Hello everyone! We've just released VRChat 2018.4.4, build number 681. You should restart Steam to get the latest update, and ensure you're not on any beta branches. There's a ton of features, so check them out in our release notes.

There's a few more docs to check out to understand the features we're releasing today, so check them out here as well:
Avatar Performance Ranks
Public Avatar Cloning

We have just released VRChat 2018.4.3 on Steam! Make sure you restart Steam to get the latest version as quickly as possible. If you are on the right version, you should see Build 668 on the bottom of your quick menu.

This release has a huge amount of changes, the biggest of which is our migration to Unity 2017.4.15f1! If you create content for VRChat, make sure you check out our guide on Migrating your Project to 2017.4, which includes instructions on how to install the proper version of Unity and move your projects over.

If you have worlds or avatars with specific qualities, you may need to re-upload that content using Unity 2017 in order for it to work properly. Check the Release Notes below to see the list of reasons you might want to re-upload.

We've also updated our Store Page with new media and a pretty awesome new trailer-- check it out! Special thanks to our community members who participated, and to Chris Lake for providing the awesome track.

There's a lot going on in this update, so check out our Release Notes for the full story.

We have just released VRChat 2018.4.2 on Steam! Make sure you restart Steam to get the latest version as quickly as possible. If you are on the right version, you should see Build 660 on the bottom of your quick menu.

Here's a quick list of some of the details of this release:

• We've added User Reporting. You can find the "Report User" button under the "Favorite User" button in the Social menu. This allows you to report users for issues with behavior, the user's avatar, text (such as their name or status), or the thumbnail image for their avatar. This works very similarly to World Reporting. If you have urgent issues or something that doesn't match any of the report reasons, please continue to contact moderation@vrchat.com with reports
  
• When looking at someone's Social panel, Public worlds that they've authored are now visible even if you aren't friends with them
  
• Website - You can now change your own name on the VRChat Home site! Check out our Knowledgebase article for more details.

Check out our release notes here!

If you're a creator, make sure you grab the latest SDK available on the VRChat Home Website.

If you’re a VRChat Creator, you’re probably familiar with the fact that VRChat currently runs on Unity 5.6.3p1. This has been the case since August of 2017, when we upgraded from Unity 5.3. We would like to announce that VRChat is planning to upgrade to Unity 2017.4.15f1 LTS for an upcoming release within the next couple of weeks. We have a special Open Beta available to all users that can be used to test the new version, as well as upload content.

A common question we’re expecting is “Why not Unity 2018?” We’re primarily focused on moving to Unity LTS (Long-Term Support) versions rather than every incremental Unity version. This allows us to ensure that we’ll receive support from Unity in the long-term and that future upgrades go more smoothly. Once 2018 has an LTS version released, we can start looking into moving forward with that upgrade.

We chose Unity 2017.4 LTS because it gets us a lot of fixes, tools, and improvements that have come along with the last year of Unity development. It also allows us to easily upgrade to further Unity LTS versions once they become available. Finally, Unity’s LTS branches ensure that we have support and compatibility for quite some time thanks to the extended support cycle.

As stated above, the upgrade carries with it all of the improvements, fixes, and changes that Unity 2017 included. There’s a lot to see! Here’s some of the more interesting bits:

● Fixes for Audio/Video sync on Unity Video components (and therefore VRC_SyncVideoPlayer)
● Support for Unity Store Assets that require 2017.4
● Much easier version upgrade workflow when the next Unity LTS releases


If you’re interested in checking out some of the more detailed additions, we’ve whipped up this document for you.


Technically speaking, Unity upgrades often change the way that the shader and rendering pipeline work, which break shaders on content. When we performed our 5.3 to 5.6 upgrade, our community was significantly smaller and asking users to re-upload all of their content was not as scary of an ask.

VRChat’s Community is now much larger, and asking users to re-upload all of their content is simply not viable. With some very gracious assistance from Unity, we have managed to avoid this issue and move forward with VRChat. Unity provided us with a patch was released in 2017.4.15f1 LTS that allows us to use the shaders included with the AssetBundles you’re uploading to VRChat.


Even with a careful upgrade process and working with the Unity team, upgrading a large amount of user-generated content is no small feat. There are some things to be aware of that will affect most Community content. The good news is that for these items, a simple re-upload using Unity 2017.4 will fix your issues.

You will want to re-upload your content using 2017.4.15f1 LTS during the Open Beta if:

• You have mirrors in your world. If you have a mirror in your world in 5.6, the mirror will not display properly in 2017.4. The rest of the world will be fine, but the mirror will be broken.
  
• You have baked lighting and you still have the Baked Lights enabled in the scene. Those lights will be set to Mixed when viewed in the 2017.4 client, resulting in the scene having both Baked and Realtime lighting, significantly reducing performance. Re-uploading the world in 2017.4 will fix this issue.
  
• You use Real-time GI (Global Illumination) in your world. If you use a 5.6 world in the 2017.4 client, your Realtime GI will not work until you reupload for 2017.4.
  
• You use animations in your world or on your avatar that affect rotations of objects. The rotations will not work properly in 2017.4 and have unexpected/incorrect values. Reuploading the world/avatar will fix this problem.
  
• Your world or avatar uses Crunch Compression in texture import settings. Textures will appear as black or invisible if they are compressed with 5.6’s Crunch until you reupload using 2017.4’s Crunch Compression. As much as Crunch may help with texture file size, it is typically not compatible between major Unity versions. It will likely break any time we upgrade.

Avatars are a special case right now. If you upload a 2017.4 avatar to an already-existing 5.6 Blueprint ID, it will overwrite that 5.6 avatar. Please upload 2017.4 avatars to a new ID, or else you will not be able to load the avatar in Live (5.6) VRChat! We are working on a fix for this issue.

Updating worlds does not have the problem noted above with avatars. We retain your world AssetBundles by version, and we want you to keep your world’s stats, like popularity. We encourage you to use the same Blueprint ID when uploading a 2017.4 update for your world.

Although this covers a large subset of content on VRChat, it is much less severe than the full-spectrum content wipe that occurred between 5.3 and 5.6.

Additionally, we’re aware of some issues with the 2017.4.15f1 LTS version of VRChat that we’re working on:

• You cannot switch your microphone from your default recording device when you launch VRChat. Workaround: Set your default recording/communication device in Windows before you launch VRChat. You can configure SteamVR to do this automatically if you’re using a VR headset.
  
• As stated previously, if you upload an avatar on 2017.4 to an existing 5.6 Blueprint ID, it will overwrite the 5.6 avatar. Use new avatar Blueprint IDs when uploading 2017.4 avatars by clicking “Detach” on your Pipeline Manager before uploading.

You can join the VRChat 2017.4 Open Beta by joining our Discord, finding the #open-beta-2017-info channel, and following the instructions there.
How do I install Unity 2017.4.15f1?

Unity Hub is a great tool that allows you to seamless install and work with multiple Unity versions at one time. It will make swapping between 5.6 and 2017 projects very simple. We strongly recommend using it!

● Grab Unity Hub. You can find it on Unity’s site, or via the direct link here.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Click on the “Download Unity Hub” button after checking the EULA/ToS box, not the “Download Installer for Windows” button! The file you’re downloading is called UnityHubSetup.exe.
● Once Unity Hub is installed, go to this page, find Unity 2017.4.15, and click the “Unity Hub” button on the far left side.
● Unity Hub will install Unity 2017.4.15f1. Make sure you’re grabbing the right version!
● Once installed, go ahead and grab the VRChat Unity 2017 Open Beta SDK.
● Create a new project, or make a copy of your old project into a new directory. Importing large projects will take some time!
● Import the SDK into Unity 2017.4 as normal.


Create copies of your projects before you import them. Importing a project into a newer version of Unity will make it very difficult/impossible to port it back to 5.6. Keep backups! We cannot help you with reverting your projects.

Do not overwrite your avatar Blueprint IDs. As we stated above, we’re working on fixing this, but for now, create new IDs for your avatars. Do this by clicking “Detach” in the Pipeline Manager on your avatar. If you accidentally write over an avatar, go back to Unity 5.6 and reupload from your 5.6 project.


Thank you for helping us test VRChat in Unity 2017. We can’t wait to get this version out to you. Please run it through its paces, upgrade your content, and test things out. If you run into problems, post an issue up on our VRChat 2017 Upgrade Canny board. Feel free to post an issue even if you believe it is a duplicate or minor.

Upgrades are a necessary step to keep VRChat moving forward, and we have worked hard to lessen the impact to our users. We understand if you have questions or concerns, so please let us know via our Canny or our Twitter. We have channels set up on our Discord for discussion regarding the 2017 upgrade. Please share this Blog post as much as possible to those you think should know about it — the more users that see it, the easier our upgrade process will be.

Once again, thank you, and we’ll see you in the Open Beta.

This post was ported from our Medium Blog. Read it in its original form here.

We have just released VRChat 2018.4.1 on Steam! Make sure you restart Steam to get the latest version as quickly as possible. If you are on the right version, you should see Build 651 on the bottom of your quick menu.

Among the changes for this version of VRChat is the ability to upgrade your Steam account into a VRChat account. Doing so is easy-- simply log into the new version of VRChat, go into your Settings menu, and click the "Upgrade Account" button. Follow the steps as prompted, and you'll soon be logging in with a full VRChat account, with all your friends, favorites, groups, and the ability to earn Content Uploading capability!

If you don't have a VRChat account, the process will prompt you to create one.

Upgrading your Steam account into a VRChat account will cause that Steam account to be irrevocably linked to that particular VRChat account. You cannot unlink an account once it has been upgraded, so make sure you're linking to the correct VRChat account!

Check out our full release notes here!

If you're a creator, make sure you grab the latest SDK from the VRChat Home website.

We have just released VRChat 2018.3.3 on Steam! Make sure you restart Steam to get the latest version as quickly as possible. If you are on the right version, you should see Build 642 on the bottom of your quick menu.

Check out our release notes here!

If you're a creator, make sure you grab the latest SDK available on the VRChat Home Website.

We have just released VRChat 2018.3.2p1 on Steam! Make sure you restart Steam to get the latest version as quickly as possible. If you are on the right version, you should see Build 636 in the bottom left of your quick menu.

Check out the patch notes here: https://docs.vrchat.com/v2018.3.2/docs/vrchat-201832p1

Fixes

• Fixed an issue which caused full-body tracking not to initialize properly, preventing it from working locally or remotely
  
• Fixed an issue causing strange stretching/bending when crouching in desktop and looking up/down
  
• Fixed an issue causing other users' camera indicators not to appear when they have been spawned
  
• Fixed an issue causing stations (seats), portals, onTimer triggers, and various other components not to work properly in some cases

Hello, VRChat!

Today we're releasing a big feature-- one designed to help both new users and experienced users control their adventure through the metaverse.



The VRChat Trust and Safety System is designed to keep users safe from nuisance users using things like screen-space shaders, loud sounds or microphones, visually noisy or malicious particle effects, and other methods that someone may use to detract from your experience in VRChat.

If you'd like to learn more about the Trust and Safety System, check out our documentation on it by clicking here.

As usual, make sure you restart Steam to get the latest version as quickly as possible. Check out the full release notes here!

If you're a creator, make sure you grab the latest VRChat SDK.

We have just released VRChat 2018.3.1 on Steam! Make sure you restart Steam to get the latest version as quickly as possible. If you are on the right version, you should see Build 625 in the bottom left of your quick menu.

Check out our release notes here!

If you're a creator, make sure you grab the latest SDK available here: https://vrchat.com/home/download

Here's a few highlights from our Release Notes. Please check the link above for the full documentation!

Features
- We have some new loading screens for loading worlds with new music, a more descriptive loading bar, and some helpful tips for your time in VRChat
- Desktop users now have a reticle in the middle of the screen to help show what they're pointing at. This reticle can be toggled off in the System menu, and will hide when you press Ctrl-H to hide the other UI elements
- Desktop users can now toggle crouching with the "C" key and go prone with the "Z" key

Fixes
- When nameplates are off, users who are muted retain their muted status
- Fixed an issue that would result in users getting a black screen on world load

Check out the rest of our Release Notes here!

We have just released VRChat 2018.2.3 on Steam! Make sure you restart Steam to get the latest version as quickly as possible. If you are on the right version, you should see Build 620 in the bottom left of your quick menu.

Check out our release notes here!

If you're a creator, make sure you grab the latest SDK available here: https://vrchat.com/home/download

Here's a few highlights from our Release Notes. Please check the link above for the full documentation!

Features
- You might have noticed that we've released a new Hub! Our art team has put a lot of hard work into it, and it was been designed as a meeting place for groups before you go out adventuring through the metaverse. Take some time to explore, put on a monocle and moustache, and relax in the park.
- You can now bookmark friends into groups in your Social panel! These bookmark groups store friends that you assign, so you can access them quickly. Assign friends to bookmark groups to keep track of your social circles.
- To add a friend to a bookmark group, click the "Favorite" button on their social details screen and choose which group to add them to.
- Select the button next to the bookmark group's row to rename that bookmark group
- To remove a friend from a bookmark group, go to their social details screen and click "Unfavorite"
- You can have up to 32 friends in each bookmark group
- You can have up to 3 bookmark groups (for a total of 96 friends across all bookmarks)
- You can now set your Status! Your Status is a message which allows you to inform users with a short custom message of what you're up to, as well as a status icon that allows you to customize how you receive invite requests. In a private world, but you're accepting invites? You can choose to auto-accept invite requests. Don't want any invite requests? You can set yourself to "Busy". Find the Status UI in top left of the Social tab.
- Click inside the field to type your custom Status message. You can also set a Status type:
- Join Me (blue) - Auto-accepts any invite requests
- Active (green) - Any invite requests will have to be manually accepted (this is the previous behavior)
- Busy (dark red) - Hides all notifications

Fixes
- Performance fixes related to how we handle networking for events, objects, and users
- Eye tracking should now work properly again when using full-body IK.
- Mutes and blocks have been fixed so they aren't "sticky" and won't persist after you've unmuted/unblocked the user and swapped worlds
- Your currently online Friends list will now paginate properly and show all of your online friends
- Significantly reduced the occurrence of the level-wide "hitch" when your client loads an avatar
- Fixed a small graphical issue with the World Loading screen
- Safety and Security fixes and improvements. For security purposes specifics of these changes are not provided

Known Issues
- Avatars may appear to take a bit longer to load (but will cause less frame drops as a result)

Find all these new features at the VRChat Home website: https://vrchat.com/home

Features
- You can now view a list of friends and see if they're online, offline, or in a private world!
- You can click to join a friend directly in the world they're currently in
- You can search for worlds, find them, and join instances right from the website.
- You can now view the list of your worlds, featured worlds, popular worlds, avatar worlds, and spotlight worlds

Changes
- Documentation at http://docs.vrchat.com have been revamped and updated across most articles