I’m counting down the clock to five. I just got the straps for my HTC Vive Ultimate Trackers, and I’m dying to hop into VRChat and pretend to be an anime girl for several hours. Is there truly anything better than wandering around as a mecha waifu in Shibuya, patrolling the streets like a shonen protagonist? I, for one, welcome the virtual reality future, where all of us hang out on Friday nights as furries, anime babes, and androids.
I’ve spent the past year of my life learning VRChat, mostly for my streams on Twitch. While your casual VRChat user tends to snag random avatars from public worlds, I actually highly discourage doing that. There are many lovely and wonderful creators out there developing truly incredible avatars. Modeler Torinyan, for example, works with artists like nradiowave and Echanis_Enicha to create fantasy robot women. VERMILION .Studio combines tacticool gear and stylish streetwear with anime maids and canines. Then there’s some truly unique stuff, like Vulthra’s Slithery Snake. Which is, yes, a full-blown snake girl. Purchasing these avatars directly from their source helps support VRChat‘s modelers, leading to more avatars for the entire VRChat user base.
Videos by VICE
But I mention “create” in the headline for a reason. You see, there’s more to VRChat than just buying an avatar. You also have to upload them. That means learning how to use Unity. VRChat simplifies this process through the VRChat Creator Companion, a program that prepares your Unity project files before use. Via the VCC, you can store various package repositories that are automatically updated for use, such as the ubiquitous Poiyomi Shaders. Just install the program, download the correct version of Unity, and fire up a new avatar project. From there, import the model you purchased, and get to work customizing the avatar of your dreams.
Unity is just an insanely powerful ‘VRChat’ character creator
Working off an avatar base is important, as VRChat users can install a wide variety of addons onto their characters. Value creates spiral-based eye shaders that feature a hypnotic effect. Asset designer Pointless offers a voice-reactive halo that lets out spikes if you’re talking. Then there are items custom-tailored to various models. A custom-tailored revolver prefab by U Shop can be applied to VERMILION’s DELTAFLAIR, perfectly matching the handgun to her fingers. Torinyan and nradiowave’s Runa & Ranu can equip a sick cyberpunk sword.
Selestia, one of the most popular anime bases for VRChat, has over 7,500 items available for download alone. All this isn’t even including the various actions and addons you can add to your character for increased quality of life, like various dance moves or a high-end camera. Each of these prefabs lets you customize your VRChat avatar to a T. Think of Unity like a powerful, high-end character creator for your VR hangouts.
More than anything, you should create your own avatar for VRChat because it’s a fantastic learning experience. Making an avatar lets you better understand how VRChat works and how Unity functions. Keep creating your avatars, and one day, you might be able to develop your own assets for distribution. So, go ahead, try buying one of the avatar bases above and tinkering with its various addons. Whether you’re a VR headset owner or a desktop VRChat user, you can still learn a lot about the engine behind the world’s most popular VR social platform.
To get started, I recommend checking out Rabbi32’s guide to uploading VRChat avatars based on bases. Trust me, the process is much simpler than it seems. As for finding avatars to download, I recommend checking out Boothplorer for looking through VRChat avatars on Booth, or looking through avatars available on Jinxxy.
