Modular Avatar Documentation

Modular Avatar is a suite of non-destructive tools designed for modularizing avatars and distributing avatar components. It simplifies the process of adding outfits or gimmicks to an avatar to a simple drag-and-drop operation.

Key capabilities include:

• Armature Merging: Merges prefab armatures into the parent avatar (common for outfits) while minimizing new bone creation by reusing existing bones.
• Animator Merging: Merges subcomponent animators into the parent avatar, facilitating the implementation of various avatar gimmicks.
• Non-destructive Workflow: Allows for modular additions without permanently altering the base avatar structure.

The PhysBone Blocker is a component used to prevent PhysBones rooted in parent objects from affecting a specific child object. It achieves this by automatically adding the child object to the Ignore list of any PhysBone that affects its parent.

Use Cases

• Accessories on PhysBone chains: Use it when creating accessories (like clothing or items) that a user might attach to an existing PhysBone chain (such as a tail, ear, or hair). This prevents the movement of the parent chain from causing unwanted physics jitter or movement on the attached accessory.
• Rigid attachment with Bone Proxies: When using a Bone Proxy component to attach an object to a pre-existing PhysBone chain, adding a PhysBone Blocker ensures the object remains rigidly attached to the parent chain without being influenced by the parent's physics simulation.

The Outfit Root component identifies the root GameObject of an outfit. While it is typically added automatically via the Setup Outfit tutorial, you may need to add it manually in some cases.

If adding it manually:

1. Add the Outfit Root component to your outfit's root GameObject.
2. Set the Armature Root field to the root Transform of the outfit's main bone hierarchy.

Outfit Root acts as a marker for other Modular Avatar tools and provides a centralized interface for outfit adjustment options.

The Bone Proxy component allows you to place objects from your prefab inside existing objects (like bones) of the original avatar. It automatically adjusts any animators that reference the old location of the objects so they point to the new paths after the move.

Use Cases

• When to use: When you need to place prefab objects (like contacts or colliders) inside specific bones of an avatar.
• When NOT to use: Do not use Bone Proxy for configuring clothing; use Merge Armature instead.

The Blendshape Sync component ensures that a specific blendshape on one renderer always matches the value of a blendshape on another renderer.

Use Cases

• Outfits: Syncing an outfit's shapekeys to match the body's shapekeys (e.g., for body adjustments).
• Base Avatars: Syncing blendshapes between different objects within the same avatar.

Limitations

• No Chaining: You cannot chain syncs (e.g., A $\rightarrow$ B and B $\rightarrow$ C is not supported; you must go A $\rightarrow$ B and A $\rightarrow$ C).
• No Multi-level Sync: It does not support syncing through multiple levels of objects (A $\rightarrow$ B $\rightarrow$ C).
• Animator Requirement: At runtime, it only supports blendshapes controlled by animators. It cannot accurately sync blendshapes controlled by VRChat's built-in eyelook or viseme systems.

The Shape Changer component is a reactive component used to modify the shape keys (blendshapes) of a target renderer on an avatar. It is primarily used on outfit meshes to hide or shrink parts of the base avatar model that are covered by clothing to prevent clipping or interference.

When to use it:

• On outfit meshes to hide/shrink base model parts.

When NOT to use it:

• Do not use it to modify blendshapes that are already being animated by other animations. Instead, animate the on/off state of the GameObject containing the Shape Changer component.

The Vertex Filter - By Mask component is a specialized vertex filter used in conjunction with a Mesh Cutter component. It allows you to select specific portions of a mesh to delete or hide based on the grayscale values of a mask texture.

To function, it requires a Mesh Cutter component on the same GameObject. The filter uses the texture's color data to determine which polygons are affected.

Reactive components respond to GameObject state changes with a one frame delay.

When one reactive component controls the state of another (a chain reaction), a one frame delay is applied to each component individually. For a chain A -> B -> C, if A is turned off, the timing is:

• Frame 1: Nothing happens (A's disable is delayed).
• Frame 2: A is disabled (B's disable is delayed).
• Frame 3: B and C are disabled at the same time.

Warning: Do not rely on exact timing for complex effects, as the implementation timing may change in future optimizations.