You WILL also need a login for this to work, as of now we have no way of using Steam logins.


Unity 5.6.3p1 (this specific version is needed, and is found on their website here[unity3d.com])

VRSDK (found on their website here[www.vrchat.net])

Pre-rigged Models and Non-Rigged Models

If you have a model and don't know if it's already pre-rigged, it'll usually have a file extension .dae or .pbx, but if you're still wanting to make sure it's pre-rigged, you just need to copy over the contents from the .zip file to a new folder (non-zipped):



You'll then need to drag the contents from the folder into Unity's Asset folder




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Non-Rigged Models:

Non-Rigged models will have an extension like .obj, these are fairly easy to rig thanks to programs like Mixamo[www.mixamo.com].

Now, a few simpe pre-cautions on Mixamo:

You CAN upload the .zip file, BUT you will have to check the contents first, as some things may be in there you don't want. The easiest way to upload a character file is by simply dragging the .obj file out of the .zip and placing it somewhere, like a folder on your desktop.

If you run into any issues, help in the 'Problems' post.

When you get to Mixamo, you'll need to create a login, it'll then prompt you to a page with animations. On the side, it'll have three options:

We'll get to the download option later, but 'Find Animations' I will not be covering as it's not needed right now.

Click 'Upload Character', something will flash up, open your folder (or click 'Select Character File' and find it) and drag-and-drop it in.

It may take a second to finish up, but once it's done, it should look something like this:


If your character is backwards, upside-down, or in some weird position, simply use the three controls on the bottom left to orient it correctly (if you hover over them with your cursor, it'll explain what they do).

Click 'Next', a page with things like 'Chin', 'Knees', 'Wrists', etc. will show up:


Drag and drop them where their places should go, if you can't find the specific spot (as I couldn't with the groin), simply give it your best guess.

Now, once you're done with that, it should auto-rig it for you. When it's DONE auto-rigging, it'll give you an animation, click 'Next' at the bottom right and then 'Next' again. Your character should be visible on the right side of your screen. We'll export it now:


Then hit 'Download' once you've configured it like I have above.

The download from Mixamo was a .zip file, simply export the .dae file from it to a folder (non-zipped). Then, we'll simply upload it:


When you've imported it (dragging and dropping from the folder you have the .dae file in is easiest), you'll need to change it from 'Generic' to Humanoid:


And then you'll hit 'Configure', which will bring up a screen similar to this:


Now, don't panic, it's really simple, we don't even have to spend 30 seconds (once your fast enough) to finish up our model.



Click on the 'UpperChest' Circle (or box) and hit 'Delete' on your keyboard (CTRL + X won't work).



Now, you need to drag 'Mixamorig_Spine2' to the box that has 'Mixamorig_Spine), the finished product should look like this:


Then hit 'Apply' and 'Done', it should go back to the main Scene. You can then drag textures to the models parts and it should be all good to go for the next part.

[Notice, if your model is missing multiple bones and was "pre-rigged", try locating them. If not, please refer down to 'Avatar Things']

First things first, though, you'll need to find where you downloaded the VRSDK and double-click it:












Once you've done that, it may take a little to load, but once it's done it'll prompt you on Unity with:



Click 'Import' and wait for it to finish (it can take a while).
















Once it's done, you'll notice a new item in the menu:

Hover over it, click 'Show Build Control Panel' and login. Now, hit the tab on it and drag it:


You'll notice an error:




No worries, this just means that we're almost done with your first model (you won't need to go through the trouble of importing VRCSDK everytime, unless you create a new project).


Now, we just have to click on our model in the Hierarchy (left side of the screen) and add a component:


Copy and paste or type in the text box, "VRC_Avatar Descriptor" (without quotations) and click on the object selected. You'll see this appear on the Inspector:


Normally, this is enough, but if you decided you want a bigger or smaller avatar, this'll set your eye height. The 'Y' coordinate (circled in red) is set at 1.6 by default, you can simply adjust this to what you THINK is suitable, or you can publish and see what view is right for you (more on this in 'Avatar Things').







Now, our only thing left to do now is to Build and Publish, which can be found in the VR Chat Tab:


Once again, this may take a little bit to load, but once you're done you'll be greeted with this:


Correctly choose tags (if any), choose a name and fill out the description with something, and hit 'Upload'.

Things won't always go according to plan, but they might just be small problems:

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Simply put, you need to scale your avatar down, it has a 5m (meters, Unity measures each "square" as a meter):



You don't always need to measure your avatar in 2D mode, but if you want accurate measurements, that's a way to go.

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This is a problem that is easy to fix, but may be a little annoying.

First, make sure that:

- Your avatar isn't too big
- Your avatar isn't inappropriate
- You've correctly made sure of tags when publishing
- You don't have too many polygons or dynamic bones

If everything above checks out with you, then it is purely a server problem, re-upload your avatar. This can be done by going to the VRSDK Menu:


And clicking 'Manage Uploaded Content'. Now, you'll just want to hit 'Delete' on your model.

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There's a simple fix for that (and it may help out with other things, like Asset Bundles not uploading or taking forever). Simply navigate to the VRSDK in the Menu:


And click on 'Settings', you'll see a window pop up with this:









Simply click the checkmark by 'Future Proof Publish' and exit the settings.





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This can be fairly simple, you can either adjust the height slighty to what you want and delete it if it doesn't work (info on how to delete in 'Deleting Avatars') or you can follow this short piece of advice.

Much like in 'Avatar Size Problem' above, you have units, which are little squares in Unity that measure 1x1x1x1 (meters):


You want to measure up how many units you've gone, for instance, if my model goes up 1.9, I'll measure to where I think the eyes are and take that number, and use it for the view position.

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If the method below doesn't work, please look at 'Fixing Models in Blender'.

Sometimes we'll get models (pre-rigged or recently rigged by Mixamo) that will just not properly work with the textures. That's because you need a different format. Looking at Eggman, I want to apply a mustache, but it applies to his whole body:


You'll want to save this as a material:


(Right click > Create > Material)

It'll come up with a blank material, you'll want to click the material, which you'll then want to look for 'Shader' at the top of the Inspector, go down to 'Legacy Shaders' and hit 'Diffuse':


Drag the texture you want to the material (for me, I dragged the mustache texture) square. You can then see if it works by dragging that material to the mustache:


If all done correctly and the model isn't weirding out on you, this should work.

You've more than likely come across this once, you may get "bone transform is 0" with a pre-rigged model, there's a simple solution for this, no worries.

First, you'll need this:


If you're already familiar with Blender, this is great, because I won't be giving you a rundown on it, but I will be guiding you through how to remove bones from it.

Once you've opened Blender, you'll want to go to 'File > 'import' and hit either Collada (.dae) or FBX (.fbx), you'll then be prompted to something like this:


Now that you're there, you'll want the folder with your .dae or .fbx open (or if you want, you can navigate to it), you'll want to drag that file into it, you should see your model, for example, mine would look like:


Hit the file you want, and then hit 'IMPORT COLLADA' (or if you have an .fbx file, it'll say FBX), you'll see your file, which may or may not be very small. You, however, do NOT need to scale it (unless you want to or it's extremely big). Now, it's simply just heading over the to "hierarchy" and click the plus, you'll see this:

\
Simply look for the second Armature and delete it, your mesh will be completely free of bones and be laying sideways, don't worry about that. Now, you just simply have to export it (one place down of Import in File).





You'll then export the model to an .obj (needs to be this), you can then rig it for yourself.


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[Before starting, please check to see if your model is less than 20k polygons, if it's 20k or more, then refer to the portion BELOW this]

Alright, so by now, you may have run into a model where, it's just one giant mesh, and it has multiple textures. Now, depending on the model, it can be an easy fix. There will be a key for this part at the bottom, if needed. For this, I have Dr. Eggman:


He's one giant mesh, which is something we don't want, but before we do anything, we need to see what textures are correct, and what textures are incorrect. Switching to Unity, I apply the correct texture for the body, but it applies places I don't want it to, we'll be fixing that:


Before I start editing, I go to the hand, the place where I don't want the textures from the body. Now that I'm in place, I'll hit TAB (toggle from Object -> Edit mode and vice versa) and Z (wireframe mode):


Before we start with Circle Select, we'll hit CTRL and right click on a vertex point (important, if you don't do this you can't manually select vertex points later). Now, I'll press 'C' on my keyboard and it'll bring up the Circle Select tool, which I can increase by scrolling up or down on my mousewheel (and if you mess up, click and hold the mousewheel) but don't get crazy with the size, I'll explain WHY this is a tool we need later. You can also exit out of SS by right clicking. For now, I'll simply select what I can see doesn't connect to the arm:


If you look above, you'll notice the black, that's what I left out so that I could transfer the hand, we don't want ANY parts of the arm. You want to be as PRECISE as possible when it comes to this, but there are ways you can fix it if needed. One way to EASILY bypass this kind of thing is to select a vertex, press CTRL + L, if the hand isn't merged with anything it'll just give you it. Once you're done with it, and want to check it out, press 'P' and hit 'By selection', now you'll want to TAB again and right click on your mesh, if done right, it should look clean and have no debris:


If you want to test out a certain part (meaning it's the textured is standalone, for me, my glove), you can save that as a .blend and delete everything except that one object, and then save it as a .dae (or .fbx), not an .obj file (.obj files are just one mesh). Now, when I import it into Unity and apply the textures needed, we can see that our gloves are now seperated (if you have two meshes that share the same texture, or a mesh that needs another mesh to work with the textures correctly, right click on one mesh and then hold shift and right click the other(s), then hit CTRL + J):


Unfortunately, I will NOT be doing a full tutorial on this, but I will provide some tips and tricks below (as well as a legend):


CTRL + Right Click (Edit Mode) - Select multiple vertices
P (Edit Mode) - Dislocate selected meshes by vertices, material, or by loose parts
CTRL + J (With Multiple Meshes Selected) - Combine meshes
TAB - Change from Object Mode to Edit Mode or the other way around
C (Edit Mode) - If a single point has multiple vertices, it will select all possible vertices
CTRL + L (Edit Mode) - Select all merged vertices

Tips / Advice:

- When you're unable to manually select a vertex point, the best course of action (I've learned) is to try and pinpoint where that vertex point is, and then go into Wireframe Mode (Z) and click, you'll more than likely be able to pinpoint it.

- If, when your newly seperated mesh is not correct, you can switch back into Edit Mode (needs to be in Edit Mode or else you may have to do it all over again) and Wireframe Mode (Z) and press CTRL + Z until it shows all the vertex points back.

- If there are many things, like my character Dr. Eggman has, then check if the meshes aren't connected, if they aren't, simply click on one of the vertices and press CTRL + L and then delete them by pressing (X), it selects all merged vertices.

- If, for some reason, there are no merged vertices but you want to bulk select, go into Edit Mode (TAB) and Wirefrane Mode (Z), you can hold CTRL and the left mouse button, you can draw circles, do whatever, experiment, it'll select whatever you want inside that bubble.

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There's a real simple fix for getting your model down to 20k or below. First, you'll want to go to Edit Mode:


Press 'A', it'll select the whole mesh (in this case, the body), next you'll want to hit "Limited Dissolve":


It'l change your polygon count without any REAL noticeable visual loss, you can check your polygon count by looking at the top:

Here are some model websites I've used to upload:

Models-Resources[www.models-resource.com]

Unity Asset Store[www.assetstore.unity3d.com]

Sketchfab[sketchfab.com]