Can you tell us how this works?
LHUN: Vket Cloud is designed as a platform, first targeting enterprise, commercial and retail customers to build almost anything they want! It's a high performance, custom game engine developed in house with the experience gained from running large format events. The goal is to be accessible in an Open Metaverse concept. Hikky is also a member of the VRM Consortium, so we support that avatar format as well as providing design services for our clients. Analytics are important too, so we cover that as well. Japan has a very "mobile first" society, so it's popular over there.
Of course, Vket Cloud was originally developed for our own use, for Virtual Market. Vket Cloud allows our indie exhibitors–like you–to reach a much wider range of people by having Vkets (like the upcoming Music and Comic Vket), on mobile devices, not just […] PCVR and desktop with our partnership with VRChat.
Another view of the GALLEREAL map from Vket Cloud. (Image courtesy HIKKY/Vket Cloud)
Vket Cloud is also NFT-friendly, showing off an example world in their official announcement that is actually used to exhibit minted works. What persuaded Vket and HIKKY to pursue blockchain technology?
LHUN: HIKKY's visionaries on the whole are very principled. We want to enable creators in general and create a place where they can work, create, and make a living in an economic cycle using VR. That's our ultimate mandate, "creator first" – which is why so much more care and attention is put into our Indie Circle creator worlds at Vket (it's a lot like Comiket, even down to the twice a year timing).
The company at large are not at all interested in the speculative nature of NFTs. Events running on Vket Cloud itself are licensed like everything else: and NFT Fiesta is not a HIKKY endeavor, they're a client.
From Mika (HIKKY art director)'s side, she explained that she saw a TON of enthusiasm and creativity from the artists doing NFTs, at the time even more of them than were creating for other things like Vket, so she wanted to meet and work with them. She wasn't interested in the "NFT itself" kind of thing, she tried it and didn't see the intrinsic value. As the art director at HIKKY, she wants to gather those artists and interest them in Vket and attract them on the whole. Mika herself does art for things like Line and other products for emoji stamps and Discord icons (she's really talented!), so there's some overlap in the art world.
When it comes to blockchain software, I'm excited about the prospects that "trustless trust" in the way it works on a fundamental level allows for, for things like avatar ownership and distributed databases so that you can't lose your data and or are not dependent on any one host to get your avatars, etc. And of course to make them cross platform compatible. This goes into the VRM portability and a lot of other things.
That's the interest in blockchain from a development standard. We employ a few people with doctorates in computer science, so we like to stay on the bleeding edge of that kind of thing.
Our goal of course is to have an open, portable metaverse like Ready Player One, but we care about the planet too. Blockchains can be done in a green way, without token economy or speculative markets.
This is our art install in JR east Akihabara Station. The train at Vket6 wasn't just a neat experience, it was a premonition!
One of the features of Vket Cloud is allowing users to "have their own metaverse space". Does this mean Vket Cloud will have multiplayer capabilities?
LHUN: It already does, since Vket 6, so over a year now. Vket Cloud supports many hundreds of users at once, with voice and a subset of avatars.
I've participated and done QA on those tests myself and stressed it pretty hard. GT [a development group] actually released some samples too, the previous iterations used a limited subset of avatars, like the PKCZ "Primals" you can find in Club Emission (in VRChat too!) which were instanced in such a way that it was pretty low load. This allows a lot of people to experience on a mobile device live things and other events if they don't have the hardware to do so, in a more immersive and social way than a Twitch stream, with avatar-based chat and positional audio.
So [we] made a version of Emission, and we livestreamed from VRChat into Vket Cloud and online, everywhere. That being said, the "users own space" is designed to operated like your "virtual home".
So, there's two separate things here. We want to implement a personal user home world running on cloud, that allows you to connect cloud-enabled worlds, too.
📢Lineup revealed 🎵The live event details for "MusicVket4" from 6/18-6/26 is now open to the public❗
Leetspeak monsters one-man show, "ALTERNATE WORLD", particle lives… our audiovisual live experiences make for a complete music event❗
Do you foresee Vket eventually branching out to host its virtual conventions separately from any other VR platform? This looks like a step in that direction.
LHUN: Not really, no.
We love VRChat, and what they have built is an incredible platform that stays on the bleeding edge of hardware and software support, with development tools and hosting and all kinds of creator first tools. Cloud is there for Vket to fill some of the gaps in reaching a wide, outside of VR audience. And if they want the whole incredible experience with no limits, the best way is on PCVR in VRChat.
Just like Comiket exists in one location and wouldn't work anywhere else, it's where the people are. Our partnership with VRChat is super important to us, but nothing is as important as our everyday exhibitors, volunteers, and collaborators. They're making things for VRChat for the most part and we're obviously huge fans and members of that community.
Did you know that most of our worlds are not designed and modeled by HIKKY themselves? It's guests and invited artists for Vket to keep things fresh. People like Octuplex and Minuette Doll aren't HIKKY employees, they're exhibitors.
GT is a little different in that we're a bit like the original team that formed HIKKY in the first place–multi-disciplinary VRChat social VR and technology nerds, so while we're working directly for the company, we also make content like Club Emission, Metro, Alt World, and some Vket exhibit content.
HIKKY can't survive as a company and grow if all we do is VRChat conventions. We need cloud because we have to have the freedom to build things for our clients. XR World and JR East are good examples of that.
Please note that I Love Events(TM) is not associated with Linden Research, Inc. or any of its affiliated companies or products, including Second Life (collectively known as "Linden Lab"). The opinions and views expressed on this site belong to the content creators and do not represent the views or opinions of Linden Lab or its employees, directors, officers, agents, or representatives. The usage of the SLBN logo by I Love Events(TM) does not indicate endorsement or representation by Linden Lab.
