All "Free" Resources must be hosted on the Hub

[MacGruber]

This is a response to this announcement by @AshAuryn :

Official - All "Free" Resources must be hosted on the Hub

Hi Everyone! You may notice a change in the resource creation forms for Free categories. We have removed the "External Link" option. Beginning today, all resources in the Free categories must have a valid resource uploaded to the Hub. Free resources that link to a Patreon post, mega link...

hub.virtamate.com

After which, sometime in the beginning of the new year we may begin unpublishing Free resources that do not have a var attached.

Uh, not everything has a VAR? Would about things like guides? Those might have PDFs or ZIP files attached...or just the resource description is the content in itself.
Maybe I'm just taking this too literal?

Examples:

Unity AssetBundles for VaM 1.xx - Guides -

After some people essentially begged me to do it, I spend several evenings this week and the this entire Saturday on writing a tutorial on Unity AssetBundles. It ended up to be an 13 page PDF of 2700 words. Lots of pictures, obviously. This...

hub.virtamate.com

MacGruber's Video Tutorials - Guides -

This page will gather my hopefully growing collection of video tutorials about various VaM topics. "Pay after watching, IF you liked it!" Producing quality video tutorials consumes a LOT of time. Just producing 10min of video takes about 6-8...

hub.virtamate.com

VaM Command Line Parameters - Guides -

Every Unity game supports a number of command line arguments. In the case of VaM, particularly interesting are those to control VR mode, screen resolution as well as fullscreen mode. Why would you want to use this? Sometimes you want to quickly...

hub.virtamate.com

Switching things with Raspberry PI + Relay Board - Guides -

This is a quick DIY guide how you could switch devices on/off or switch between E-Stim channels using a Raspberry PI, a Relay board and the Connect plugin directly from your VaM scene using triggers. No soldering needed. As this is just the...

hub.virtamate.com

 

[SlimerJSpud]

There are also some resources hosted externally on Mega because the file size is too big for the hub. Will that size limit be removed?

Ash specifically mentioned guides:
"The "Guides" and "Other" section will still allow you to select "Does not have a file", however some resources in "Other" which are intended to be loaded as content in VaM will still be subject to the new requirement."

 

[AshAuryn]

There are also some resources hosted externally on Mega because the file size is too big for the hub. Will that size limit be removed?

Ash specifically mentioned guides:
"The "Guides" and "Other" section will still allow you to select "Does not have a file", however some resources in "Other" which are intended to be loaded as content in VaM will still be subject to the new requirement."

Size limits have been increased to 1GB. If your var is larger than 1GB you're not packaging something correctly and we're here to help.

Our players don't need or want addonpackages folders that are rising to multiple GB in size. We ask that creators make their vars reasonable, with 1GB being the max we'll allow.

 

[SlimerJSpud]

At least, if it's on the hub, and it's 1GB, I'll know right away, and can choose not to download it.

I know it's a stretch, but I'd also suggest that vars with dependencies that add up to over 1GB be disallowed. I often pass on those.

 

[atani]

At least, if it's on the hub, and it's 1GB, I'll know right away, and can choose not to download it.

I know it's a stretch, but I'd also suggest that vars with dependencies that add up to over 1GB be disallowed. I often pass on those.

While I hate overblown stuff in gigantic sizes and unending dependencies, having the total dependencies for a resource cap at 1 GB is probably too restrictive.
Consider a scene that calls for a big environment, 2 persons and some clothes, you quickly get there.

 

[SlimerJSpud]

OK, let's negotiate. Do I hear 2GB?

One problem is that some creators package 4K or 8K png files for the textures. In an animation, a jpg at 95% is just as good. 8K textures should be an option, not a dependency.

 

[atani]

OK, let's negotiate. Do I hear 2GB?

One problem is that some creators package 4K or 8K png files for the textures. In an animation, a jpg at 95% is just as good. 8K textures should be an option, not a dependency.

I agree that some textures are ridiculously big when they didn't need to.
In the end a limit on total dependencies would almost always fall on scenes, and as it would be difficult to know it's total size before uploading the scene the result would be fewer scenes uploaded.

 

[AshAuryn]

I agree that some textures are ridiculously big when they didn't need to.
In the end a limit on total dependencies would almost always fall on scenes, and as it would be difficult to know it's total size before uploading the scene the result would be fewer scenes uploaded.

The size cap is the limit we're willing to go due to various concerns regarding the server.

What we'll suggest to those creators who want to go bigger is to break your resource into a couple resources.

In the example above, a scene with a large environment and a few looks could release the environment as a separate var and then make it a dependency for the full scene.

 

[atani]

The size cap is the limit we're willing to go due to various concerns regarding the server.

What we'll suggest to those creators who want to go bigger is to break your resource into a couple resources.

In the example above, a scene with a large environment and a few looks could release the environment as a separate var and then make it a dependency for the full scene.

I was commenting on @SlimerJSpud's proposal to also set a limit based on the total size of a resource's dependencies, not just the individual resource.

 

[AshAuryn]

I was commenting on @SlimerJSpud's proposal to also set a limit based on the total size of a resource's dependencies, not just the individual resource.

Right sorry, forgot to respond to that. I don't think we could or should do that. I say "could" because there's no way to measure the size of dependencies that aren't on the Hub. I say should because some very popular resources come to mind, such as Vam Produce 69 that have over 100 dependencies but are still great content.

We did add the ability to quickly see a resource's number of dependencies earlier this year. Maybe we can add an additional filter like "max dependencies" to help you sort through resources.

 

[AshAuryn]

This is a response to this announcement by @AshAuryn :

Official - All "Free" Resources must be hosted on the Hub

Hi Everyone! You may notice a change in the resource creation forms for Free categories. We have removed the "External Link" option. Beginning today, all resources in the Free categories must have a valid resource uploaded to the Hub. Free resources that link to a Patreon post, mega link...

hub.virtamate.com

Uh, not everything has a VAR? Would about things like guides? Those might have PDFs or ZIP files attached...or just the resource description is the content in itself.
Maybe I'm just taking this too literal?

Examples:

Unity AssetBundles for VaM 1.xx - Guides -

After some people essentially begged me to do it, I spend several evenings this week and the this entire Saturday on writing a tutorial on Unity AssetBundles. It ended up to be an 13 page PDF of 2700 words. Lots of pictures, obviously. This...

hub.virtamate.com

MacGruber's Video Tutorials - Guides -

This page will gather my hopefully growing collection of video tutorials about various VaM topics. "Pay after watching, IF you liked it!" Producing quality video tutorials consumes a LOT of time. Just producing 10min of video takes about 6-8...

hub.virtamate.com

VaM Command Line Parameters - Guides -

Every Unity game supports a number of command line arguments. In the case of VaM, particularly interesting are those to control VR mode, screen resolution as well as fullscreen mode. Why would you want to use this? Sometimes you want to quickly...

hub.virtamate.com

Switching things with Raspberry PI + Relay Board - Guides -

This is a quick DIY guide how you could switch devices on/off or switch between E-Stim channels using a Raspberry PI, a Relay board and the Connect plugin directly from your VaM scene using triggers. No soldering needed. As this is just the...

hub.virtamate.com

Hey @MacGruber just making sure you felt your question was answered. The "other" and "guides" categories still have the option to select "no file". We mainly want to plug a hole that has been slowly growing where more and more resources are just links to Patreon. This detracts from the value of the Hub and the in-game dependency downloader, defeating the purpose for which the Hub was built. We will definitely make exceptions for things like guides and other niche resources that wouldn't necessarily make sense as a var attachment.