MUVA Virtual Museum of Art
• 2-star rating
• PCVR, Quest
• Art
• Comfortable, Roomscale, Stationary
MUVA Virtual Museum of Art is an art gallery offering viewings of Rembrandt paintings and sketches in the Meta Quest version, and expanded to include two additional virtual exhibitions for the PCVR version. The website claims that new exhibitions will be launched every month, but we assume this project to be abandoned. The PCVR version was created in 2020 and the Quest app was published in 2022 and no recent content has been added.
The Meta Quest app contains the Rembrandt exhibition of six portrait paintings and several further drawings and etchings. Move around the gallery with teleport controls and snap turning to get the best perspectives of the artworks. Press a yellow button on the wall adjacent to each exhibit to enable an audio commentary. Unfortunately the reproduction of paintings is quite poor compared to viewing on a regular computer screen as you can see in our screenshot comparison below, which makes this experience mostly valueless. The Quest version also has a social function, though this did not work for us.
Meta Quest version art gallery.
The Windows PCVR version can be downloaded directly from the developer's website and a further non-headset based desktop version is available for both Windows and MacOS platforms. These feature two additional exhibits. The first displays sculptures, busts and reliefs from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome presented in clean and sparse virtual gallery halls. The second is more interesting and finally uses virtual reality to good effect, as it exhibits 25 impressionist works with an aquatic theme while showcasing them in a scenic flooded gallery with wooden walkways.
Reproduction of artworks is certainly better on PCVR than on Meta Quest. Images are in a higher resolution that almost match a regular computer screen, though the three-dimensional artifacts are lacking in the detail and faithfulness to the original necessary to appreciate them well. The PCVR version also suffers from fussy teleportation movement, no snap turning and a lack of English language function.
We've scored this low because any experience claiming to be museum grade should be able to present its artifacts in substantial detail, as MUVA Virtual Museum of Art is unable to do. Also contributing to the score is the appearance that this program is now abandoned, despite the hard work that has clearly been invested in it.
Flooded PCVR gallery showcasing aquatic impressionist works.
Comparing reproductions: Quest, Wikipedia & PCVR.
✅ Clean presentation.
❌ Mostly graphics. Artwork lacking detail.
❌ Fussy teleportation movement.
❌ Limited content, appears abandoned.
❌ PCVR version is only in Spanish.
• Languages: English, Spanish
• Facebook: Comment on this article
