Hey Gamers, 

Following the 1.1.9.003 Beta update, 1.19.005 is the fourth (and final?) beta update for 1.19. It contains some chunky changes to some of the avatar's core setup to optimize and reduce the load of maintaining the project in the future. 

What happened to 1.19.004? I made many changes to the project over the past month, and some didn't work out. Ultimately, I wasn't happy with the quality, even for a beta, so I held it. 

Upcoming Release and June Sale

While this version is still a beta, I hope to roll it into a release version within the next few days or weeks once some folks can take it for a spin. The full release of 1.19 will also come with a sale! Look for more information on this in the next week or so. 

Please report any bugs to takomalynx@gmail.com or the Bug Reports channel on the Discord Server. Please briefly describe the bug and any steps I can follow to reproduce the issue. 

Important BETA Notes:

• REQUIRED PACKAGES:
  • Several packages are required for avatar to function. These are all free. However, they will need to be installed using the VRChat Creator Companion.  The Read Me file contains information on  how to install these packages.
  • Install these packages using the VRChat Creator Companion
    • • VRCFury 
        • https://vrcfury.com/download 
      • Poyomi Toon Shader
        • https://poiyomi.github.io/vpm/ 
      • D4rk Avatar Optimizer
        •  https://d4rkc0d3r.github.io/vpm-repos/main_redirect.html
• If these packages are not installed, the project will not work properly. 
  • It is also recommended to install Gesture Manager and AudioLink

Beta 5 Notes

• This update makes several tweaks to the avatar’s armature and adds blendshapes to support non-shader based object hiding.
• This will likely be the last beta build for 1.19 and I will likely roll this into a release.
• Armature Changes & Leg Changes
  • ** These changes require accessories that use the avatar’s armature to be re-exported using the new armature **
  • Legs
    • The Legs had a large rework which now allows me to use one armature for both digitigrade and plantigrade versions of the armature by utilizing VRCFury. 
      • Digitigrade bone names remain unchanged, but Plantigrade bones have been adjusted in order to support the new configuration. 
      • The Planti and Digi Upper Leg bones were combined. 
        • For the digi version, this removes 2 rotation constraints from the avatar. 
      • Two sets of Planti bones exist in the armature. Both are unweighted to geometry
        • In the Digi avatar, Lower_Leg and Ankle bones are used to drive the motion of the digitigrade movement 
        • In the Planti avatar, Planti.Lower_Leg and Planti.Ankle are used to drive the motion of the leg. To do this, the armature has specific VRCFury Armature Link components to reparent the skinned digi bones to the correct part of the leg. 
          • If you’re a creator and need a further explanation, please reach out on Discord and I can walk you through the setup
          • “Isn’t this less performant?”
            • In some ways, yes, but it allows me to maintain a single version of the armature, skin weights, and accessory meshes rather than needing two of everything
    • Digitigrade motion is reduced as the heel approaches the hip.
      • Contact senders and receivers were added to control the value of the digi Ankle constraints.
      • This should reduce the heel clipping into the upper leg at extreme angles
    • Note: Depending on the version, unused leg bones have a VRCF component to delete themselves on upload. 
  • Phys Bones
    • To reduce the number of PhysBone Components, I created ‘root’ bones for the Butt, Breasts, and Cheeks. 
    • The mesh weights for these bones remain unchanged. The root bones do not require mesh weights, but accessories need to be re-exported so VRCFury can properly match the bone hierarchy when using Armature Link
    • The Root bones contain a single physbone component, reducing the number of phys bone components that these features use by half. 
• Blendshapes & Shader Hiding
  • Additional blendshapes were added to most meshes to support object hiding when not using UV Discard Shader hiding, such as in Poiyomi
    • In the event that a user is not using Poiyomi’s shader on their avatar, or if functionality related to the material toggles breaks for some reason, these Blendshapes can act as a backup to ensure that the mesh is hidden inside of the avatar. 
    • For the Hoodie and Warmers, these blendshapes are optional and can be removed  by deleting the BlendshapeHiding object inside of their prefabs, in which case they should be optimized (removed) when uploading.
• Other Changes
  • Texture compression settings were updated on default textures
  • Some materials received minor tweaks
  • Some 
  • Poiyomi materials were updated to use version 9.0.57
• Bug Fixes
  • Whoops, I accidentally left some Avatar IDs on the different prefabs in the main scene. If one of these exists in the scene, it can cause your upload to fail! I removed these from the Pipeline Manager scripts so that this shouldn’t happen again. 
  • Viseme FF was using the improper shape 
  • Thanks to FK for helping me track down a ton of bugs and minor annoyances. You rock!
• A Note on Keep MMD Blendshapes
  • When using VRCFury’s “Keep MMD Blendshapes” to prevent them from being optimized off the mesh during upload, the component must be placed on Root of the avatar (the ‘DragonCat’ object that also contains the Avatar Descriptor) or as a direct child of this object. Placing this object elsewhere (even under the —Place VRCF Prefabs Here— object) will cause things to break.
  • In addition, when using Keep MMD Blenshapes, toggles that use shader hiding may not appear correctly, e.g. they may turn off immediately rather than dissolving.

For Release notes from previous beta versions, see:

• Beta 3
• Beta 2
• Beta 1