How come VAM is a big thing with South Koreans?

[Clyde Cash]

VAM is a pretty obscure software and if you go on youtube and search "virtamate" and check new, 99% of the results are South Koreans making Kpop music videos or something similar.

Is there a reason why VAM has huge popularity within the SK internet? Obviously they aren't using it as a sex sandbox but to make motion captured music videos. For some reason this seems like an inefficient way to go about that but VAM is basically a sandbox based on Unity components with DAZ 3D characters that is primarily intended for VR use but desktop mode probably accounts for 50% of the actual use cases nowadays.

If I had to guess its because the barrier to entry is low to create "animations". Its not like learning blender, although it took me months to realise what VAM actually is at the end of the day; DAZ 3D with a physics engine.

 

[MacGruber]

Because you are searching on Youtube, which does not allow adult stuff. Hence it's only the non-adult stuff you find

 

[atani]

My search results (search engine) are different from yours. Mine come first about VAM in general, guides and stuff, very few mention any KPOP videos in the first pages.
If you search on youtube, then it is how MacGruber says.
If your search spectrum is narrow, then you'll have narrow results.

Obviously they aren't using it as a sex sandbox but to make motion captured music videos

That's definitely not right, people in South Korea are just like people elsewhere, they are for sure using VAM for sexual content as well. Just because you see a lot of Kpop MMD scenes doesn't mean that's the main use of VAM, it just means that it is of popular interest and is shared online in the places you've been to.

Is there a reason why VAM has huge popularity within the SK internet?

How do you know how popular it is? Perhaps they have more vocal communities and have language-specific sites that make it seem it's a lot more known within the South Korean speakers compared to others.
Even so, expanding the use of VAM to other aspects besides sexual ones would be a reason to attract or make it more commonplace. Keep in mind though that seeing videos with content made in VAM is not the same as making VAM content, so those strictly video viewers are not VAM users.

 

[hazmhox]

although it took me months to realise what VAM actually is at the end of the day; DAZ 3D with a physics engine.

lolno. Even tho VAM still has UX issues, it's far more accessible and versatile than Daz haha. And you can do a LOT of things. An actual accurate description would be more "A Unity scene editor with Daz figures & customization capabilities".

Also Korean / Asian communities are monomaniacs (and I'm saying that as a good thing, not a critic). They go down a rabbit hole and do a lot of content. But as said by Mac and Atani, it still is a huge bias confirmation. If you'd search on patreon for VAM content, you'd get the opposite feeling with a lot of occidental people doing vam content.

 

[lolmao500]

Imagine if you could play starcraft in VAM, itd be even bigger.

 

[Anand]

In addition to the good points above, MMD (Miku Miku Dance) content is huge with E Asian otaku (and Kpop fangirls in rest of the world). AFAIK the OG MMD app is fine tuned for anime-ish characters which are fine for weebs. VAM has a variety of plugins which gives it the ability to run MMD with realistic and fantasy looks. This capability brings a mass of users who want more than a sex simulator.

If the OP has access behind the Great Firewall and pierce through the impenetrable crap on their sharing websites, he will find another mass of Chinese VAM users who are decidedly not S.Korean.