SimLab Store
This guide will help you know all the tricks around using the VR Store for both buying and selling VR Experiences to the public.
Introduction
In this article we are going to talk about SimLab Store. We will talk about Its uses, how it can help VR creators, and how designers can use it to make money as well.
What is SimLab Store?
SimLab Store, the latest offering from SimLab Soft, serves as a comprehensive platform for both curated and user-generated VR Experiences. Showcasing a diverse range of content across sectors such as vocational training, education, medical applications, and architecture, every VR Experience is meticulously crafted by the expert team at SimLab Soft.
Beyond the company's professional contributions, the platform also empowers VR enthusiasts and professionals worldwide to upload and publish their own creations. Whether offered at no cost or for a fee, these user-generated VR Experiences further enrich the store, ensuring a vibrant marketplace where global users can discover, acquire, and immerse themselves in top-tier virtual content.
How to access VR Store?
SimLab Store can be accessed from the homepage of SimLab-soft.com or by going to vrstore.simlab-soft.com
How to use it?
We can divide the use of SimLab Store into two main categories as follows:
Buying and acquiring VR Experiences
Users are able to purchase VR Experiences by going to vrstore.simlab-soft.com
Selling and publishing VR Experiences
Designers and creators will be able to upload VR Experiences to SimLab Store through SimLab VR Studio and SimLab Composer.
Licensing
3D Models, and scenes included in SimLab Composer, SimLab VR Studio, or downloaded from SimLab Cloud, including the ones appearing in VR Warehouse, are protected by copyright. These models and scenes may be utilized solely for educational purposes or to be used as a base to generate new VR Experiences to be viewed using the original SimLab VR Viewer, either free of charge or commercially. However, if one wishes to distribute such experiences to run on any other viewer, including a white-labeled version of SimLab VR Viewer, they must obtain a written permission from SimLab Soft.
Buying on SimLab VR Store
Free and Paid VR
You will find Free and Paid VR Experiences on SimLab VR Store. You can directly download and use FREE VR Experiences, however you need to purchase paid VR Experiences to be able to run them.
Acquiring VR Experiences
- Go to SimLab VR Store webpage.
- Click Login in the top right corner.
- Login to your SimLab Account, or click Register if you do not have an existing account to create an account for free.
- Browse the available catalogs and click on the VR Experience you wish to purchase, then select a licensing plan and click Buy from the panel to the right.
- To access purchased items, run SimLab VR Viewer and log into your SimLab account, then go to the Obtained Models tab where you can find purchased VR Experiences and those that were shared with you by other users.
Buying and Adding Credits
- The easiest method to top up your credit is to click on Buy Credit at the top right corner to access Balance Management.
- In the Balance Management page, move the slider to determine the amount of credit you wish to purchase, then click on Buy SimLab Store Credit.
- You will receive a key or multiple keys for the amount of credit you have purchased which you need to paste into the Activating Credit field, then you need to click Activate Credit Keys.
Selling on SimLab VR Store
You can publish VR Experiences created with SimLab VR Studio and SimLab Composer on SimLab VR Store. If you don't know how to create VR experiences, you can start here.
Uploading VR Experiences
Uploading Steps:
1. While the created VR Experience is open in SimLab Composer or VR Studio, Go to the VR Viewer menu and select VR Store.
2. If you are already logged in to your SimLab Account click Publish in the top left corner.
3. Fill in the title, description, a video link and a website link if available for the VR Experience, as well as an image for the experience's thumbnail and then select the compatible platforms and set the pricing for the VR Experience, then click Publish Model.
After Publishing a model, SimLab team will review it then approve it, and once it has been approved, it will be visible in the store and available for purchase.
Managing Store Items
To view and edit models that you have uploaded to the store, simply open the VR Store from SimLab Composer or VR Studio, and you will find your models under the Published models Tab.
To view sold models, switch to the Sold Models Tab in the VR Store.
Collect Earnings (Add Payment Info)
To collect earnings you need to setup your Payment Info, follow the steps below to do that:
1. From VR Store Click Payment Settings in the top right corner.
2. Select either Wire Transfer or Paypal and fill in the required info then click Save.
You will collect earnings monthly and only when they exceed 300$.
Publishing Guidelines
Before publishing a VR Experience, it is a good idea to have it optimized to insure compatibility on multiple platforms, Click Here to learn more about optimization and explore the general guidelines of publishing on VR Store.
Also make sure that you read the VR Store Agreement before publishing content on the store.
Publishing Guidelines
Before publishing a VR Experience on SimLab Store its a good thing to follow this checklist to insure that the submitted VR Experience would be approved by SimLab Soft and is well received by the users/potential clients.
VR Experience Optimization
It is a good practice to try and optimize the VR experience as much as possible to insure that it runs on several platforms smoothly without any drops in performance while maintaining a good quality of visuals.
Polygons Count
A major factor in a VR Experience's performance is the number of objects and number of polygons in the scene. To check the number of objects and polygons in a scene you can select all the components in the scene and from the Geometry Menu select "Info" or Press "Ctrl + Shift +I" on the keyboard.
SimLab Composer and VR Studio enables you to reduce the polycount of an object using the "Decimation" tool found under the Geometry Menu, simply select the objects you wish to decimate and click on decimation, then set the percentage of reduction and click OK.
Scene Optimization
In this window you can optimize polycount but with much more control, you can also optimize textures used in the scene from here, you can open this optimization window from the File Menu, then "Scene Optimization".
The following video will explain how to use the Scene Optimization feature:
Make sure you save the scene before attempting to optimize the textures and even the polycount, just in case you have done undesired optimizations that the undo option can't revert alone.
Video Optimization
Similar to texture optimization you can also optimize video if present in the scene, to do so, from the File Menu, select "Optimize Video".
From the video optimization window you can select which videos to optimize and the quality of compression.
VR Properties
There are a few VR options to consider that affect performance and visuals in a VR Experience, to access the VR properties, click on Environment at the top of the object tree or click on VR Environment from the SimLab VR Viewer Menu and go to the tab named "VR".
- The Multiple Lights on Standalone Devices option might have a perceivable impact on performance, so unless it is crucial for the VR Experience to have multiple lights, we would suggest keeping this option disabled.
- Shadow Quality also affects performance specially on standalone devices, when set to low, shadows will not be rendered which would improve the performance on standalone devices.
- Accurate physics also affect performance on standalone and mobile devices, so unless the VR Experience is heavily reliant on physics, we would suggest keeping that option off.
VR Viewer Settings
Before Publishing a VR Experience on SimLab VR Store you need to double check the VR Viewer Settings. To access those setting go the VR Viewer Menu and select, Viewer Settings.
The most important setting that you need to have enabled is the Optimize Package option which would merge all the objects that are static and not a part of any interactions into a single object based on their material, so unless the VR Experience that you have created involves changing materials through the VR menu, then keep this option toggled on.
As for the VR Viewer Only option, this is mainly for exporting VRPackage files but it wouldn't hurt to have it on when publishing.
The remaining toggles would determine which options are available for the user to change during the VR Experience through the VR Menu.
Testing the VR Experience
It is recommended to test the VR Experience out on multiple platforms to ensure that it runs smoothly and to determine which platforms are fully able to run the VR Experience. A good indicator for a good performance of a VR Experience is the FPS number (Frames per second).
To view the FPS during the VR Experience you need to go to Settings in SimLab VR Viewer in each device you want to test and to enable the "Show FPS" Option.
During the VR Experience the FPS will be displayed in the top-right corner. For a decent performance, insure that the FPS while running the VR experience does not drop below 30 FPS, if it happened for a couple of short instances and does not affect the overall experience then it is acceptable, otherwise, the platform/device you are testing on might not be able to handle that VR Experience.
Publishing VR Experiences
When Publishing a VR Experience on SimLab VR Store it is recommended to fill in clear and descriptive information that would help the user understand the goals of the VR Experience clearly.
- Write a short and simple Title for the experience and a clear Description of what the experience is about, and attach a thumbnail of 16:9 ratio (1280 x 720 pixels JPG image is recommended).
- Include a Video URL of a captured footage of running the VR Experience.
- You can add a Website URL if you have a webpage that has more Info regarding the VR Experience or if you want to direct the users to your professional webpage.
- Set which platforms can this VR Experience run on based on the testing that you have performed earlier.
- Set the Pricing for the VR Experience, and in case you want to set it as paid, you have the option to select one or multiple licenses plans at the same time.