This is not the post I wanted to make, but I feel that it is necessary to explain what’s been going on over the past couple months, and ultimately, the fate of the projects.
First of all, if you haven’t read my previous blog post, you should read through that first. It gives a lot of context for the project, and the recent events leading up to this post. Check it out:
emmVRC and VRChat: A post-mortem
When I made that post, I was toying with the idea of continuing my development on ChilloutVR. After all, it would be the next logical step after VRChat modding. But the more I looked at emmVRC, and then at ChilloutVR, I realized that a good majority of what emmVRC used to provide is included by default in ChilloutVR. Avatar searching, flight/noclip, and a ton more player interactivity than we ever had planned. At the time, I stepped away from development to take a look at what exists, and to figure out what I wanted to do next.
I took multiple jabs at picking back up the project. I ported the old loader to ChilloutVR, requiring little modifications to do so. I even had third person available, and was planning out other integrations. But even through all this, and finding cool new things with UnityExplorer and, for once, dnSpy (couldn’t run this on VRChat because of IL2CPP), I was hitting a wall. I was having trouble finding what new features I could bring to the table, how to go about development (closed source vs. open source), or even how to work with the UI in the first place (CVR’s UI is based on HTML, which makes it a lot more challenging to programmatically modify). I ended up taking a couple months to myself to figure out where I wanted to take the project, and in those months, other modders have stepped up. There were so many mods that came to the scene in a very short time; mods that add new avatar features, mods that bring familiar elements to CVR, and a lot of the features that I could think of for emmVRC were all there in individual components.
Remember, emmVRC came from a time when mods were only just starting to come to the foreground. A fair deal more malicious mods existed than not, and they were mostly crude and janky (this is not to cast shade, but mostly commenting on what was available at the time). When I came to the scene, VRCModLoader was very new still, and there were only a handful of mods for it, let alone mods that weren’t broken by updates (VRChat had been obfuscating the game for a long time by now). When I saw the state of affairs of modding, I wanted to change things for the better. Dubya’s Ruby Button API gave me the chance to bring a new mod to the table that brought forward a lot of features I thought VRChat should’ve already had. Global Dynamic Bones, Flight… Avatar Searching (and this was when our search was just lists of avatars with user IDs attached. Fun times!)
This might be very conceited of me, but I really feel that emmVRC was one of the first, and probably most influential mods for VRChat. There weren’t really any other mods out there that provided as much in one package, nor were they as simple to use. My goal for emmVRC was to make the barrier of entry for modding as minimal as possible, and that even extended to emmVRC being its’ own loader (in place of VRCModLoader). And when IL2CPP was added to the game, and MelonLoader was finally released to the public, emmVRC was one of the first mods to work again, and come back even better than it was. I think that, without the presence of emmVRC, social VR game modding wouldn’t have taken off as fast as it did (actually, THAT might be the most conceited thing I’ve said).
Fast forward to now, and there are so many modders out there that have either moved to CVR as a modder, or directly work for Alpha Blend Interactive now. The niche that emmVRC was there to fill for VRChat doesn’t really exist in ChilloutVR. The game already has so much, and individual mods cover an even larger margin of it. I feel that, if I were to build out emmCVR the way I was imagining, it would just be competing against independent mods that do the same tasks, and that was never something I liked doing. I even made plans later in emmVRC’s life to split some of the features off into individual mods, but those never came to fruition before EAC was added.
Another factor in the decision I’ve made, is that… this entire experience has been exhausting. The back-and-forth games we had to play with VRChat in the entire existence of emmVRC, not to mention malicious third parties and drama in the communities, probably took a year or two off my life. There were so many points throughout the project that I said “I’m actually done.” And clearly, that was never the case, but the project had a lot of low points. A lot of what kept me pushing through was the massive support and kindness from the community, and for that… thank you all. Genuinely, I wouldn’t have kept it going if it wasn’t for all of you.
That being said, I can’t keep leading you on. My repo has sat dormant since July, and it’s become increasingly obvious that things aren’t working out.
The project has reached its’ conclusion.
I’m sorry to everyone who was waiting for a release, or any updates about progress. I genuinely tried to pursue the project, but I can’t do it anymore. There would be no point, and it would only serve to once again conflict with other mod developers who are already on the spot and doing an amazing job. It has been an amazing 3 years, but I think it’s finally time we put emmVRC, and by extension emmCVR, to rest.
So what’s going to happen now? Well, there are no plans to delete the server for now. There is too much history in the posts and discussions to just obliterate. What will likely happen, is that we will put the server into a read-only state. You will be able to join and look around, but no new posts will be allowed, nor will any occur on our part. For further mod development for ChilloutVR, I highly suggest you check out the ChilloutVR Modding Group. All of the mods I mentioned previously are available there, and it’s where I will likely be more active from now on.
For members of the Patreon, I would recommend that you pass your support on to Alpha Blend’s Patreon. That way, you can provide support to those who are working towards an even better platform. Supporting their Patreon helps to pay the developers who are constantly improving CVR and adding features, potentially including those provided by mods. If you would like to still support me in my endeavours, that’s up to you. I appreciate all of the support I have gotten thus far. I know I’ve been saying this a lot, but without all of you, we would not be where we are now.
What about the emmVRC mascot? Well, Rose never even truly signed up to be the mascot of the projects. She was my most detailed character, and I use her as a personification of myself. That being said, she’ll go back to doing her own shenanigans in her own world. I hope to, at some point in the future, document her origins, how she came to be, and her in-universe lore. If you’d like to keep up with that, check back to this website to see new posts and art.
If you are interested in something to remember us by, we have merch on our RedBubble store of the emmVRC logo, and I hope to be bringing some more out in the coming weeks. This will be available for as long as there is interest, so if you would like to grab some neat things to remember us by, check it out here! All funds raised will be used for paying my bills, and working towards my next projects.
Where am I going from here? Well, this entire project has taught me more about software development than I ever expected. My goal is to pursue a career in software engineering, but I’ll probably start with little hobby projects. If you want to see some of what I’m working on, you can check out my GitHub. I also do a lot of hardware projects, tinkering with both vintage and modern hardware. If you’d like to see my little posts and rambles, you can find them on my Twitter. You can also find cool and awesome art I’ve retweeted there, too!
But enough about me. I wouldn’t be where I am right now without the help and support of so many people.
  Hordini Got me into modding in the first place, as well as moderates many of the modding communities, and keeps me from going insane | ||
  Slaynash Originally developed VRCModLoader, as well as AvatarFav and VRCTools. Inspired me a lot, and helped a ton during development! GitHub – Twitter |   DubyaDude Open sourced Ruby’s Button API, allowing emmVRC to integrate with the VRChat UI natively, and also helped out a ton during development! GitHub – Socials |   Herp Derpinstine Local determined crazy person who built MelonLoader to make modding IL2CPP possible, in the face of the impossible. Also wrote the emmVRCLoader! GitHub – Twitter |
  Knah Wrote the IL2CPP Assembly Unhollower, the basis for all MelonLoader modding, and also helped to optimize emmVRC GitHub |   Janni9009 Melon who has helped a ton with development all across the modding community GitHub – Twitter |   Loukylor Helped to rewrite emmVRC to be more optimized and flexible GitHub |
  Speidy674 Helped fuel some of my early cravings to mod VRChat, and helped develop the first iteration of the emmVRC Network GitHub |   Xhail Developed the second iteration of the emmVRC Network (the first to have avatar searching!) GitHub |   Ben Completely rewrote the emmVRC Network to be more optimized and flexible (Project Plus), and also helped a ton with server management GitHub |
  MintLily Helped out a ton with emmVRC’s development and moderation, and is awesome GitHub |   Supah Long-time friend of mine who has helped moderate the community since the beginning! |   Rakosi Helped co-develop Lum with Slaynash, and added important features to answer questions and keep the community safe GitHub |
  Patchuuri Massive helper in the community, and very patient |   Risk One of the first helpers in emmVRC, has been a massive help over the years GitHub |   Mrgw98 Massive helper in the community, and also helped development during the bans |
  BLANKE Massive helper in the community |   iana Massive helper and supporter in the community |
and so many more I can’t even list here!
I’d also like to give a huge thanks to everyone in the various modding communities. Seriously. Without the help of all my friends and helpers, this project wouldn’t have even got off the ground. I can’t thank you all enough. If your name is not on here, shoot me a DM and I’ll fix it ASAP!
To conclude, thank you all so much for being here. This project has meant a lot to me, and although I’m sad to let it go, I am happy you all were a part of it. Take care of yourselves.
