Guide for VRChat users

This article or section is a stub. You can help the Resonite wiki by expanding it.

This page is the second half of the Guide for visiting users page. Make sure to have visited there first as it contains points common to all platforms.

This page aims to catalog the Resonite equivalents to VRChat features, as well as major differences between the two, in order to help people used to the latter with getting started in Resonite.

General

• Avatars aren't just bookmarks.
  • Your default (favorite) avatar will usually be stored in your inventory, not just as a link, but as a file of sorts. This takes up storage space on your account, but allows you to edit the avatar to your heart's content.
  • To save space, you may instead save a link to a public folder with the avatar and favourite the avatar from there. This doesn't take any of your own storage space, but you won't be able to modify it, and the owner may delete it at any time, as with VRChat avatars.
• Your 'Home' world is actually your own copy.
  • You cannot favorite a world you don't have the rights to edit as it's assumed you'll wish to customize it. If you don't like the Cloud Home and you find a world you like, you can save a copy to your inventory and favorite that. More details can be found here: Homes
• Everything can be edited, including you.
  • There is no separation between the world and the avatars within. Players with builder permissions (and, to a lesser extent, items) can modify the world, items, and your virtual body, in real time. (Note that these changes won't persist unless you explicitly save them.) UI isn't locked away either; you can edit your keyboard, inspector, dash menu...
• Almost nothing is paywalled.
  • Paying money for Resonite will give you more storage space, access to the headless server software (but not hosting), bragging rights (through badges and shoutouts), and nothing else. Features you may expect to be premium, like photo prints or drones, are either a stock part of the engine (e.g. images can be dragged and dropped) or created by other players.
• Modding is allowed and encouraged.
  • Users are welcome to mod the software to nearly any extent they wish. From basic quality-of-life changes to entire alternative renderers, most users run at least some mods. However, you must still comply with Resonite's Modding Policy.

Features

Many features built into VRChat are instead implemented as user-created items in Resonite. If you install something to your avatar and you want to keep it, you will need to save the avatar so that you don't have to install it again in future sessions.

VRChat feature	Resonite equivalent
Camera	Camera item in Resonite Essentials / Quick Photo Capture gesture
Text chat	Mute Helper / Contact messages in Dash menu
Face mirror	[TODO]
Personal mirror	Mirror item in Resonite Essentials, or dash menu mirror such as Mirracle
Shield settings	Avatar blocking; Installable Resonite Shield (for preventing other people from moving your avatar)
Avatar performance blocking	N/A; some worlds have user culling systems
Hand gestures	Blackcat's ASL system (for hand shapes themselves); Avatar Expression Editor (for hand-controlled facial expressions)
Quick mute button	Context Mute
GoGo Loco	Arti's Avatar Poser (posing); flight is available by default as a locomotion type
Video players	Paste a video link anywhere (Ctrl+V on desktop, dash menu button in VR)
Avatar search worlds	RedX / Resdex

Avatar/world creation

Main article: Tutorial:Avatar creation

Main article: Tutorial:World creation basics

• The intended way to create is in-world.
  • The Unity SDK is relatively recent and only serves as an alternative interface for those used to it. (Notably, Resonite doesn't run on Unity, but rather the custom FrooxEngine; Unity is currently only used for rendering, and even that is due to change.)
• Avatars, worlds, and props are one and the same.
  • The same visual coding language, ProtoFlux, can be used both for worlds and avatars. Simple toggles can be created with a few components (see Tutorial:Context Menu#Toggles).
  • Any object can interact with (and, to some extent, modify) any other object. For example, the original author of this article has their avatar automatically inject a custom LOD into a supported world's culling system. Use this power responsibly, and be aware that others may use it irresponsibly in your game worlds.
• Everything is open by design.
  • With very few exceptions, everything you make can be copied, edited, and even exported. The SimpleAvatarProtection component (added by default) blocks equipping, saving, and exporting of an avatar, but it's not bulletproof (e.g. users with builder permissions can inspect it and access its textures). Note that copyright is still in effect, as are basic manners; if someone uses your creation against your will, report them to the moderation team.
  • Note that this goes both ways. If you're curious about how something works, and you have builder permissions in the instance, you're usually more than welcome to whip out a dev tool and learn how it's made, and maybe even tweak it to your liking.
  • Also note: Worlds can be locked down, there is a Permission system and roles below Builder cannot edit but can save items that can be picked up, but other options exist to limit things further.
• There are no custom shaders.
  • XiexeToon is the closest equivalent to Poiyomi and lilToon. Advanced effects, such as decals, are often achieved through mesh stacking, i.e. rendering the same mesh multiple times with different materials. AudioLink-like systems use dynamic variables, which you can use to drive any field on any material (see Dynamic variable naming standard, though other conventions exist). The UnitySDK includes automatic converters between some of the most common Resonite versions.
• Be careful with resource usage.
  • While you won't have to optimize for Quest (for now...?), Resonite can be heavy (especially on the CPU) due to how flexible it is. In particular, since there's no "compilation" step, you'll have to deliberately seek out optimizations such as culling or baked lighting (e.g. through Lumos). Check out the optimization guidelines article for more detail.

See also

• Controls