Context
A research platform that needed a pipe.
Radiance — founded in Berlin by Tina Sauerländer and Philip Hausmeier — already curated immersive tech and VR art as an international research platform. The missing piece was product: a way to manage the works, and a headset app that could actually put them on someone’s face.
Role
Tobto built the delivery layer.
Curating and artist relationships stayed with Radiance. Tobto’s lane was the product stack that makes distribution real: a web-side app for managing VR content, and a Meta Quest app where that content is authenticated, rented, downloaded or streamed, and watched as 360° experiences.
Two surfaces, one catalog. The headset is not a brochure — it is the playback room. The management app is not a CMS vanity page — it is how works enter the pipe.
Management
Catalog ops for expensive, fragile media.
VR artworks are heavy to produce and awkward to sell. The management app had to treat them like inventory with meaning: titles, availability, free vs paid, rental windows, and the metadata that lets a curator publish without re-shipping a build every time a new piece lands. Tobto wired the backend of that editorial control — the part visitors never see and artists feel when their work actually reaches a headset.
Quest
Sideload, pair, watch.
The Quest app is where the loop closes. Register on the web, download the build, sideload to the headset, enter the auth code shown in VR to link the device to the Radiance account, then rent or open free works and play. Stream or download — download preferred for heavier pieces. Tobto built that headset client so distribution was not a Dropbox link whispered at a meetup.
Model
Film rental logic for VR art.
Radiance applied a film-industry pattern: rent a work for a short window (48 hours), keep a free tier alive, grow the catalog month by month. Launch in April 2021 opened with a curated set; the platform now lists dozens of 360° experiences for Quest 1 / 2 / 3. Tobto’s job was to make that model executable — entitlements, delivery, and playback that do not collapse when the catalog expands.
Outcome
A sustainable pipe for work that used to stay offline.
Artists get a path to revenue on pieces that cost real money to make. Schools and universities get teaching material that fits a headset, not a seminar PDF. Radiance keeps the curatorial voice; the apps keep the catalog moving. Tobto left the stack that makes “VR art platform” mean more than a website with pretty stills.
Tone
Gallery gravity, product discipline.
No carnival UI. The headset should feel like entering a quiet room of work — the management tools should feel like a curator’s desk. Soft light, clear pairing, rentals that expire without drama. Engineering in service of art that was never meant to live only as a thumbnail.
Story
- 01
Radiance curated VR art; distribution still needed a real product pipe.
- 02
Tobto built content management for the catalog and a Quest app for playback.
- 03
Account, sideload, auth code, rent/download — web and headset stay in sync.
- 04
48-hour rental model + free tier made expensive VR art reachable and billable.
- 05
Catalog grew; universities and Quest users got a living library, not a brochure.
Visit
Radiance VR AppCurated VR art for Meta Quest — managed on the web, watched in the headset.