SDK is a library that helps the application development of Vrchat. It contains many useful functions and classes such as matrix calculation, avatar loading, camera rendering and so on. The SDK offers convenience to the developer by doing things automatically or by offering some useful classes for them to use without needing to implement those stuffs manually. But sometimes, modifying the SDK is necessary. Here are some reasons why we modify the Vrchat SDK.
Enable controller joints. The original SDK forces you to use motion controller as the root object of the avatar to retrieve motion data, which isn’t suitable for some kinds of avatars and accessories such as body and chest attachment objects. We need a way to get motion data from those objects. So we modify the SDK so that we can utilize controller joints to get the motion data of any object.
Enable shader effects. We modify the SDK so that we can enable certain shaders for objects. For example, when you are wearing a helmet, your head needs to be rendered in different style with shadow enabled so that it looks like being behind a helmet glass. Enable shader effect allows us to do that in a simple way.
How to modify vrchat sdk
To modify the Vrchat SDK, you need to download its source code first. You can download it through github or by downloading our modified sdk from this link. Once you have downloaded the vrchat sdk source code, open your preferred IDE (integrated development environment) and open ‘src/com/vrchat/client/VrSharedObject.java’ in the sdk folder, like this:
This class is sort of main object of vrchat SDK. By modifying it, you can modify almost all aspects of Vrchat SDK, including avatar loading, room creation and so on. Here are some modifications we do to make our life easier.
What is the Vrchat SDK?
The vrchat sdk is a library that helps the application development of Vrchat. It contains many useful functions and classes such as matrix calculation, avatar loading, camera rendering and so on. The SDK offers convenience to the developer by doing things automatically or by offering some useful classes for them to use without needing to implement those stuffs manually.
What is Vrchat?
VRChat is a free platform that allows you to create, publish, and explore virtual worlds with other people from around the world. It’s built on an engine that natively supports VR using the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets, but it also fully supports normal desktop mode. And it’s completely free!
What is the purpose of modifying the Vrchat SDK?
In most cases, modifying the Vrchat SDK will speed up your development process since you won’t need to reimplement certain functionalities from scratch. In some other cases, it makes your development more efficient by allowing you to add new functionalities that weren’t available before.
The benefits of modifying the Vrchat SDK
- Allow us to implement new functionalities
- Make our development process faster and easier
- Save a lot of time(which equals to money)
- Allows us to preview the changes we made without going through a long building/compiling/launching cycle
- Makes your life as a developer much easier
Tips for modifying the Vrchat SDK
Don’t modify the Vrchat SDK for no reason because it will make your project hard to maintain
If you want to make a small change, just update the sdk source code directly(which requires compiling), don’t find/replace every single file in the whole project unless it’s absolutely necessary
Conclusion
There are many reasons why we need to modify the Vrchat SDK, including enabling controller joints and shader effects. By modifying the Vrchat SDK, you can gain more control on your avatar motion and gain new functionalities that weren’t available before. Modifying the Vrchat SDK is good for most developers as it speeds up their development process and saves them a lot of time.
