Developer Update - 5 September 2024

Official Dev Updates
1

Welcome to the Developer Update for 5 September 2024! Today is a bit different, as we’ve got a video for you today! You can see it here:

Prefer to read? Check below for a transcript from the video!

Hey – it’s Strasz from the VRChat Community Team, and I’m here with a fresh Developer Update! It’s been a while, so strap in: today we will be talking about the future of VRChat+!

Believe it or not, VRChat+ first launched almost four years ago. At the time, it was envisioned as a way to let folks who loved VRChat support the company. We had tons of folks asking us “hey, how do we support you? How do we keep you alive?”

We launched VRChat with the belief that it would be an easy way for people to say thank you. It was, and you did! Thank you to everyone who supports us by subscribing to VRChat Plus. Your support helps to keep our continued work possible!

That’s awesome – but now we want to make sure we’re giving enough back to you. For starters, we hear you want more features added to VRChat Plus! So, a lot of the things we’ve been working on lately are new features and improvements to the benefits VRChat Plus grants you!

Today, we’ll discuss two of those new features — stickers and sharing — that will be coming soon.

Introducing Stickers

Stickers are a brand-new feature that will be exclusive to VRChat+ subscribers. In short, with this feature, you will be able to toss a sticker on almost any surface in any VRChat world. If you’ve ever played a game with “sprays,” well, think of these like that!

Just like Custom Emoji, you’ll be able to create and upload your own stickers and toss them on basically anything – we’ll also have some standard ones you can use, too.

We’ve thought up a few ways we can imagine people using them – tagging walls, combo-ing stickers with friends, or acting like a stencil in drawing worlds. You can even take a picture and then immediately turn it into a sticker, just like you can with Custom Emoji! We think these will add a whole new layer of personality to VRChat, and we’re pretty excited to see what the community comes up with!

We also know that you’ll immediately have some questions – how many can you have? How many can you put down in a world? What about moderation?

As of right now, you can have about nine – although that could change by the time this feature comes to beta. Likewise, you can only put one down in a world at any given time. That, too, could change, depending on the feedback we get back in beta.

To the last – about moderation – we know that these could be used in less-than-great ways. To that end, anyone can hide any sticker they want – if you see something you don’t like, you can click it and hide it. Also, if you have someone blocked, you won’t see their stickers. And of course, if they are kicked out of an instance, their stickers will disappear. World creators can also choose to disable stickers in their world, if they’d prefer to keep a curated experience.

In addition, we scan uploaded images to prevent certain types of content from appearing in Stickers, just like we do for emojis and other uploaded images.

But those are Stickers! We’ve been playing around with these for quite a bit, and we think you’ll find them fun!

Wouldn’t it be even more fun if they were easy to share with your friends?

Introducing Sharing

So now, you’ve got Stickers, you’ve got Emojis. You’re taking pictures to remember, to share, and to use in Replies, in your profile, and as your icon. You’re making custom UI color schemes to make VRChat yours.

What if you could share all of those, with your friends, right in VRChat?

Sharing is a new feature exclusive to VRChat+ that allows you to easily share all of the aforementioned things with your friends. We’ll be adding in two ways you can share content with your friends: directly, or via a special sharing pedestal.

To share with your friends directly, you can simply open the menu and share any of the previously mentioned items with them. Easy! You can even share with multiple friends at the same time.

Want to share things with folks who are in the world with you—and who are maybe not your friends? That’s where the sharing pedestal comes in.

The Sharing Pedestal is a little bubble you drop down in the world. It contains the content you want to share! You can set up these pedestals to last until you leave or have them despawn after a few minutes. You can also choose who gets to see them — just your friends, one or more Groups, or everyone in the instance.

When someone drops a pedestal for, say, a sticker, you can click the button on the pedestal to copy it to your account! The same goes for emoji and pictures. With one click, you can fling out that new Emoji for the event you’re at, slap a new Sticker down, or share a great picture with your friends.

You can control how you see them, too. Is a Sharing Pedestal in your way? You can hide it with one click! Are there just way too many? You can turn them off! Have culling on? Sharing pedestals get hidden past your culling circle!

We think this will make it MUCH easier to share your cool creations with people. VRChat has always thrived on spontaneous moments that can then easily be shared with friends who have VRC+ – so why not make it easier for that to happen?

The Future of VRChat+

In addition to Stickers and Sharing, there will be more new features coming in the near future. Some of these features look like they’ll be released this year! (Fingers crossed!)

What will those be? We’re not tellin’ — that’d ruin the surprise! We currently have several features in development, more in design and ideation, and a bunch more scribbled on a whiteboard.

As we’re dreaming about what we can add to VRChat Plus, we’d like to know what you think about the new stuff! What do you think would encourage others to purchase VRChat Plus? What kind of benefits would you like to see? Let us know!

…and that’s it!

Thanks for watching!

See You in Two Weeks!

We’ll be back to our normal text Developer Update schedule in two weeks. That’s 19 September! See you then!

20 Likes
2

Epic.

1 Like
3

I love the UI for sharing! Idk who made that but good job :D

3 Likes
4

Furries literally shaking right now, with their 36210 stickers collection on Telegram

14 Likes
5

:ok_hand: cool

2 Likes
6

I like the features but… this is the kind of thing I was scared of having behind VRC+. A new feature and not an extension of an existing one. I don’t complain about a lot and I understand the balance struggle to reward/entice and no big deal so far but this I don’t agree with… And when is everyone able to create and manage groups? You said it was happening.

4 Likes
7

Cool, but… That’s all ?

3 Likes
8

Just posted this :slight_smile:

I also posted this feedback a while ago, but this would get super chaotic:

1 Like
9

This reads more like an advertisement than a developer update. Lol

11 Likes
10

Finally, photo sharing! Before now I’ve had to rely on uploading to Discord, or a fun Polaroid camera asset I have on my avatar that allows you to hand photos to your friends (with the caveat that they have to be friended or have your avatar fully shown before you take the photo for them to see it at all). This is much more straightforward, but I do admit I hate the idea of locking it behind VRC+ since it’s so useful. May I suggest an alternate setup?

Everyone: can share one photo at a time
VRC+: can share themes, stickers, emoji, and either individual photos or groups of multiple photos at a time (e.g. 6)

This would keep an extremely helpful feature from being locked behind a subscription, while still offering incentive for said subscription (not having to share photos one at a time).

EDIT: Keep basic photo-sharing functionality available for non-VRC+ subscribers | Voters | VRChat

1 Like
11

Can we please get an update on age verification? I really want to know that it’s still on track.

6 Likes
12

Will stickers be hidden for players if we forcibly have their avatar hidden, or will we have the ability to hide someone’s stickers without them having put a sticker down yet? It looks like we can select an already placed sticker and hide it, but what about pre-emptive hiding for individuals and such if wanted? Also do they get culled with avatar culling as well, or is that just the sharing pedastals?

1 Like
13

You could replace the current semi-transparent blue camera object with customisable models. Instead of just the default, there could be an option to add custom objects created by VRChat, or even allow users to add their own models through Unity.

For example, if there were a blank object within the VRC descriptor, players could insert their own models, enabling them to fly around the game, taking photos, as various items. You could provide a selection of fun objects like little robots, drones, an 8-ball, and more, or let users upload their own models for even more customisation.

I have a bunch of cool and relatively simple ideas that could enhance the experience for VRChat+ members and even attract new ones. I’ll write up a bunch of them if you’re interested!

14

I really love that new “Share Content” screen that lets you set the duration and permissions of share pedestals.

My only nitpick is that I don’t really think share pedestals should ever persist for the duration its creator is in an instance. I think having options like “Until used”, “10 seconds,” “30 seconds”, “5 minutes”, etc. would make more sense in the context of a social interaction where you want to give someone something. I can’t imagine a context where an indefinite share pedestal would be useful more than it is obtrusive.

Would also be kinda awesome to have that same timer and permission menu mirrored over to placing portals instead of their current “lock” function.

5 Likes
15

Will Instance owners or Group Moderators be able to remove stickers from worlds they supervise WITHOUT kicking individuals?

16

Overall nice feature!
Of course there might be additional scenarios which need to be considered (for example wolfy_527’s or Avanera’s post), but as a feature pre-beta it seems like a well done concept already.

17

Really appreciate giving VRChat+ members some love, one thing I was surprised wasn’t a thing was a small allowance of Creator Credits when that came out. Almost every premium subscription has some sort of in game compensation, mostly as a thank you, but also as a incentive to stay subscribed. Was this idea ever thought of? I don’t know the technics behind it it, so it might have been a done deal already, just thought I would put my 2 cents in. Wonderful progress though, love it.

18

Although VRChat+ is essential to keep VRChat alive for us both the company and users, and the sharing pedestal seems an excellent idea as a very VR style, but don’t miss the right moment to

4 Likes
19

fix per person chat box muting, real smart making the accessibility option for people who cant or don’t speak, abusable

20

It is indeed still on track for the moment. Last I checked the team that will work on it is currently occupied doing some other tasking, but it’s up next. We’re still estimating “by end of year”.

This timing may change, development being development. :sweat_smile:

If I recall correctly, if you have instance moderator powers, you can remove stickers. I may be wrong, though, I haven’t had a chance to test things out personally (COVID shot has hands)

3 Likes