Visuals - Protected/BetterBennett GitHub Wiki

This section's toggles affect the visual aspect of the avatar. They depend on the shader, so they won't work if a user has blocked custom shader usage from you.

Other than local-only or particle effects, all portions of the avatar use the same shader:

  • On PC: Poiyomi Toon Shader, a safe, reliable and versatile shader, highly regarded by the community.
  • On Android: VRChat's Toon Standard shader.

All settings can be stacked/combined together in order to obtain a complex final result, with some limitations, detailed below.

Emission

Emission represents the proportion of the avatar's color that is not afected by lighting. With no emission, all color depends on light sources, so in the absence of light all colors become dark/black. The more emission you add, the more visible the avatar will be in darkness or poor light conditions.

This avatar's emission slider is non-linear. At 0, there is still a little emission on some parts, such as the eyes. You can fine tune up to 25%, which represents a mild default. It climbs quickly between 25% and 75%, and slowly again from, 75% to 100%. With the slider at 100%, you're getting roughly 50% real emission, meaning half of the color will still depend on the presence of light sources.

Greyscale

When you toggle this on, all parts of the avatar will lose their saturation and become greyscale.

Android limitations Android warning
Some parts of the avatar may only be available in greyscale mode for PC users.
Greyscale override Greyscale overrides
Features with this symbol can override greyscale mode individually, adding a note of color to a greyscale setup. Edit them or toggle them on to make them colorful again. To reset everything back to greyscale, turn Greyscale mode off and on again.

IMPORTANT: While this feature will remove saturation from the avatar's albedo, the result can still be tinted by colorful light sources and light volumes in the world. You can prevent that on PC by using the Colorless Lighting toggle.

High contrast

This toggle increases contrast in the avatar, making lit portions brighter and shadows darker, with sharper divisions between them. It has no effect on Android.

When combined with Greyscale, it creates a black and white effect.

Cel shading

Toggles the avatar's lighting setup between Smooth and Cel Shaded.

Smooth shading (default)

Light sources add smooth gradients of light and shadow to the albedo. In worlds with a good lighting setup, normal maps are clearly visible and contribute to the avatar's texture.

On Android, normal maps are always less visible and more washed out than on PC, due to shader limitations.

Cel Shading

Light and shadows are rendered as two types of distinct, flat regions, with a sharp transition between them. Normal maps are less visible but affect shadowed regions. Very similar between PC and Android.

On PC, a thick, albedo-tinted outline is rendered around the avatar. This is not available on Android due to shader limitations.

Distant shadow

On PC, when this toggle is enabled, the avatar will look like a dark sillouette to users standing more than 5m away. The full avatar color can only be seen by users standing less than 2m away.

Due to shader limitations, enabling Distant shadow can force certain avatar features off, such as Reflections. These enforced limits will apply to both Android and PC users to maximize consistency. Those features will be re-enabled when Distant shadow is toggled back off.

Reflections

Changes the avatar's physically based reflection (PBR) setup, which includes metallics, smoothness and visual reflections including LTCGI. The following setups are available:

  • None: None of the materials will be reflective except for the Vision.
  • Basics (default): A realistic setup that keeps the skin and fabrics dull but adds varying degrees of reflection to metal and glass surfaces, eyes, mouth, fingernails and toenails.
  • Sweaty skin: Adds a glow to the character's skin and clothes. This setup enhances the effect of light sources and normal maps. Note that in Cel Shading mode, specular effects are flatter. On Android, only the skin is affected.
  • Soaked: Adds a highly specular sheen to the character's skin and clothes, which simulates being wet. On Android, only the skin is affected.

Shader toggles

A collection of toggles that turn things on and off in Poiyomi Toon Shader. Changing them has no effect on Android or on users who have blocked custom shaders from you.

  • Visible in world: Disable this toggle to make the avatar invisible in the world, but not in mirrors, photos or screenshots. This will not hide your nametag.
  • Show in mirrors: Disable this toggle to make the avatar invisible in mirrors.
  • Show in cameras: Disable this toggle to make the avatar invisible in screenshots and photos.
  • Colorless lighting: When enabled, this toggle will force the avatar's colors to ignore the color of all light sources and light volumes, and to be based only on their intensity.
  • LTCGI: When the reflection setup permits it, adds realistic reflections based on colors from LTCGI-enabled video players and such. Note that while this defaults to ON on PC, it's not supported on Android.
  • AudioLink: Makes the avatar's glass surfaces react to music playing in AudioLink-enabled worlds. Note that while this defaults to ON on PC, it's not supported on Android.