Hello everyone! It's finally time... Avatar Dynamics has launched on Live! That's right, VRChat 2021.1.2 (build 1189) has just launched on our Live branch and is now available on all platforms!
Check out our latest blog post for a full intro and user manual on Avatar Dynamics, including a crash course on how to use our Permissions system to permit and deny interactions with your avatar.
Want to high-five your friends? Give your pal a real headpat? Unfurl your wings? Grab and manipulate your face? Press a self-destruct button on your friend's avatar? All of that is now possible -- and so, so much more. Avatar Dynamics unleashes an entire new set of possibilities for VRChat avatars, far beyond anything we could summarize here.
β¦did we mention that Quest users can now (finally!) see their friends' hair, ears, and clothes move with real-time physics?
Avatar Dynamics adds in some of the VRChat community's most requested features. If we're being precise, literally the #1 and #4 most requested features on our Feedback board!
Creators: We've also spent a ton of time writing up technical documentation for Avatar Dynamics so you can get into creation that much faster!
This release requires that you update in order to see people on the new version! In other words, if you join on your friends and they aren't in the instance, either you or your friends need to update!
Oh one last thing: there's a special note for shader authors in the patch notes up there, go read it!
Client
Features
Implemented PhysBones! PhysBones is a component that allows secondary movement for a more realistic depiction of things like hair and tails! Check the docs for technical details and important implementation notes!
This system is available on all platforms--yes, including the Quest!! We managed to get PhysBones working on Quest with some limits. See those limits in the Avatar Performance Ranking System docs
You can set up PhysBones to be grabbed, pulled, stretched, and posed!
You can interact with other people's PhysBones, letting you push around and pose affected bones. Want to give your friend a new hairdo? Easy!
You can set up custom PhysBones colliders for various different effects!
We've defined default finger and hand colliders for all avatars, listed in our PhysBones docs, so you've always got a way to interact with PhysBones
We've integrated a UI to customize these predefined colliders on your avatar descriptor, so you can turn off ones you don't want at avatar creation time
You can use PhysBones to affect Animator Parameters on your avatar, so you can detect when someone is grabbing, pulling, or posing one of your PhysBones!
PhysBones are highly performant, offering orders-of-magnitude better performance than Dynamic Bones
Implemented Contacts! Contacts allow you to define volumes of space that will send or receive signals. These signals can then be used to drive Animator Parameters on your avatar!
This system is available on all platforms-- yes, including the Quest!!
Contact Senders send a signal. For a successful collision to occur, both the sender and receiver need at least one matching pair of strings. Collision tags are case sensitive.
Contact Receivers receive a signal. As noted above, both the sender and receiver need at least one matching pair of strings.
Implemented Avatar Dynamics Permissions! The Permissions and Settings interface allows you to select who can interact with your Avatar Dynamics systems on your avatar-- nobody, your friend, or everyone! Permission must be granted by both users for interaction to be enabled
By default, only Friends can interact with your avatar
A new icon will appear on users' nameplates to indicate the state of interaction permissions
If the hand is lit up, interactions are enabled!
If the hand is not lit up, interactions are not enabled
Implemented a runtime auto-converter for Dynamic Bones to PhysBones!
Best attempts are made to convert Dynamic Bones to PhysBones, including Bone and Collider components
The methods, variables, and mathematics are different between the two systems, so conversion may not work perfectly for all avatars. Some complicated setups may require that the avatar author re-upload a new version
This system is enabled by default. You can disable this system via the VRChat Performance Options window. When the system is disabled, you will no longer locally be running the DB->PB converter and Dynamic Bones will be running-- in other words, this choice is local
Per-User Avatar Dynamics permissions!
The Avatar Dynamics button has replaced the Emoji button in the launchpad. It pauses all AD interactions now instead of cycling through global settings
Added an interaction play / pause button in the Quick Menu settings
Added per-user controls to the Quick Menu when selecting a user to override global setting. It is a three-way toggle, similar to the Show Avatar control
Changes, Improvements, and Fixes
Favorites have been fully refactored under-the-hood to be more responsive and stable. This should hopefully solve most (if not all) of the Favorites bugs we've seen!
Improvements to simulation time, which should improve networking behavior overall and fix a handful of edge-case networking-related bugs
Input is less dependent on framerate
If an avatar has defined a VRChat built-in parameter, an error will be printed to log and the avatar's definition of that parameter will be ignored
If an avatar re-defines an already-defined parameter, an error is printed to log and only the first definition is used
Added a new button to the Quick Menu dashboard for setting Avatar Interaction, replacing the Emotes button
Added callouts in the Quick Menu to Interactions Settings
Fixed issue where some Main Menu thumbnail lists (ex. World Favorites) wouldn't show all results
Safety and Security fixes
Notes for Creators
- PhysBones acts a bit differently than Dynamic Bones. As such, we've provided some usage tips on the PhysBones documentation page, please refer to it!
In order to use Avatar Dynamics, you must update your SDK!
Avatar Dynamics systems are only available in SDK3.
SDK
The SDK now requires that the Burst and Mathematics packages are installed. If they aren't installed, the SDK will install them for you on import. This may result in errors during first installation, but they will go away after a restart or a log clear.
An example avatar is available in the SDK: `VRCSDK\Examples3\Dynamics\Robot Avatar` [/list]
Implemented some additional controls and settings on the Avatar Descriptor for Avatar Dynamics
Implemented auto-conversion for Dynamic Bones to PhysBones, offered on the Build screen if Dynamic Bones are detected on the avatar
DB to PB Conversion was added to Unity menu. `VRChat SDK/Utilities/Convert DynamicBones to PhysBones`. You must select the avatar for this to work
Implemented warnings and errors for performance regarding Avatar Dynamics systems.
If the Very Poor limits are exceeded when building a Quest Avatar, the SDK will warn you that the components will not work when in VRChat
Fixes & Improvements
Enabled Single Pass Stereo Instanced compilation for all shaders at build-time
Avatar parameters are checked for validity before creating the array of parameters
Fixed SPS-I rendering for built-in Mobile-ToonLit shader
Legacy SDK2
SDK2 is considered deprecated and legacy. It will only receive occasional maintenance updates, and will no longer be available or permitted for use in the future. Please migrate to the latest VRChat SDK as soon as you can.
Improvements
Enabled Single Pass Stereo Instanced compilation for all shaders at build-time
Documentation
Changes and Improvements
Avatar Performance Ranking System page has been updated with limits for PhysBones and Contacts on PC and Quest. It has also been updated to note the hard cap on Quest Avatar Dynamics components
All VRChat-provided prefabs are now described on the SDK Prefabs page, and the Prefabs category has been removed
Many unused, unpublished, and deprecated doc pages were removed
Archived patch notes from 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 have been collapsed into single pages
We've just released VRChat 2022.1.1, which includes Avatar OSC, Input OSC, comfort options, and more!
Avatar and Input OSC is part of our new API for putting data into and pulling data out of VRChat. Starting with this release, you can build your avatar and set up OSC to do things like feed your heartbeat into your avatar, implement your own eye tracking system, build support for whatever controller you want, and even more! Check out our blog post for more information.
VRChat's OSC API is a pretty developer-centric feature. Keep an eye out in our new #avatar-osc channel on our Discord to see what people are cooking up!
This update also has some other stuff, like the new Tunneling comfort feature, the new Voice avatar parameter, and a bunch of fixes. We're prepping for some other updates that are on the way, including one you might've caught a teaser for on our Twitter. (If you missed it, we're implementing 8 and 10 point tracking. spoilers!)
As usual, if you create VRChat content, please ensure you update your SDK!!
OSC API for Avatars is is available for VRChat on both PC and Quest! You'll just need to point your OSC application at your Quest's IP using the default ports.
OSC API for Input!
You can also use the same system to provide input into VRChat! Many of our controls are mapped to OSC channels
You can use this to map your own controllers, peripherals, and more!
OSC API for Input is also available for VRChat on both PC and Quest!
Added a tunneling VR movement comfort feature that optionally adds a vignette effect during movement
Has Light and Strongsettings, adjustable in the Quick Menu
Changes, Improvements, and Fixes
Added the "Voice" parameter for usage on avatars! This parameter is the avatar wearer's microphone amplitude in a float value from 0.0 to 1.0
Added a "View Profile" button to friend request notifications
Fixed an issue where the Upper Chest bone was not being networked properly, which could cause desynced poses when it was mapped (especially for full body users)
Fixed an issue where some friends would be stuck "Online" after they'd logged off
Greatly reduced spurious logging to the output log to improve performance. Re-enable these logs (and some new ones) by using the new "--enable-verbose-logging" launch option
EXPERIMENTAL: Added the "--enable-avpro-in-proton" launch option, which will allow Proton users to re-enable AVPro for video playback. This may cause crashes!
Fixed an issue where closing the Stream camera would open the Photo camera
Fixed an issue where the VRChat UI could react when the mouse cursor was not over the window
A variety of fixes to address application crashes in certain circumstances
Various internal networking adjustments and updates
Notes for Creators
Here's some useful links to participate in the OSC development community! Since this is a pretty developer-centric feature (at least, at first), we're going to handle these slightly differently.
Our biggest yearly event, New Years Eve, is nearly here!!
Once the event is live, you'll be able to join in by launching VRChat and finding the VRC Square world in your Worlds menu at the top! There's two versions-- one is normal capacity at 16 for a comfy event, and a MAXIMUM capacity version at 40 if you want to bring in all your friends!
Ring in 2022 with your friends as it arrives across the world! We've got a special world just for the event, brand new and with plenty to explore.
Check out community-created posters, food trucks, and booths, featuring VRChat content creators and community members! Explore the world, find some familiar faces, and discover some new communities!
Watch the ball drop in the brand-new "VRC Square" world, with fireworks and celebrations for every single timezone across the world, UTC+14 through UTC-12! And yep, we've got the half-hour and three-quarter hour ones! ... and yes, we accounted for ongoing daylight savings offsets. Wow, time zones are confusing.
Finally, enjoy live DJs streamed into the world throughout the day! Featuring Shelter, Loner Online, Rizumu, Vibe Tribe, and Haneyasume, all streamed by VRCDN! Enjoy a multitude of talented VRDJs, and get a peek into the clubs and events of VRChat.
We hope you can come and join the VRChat community as we celebrate yet another year gone by, and look forward to the future!
As you might've guessed from the name, there's a bunch in here! This release focuses on a few things.
First off, we've done a bunch of polishing to the UI 1.5 update. You'll notice a lot of work to the new Quick Menu, mostly in regards to fixing bugs, adjusting annoyances, and other stuff. We've also slipped in some fixes to the Camera while we were in there. This release was always planned to be the "Hey, our community's had a bit to test stuff out, let's tweak things based on what they said." So, here we are! We're doin' it!
Next, we've introduced VRChat Plus Gifting!
You can now send a non-recurring gift of a month or a year of VRChat Plus to your friends! Open your Quick Menu, click your friend, then click "Gift VRC+". π We plan on getting this working on Oculus as soon as we can, hopefully before the holidays. Fingers crossed! π€
We've also introduced the US East region! We've got new servers running in Virginia, USA, which not only should help people living in that area with a bit of improved voice and IK latency, but also allow NA and EU bridge the Atlantic gap a little bit more reasonably! You can choose to create a new instance in the US East region the same way you'd choose to create an EU or JP region instance.
There's also some new FBT menu options, UI tweaks, camera fixes and... uh... okay, there's a LOT in this update. Kitchen-sink style. Fixes, improvements, changes, all that jam. I could go on and on, but really, you should just read our patch notes. Which you were going to do anyways, right? π
Added VRChat Plus gifting! Click on a user, click "Gift VRC+", and spread the love!
- For now, only Steam users can purchase, but any VRChat user can receive a gift - Users with an active subscription cannot receive a VRChat Plus gift - Gifts can be a 1 Month VRChat Plus credit, or a 1 Year VRChat Plus credit. They do not recur - Working on bringing gifting to Oculus soon!
Added the Camera to VRChat on Quest!
- Unfortunately, due to performance issues, the "depth of field" focusing effect is not available - Images are saved in the Quest's Pictures folder under VRChat, and can be accessed via the Quest's OS. They can also be accessed via connecting your Quest to your PC and looking under the `Pictures/VRChat` folder
Added the US East region!
- Added a text indicator on portals to differentiate between US East and US West
We've added support for a variety of Oculus/Meta Quest social features!
- There is now an expanded Rich Presence system on Oculus/Meta Quest - Users in VRChat can send invites to Oculus/Meta Quest friends that are online but not in VRChat
Improvements
Added Full Body Tracking settings section to the Quick Menu!. This menu allows you to adjust your user height, recalibrate quickly, and disable/re-enable Full Body Tracking with a button press ππππΎ
The VRChat UI is now rendered such that it will no longer be affected by avatar or world shaders, post processing, or other effects!.
Added a new safety / debug feature: If you hold down both Quick Menu buttons for the duration of loading a world, your avatar will be reset upon load-in! Hold down the buttons until your avatar loads and you'll be in a gray error robot. Then you can freely change avatars as you see fit. This also works for Desktop users if you hold down the backslash `\` key
Holding right-click in Desktop Mode will cause the reticle to temporarily appear
Added collapsable sections to the Here, Selected User, and Settings tabs in the Quick Menu
Clicking "Avatar Details" in the QM will now open the details in the Quick Menu rather than in the Main Menu
Added a button in the Camera tab to open the Picture save directory in Windows
Added the user's current world info to the User Profile section of the Quick Menu
Added an info panel to the Camera tab to explain where pictures are saved
Added an error message to a situation during Oculus VRC+ purchases that would previously error with no message
Reduced animation motion in the Quick Menu when using arrows to cycle between users in the instance
Unavailable avatars are now displayed in grayscale in the Avatars wing
Updated AVPro to version 2.2.4
We gave VRCat a bunch of pats and now they're doing all the stuff they should've been. patpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpat
Fixes
The following issues were fixed:
Logging out of an account and logging back into another would cause some information to be incorrectly retained
In some worlds, a "goggle" overlay effect would appear in the camera
The camera did not display the skybox color correctly
Remote lenses would not have their orientation correctly shown
Some avatars would not appear in the avatar wing of the Quick Menu
The "Letters" user icon (as in, no icon selected) in the gallery was missing the letters
Some worlds would cause the Quick Menu audio to loop abruptly
SDK2 avatar emote names would not appear in the Quick Menu Emotes wing
Scrolling in the Main Menu had some issues
"Return to Default Home" button would not work properly in VR
Some UI could stick after closing the main menu
The Quick Menu offered incorrect options when a user was blocked
Only the first 16 images would appear in a Gallery in some cases
Buttons to Flip and Move image in the icon and image cameras weren't working properly
The Action menu could mess with the UI mouselook
Some visuals in the Expression wing had incorrect colors
The Clone Avatar button wouldn't update properly in some cases
A variety of safety and security fixes
Various small fixes were applied to:
VRC+ favorites in the Quick Menu Favorites Wing
HUD element render order
Sounds and haptics when selecting user capsules
Udon
Improvements
General performance improvements to Udon
UdonBehaviour Interact text has been exposed to Udon via `Set InteractionText` and other methods
`PostProcessVolume` has been exposed to Udon via:
`Get` and `Set blendDistance`
`Get` and `Set priority`
`Get` and `Set isGlobal`
`Get` and `Set weight`
Fixes
The following issues were fixed:
Manual sync sometimes would get "stuck" and `OnDeserialization` would not fire for remotes until someone else joined. More precisely, we fixed a bug that caused synced variables to not be properly received on UdonBehaviours that implemented `OnOwnershipTransferRequest`
We've just released VRChat 2021.4.1, build 1149. This is the first half of the VRChat UI update-- UI 1.5! We've redesigned and rebuilt the Quick Menu from the ground up to be functional, accessible, quick, and sleek all while feeling familiar to VRChat veterans!
In addition to all the familiar functions, you've got access to the brand-new Quick Menu Wings, which are customizable side panels on your Quick Menu. Keep your favorite avatars in a Wing to quickly access and wear them, or put your friends on a Wing to see at a glance who's online and which instance to join!
Want to keep up with the goings-on of VRChat? Check out the new Info Banner across the top of the Launch Pad! These clickable banners will be updated with all kinds of info, including notifications of new versions, blog posts, events, and more. Clicking on them can open up UI panels, open websites, and more.
Desktop users rejoice! The cursor now behaves properly and no longer locks your mouse to the VRChat window. When opening the Quick Menu, the cursor in Desktop mode moves into "screen space" mode, permitting easy movement and usage. Hold down Shift to temporarily hide the Quick Menu and enable a "reticle" to easily select a user near you for interaction.
We've added a few new features to the Quick Menu here and there, like the always-useful "Rejoin World" button, the super-popular "sort by location" friends list from the VRChat Home website, and more. However, we've got more plans!
In the future, we're going to open up access to custom Quick Menu Wings and tabs for world authors to add functionality via Udon! Want a menu of locations to teleport to in your world? A list of mirror toggles? A button to spawn a new jet to replace the one you just wrecked? All right there, one click away, in a custom, world-author-defined Quick Menu section. Coming soon!
Of course, the Quick Menu's just one half of the new VRChat UI. Main Menu, you're up next! Expect to see a rebuilt and redesigned Main Menu in an upcoming VRChat release, likely in early 2022.
Dang, that's a lot! How about we show instead of tell? Here's a look at the new Quick Menu!
Oh, that last bit? While we were at it, we *also* redesigned and rebuilt the VRChat Camera. nbd.
- The Quick Menu has been completely redesigned and rebuilt! - The Launch Pad gives you quick access to several common menu sections and actions - The Info banner across the top of the Launch Pad shows you the latest information on VRChat happenings, like new releases, blog posts, and more - The "cursor" has been redesigned both in the menus and in world space to be easily visible, but not large and in the way - The Wings on the side of the Quick Menu give you a place to show and quickly access your own Profile, your Friends (and their locations, like the website!), your Avatars (including favorites, and the ability to sort them!), Emoji, and your available Expressions! - The tabs across the bottom give you quick access to your notifications, the "Here" menu, your Camera options, your volume sliders, and some common settings - The "Here" menu lists info and provides actions contextually relevant for your current location, like the brand new "Rejoin World" button - The Camera tab gives you access to camera-related functions... like the brand new Camera! - The Audio tab gives you access to volume sliders for Master, Voices, and World, as well as a way to quickly select your mic from a list of devices, and adjust your own mic volume - The Settings tab gives you access to common toggleable settings, like nameplate display, - In Desktop mode, click "Select User" on the Launchpad tab to put yourself into a selection mode to easily select a user near you... or just hold down Shift to quickly mouse over and click your target user - In Desktop mode, your view is now locked in place when your Quick Menu is open, and your mouse moves in screen-space rather than turning your head - Quickly swap into and out of Safe Mode without wiping your custom Safety settings (*finally!*) using the Safe Mode button in the bottom right - The Camera has been completely redesigned and rebuilt! Tons of new Camera features: - A brand new model for the camera and camera lens! - A brand new UI for the camera, which lets you select options with the laser instead of clicking buttons! πππ - Depth of Field! Choose between several lens modes to give your photos a stylistic touch by blurring objects out of focus - Go with Auto Focus for auto-magic! Click the screen with your selection laser to move the focus circle. Click the circle again to re-center it. - Use Semi-Auto to permit some Aperture and Focal Length adjustment - Go full Manual to adjust the Focal Distance yourself! - Of course, you could just turn it off completely too. - You can now grab the lens when its detached to adjust its position. The lens has a small pin light to show which way is up when it is disconnected - Click the selfie button to quickly flip the lens around to face you - Use the Lock button to lock the camera in place - We're looking into getting the Camera on Quest! Keep an eye out in future releases
Improvements
- The Main Menu has new theming with sharper, more crisp graphics - A full Main Menu redesign and rebuild is already in-progress, keep an eye out for it in future updates - The Fallback "Feather" icon is now always visible on nameplates of users wearing a fallback even when the Quick Menu is closed, letting you quickly see if someone's in a Fallback avatar. This can be turned off in the Quick Menu (in the settings tab) or by turning off nameplates entirely - The camera now saves pictures in folders in the format YYYY-MM to aid with organization (and to prevent Windows from crying out in pain any time it opens a Pictures folder with more than a few hundred images in it) - Old photos won't be organized in this manner, only new ones taken going forward - Blocking users now comes with a confirmation dialog - Updated multiple loading screen graphics to reflect new UI - "Users Blocking You" and "Blocked Users" are now visible at the bottom of the Here tab. This list starts collapsed but can be expanded and made visible - All users will see "Blocked Users", but only world authors and instance owners will see "Users Blocking You" - "Vote to Kick" notifications now have a unique icon - The maximum world size for Quest worlds has been raised from 50MB to 100MB - AVPro upgraded to 2.2.1
Fixes
- Fixed: First Person View steady-cam wouldn't reload the camera settings properly upon loading a world - Fixed: The player collider was not able to pass under colliders less than 2m tall, despite being 1.65m tall. The player collider is now 1.65m tall - Fixed: Seeking behavior with AVPro was buggy - Workaround: The "Auto Resync" option on video players was causing crashes, so we've temporarily disabled it
We've been seeing a lot of rumors going around about passwords and account security. Let's start with the most important part: Thanks to our vigilant security team, we are not aware of any account or data breaches for VRChat.
VRChat takes account security very seriously. Your credentials are stored and sent using industry standard security practices. If a breach ever occurs, we will inform our players ASAP.
That being said, there are still many ways that people lose access to accounts. For VRChat, it is usually by having very weak or reused passwords, or sharing passwords-- yes, even with your friends!
In addition, modified clients (which are in themselves a TOS violation!) are a known way for account theft to happen, as is importing malicious UnityPackages. Never put your VRChat password into software you don't trust!
You can mitigate this a few ways: Use a long, unique password. Never re-use passwords! Use 2FA, when offered. Never give your password to anyone else-- no, not even to your friends! Never install untrusted software. Never import untrusted Unity Packages. Use a password manager!
As a refresher, this system sends a non-reversible part of your password hash to a service called Have I Been Pwned to see if your password has been exposed in any data leaks from other services.
If that partial hash matches any other full hashes, HIBP sends back a list of them so we can check on our servers. If your full hash is present in that list, your password is insecure! This way, your password hash remains secure and never leaves our own data stores.
We realize this might be inconvenient for our players, but we want to ensure that your account remains safe while hanging out with your friends in VRChat. Thank you!
The meter is beeping, you can see your breath in the cold air, and you're on your last roll of film... feels like it's Spookality time, once again!
Spookality is one of the biggest events of the year for VRChat! You can submit your avatar and world creations to the Spookality Jam to compete for some HAUNTEDΒΉ prizes!
The theme is open-ended! Make something spooky to share with your friends and everyone at VRChat. Once your submission has been accepted and checked, your hard work will show up in VRChat!
The last week of the month, we'll select the winners and put them on display!
Check out the itch.io submission page for all the prizes, details, and full terms and conditions.
---
ΒΉPrizes not actually haunted. Or are they? They aren't.
This update brings the new and improved Avatar Fallback System! Seeing an avatar that exceeds your Minimum Displayed Performance Rank no longer results in a gray robot, but instead their customizable Fallback avatar. As before, you can choose from many of our default avatars for your Fallback, or you can upload your own custom Fallback avatar.
Check out the details of the improved Avatar Fallback System in our docs... or just watch this video I made at 2AM last night.
Also, we moved to Unity 2019.4.30f1. Don't worry, the upgrade process is literally "install the new version and open your project". You can put off this upgrade for a little bit if you like.
If you're too lazy to click that link like I am, here's a summary:
Client
Features
Fallback Avatars now work for both the "Platform Missing" and "Performance Blocked" cases, for all platforms! See more details in the Avatar Fallback System guide in our docs
Improvements
Updated VRChat to Unity 2019.4.30f1. This upgrade is minor, and is aimed at addressing some known issues; content uploaded on 2019 does not need to be updated. This Unity upgrade fixes some issues, namely a VRAM bug with Realtime GI as well as the "Unity crashes with multiple monitors with different scaling values" issue
New Blue Feather icons are used to indicate fallback state. This icon will indicate many states, including "Performance Blocked", "File Size Blocked", "Error", "Loading", and "Manually Blocked". All of the new states are listed in the Avatar Fallback System section of the documentation
Station sync has been rewritten to fix a myriad of bugs and make them more reliable overall
You can now view Fallback Author and Fallback Performance Rank
Fallback state can be seen in user name plates when in "Full View" (Quick Menu open)
New config file option that allows you to customize field-of-view of the first-person Steadycam option
Fixes
Fixed login issues for people with Oculus subs on non-Oculus versions of VRChat
Fallback avatars can no longer be cloned
Fixed an issue where certain WMR headsets would have incorrect camera clipping values due to large changes in clipping ranges between world changes
Udon
Improvements and Fixes
Added "None" sync to Udon. This can be used for any UdonBehaviors that do not need to sync, reducing overall data use