We've just released VRChat 2021.2.4 (build 1106)-- the Regions Update is now Live!



This update's big feature is the introduction of Regions, which permits players who live in certain areas of the world to have lower ping and a better experience when interacting with other players in their same region!

In addition to our current default US region, we're enabling these two new regions:

• EU - Europe
  
• JP - Japan

When creating an instance, you can choose between the "US", "EU", and "JP" regions. VRChat will remember that choice for next time.

When selecting a pre-existing instance via the Worlds menu or via a friend's current world, you'll see an icon on the world thumbnail with the matching icon for the region that instance is hosted in.

Choosing a region that's close to you and your friends will minimize your latency and improve your experience with anything involving fast updates, like voice and movement!

Keep in mind that if you and your friend are separated by long distances, there will always be someone with a less-than-optimal ping. Try as we might, we couldn't defeat the speed of light. Maybe next time!

Check out our full release notes below, or on our documentation site!

Added regions! Players can now choose to create an instance in a specific region.

• Choosing a region close to you will reduce latency and improve your experience.
  
• VRChat currently has regions set up in three geographic locations: US (United States), EU (Europe), JP (Japan)
  
• When creating a new instance, you can choose between the three regions.
  
• This choice will be remembered when creating instances in the future.
  
• Viewing an instance (via Worlds menu or "Current World" in a user's profile) will show the region as a small flag icon on the thumbnail.

• Significant improvements to memory usage regarding avatar caching. Avatars that are no longer in use in the instance will be periodically unloaded from memory. Changing instances also will completely clear this avatar in-memory caching (as it did before, but just a reminder!). You may notice a small framerate hitch when content is unloaded
  
• Fixed some issues where users in FBT would have chest/spine bones incorrectly twist during extreme poses like handstands. Some issues still occur in similar poses
  
• Performance optimizations to viseme processing
  
• The VRChat camera and screenshots will now always use at least 4X MSAA to improve image quality regardless of the user's performance settings
  
• Additional fixes to improve user status update reliability and speed
  
• Fixed issues with avatars and worlds getting stuck at 100% when loading
  
• Fixed issues causing physics material settings on pickups to be lost in certain situations

There is one known issue that we're working on getting patched before the weekend. It will be a minor, network-compatible patch.

• If you attempt to join a friend who is in an instance that is over capacity by clicking on the user in your Social menu, clicking on their current instance, and then click "Go", you will be unable to join. Use "Join" on the User Profile page instead

We've just released VRChat 2021.2.3, build 1100-- the Identity Update is now live!

The focus of this release is to provide you with a bunch of new ways to identify yourself in VRChat! Add a bio to your user profile, customize your status, and see everyone else's status on their nameplates for an at-a-glance look at who's who around you! You can also enjoy some nice new quality-of-life features like status history, more favorite friends, more favorite worlds, and more. We've also got some bug fixes, performance improvements, and a handful of new Udon additions.

If you're a VRChat Plus supporter, enjoy the new Gallery feature and the ability to set a custom image as your Profile picture! This profile picture will replace your avatar thumbnail in social menus! Create a custom image using image editing software and upload it on the site, or just take a picture in VRChat and use that instead! You can also use Gallery images for image invites-- so make some fancy invite cards for your next event, or just to show off a bit.

Check out our full release notes below, or on our documentation site!

The User Profile has been refreshed with lots of new features! Clicking yourself in the "In Room" row on the Social panel will lead you to your own profile. Your Profile displays your profile picture, your status, your bio, your current world, your playlists, and more.



VRChat Plus Benefit: You can now choose an image from your Gallery as a Profile Image! This image will appear in the place of your current avatar's thumbnail. You can choose any image from your Gallery as your profile image.





VRChat Plus Benefit: You can now upload images to the Gallery, which is a repository of images currently used for profile images and custom invite images! You can upload images from taking a picture in VRChat, or using the VRChat Home website. We've moved your user icons into the Gallery so everything's in one place.



The nameplate now includes your custom status message! This is only visible when your Quick Menu is opened by default, but can be set to always show or hide it completely.




Your last 10 statuses are saved server-side, and you can reset to them at any time! Use the big "history" button on the side of the Edit Status window to see the last 10. We didn't keep track before now, so you'll get some placeholders at first. They'll drop off the list as you fill out your own history.

• Your user Status text is now visible to the public, instead of just friends and users in your current instance.
  
• You can now search Community Labs! Simply search for Worlds like normal, then click the checkbox at the top of the results to "Show Community Labs"
  
• The size of favorite friend lists has been increased to 64 (from 32)
  
• The size of world playlists has been increased to 64 (from 32)
  
• Streamer Mode has been updated to hide status in nameplate, user profile images, and bio text when active
  
• Adjusted the default MSAA multiplier for PCVR to 4x instead of 8x for performance savings. An option has been added to the Performance menu for users that prefer 8x
  
• Adjusted locomotion exiting stations so that bumping your control stick won't accidently jump you out of the station (requires analog value of 0.7 to exit)

• Fixed a long-standing issue preventing users from interacting with the Quick Menu while falling or moving quickly
  
• Fixed an issue where some WMR headsets and some canted display headsets had NearClip and FarClip improperly applied, resulting in undesired culling behavior
  
• Several changes were made to reduce the negative impact of avatar initialization timing changes made in 2021.2.1, which caused issues such as arm twisting and strange leg movement during locomotion
  
• Fixed an issue where the audio source for voice wouldn't move properly in some culling situations
  
• Fixed an issue where the AV3 utility poses (IKPose, TPose) weren't being used in some situations

• Object and Int arrays can now be shuffled using Utilities.ShuffleArray
  
• VRCObjectPool can now shuffle its spawn order using VRCObjectPool.Shuffle
  
• UdonBehaviours now have a 'DisableInteractive' property you can get and set to control whether an object with an Interact event should accept pointer raycasts and show an interactable outline and tooltips

We've got a new VRChat patch out for you. This is VRChat 2021.2.1p1, build number 1097.

• Fixed an issue where Quest users would see another player stuck at a certain spot or far away
  
• Fixed issues where user voice isn't adjusted correctly when moving over long distances
  
• Fixed an issue where loading in to a world can sometimes result in a long black screen
  
• Fixed an issue where using an avatar with stations while using Valve Index controllers would cause strange behavior

• Fixed an issue where Udon wasn't adjusting player voice properly in some situations
  
• Fixed SDK warnings for VRC_PlayerVisualDamage, Virtual Reality Enabled and VR Device List

In addition, new SDKs are available for download! They're available (as always) on our site. Ensure you follow the instructions in our documentation for upgrades, or else you may lose your projects!

We've just released VRChat 2021.2.2, 1095-- the Udon Networking Update is now Live!

This is the Udon Networking Update! Don't let the name fool you, this long-awaited release isn't just about improving networking for Udon. As you'll see in the full release notes, "UnU" is a massive improvement to many systems in VRChat that rely on networking, and an overhaul to many of our networking systems.

This update contains a huge amount of "under the hood" changes to improve networking behavior and add some long-awaited features to Udon. As such, it might not seem very flashy in terms of new user-facing features, but rest assured that our Udon-savvy creator community will quickly show off what they've been working on during the UNU testing period.

Due to the complexity and technical nature of most of the changes, this summary changelog will seem short. For the full list and more details, please see our full change log.

• Generally speaking, networking has been improved in all situations and there will likely be many bugs that are now fixed that we're not listing here!
  
• Synced objects (as in, objects that transmit their position over the network) should be smoother in all situations
  
• The "network voice bug" where all voice and IK for users in VERY busy instances would freeze/degrade badly should occur much less (or not at all!)
  
• Portal entry is now more reliable, especially when moving fast or when your framerate is low

• Array variables can be synced! Check out the new networking docs for more info
  
• New Manual Sync Mode for UdonBehaviours
  
• Many fixed ownership transfer bugs
  
• Improved the reliability of syncing who the owner of an object is
  
• New VRCObjectSync component for simple syncing of transforms in SDK3 worlds
  
• Improvements and fixes to join-in-progress behavior
  
• New debugging tools
  
• ... and a lot more!

Hey creators! Don't forget: brand new SDKs are available for download! They're available (as always) on our site. Ensure you follow the instructions in our documentation for upgrades, or else you may lose your projects!

We've just released VRChat 2021.2.1, build 1088!

For the full list and more details, please see our full changelog. A short summary of the changes follows:

• Various performance improvements to internal systems!
  
• Improved avatar loading speeds and reduced hitching on avatar load!
  
• We've made some improvements to the "VRChat Launcher Installer"-- namely, it works now! It will run once after this update when you exit VRChat. This is normal and expected! Click "OK", and you'll be able to click "Launch World" from launch links once again!
  
• Lots of various fixes to avatar initialization!
  
• Udon Node Graph - Major speed increases, especially with groups and large graphs! We've also reduced the number of redundant/unnecessary compilations!

Check the full changelog for more details, including some known issues that might affect a small number of Avatar 3.0 setups that use the TrackingType param.

In addition, new SDKs are available for download! They're available (as always) on our site. Ensure you follow the instructions in our documentation for upgrades, or else you may lose your projects!

Don't have two hours to spare to watch the latest VRChat Dev Stream, jam packed with features and announcements?

No worries, we got you covered in our April 2021 VRChat Dev Stream Recap blog post! Check it out here!

We've got a new VRChat patch out for you. This is VRChat 2021.1.5p3, build number 1078.

It is a small patch that implements a workaround to mitigate the voice-breaking "audio bug"!

• Implemented a workaround to help mitigate the "audio bug". It should no longer kill your voice audio until you restart VRChat, but instead will only result in a ~1-2 second cutout. We're continuing to investigate to address the root cause!

VRChat will be holding our next Dev Stream on Tuesday, April 13th at:

• 6:00PM Pacific Time
  
• 9:00PM Eastern Time
  
• 1:00AM UTC (April 14th)
  
• 10:00AM JST (April 14th)

Tune in on our Twitch channel at that time, and you'll find our dev team chatting about a bunch of stuff! We'll talk about what we've been up to, what we're working on right now, and what to look forward to coming soon!

There's a lot to talk about so grab a snack, a drink, and a comfy spot. See you then!

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Want to watch with your friends in VRChat? Find a world with a livestream-compatible player and drop in the Twitch URL ( https://twitch.tv/vrchat ). You might want to try out jetdog8808's "Dynamic Theater (Udon)". You can easily find it by searching for "dynamic theater udon" in VRChat.

It works great and is super easy to use! Just hop into the world, go through the doors, click the monitor icon on the config panel, and paste in the Twitch channel link by pressing Ctrl-V on your keyboard with the VRChat window focused.

We've got a new VRChat patch out for you. This is VRChat 2021.1.5p2, build number 1069. It is a small patch to address an issue that caused us problems earlier today.

• Fixed an issue where failing to get a response from the API would cause the Social menu to fail ungracefully

We've got a new VRChat patch out for you. This is VRChat 2021.1.5p1, build number 1068.

This is a "network-compatible" patch, meaning that you do not need to update to see other people that have already updated! If you're currently in VRChat, you can delay updating this with no issues. However, you should probably update as soon as you can to resolve the issues the patch addresses.

Check out the full patch notes in our docs.

• Fixed an issue where AV3 avatars with an empty animation in the default state wouldn't preview correctly in menus
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Unfavorite" button wasn't working on avatars that are no longer available
  
• Fixed an issue where your social menu status would show as "offline" locally
  
• Fixed some cases where offline friends would still show in the social menu
  
• Fixed issue where selecting the user capsule with low FPS wouldn't work reliably
  
• Various fixes to the social menu to improve reliability. There's still more to do!