VRChat: From selfie to avatar in five minutes

VRChat is the largest social VR platform. With a web programme, users can create a virtual alter ego for the Metaverse within minutes. A selfie is all it takes.

VRChas is popular, and not only among VR users. On Steam, the digital meeting place, which can also be visited without VR glasses, is one of the top 100 titles in terms of simultaneously active players. The game was released on 1 February 2017.

The special thing about VRChat: Users can create their own content and upload it to the platform. From personal avatars to objects to entire worlds, everything is possible. This is how around 300,000 metaverse locations have been created so far. The avatars can be controlled by audio lip-syncing, eye-tracking and motion capturing or via mouse and keyboard. The game principle is based on other virtual chat worlds, such as Second Life and Habbo Hotel. Various mini-games, such as Capture the Flag, are also supported. Some servers also support digital painting, a cinema mode and karaoke.

Generate your own avatar

Until now, anyone who wanted to do without prefabricated avatars and use a personal alter ego had to go to great lengths to create it on the computer. Thanks to the avatar generator Ready Player Me, this is no longer necessary.

With the web programme, you can take a selfie and upload it. An AI algorithm trained with 20,000 face scans creates a 3D model of your face.

If you don't want to share a photo, you can jump directly to the avatar editor. Here you can choose from 200 options and specify outfits, hairstyles and tattoos, among other things. Once the avatar is ready, it can be imported directly into VRChat via a web programme.

Ready Player Me: Compatible with many apps

For the official VRChat integration of the avatar generator, the social VR platform worked with the tool developers Wolf3D. The avatars created therefore support VRChat's latest avatar technology, which offers stronger expression possibilities for virtual alter egos.

Ready Player Me also works with many other apps, including the mixed reality video platform LIV. More than 40 other apps and games already use the avatar generator. Anyone who wants to can export the avatar as a 3D model after generation and edit it further in 3D programmes.

Source: Mixed / VRchat