peachbight / vrclightingrig

Lighting Rig for use in VRChat Avatar Systems

Lighting Rig Avatar Prefab

A lighting rig avatar prefab for placing and controlling dynamic lights.

Description

This lighting rig was made for the purpose of making dynamic lights accessible to video makers and photographers. This avatar is able to sync most settings on dynamic lights except, with the biggest exception being the light position and rotation.

This prefab was developed at Metacosm Studios, as was the packaged bot avatar. This prefab can be previewed on the publicly available Mobile Lighting Unit avatar.

NOTE: This system requires 175 bits of expression memory!!! Please make sure your avatar uses 81 bits or less of expression memory without the lighting rig.

Getting Started

Dependencies

• VRC Camera Shy Shader
• VRCFury is absolutely required.
• World Sync v3_18_2024
• VRChat SDK - Avatars 3.1.9+ (created with 3.6.0)

Installing

1. Download the .unitypackage and drag into your avatar project to import
2. Open the avatar unity scene if not already open
3. Drag and drop the LightingRig.prefab in MetacosmStudios/Prefabs/LightingRig into the root of your scene
   • this is the blank section below anything in the hierarchy
4. Drag the LightingRig prefab GameObject under your avatar root
5. Adjust the LightingRig/RightTarget and LightingRig/LeftTarget objects to be positioned at the respective hands
6. If needed, rotate the LightingRig/RightTarget/RTarget and LightingRig/LeftTarget/RTarget objects so that the +Z axis faces the direction going from the palm to the fingertips
7. Upload your avatar as per usual

Usage

How to position the lights

This method depend on phys bones and World Sync to work as expected. See the Backup system if this is broken.

1. Toggle on the Light Rig On option to show the lamps
2. Drop the rig using the World Sync Drop
   1. Go to the Light Rig > World Sync sub-menu
   2. Toggle on the Drop option to drop in the lamp handles used to position the lights
3. Hold and drag the red indicators to position lights (physbones)
   1. Use the small red cube to position a light
   2. Use the longer red indicator to rotate the light Note: Another VR user may position the lights once the light rig is on

How to configure the lights

Configure real-time light properties for Type, Color, Intensity, Range, Angle, and Shadows

1. Go into either the Light 1 and Light 2 sub-menu to configure the light
2. Change the light into either a Directional, Point, or Spot light, using the indicated toggles (or toggle off)
3. Go into the Properties sub-menu to change the light properties
   1. Choose the light color using the Color sub-menu (uses RGB model)
   2. Change the light strength using the Intensity radial (note the bug listed in the caveats section)
      • goes from 0%=>0.01 to 50%=>1 to 100%=>10
   3. Change the range using the Range radial
      • goes from 0%=>0.25m to 50%=>20.25m to 100%=>220.25m
   4. Change the spotlight angle using the Angle radial
      • goes from 0%=>1deg to 100%=>179deg
   5. Change the shadow strength using the Shadow radial
      • goes from 0% to 100% Note: All these settings are synced and saved for convenience

How to position the lights using the Backup System

This backup system uses hand gestures to move the lamps.

1. Toggle on the Light Rig On option to show the lamps
2. Toggle on the Backup System option
3. Open either the Light 1 or Light 2 sub-menus to select the respect light
4. Make a fist gesture in the right hand to hold the lamp (if Right Handed? is toggled on)
   1. The hand may be changed by toggling the Right Handed? option for the light
5. Make an open-hand gesture in the same hand to let go of the lamp Note: This option does NOT allow someone else to manipulate the position and rotation of the light

Hiding Lamps

You may hide the meshes for the lamps if needed, or make them visible in camera. By default, lamps are not visible in-camera nor in mirrors.

1. Go to the Lamp Visibility Menu
2. Toggle on/off Show in VRCLens to appear or disappear in the camera
3. Toggle on/off Show In Mirror to appear or disappear from the mirror
4. Toggle on/off Invisible to make the meshes disappear completely (renderers off) Note: these options are located outside of the light rig menu because these are also used by all Metacosm Studios filming bot avatars.

Caveats

The Camera Shy shader included will be invisible on desktop if the client FOV is not set to 60 degrees.

The physbones on the rig will jitter when the avatar-user is moving. This will not affect the light positioning.

Please note that due to this issue where radial menus briefly set their values to 100%, the intensity will flash at 100% when opening the radial! (workaround pending).

Authors

PeachBight @PeachBight

Version History

• 0.1 (2024-05-12)
  • Initial Public Release
• 1.1 (2024-05-26)
  • Full release
  • Mesh shadowcasting fixed
  • Light intensity more sensitive from %0 to %50
  • Removed requirement for full-unpack
• 1.2 (2024-05-28)
  • Fixed shadowcasting on indicators
  • Added public avatar to README.md

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.md file for details

Acknowledgments

This prefab is dependent on World Sync by Juzo, more info in Assets/WorldSync/ReadMe.md

• World Sync

This prefab also uses the VRLabs World Constraint System by lin of VRLabs

• World Constraint

Uses direct blend trees for simplifying animator layers

• VRCLibrary