HTC Vive’s virtual reality (VR) store Viveport has grown into a viable, agnostic platform for those VR users looking for Steam alternatives with new titles regularly appearing. The latest comes from Japanese studio Psychic VR Lab, bringing its creative VR platform Styly to the store.
Styly is a cloud-based, web platform that is used in conjunction with Unity to create immersive works of art and other XR experiences. With the app now available on Viveport, Styly also offers a unique feature, being able to publish works as individual apps on the store. It’s still an experimental idea at the moment which means the Styly team selects the various artworks to be published.
It’s not purely a platform for people to get creative either. A big part of it is Styly Gallery where users can explore over 10,000 VR and AR scenes built by artists around the world over the past few years. These can be viewed on VR headsets, mobile devices and via web browsers. As part of the announcement, Styly has released three new collections to showcase what can be achieved; NEWVIEW Featuring Works Collection, NEWVIEW 2020 Virtual Exhibition, and VR Music World.
NEWVIEW is Physic VR Labs’ annual awards event for Styly artists. NEWVIEW Featuring Works Collection offers collaborative works by 12 artists in one portal, covering fashion, music, video, graphics, illustration and more. NEWVIEW 2020 Virtual Exhibition gives you a chance to see all the finalist works from last years awards. While VR Music World feature five music-themed pieces. One is a music video featuring DECO*27’s song Android Girl and virtual singer “Kokotsuki.”
Additionally, later this month Psychic VR Lab will hold an online event called Dig Into NEWVIEW 2021 by Styly. This will be live, providing guests with a tour of Styly and its various works, hosted by digital curator and XR evangelist Miriam Arbus and TiltBrush artist Sean Rodrigo. Registration for the event is free, taking place on 17th September at 6 pm BST.
Currently, Psychic VR Lab is looking for new submissions for this years NEWVIEW Awards, with the closing date being 1st November. There are a number of award categories with the main Gold Award netting the winner $20,000 USD.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Styly, reporting back with further updates.