VRChat Announces User Monetization, Enhanced Avatar-to-Avatar Dynamics, Webcam/Mobile Face Tracking, and Many More Upgrades Coming Soon-ish

VRChat devs just dropped a ridonkulously huge grab bag of announcements on Twitch, both upcoming and experimental; I pulled some highlights onto my YouTube, and my VRC correspondent Adeon Writer watched live and took copious notes. Most exciting to the user community was probably what's featured above: Avatar-to-avtar dynamics, which enable users to "physically" interact and even manipulate each others' bodies -- that's on the company's roadmap for this Summer.

Also coming out starting this Summer: User monetization options and, finally, a full creator economy: 

"User-to-user subscriptions is the first thing they are adding," Adeon reports, "basically Patreon except in-game directly, and Udon and scripting can react to it." (I.E., monetization options can be embedded directly into interactive experiences.) And while the ability to sell content in-world is on VRChat's roadmap, virtual currency is notably not: "[VRChat devs] specifically said they won't be doing a fake currency; real money only for anything they make."

Maybe most interesting from a cross-platform point of view are upcoming/experimental features that track body and facial movement via webcams and mobile devices:

Watch above. "I know many YouTubers were already using VRChat as their secret sauce," as Adeon notes. "This will make it even better for them. Also useful for desktop users to feel engaged." This feature, while depicted as experimental, also brings up the distinct possibility of a VRChat mobile app coming soon.

Also announced: VRChat servers in the UK and Japan, the latter especially useful for certain puppeteers trying to juggle from there in real time.

More (much more!) on VRC's official Twitch. While Rec Room may report more users, VRChat seems to me the current social VR platform with the lead, both in terms of the creative community ecosystem, and (as seen here), the breadth of the official feature set.   

Much thanks to Adeon's foxy reportage!

Comments

[Pulsar]

The avatar dynamics looks awesome! This would allow a new level of interaction.
I don't know if touching other people's avatar would lead to cute things only, though. It is not like someone could do nothing already now, by just moving hands and the body, moreover VRChat doesn't permit erotic content or simulation of sex acts or streaming those (also to not be banned from Twitch like Second Life). So I suppose avatars with interactive boobs won't be allowed and it won't be like in SL where people add invisible prims to their avatars, that react on touch on boobs and bums. However, once I went to a place in VRChat where you could draw your own fireworks on a board and then they appear on the starry sky: it was fun and beautiful, but guess what people were drawing there? Penis fireworks, LOL!

However, VRChat keeps improving and meanwhile hit a peak of over 45 000 concurrent users
https://twitter.com/vrpill/status/1382168656499539969

[NomNom]

This works really well for us, thank you!

[Joey1058]

This is fascinating. Developing stuff like this for desktop users in VRChat means one thing. It will trickle out to other games and worlds. Including Second Life. Because you know there's going to be someone that just has to try to see if they can make it work there!