Resonite - The VR critter nerd paradise

[natosaka]

I just joined the forums and I noticed there was a VR section, but also noticed nobody was talking about Resonite yet! Resonite is an expression-centric, smaller VR platform, and it's where I spend a lot of my time, and where I found my current partner. There's just so much you can do there, while in VR, without Unity! It's a warm close-knit community that's full of critters that care about each other and want to make and experience stuff. Unlike VRChat, the devs care a lot more about their community and actively engage with it. If anyone felt restricted by VRChat or not heard, maybe consider trying out Resonite. I hope this doesn't come across an an advert, because it's not, it's just that it's a platform where I've met so SO many wonderful critters and I'm very passionate about it. Here's a little screenshot for you all that I was in yesterday :3

If the mods feel this doesn't belong here, I get it, but I just wanted to share a big source of joy for me with this place :3

[Enbyeon]

If the mods feel this doesn't belong here, I get it, but I just wanted to share a big source of joy for me with this place :3

The thread is fine, nothing to worry about. (I'd contribute more, but I'm not familiar enough with Resonite sadly.)

[Phorm The Vixdjinn]

Resonite! Gosh, what an amazing platform. What an amazing place.

Back in July of 2022 (gosh, three years ago already?) VRChat rolled out their requirement that all users of their platform must install what amounts to a rootkit if they wished to continuing using it. This made me flee the platform entirely, and miss the platform tremendously.

Resonite has been the only alternative out there - And so I dove in when I could, and I've been continually amazed at what is possible there. The amount of interactivity, the amount of customizability, the ways in which you can build and create are unparalleled. Even the memes on Resonite are unique and impressive. Metamemes are something else.

I also deeply appreciate the transparency and accessibility of the developers. They hold regular 'office hours' to connect with and talk with the community, and they've made their plan and their vision for Resonite really clear! While VRChat seems to be slowly sliding toward enshittification via monetization and privacy-invading ID checks, Resonite makes it pretty clear they don't want to get involved in that, or shareholders who might demand it. That rocks!

That being said, I do confess that Resonite has some rough edges. It's always been a bit much for a layperson like me to wrap my head around - Importing avatars has never worked for me, regardless of any tutorials that I follow. I gather that it has a lot to do with the fact that the avatars are made in weird, non-standard ways - But I know very little about 3D modeling, and can't really understand how to navigate Resonite's deeper interfaces. The last few times I've asked for help from folks, it's either been too much, or something has gone horridly awry (Some extremely generous folks were minutes away from finishing work on one of my avatars when their world entirely crashed, and we lost everything).

Also, what the heck is up with Resonite's tracking? Calibration is a pain, and the results tend to be universally pretty bad. I can poke at the calibration interface for twenty minutes, and I still look like a hunchback no matter what I do.

Of course the elephant in the room (aside from any pachyderms present) is Resonite's performance. It's... <i>not great</i>, regardless of your hardware. But that's actively being worked on, and I have high hopes!

Most of the issues have kept me off of Resonite, but once the splittening goes live and I can figure out how to work more appropriately on my avatar, I'm very, very interested in jumping back in and seeing all the amazing things folks have been creating.

[natosaka]

That being said, I do confess that Resonite has some rough edges. It's always been a bit much for a layperson like me to wrap my head around - Importing avatars has never worked for me, regardless of any tutorials that I follow. I gather that it has a lot to do with the fact that the avatars are made in weird, non-standard ways - But I know very little about 3D modeling, and can't really understand how to navigate Resonite's deeper interfaces. The last few times I've asked for help from folks, it's either been too much, or something has gone horridly awry (Some extremely generous folks were minutes away from finishing work on one of my avatars when their world entirely crashed, and we lost everything).

It certainly does have some rough edges, for sure. If it helps at all, I'm a Resonite mentor, and anyone who sees this topic is welcome to add me on Resonite (Nat Osaka) or shoot me a DM here if they have any trouble with avatar setup or, honestly anything. I've sunk 1500 hours into this platform and so I have a lot of experience with the ins and outs of the way it works. No pressure at all, but don't be afraid to reach out if you want to. Heck, not even just me, any mentors on the Resonite discord opt-in to being pinged. So if you ping @Mentor over there, a bunch of folks will show up to assist, and in my experience, mentors are pretty friendly and will usually spend a guud amount of time to work with you on a problem.

Also, what the heck is up with Resonite's tracking? Calibration is a pain, and the results tend to be universally pretty bad. I can poke at the calibration interface for twenty minutes, and I still look like a hunchback no matter what I do.

So, VRChat and Resonite went different routes with the way they implemented full body tracking. VRChat chose head based tracking, which is the better of the two, but Resonite (or rather their predecessor) went with hip based tracking. I think they were on it before VRChat, so there was no "standard" way of doing it, so they kinda are stuck with it for right now. With that said, it's on the project board of problems to address on their GitHub.

Of course the elephant in the room (aside from any pachyderms present) is Resonite's performance. It's... <i>not great</i>, regardless of your hardware. But that's actively being worked on, and I have high hopes!

Yeah! Performance is being worked on actively with "The Splittening" update. You can actually get it if you want right now by changing your "beta" to "pre-release" in Steam settings. In the default world, cloud home, in the "stable" release, I get 35 FPS at the best of times, with lots of stutters. I tried the pre-release yesterday and it was smooth as butter at 70 FPS. It's a massive overhaul, and I'm really impressed with how it's going!

Most of the issues have kept me off of Resonite, but once the splittening goes live and I can figure out how to work more appropriately on my avatar, I'm very, very interested in jumping back in and seeing all the amazing things folks have been creating.

That's great! Like I mentioned, absolutely feel free to reach out to myself or any mentors. We want to help folks get acquainted with the platform because we believe in the potential the platform has, and we're more than happy to spend an hour or more with you to work on something you're stuck on.

[NovaSquirrel]

Of course the elephant in the room (aside from any pachyderms present) is Resonite's performance. It's... <i>not great</i>, regardless of your hardware. But that's actively being worked on, and I have high hopes!

When I gave it a try, it made my laptop hotter than it had ever previously been, and it surprised me that it could even get that hot.

Are there many text-chat-only spaces on there, like Second Life has? I like exploring virtual worlds and meeting people but I don't want to listen to strangers' mics as I do so (because of sensory issues that can lead to headaches.)

[natosaka]

Of course the elephant in the room (aside from any pachyderms present) is Resonite's performance. It's... <i>not great</i>, regardless of your hardware. But that's actively being worked on, and I have high hopes!

When I gave it a try, it made my laptop hotter than it had ever previously been, and it surprised me that it could even get that hot.

Are there many text-chat-only spaces on there, like Second Life has? I like exploring virtual worlds and meeting people but I don't want to listen to strangers' mics as I do so (because of sensory issues that can lead to headaches.)

Yeah, Resonite on its current "stable" branch is very resource intensive, but the current update that's underway makes it able to run on much less powerful hardware, maybe even Quest headsets in the future. It should be released soon, but you can always try it on your own.

As for text only spaces, hmm if you could find a mute session open you might find people using the "mute helper" to communicate, which allows you to type in text that appears above your head. There are other accessibility options too, like "earmuff mode", which allows you to control where you hear stuff. Like if you have it enabled, and you look forward, you'll only hear what's in front of you and not behind or on either side of you. It's helpful for that kind of thing. As someone who *also* gets sensory overload, you can always go to a corner to cool off and folks generally will respect that and leave you be until you come back out. Another option is to duck out into your home world where it's just you. Unlike VRChat, there are a LOT of solo activities you can do without needing to leave the game, especially if you do it in a private world (which home worlds are by default). There's also the "social battery system", which I developed, which allows you to have a "social battery" indicator above your head to show if you're drained or not. There's green, yellow, and red for values. I've found it's very effective.

[natosaka]

Also, if anyone is considering Resonite and is worried about performance issues, or if your hardware is not the best, when "The Splittening" is released (currently in pre-release for testing), you might find the platform works for you suddenly! I've seen people running the pre-release branch on *chromebooks*. It's a massive performance boost, so don't discount it just yet!

PS: If double posting isn't allowed, feel free to remove and message me and I'll just add this to the original post. I wanted to have it after my previous one as a kind of "general" information for people who are interested, as opposed to information specific to one reply.

[Phorm The Vixdjinn]

Apparently The Splittening is officially live!!

I won't be able to check it out until this weekend, but any and all other Resonite users can now enjoy considerable performance gains!

[Linzolle]

i've only really messed around with Resonite a few times with the help of a friend but from what i've seen it's been pretty awesome, i'm just not really sure how to engage with it more... i'm not the best at opening it up on my own and just looking around for people to find, vrchat is a lot easier for me in that regard since people will just host weekly meetups but Resonite has a bit more like, second life vibes it seems where you kinda just gotta go look around

[natosaka]

i've only really messed around with Resonite a few times with the help of a friend but from what i've seen it's been pretty awesome, i'm just not really sure how to engage with it more... i'm not the best at opening it up on my own and just looking around for people to find, vrchat is a lot easier for me in that regard since people will just host weekly meetups but Resonite has a bit more like, second life vibes it seems where you kinda just gotta go look around

You should join some Resonite communities then! The one I'm in the most and the one I perform DJ events in is called Crystalline Shard, but there's Fur Earthers, USFN, The Grand Oasis, and more. Meetups are common, but you simply need to find a community and look at their events list.