Videos

A 4 Year Difference

What started out as a quick idea, in the end I'm kinda attached to it. It's a fun comparison of four years of tech changes and skill development.

So what are the changes?

Well, the most overarching is VRChat itself. The camera is completely different, now able to track you, with offsets, as well as having focus options. Then there's the physics - Dynamic Bones to Physbones - as well as me just learning better how to tweak the settings for more natural movement. While I know there were mods for this before, VRChat having options to tweak where the trackers should sit on an avatar after calibration is also a major change that affected how I could move the avatar.

Then, the computer I use. In the four years I moved to a new computer, and have since upgraded it. While it wasn't as big a deal sitting in a world solo, it definitely influenced the default settings I have on OBS. It also allows me to run more companion programs, one of which is very important in the context of this video - OVR-SmoothTracking, which smooths out a lot of tracking jitter that happens with fast movements and quick stops (like taking steps). Also important is OpenVR-SpaceCalibrator, which lets me make sure my feet are falling convincingly on the floor of the world. And finally, of course VRCFaceTracking, so I can have face tracking at all.

The stats of both computers is as follows:
Before: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, AMD Radeon RX 5700 (8 GB VRAM), 32 GB RAM
Now: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3090 (24 GB VRAM), 64 GB RAM

Another thing is trackers, and their corresponding straps. I started with the Rebuff Reality Trackstrap Pluses for my feet and waist - a good enough solution, but the EOZ foot straps with their additional heel strap really help stabilize the trackers (which went from Vive 2.0 to 3.0), and the added Power Pucks only added to that stability. The biggest change tracker-wise was the addition of a chest tracker. My dancing has always been kind of bellydancing influenced - isolated movements, hip twists, body rolls - all things that only looked more natural with a chest tracker.

Funnily, the same Index controllers are used in both clips (and they definitely look like they've seen four years of use at this point). After four years I suppose I've managed to figure out how tight to have them strapped to my hands, where the finger tracking zones are, and just in general how to hold my hands to create the nicest hand movements.

I actually remember the night I filmed the 2021 video. Covid keeping me inside (more than I already did) and VRChat being my main hobby. Endlessly being impressed by every new world I visited. I wasn't really in the music/dancing scene yet, and would spend most of my time in worlds solo, filming. That's what the two world hop videos came out of, by being impressed by the creativity and technical skill a lot of these worlds had, and wanting to document them. And of course I would have music playing at the same time, so it was almost inevitable I'd end up recording myself dancing.

The whale appearing when it did at the start of the first chorus was a complete and beautiful happenstance, and I'd like to think that even without facetracking you can tell that I'm surprised. It's a scripted thing in the world, and I'm very sure I didn't even know it existed at that moment, much less that it was going to so perfectly fly over and behind me like it did. I have sat on the video this whole time, being reminded of its existence every now and then. I think I even posted a short part of it on Twitter forever ago. The whole video is longer than just that song, and has me futzing with OVR Toolkit and changing songs and the like. But beyond just another fun recording of myself I don't think I ever really intended on doing anything with it.

The new video came from a bit more intention. The night had just started, I wanted to do a bit of pregaming and warming up. I hadn't recorded myself dancing in a while, and I had made a conscious decision to do some before going to events for the night. I popped on a playlist and started recording. It's a bit funny, but the song (Now by Mothica) isn't like a heartfelt favorite of mine. I like it, the lyrics are fun and angsty, but it's not like it's in my daily rotation.

When it came on, I initially didn't notice what song it was. Then when I recognized it, I thought, "hm, I haven't heard this in a while". It was only like halfway through the song, dancing along, that I remembered the old video. How different would this version of me dancing to it be to the first time? If nothing else, I had facetracking now, and a chest tracker.

It's funny how it still gives me the same vibes as four years ago; it's surprising how similar I dance to certain parts of it, considering both were just fun freestyling.

Editing the two together was also a fun experience. Both videos are synced - it really shows how much better my pacing and intentionality is now. And, again, how similar I dance to certain parts of the song. Remember, the song never was a "repeat ad nauseum because I love it so much" song. Just a fun song that Spotify once recommended me and then was popped on a few large playlists.

In any case, that's the story behind this video. If you actually read through this whole thing, thanks!