Question Question as a intrigued user.

[stiller1818]

I fired up the free demo and it is by far the most well polished graphics and physics I have seen for VR porn games. I am obsessed. VR adult games are new and need a lot of work still but whats going on here has the ultimate potential to dominate the market. I fully want to support this as its what I want for VR interaction.

Before I crack out the credit card for the patreon. I see a lot of downloadable scenes in the free section, as well as a list of plugins that are used for the scenes. How much of a hassle is it getting the free available scenes going? I see there is a browser within the game that you can unlock if you have a key. Are all these scenes listed here in the resources listed in that browser? Its as simple as finding it in-game and loading it?

Otherwise, would I have to download the scenes that interest me here on the website, put the file somewhere and download the necessary plugins as well?

Is there a guide for that sort of thing? TBH I will be kind of amazed if all the free scenes on the website are listed in-game and the plugins come a long with it. Just a simple load of the scene.

I bought a VR headset thinking I would be an avid gamer...but I can't stop myself from diving hard into the adult content, this stuff is the future.

Thank you.

 

[MacGruber]

How much of a hassle is it getting the free available scenes going? I see there is a browser within the game that you can unlock if you have a key. Are all these scenes listed here in the resources listed in that browser? Its as simple as finding it in-game and loading it?

If a scene is labeled with the green "hub-hosted" tag, its one-click on "Download All" in the in-game browser. Otherwise it means there are at least some dependencies that have not been uploaded to the Hub, so you have to figure out how to get them yourself. A good creator will provide the needed links in the description, but not everyone does that. It may also mean that while the scene itself is free, that it needs some dependency that is paid. Sadly there are some scenes around that are real dependency nightmares, where some dependency again needs other dependencies, or paid stuff that needs more paid stuff from others without being obvious about it, etc.

If you download VAR packages manually, especially from Patreon, it can also happen that your browser magically changes the file extension from .var to .zip or .rar, causing total confusion among inexperienced users. Its caused by a combination of bad browser configs and bad webservers on Patreon, sadly nothing VaM can do about it. Details are explained here:

Guides - Installing VAR packages from Patreon

How to install VaM content? The easiest way to installed VaM content is to use the "Hub Browse" window directly inside VaM. It will take care of all the things for you, including downloading all dependencies you might need. Obviously that only...

hub.virtamate.com

 

[TToby]

Hi,
you are welcome. Most people here are obsessed like you.
As you may already know, VaM is no simple VR porn game, but some kind of sandbox tool to create stuff.
Whereas those "creator-part" was constantly growing during the last years, the "I-just-want-to-play-part" was neglected a bit. No criticism, I love it as a creator and this was giving us a lot of custom stuff, but I can imagine how complicated and overwhelming VaM might look to newcomers.
Therefore VaM has a steep learning curve at the beginning.
But don't be concerned, you don't have to learn all of the multiple options and menu points for "normal" usage. But If you want to have the ultimative fun with VaM, be prepared to put in a bit of time and work in learning the basics.

There are a lot of google hits if you search for help. Aside from this hub (IMHO the best place), there are a "official" Reddit forum and a Discord, where you can find help and stuff.
But be warned! VaM has changed a lot in the last years, as it is still in development.

Especially the methode to install scenes, plugins and environments has changed fundamentally.
The current methode is: You can download most actual stuff as so called .VAR files.
Those are zip files that contains a whole folder structure and many additional files like textures, morphs and scenes, for instance. Don't unpack them, they will be used as they are, and will be temporarily unpacked automatically at runtime. Wether you will do this manually or through the in-game installer, those .VAR files will be simply copied into the AddOnPackages folder, within your VaM install folder.
Keep this in mind, because in former versions, you had to copy a lot of different files to different folders, and you most likely will stumble over some of those old files and tutorials while searching around.

To avoid cluttering your disk with ten times the same stuff in those .VAR files, the "dependencies" were announced. If you want to see the downloaded scene as intended by the creator, you have to install each and any of those additional dependenc files. Otherwise you will get a lot of error messages, missing stuff and you can even break the scene completely.
Unfortunately that methode can't completely avoid having doublettes and unneeded stuff. It is not perfect at all, but better than what we had before.

To finally answer your question (sorryfor the wall of text): No, for a somewhat experienced user, installing downloads is no hassle at all.
But yes, for a newcomer this can be quite a bit confusing at start.
Often there are multiple ways in VaM to reach one and the same goal. This is because of the development process with inventing new things and keeping the legacy stuff, too.
The scene installation process for instance. You can do this through the game or manually. As a somewhat experienced user I prefer the manually methode, to not loose track of all the downloads.
It is quite simple: just download stuff from this Hub, drop the .VAR files in the AddOnPackages folder and you are ready... exept from those dependencies. You will find them listed and you have to download and install them one by one, in the same way like you install the main stuff, too. Some scenes have a scaring long list of dependencies.

The in-game installer has a function to automatically install dependencies. But that only works for "Hub hosted" dependencies. I would suggest to give the manual methode a try, because some of the dependencies are from other locations, and some creators even add paid-stuff to their lists.
As the de-install process unfortunately is not trivial, I would suggest to not overdo downloading stuff and to avoid scenes with paid dependencies first. You will have to learn over time, what you can skip and what you realy need. And don't think paid-stuff is necessarily better than free stuff... except from some of the preview images. You realy don't need to pay for having a good time with VaM... except for the VaM creator license of cause.

 

[ZRSX]

Hi & welcome. Shorter reply: don't worry.

I'd just like to add to the detailed answers that there are guides available. The 2nd & 3rd ones here will answer your questions:

Guides - YouTube Tutorials

I have started making VaM tutorials for YouTube. As we all know there are some great tutorials out there but sadly they are quite outdated. This is my attempt to update the information and have it easily accessible to everyone. I've just gotten...

hub.virtamate.com

And there is an official wiki.

 

[TToby]

OK, sorry... after an hour of writing, I realized, that it was quite a bit too much for the start. I even shortened the text afterwards. ;-)
Sometimes I got carried away instead to tell newcomers "VaM is awesom and worth it all, but a bit difficult at start".
Those tutorials are great, but I feel it needs a bit more information to how things came together and why something is as it is.
There are still many tutorials and threads around which were written in the pre-VAR era and might confuse people.

 

[stiller1818]

OK, sorry... after an hour of writing, I realized, that it was quite a bit too much for the start. I even shortened the text afterwards. ;-)
Sometimes I got carried away instead to tell newcomers "VaM is awesom and worth it all, but a bit difficult at start".
Those tutorials are great, but I feel it needs a bit more information to how things came together and why something is as it is.
There are still many tutorials and threads around which were written in the pre-VAR era and might confuse people.

Don't be sorry, that was the kind of information that I was looking for. Thank you for taking your time to reply to me. You're dam right Virt-a-mate is amazing and it has so much potential. VR adult games are uncharted territory for gaming so of course its going to take some time to perfect it. But virtamate has so much potential.

I have another question, seeing how you're a developer maybe you can answer it. I have a programming background (recent grad but still newby-ish) and dabbled in unity (not a lot though).

Lets say in a bit I want to get on board and create my own plug-ins. Such as, having a plugin when I can take the models in the scenes and select from a list of pre-set positions to put them in. And make a more fluid male character experience. Could I potentially make various plug-ins that users can put into any scene they want or would I have to complete ownership of scenes to create plug-ins.

And thank you for your time.

 

[ZRSX]

Lets say in a bit I want to get on board and create my own plug-ins.

Come on in!
There are never too much developers. You can do lots of things within VAM, and even more with plugins.

Check out the existing plugins first. There's Timeline and VamX that are close to what you're describing. Doesn't mean you can't make your own take on it, of course!

 

[MacGruber]

take the models in the scenes and select from a list of pre-set positions to put them in.

Your description is a bit vague, but you might want to check out the PosePreset system as well as the SubScene feature. You may be able to get what you want without a plugin. Of course a plugin might help to make it more smooth UX.

Could I potentially make various plug-ins that users can put into any scene they want or would I have to complete ownership of scenes to create plug-ins.

You should aim for your plugin to be packaged as a VAR package and upload it here to the Hub in the resource section. That way other creators can reference it as a dependency when they use it in their scene. That means you are automatically credited and the end-users can have VaM download/install it automatically for them. There should be various VAR tutorials around. Of course it can't hurt if you offer a demo scene in a separate VAR to show off what your plugin can do.

Best way to start getting into VaM plugin coding is to look at other plugins. Start small and simple, work your way up. Sadly there is no VaM documentation, but you can use ILSpy to look at VaM_Data\Managed\Assembly-CSharp.dll. It allows you to look at VaM's codebase. Access to the code like this is way better anyway. Because code doesn't lie Of course Unity, the engine used by VaM, is documented and there are lots of tutorials for it. However, note that VaM 1.xx is using a fairly old Unity version: 2018.1.9. So make sure you look at the correct Unity docs:

Unity - Scripting API: MonoBehaviour

docs.unity3d.com

There are never too much developers.

Exactly. Maybe there is already a plugin for what you wanna do? No problem, just make one that is better! (Make sure to respect licenses and credits, though.)

 

[stiller1818]

Your description is a bit vague, but you might want to check out the PosePreset system as well as the SubScene feature. You may be able to get what you want without a plugin. Of course a plugin might help to make it more smooth UX.

Amazing. I just discovered this game 2 days ago after spending months looking for that quality VR game. I am looking forward to getting on board. I will def come back and reference your posts when I am ready to give some developing a shot.

Thanks again!

 

[stiller1818]

Come on in!
There are never too much developers. You can do lots of things within VAM, and even more with plugins.

Check out the existing plugins first. There's Timeline and VamX that are close to what you're describing. Doesn't mean you can't make your own take on it, of course!

Perfect. You have been really informative. Thank you again.

 

[LooksHunter]

It will only get better as time goes on, but I recommend to jump into it asap as there is a LONG learning curve and a lot of frustration before you will be able to do exactly what you want - it's always fun, but it takes months to learn different things. I learn something new every time I log in.

As far as free stuff goes, there is overwhelming amount of content, and you have to get stuff one by one, so another reason to just get into it. There is a lot of new stuff releasing every single week. It's insane! I have never before seen a program with so much stuff added to it all the time. Even Skyrim mods on Nexus look like rookie numbers in comparison.