VRChat IK 2.0 - 8 and 10-point tracking!
VRChat IK 2.0— better tracking, 8 and 10-point tracking, configuration options, and oh boy, just a TON of fixes. Check out the full post to learn more!
The rumors are true: we’ve got some massive upcoming updates to the VRChat IK system! Let’s talk about VRChat IK 2.0!
We’ve completely revamped the IK system, improving every aspect of tracking in VRChat. While we were under the hood, we also added in support for even more tracking points – meaning you can now have up to 10 points of tracking on your avatar!
If you’re following us on Twitter, there’s a good chance you might’ve caught a sneak peek of these changes in action:
It’s important to note that there’s benefits for everyone here: from the people that simply own a headset and controllers to the people sitting on a shelf full of trackers. Additionally, these improvements will be available for all VRChat users – no VRChat Plus required, and our Quest community gets all the 3-point improvements too!
OK, let’s talk a bit about these changes in detail, and what they’ll mean for you.
VRChat IK 2.0
While VRChat’s tracking was pretty good, we’ve always known it could be better. We’ve rebuilt the whole system to more accurately track moving bodies, especially when they are twisted, upside down, or in a bunch of other unique positions that our previous system struggled to track.
This should mean that your avatar matches your real-life body’s movements more accurately, even if you aren’t wearing body trackers! To put things into perspective, let’s go through a few examples of some of the many improvements you can expect in this update!
Your avatar’s elbows should no longer clip through your avatar’s torso – which (we’d hope) is not something your arms are actually doing in real life.
You should notice improved motion through the IK changes and changes to how poses are handled - meaning less twisty spines!
We’ve also added in a few different IK modes for users to play around with. Check out the “gear” Settings tab in your Quick Menu while you’re wearing full body trackers. We suggest giving all of them a shot: the best one for you will depend on your avatar’s rig, your tracking setup, and what you’re trying to achieve with FBT.
Once again, it should be noted that these changes don’t just benefit users who are tracking their entire body: all users, including those that simply use a headset and two controllers, will see an improvement in how their avatar moves in VRChat.
Additional Tracking Points!
Right now, VRChat only supports up to 6-point tracking via SteamVR. That means you can use your headset and controllers, then optionally add in your waist and feet via tracked devices like the HTC Vive Trackers or the Tundra Trackers.
A 6-point setup allows you to manipulate your whole avatar in VRChat, and is frequently referred to as FBT, or full-body tracking. If you’ve ever seen someone dancing in VRChat, that’s how they’re doing it!
In this update, we’re bumping up support all the way up to 10 points of tracking, meaning that you’ll be able to track everything that was previously standard in FBT, plus up to four additional trackers – which can be used to track your elbows, knees, or both!
By adding more points of tracking, you’re giving the system more data to work with. Instead of having to guess where your knees or arms are, VRChat can simply know where they are. Chicken dance to your heart’s content.
Want to check out these updates like … right now?
Cool, ‘cause you can. Right now. On Live.
All of these features are available right now in a special Beta branch that works with Live! The IK 2.0 Beta is live compatible, meaning you can use it while hanging out with your friends on the live version of VRChat!
To join, simply join our Discord, head over to the #open-beta-announcements channel, and find the recent post regarding the IK beta. Read that to learn how to join in, and how to contribute feedback. We’ve also got a dedicated #ik-2-beta channel to chat in.
We’re looking for as much feedback as possible, so if you’re looking to help us test any of these improvements and features, we would very much appreciate it! Your feedback and bug reports will help shape how the improved IK system looks and acts when it releases to Live.
For now, this beta is only available on Steam, but we’ll look into expanding to more platforms later on during testing.
Go forth, try it out, and enjoy all the extra fidelity. Don’t forget to give us your feedback!
For press or media inquiries, please contact press@vrchat.com
We’re hiring! Check out open positions on our site
VRChat OSC for Avatars
Our latest Open Beta update includes a long-awaited feature— Avatar OSC!
While Avatar Dynamics and improved IK are coming (very) soon, we have another awesome feature we’re excited to share with you in the meantime.
We've just released an update to Open Beta that contains a number of small-scale fixes and improvements in preparation for some of those big, eagerly-anticipated features. In addition, the open beta contains a powerful new feature we teased in last year's Dev Stream: Avatar OSC!
Update 24 Feb 2022: This feature is now Live!
An early demonstration from April 2021
Of course, you’re probably asking: what is OSC? In short, OSC stands for Open Sound Control. It's a protocol originally intended to allow communication between audio devices and controllers for musical performances, but has capabilities far beyond that!
It's a favorite method of creative coders and people making weird interactive things because it's fast, networked, and very open-ended.
With Avatars OSC, a bunch of new possibilities suddenly open up:
Want to use a drum pad to control your avatar’s ears? You can!
Want to use your phone’s gyro sensor to control your eyebrows? You got it!
Map your face blendshapes to midi control knobs? I mean… if you want to?
Want to have your avatar’s clothes change colors when you receive a donation on Twitch? Yup, that’s possible too.
…and many, many more.
Sending an OSC signal to manipulate a single avatar parameter directly from the Unity editor
The options are limitless. We seriously can’t wait to see what sort of ludicrous nonsense our community comes up with.
How Does OSC Work in VRChat?
In VRChat, we're initially enabling OSC for the standard user control inputs (such as movement and navigation), and also as a feature of Avatar 3.0. OSC data can be both sent and received between compatible software on the same network. We plan on expanding this functionality in later updates, including OSC in worlds via Udon!
Using commercially-available eye-tracking and face-tracking hardware with an external application sending OSC data into VRChat as synced avatar parameters.
Basic demonstration of OSC controls, as driven from Momo’s phone. Has sound, turn it on!
Glowing horns based on real-life heart-rate!
I'm a Developer! How Do I Get Started with OSC in VRChat?
Awesome! We’re gonna need people like you. Get started by checking out the documentation. OSC is in Open Beta right now, so please give it a try!
If you’re used to our usual Open Betas, this one’s a bit different. If you’re primarily interested in the OSC components, you should participate on GitHub instead of the Canny. Here's some useful links to participate:
Discussions: https://github.com/vrchat-community/osc/discussions
Bugs & Feature Requests: https://github.com/vrchat-community/osc/issues
Milestones: https://github.com/vrchat-community/osc/milestones
If you make something cool, show it off on our Discord server and Ask Forums.
If you find any other bugs or issues along the way unrelated to OSC, use the good old Open Beta feedback board!
Are There Any Security Risks?
If you've been using the internet for a long time, you should be very much aware of the risks involved with running software that strangers have posted online. Never run an application that you don't fully trust. VRChat does not directly endorse the use of any specific OSC-related software – being careful with any downloaded files is your responsibility!
A good (but definitely not perfect) indication that a piece of software is safe is when the project is hosted on a public repository (on a service like GitHub) and you can view all the code yourself.
What Else is in This Update?
VRChat 2022.1.1 also brings stability fixes, a small network improvement for IK (no, this isn’t everything we’re working on with IK – more soon!), and a few Udon improvements. There’s more, so you should definitely check out the full notes.
Another notable addition is Tunneling, our implementation of comfort-based vignetting while moving. If you’re susceptible to motion sickness when using smooth locomotion, you might find this to be a better compromise than using Holoport.
Through the motion-sickness inducing spin-hallway with and without tunneling. Yay, no more barf!
Okay, but Seriously, AVATAR DYNAMICS WHEN????
We’re aiming to have Open Beta builds for both the improved IK and Avatar Dynamics ASAP! They’ll both need a lot of testing, so we’ll be counting on you for feedback when they go live. So… uh, soon. We haven’t forgotten about it, don’t worry!
We’re extremely excited to see what cool stuff our community makes with OSC! In about a month, we’ll be putting out a highlight reel of all the raddest things our community comes up with – so if you build something cool, make sure to tag VRChat on Twitter!
Wait, how do I get to that Open Beta thing again
Join our Discord, scroll down the channels a bit, and find the #open-beta-info channel. It’ll tell you everything you need to know.
You don’t need to! OSC for Input and Avatars is now LIVE!
For press or media inquiries, please contact press@vrchat.com
We’re hiring! Check out open positions on our site
Our Policy on NFTs and Blockchain in VRChat
We've received a lot of questions from our users and business partners about NFTs, blockchain technology, and their use in VRChat. Let’s answer those questions and establish our policy.
We’ve been getting a bunch of questions from users and business partners about NFTs, blockchain technology, and their use in VRChat. To clear up any confusion, here are our current policies, which will be reflected in our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service in upcoming updates.
We do not have any current or future plans for an official blockchain or NFT integration in VRChat. Please be wary of any claims to the contrary.
If users decide to purchase an NFT for an asset on another platform (such as a 3D model or image file), they are allowed to utilize the asset in VRChat as they would any other asset, as long as that asset is used in a way that does not violate our Terms of Use.
We do not permit promotion, advertising, integration, or solicitation of unauthorized products or services like NFT or blockchain technology in VRChat.
These policies apply to users of VRChat, as well as our partners. If these policies change in the future, we’ll let you know. We hope this clears things up.
— The VRChat Team
For press or media inquiries, please contact press@vrchat.com
We’re hiring! Check out open positions on our site
VRChat Blog Migration
Hello all! We’ve migrated our blog here, to our site!
All future posts will be made here! However, you can find all of our older posts at medium.com/vrchat.
For press or media inquiries, please contact press@vrchat.com
We’re hiring! Check out open positions on our site