Avatars
- As per the Getting Started section for installing the latest supported Unity editor version and acquiring the Basis framework.
- Open Unity Hub and add an existing project, choose the extracted/cloned Basis project folder
- Once the Unity Project has loaded, you can now load your Avatar files:
- Either,
- Find 'Assets' in the Project hirarchy, inside 'Assets' right click any empty space and select 'Show in Explorer'
- Copy in your Avatar files [Mesh/Materials/Textures etc]
- or
- Import a .unity package containing your files, from the Assets menu, Import Package > Custom Package
- Bring back the Unity window and allow the import process to finish
- Find the location of your Avatar model (usually provided in .FBX format).
- Click the file and then navigate to the 'Model' section of the Import Settings window.
- Ensure that 'Red/Write' and 'Legacy Blend Shape Normals' are selected as below.
- Navigate to the 'Rig' section of the Import Settings window.
- Click the 'Animation Type' drop-down menu and select 'Humanoid', press 'Apply' as shown below.
- Afterward the 'Configure' button above 'Apply' is now selectable, click this and then check your bone mappings.
- This should show all mandatory bones as selected, make sure this looks correct for your Armature.
- Lastly, click on the 'Head' button in the 'Mapping' window and remove the assignment for the 'Jaw', this is usually incorrect.
- There are currently no requirements to name your Avatar's Skinned Mesh as 'Body' or other variantion used on Virtual Platforms.
- If you have multiple skinned meshes, consider pinning them to all use the same reference point on the body, for inheriting light probes in the scene. You can do this by assigning a bone from the Armature (Usually Hips)it to the 'Anchor Override' field.
- Another consideration for Avatars with multiple Skinned Meshes, is when different bounding box sizes cause individual meshes to pop in and out, whilst the rest of the Avatar is visible to remote viewers.
- You can coverride the Center X,Y,Z & Extent X,Y,Z values in the section named 'Bounds' at the top of the Skinned Mesh Renderer component, usually it is a good idea to set this the same across the separate Skinnned Meshes.
- The steps above should automatically add an Animator component to your Avatar prefab when you pull it in to the Scene.
- On the Parent gameObject of the Avatar | click 'Add Component' | add 'Basis Avatar'
If you're struggling to find the view ball or indicator for the Eye Position follow these steps:
- Top Right next to XYZ, click the Eye.
- Enable "Eye Position Gizmo" inside of the 'Basis Avatar' component.
You should now see a green Gizmo for your eyes, move this up between your eyes, and on the same plane as your eyes
Ensure you have assigned each of the following:
- Animator
- Face Viseme
- Face Blink
- Avatar Name
- Avatar Description
To add Jiggle Physics:
At the very bottom of 'Basis Avatar' you will find 'jiggle configuration'
- Click 'Add New Basis Jiggle Strain'
A new 'Jiggle Strains' dropdown will appear below it, follow the dropdowns until you see settings
- Ensure to add a 'Root Transform'
Integrating VRCFT to drive bone rotation via OSC:
<This section will cover usage of Hai's instructions later on>
- Ensure that there are NO duplicate named gameObjects within the hierarchy of your avatar, including armature, as this will cause your avatar to fail to load after building the AssetBundle
- Navigate to the bottom of the Basis Avatar component on your Avatar prefab and select the 'Create Avatar Bundle' button.
- The results will created under the AssetBundle directory in your project as shown below.
- Once the AssetBundle has been created then you can load this via the 'BootManager' prefab found at 'Assets > Prefabs > Boot'.
- You can place the location of the new AssetBunndle under the 'Meta URL' & 'Bundle URL' fields, along with the 'Unlock Password' provided in the 'dontuploadmepassword.txt' file generated at in the '/AssetBundles/' directory.
- Make sure to tick 'Is Local' if the file is not a URL.
- Load the 'Initialization' scene from 'Assets > Scenes', and then hit Play.
Basis allows you to load an Avatar AssetBundle from a remote URL location, which is also required for other users in a networked session to also load the assets.
In order to support this, you will need to be able to direct link to a remote location, for this example we will use Google Drive
(Google Drive supports direct link of files up to 100MB due to their Virus Scanning policy)
Upload the Bundle File & Meta File to Google Drive, or any hosting provider that allows direct links to files without login.
- Create a Folder on your Drive and set its sharing settings to Anyone with the link.
Now when you drag your files into this Folder, you will not individually need to set that permission
- Click the Hamburger Menu on the Top Right of the asset you have just uploaded into the folder.
- Find Share and click Copy Link
Do this for both files
We will need to look into the URL to grab the information we need
Example:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/YourIDBringsAllTheLagToMyYard/view?usp=sharing
We want to copy the unique identifier inside of the URL, and add it to the following:
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=
Example:
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=YourIDBringsAllTheLagToMyYard
Do this for Bundle & Meta File.
DO NOT UPLOAD YOUR GENERATED PASSWORD FILE OR SHARE IT
Load up Basis, open the menu select Avatars
Paste the Meta Link into the Meta field.
Paste the Bundle Link into the Bundle field.
Paste your SUPER SECRET ENCRYPTED PASSWORD into the Password field.
Load! 🥱
By default Basis will save the details of Avatars added through the game menu for convenience. After a while this can grow the avatar list or keep old Avatar information, which may not be desirable. To remove this, you can do the following:
- Delete
%appdata%\..\LocalLow\Basis Unity\Basis Unity\VerySafePasswordStore.json
When you start the game after this step the previously stored Avatars will now be gone.