Benie's Games Blog

An issue that has persisted since the latest VRChat update, refuses to be fixed. What’s worse is I’m the only one having said issue. Now I would had looked at this sooner, if seeing this bug didn’t happen a day before.. well.. just read the general blog of you haven’t.
But since it’s been long enough that I’m starting to feel a sense of closure to move on, I can finally do something about it.
At first I thought it was caused by adding a doll to the avatar (no), then thought it was an animation issue (no), to thinking it’s an issue with the Visemes (no). ..Nothing is showing anything! As much as I want to say “the VRChat update did this”, no other Dutchie has shown this issue. I even updated the SDK, praying this could be the reason (as I haven’t done it since Christmas of last year).
At this point, I feel likely it’s linked to that issue of the ‘Missing Prefab’ thing. It’s the only possible reason. Seems eerily similar to my world going corrupt after one VRChat
update (worked fine one day, broken the next).

The only other thing I can try that would guarantee me an answer (even if it’s not the answer I seek), is to do a new project folder (get the SDK in it, dynamic bones, etc), and try the default Dutchie model. If it too has an open mouth after publishing and trying it ingame, this proves it’s VRChat causing it. But if it doesn’t, then it’s a fault with my current project folder.
Either way, it’ll give me an answer… well, somewhat of an answer. If it is indeed the fault of the update, it still won’t explain why no-one else is having the issue. Not even Red
Boi V2 is having the issue, so it’s definitely the Dutchie.
Kovo showed me that some of the Dutchie’s default hand gestures are broken, but at least these are easily fixable. …This isn’t, and it’s pissing me off!! 😛

EDIT, 4/4/19.. I think I may have just found the issue, and reported my findings to Erodac. There’s one thing I found odd about the internal animation files to the modified Dutchie, how it has two animations of the jaw being opened. I tried what I could to ‘disable’ one of them, but to no luck.
Then I found something very interesting while cross-referencing the default Dutchie to the modified. Not only does it have different default animation files.. but the OpenJaw one has Loop Time checked. The modified one, does not. Clearly a discrepancy here.
Finally discovered how to add this flag to the animation file.. if what I did fixed the
jaw, holy hell am I going to be SO happy.

EDIT2, 4/6/19.. okay, so the above didn’t work. I even tried the default Dutchie, and it too had the jaw open. And now, I (sadly) have conformation that there is something wrong with my project folder. It also proves there is nothing wrong with the modified Dutchie that Erodac has been sending me.
I have a theory what might be the cause. Feel it could be the way I have the main AngelDragon folder in my Assets folder, and my AngelDragon folder in my main folder array. That main folder array is likely causing the issue (aka Unity may not like it). I’m also not 100% certain if it’s the scene that has all the versions of BenieTheDragon that could be the issue (as the original base (in its own scene) is doing the issue).
Going to do some tests, knowing I finally have a handle on the situation. I will update
this, but I also have a thing in the General blog to deal with that’s a bit more important.

EDIT3, 4/7/19.. I’m now faced with another issue. Tried importing the latest model that Erodac sent me to begin my testing, and the horns have disappeared (after adding Naito’s scale shader to the new project folder). Zagrosect actually tried to help me with this, but couldn’t get it. It’s now up to Erodac (who has unfortunately not responded to my request since I sent it).
However, I don’t exactly have to wait for him. With time, I can recreate my avatar using the new project folder.

EDIT4, 4/8/19.. So I have good news and bad news from my testing. I will start with the bad news.
Imported a fresh copy of the model of BTD Erodac made before asking him to add all the accessories. After moving all the settings over from the default Dutchie (and making the necessary changes to ensure both avatars are separate from eachother), I saw the t-posing issue from the older project folder still happening. Thankfully I was able to fix this by setting the model to Humanoid instead of Generic.
Now the bad news.. I am seeing the jaw hanging open. This tells me, the newest VRChat update has indeed bricked the model. I know I said it didn’t before, but I’m pretty sure what I’m seeing is all the proof I need.
And that proof is the ‘good’ (but slightly concerning) news. Switching the Avatar in the Animation component of the Inspector to the default Dutchie model, fixes the problem! But.. how?! The only thing I feel, is Erodac overlooked something in the
visemes; possibly didn’t properly compare the default Dutchie to the modified one.
Unfortunately, I cannot ask him to look into it more, as he’s taking a break from Blender and Unity. But maybe I could ask Zagro to look. If not.. then the VRChat Discord (and pray I can get someone like Erodac who’s willing to help for free).
But I haven’t even gotten to the ‘slightly concerning news’ part. And what I mean by
that, is I cannot rely on this to fix my issue. And even if I do, there is no guarantee a future major VRChat update isn’t going to brick this fix.
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Zagro did take a look, and noticed a major issue with the rigging. He believes this could be the reason for the jaw hanging open. He was just about ready to send the file back to
me, but he encountered a UV mapping issue upon applying the BTD texture sheets. It’s on his end, and he says it’s not something he can easily fix (but he’ll try). So, it might be likely what I did to temporarily fix the issue, might be my only fix (until Erodac feels like getting back into Blender again). I really don’t want to rely on this being the fix, but it’s the only thing that actually works right now.
Going to try to see if this fix can be applied in the main project folder. If not, then I’ll mass recreate BenieTheDragon in the new one (or wait and hope Zagro can fix the UV issue).

EDIT5, 4/9/19.. Success! The fix WORKS in the old project folder! Had to reinstall the Angel Dragon model, and now the jaw is no longer hanging open!! 😀
Again, all I can do is hope and pray a future major VRChat update doesn’t brick it. I wish I didn’t even have to do this, so I’m going to let Zagro continue to try and fix that UV issue on his end. Though one time when he thought he had it, he asked me “where’s the horns and wings?”.
Told him I wanted to get the jaw fixed. But however, with this fix now in place.. I feel like I should take him up on the offer of recreating what Erodac did for me. There is one thing that I was too busy trying to fix the jaw hanging issue to tell Erodac; the main horns on the head looking too ‘bullish’. He could fix them.

(Foreground: What I usually have the horns at)
(Background: The horns Erodac did. Though he got the length correct, notice they’re taller, wider, and more curved. No offense, but I really don’t like that. I thought I
would, but.. no)
Plus, Zagro (if he feels like it) could readjust the wings to be in a ‘rested’ state (similar to the default Dutchie wings). That way it’ll be easier for me to set the dynamic bones and animations.

Trying to achieve perfect flight is the next major achievement I want to complete, but to get someone to teach me.. is the challenging part.
And what I mean by ‘perfect flight’, is jetpack-like (ignoring gravity); having full control of your altitude and direction. Being able to lift off the ground and stop as soon as I release the button, then move and go any direction I want. This, is perfect flight. And only a small handful of people have been able to master it. I even have a few avatars with this perfect flight.
To achieve it, I feel there has to be more than a single box collider under my avatar’s feet. There has to be multiple colliders, working in unison. I just need to find someone willing to take me under their wing and teach me.
I had someone that could had taught me (who’s a good friend of a friend of mine), except he’s not willing to scare his skills to strangers. He wants to get to know me more. ..Feel like I’m playing a WoW-like game, having to do dailies to get the guy to trust me. And
honestly, I feel it’s not worth the effort. I’m not going to bend over backwards for someone.., just to know their secrets (then say “thank you, you can go now 😛 “).
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There’s also, someone else which my pride is blocking me from asking if he’ll be willing. Pretty sure you know whom I’m talking about. …Kaelygon. Though he’s not the smug bastard as I thought in the past (he’s actually quite nice to talk to), the man is quite busy with life and other stuff. But he’s the closest I have that might be able to help.
Yet the only way I’m going to be able to DM him (without asking him directly), is dig into the Dutchie help file (where I see his smug face).. aka, where the pride part is. Eventually I’ll get over it and ask him.

At the same time, I feel like I would be wasting his. With the way WMR controllers are done, I don’t think it’s even possible. I mentioned this before, how emotes are bound to the same as general movement.
The only thing I can think of, is to make a flight-specific version of BTD, where I can have the collider defaulting to its ‘on’ state (but can be toggled with the press of what emote I set it to). This way, it shouldn’t cancel itself out when I move forward.
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EDIT: Finally swallowed my pride and just.. asked him, if he could teach me. And he was able to! 😀
Said that a DM would not be necessary, for he told me that I only need one box
collider, and the placement of it determines how I want the flight (and trial & error is the only way to master it); much like learning anything, which is how he learned Blender (and made the Dutchie).
When asking what Grifz told me, that the collider has to be flat as a pancake. He said
no, it can have some density to it.
Thank you, Kaelygon! You have supplied me the knowledge I need for perfect flight. 🙂

A day after reporting to you folks I sent the bad review, they got back to me. So, was it the response I’ve been waiting for, as in “Oshi– you’re right! We see the issue and we’ll fix it!”? Or more “you’re an idiot, we know we’re right.”?
It actually took nerve to finally open that response. Aka thinking “I hope I didn’t say something I shouldn’t had.” Which is why it took ’till now to finally read it.
And after fully reading (more like skimming through) their really, really long response, it seems my issue cannot be fixed (at this time). They told me they even did the testing I requested, and weren’t able to reproduce my issue. And basically, it seems the issue is (once again) my weak ass CPU. They were even surprised the game ran at all on it.

Also yes, they’re still sticking to their guns with saying I have to set up room-scale through SteamVR. Though they did explain the reasoning, I can’t help but feel that they didn’t fully test everything about WMR, and I ended up responding with “did you actually see if you could use SteamVR’s room-scale setup, with a WMR headset?”, telling them my personal findings.. that it’s not possible as it wants to use my controllers to size the room, instead of the headset.
However, since they told me in their testing, how they couldn’t replicate the issue, this likely could be bouncing back to my weak ass CPU (since the other jobs worked for me).
Something about the Office Worker job being different. Differently coded, requires a larger room-scale, or something else… like more of a demand on system hardware.
–
Now at this point, I was 100% satisfied with this being the answer to my issue, and was even considering of removing that negative review… until I read further.

…And that was, from reading a ‘slight’ boo-boo they made; saying their game “only technically” supports WMR. Of course, maybe I just, simply misread what they actually meant (always a possibility). I’d like them to clear this up for me, before I start accusing them of false advertisement (as I paid for this game, assuming it 100% supported WMR, as the WMR symbol was in their Steam store page).
More and more, do I wish for a refund. But as I said before, that’s Steam’s doing. And since I’m past the two hour limit, it seems highly unlikely.

Things are getting quite interesting, folks. Can’t wait to see what they say after this one. Though I have feelings it might be the last time I respond to them, as they would had answered pretty much all my questions.
At least, I hope they do. Hell, I hope they even respond with how long it’s been since their last response (my bad on that).