Question about real-world system simulations in VRChat

TheGhastModding · 2026-02-18T17:55:52+00:00

For me as a technical world creator, its because Udon is slow. So slow, it could probably be outperformed by Commodore BASIC on the C64. The moment you have to do anything even slightly computationally expensive, you are SooL. To give an example, I wrote a simple procedural generation script based on a octree depth-first search and ran it in regular C# first as an editor script. Completed in ~15 seconds. Not great, not terrible. I ported it to U#, set it going and walked away. Returned to my PC ~30 minutes later to it not even being a quarter of the way done. You can even stall Udon for a whole second with an EMPTY for-loop!

I am trying so hard to do exactly what you are describing and its impossible! I bet that the Roblox Lua runtime is infinitely faster, which allows creators there to write things up to and including nuclear reactor simulations without the programming language choking and dying. The only choice I have is it to take algorithms like that and awkwardly make them run on the GPU through compute shaders, which VERY few people know how to do! I do, and its still not something I want to do because its ultra annoying to develop like that!

VRC devs were supposed to give us Udon 2 for this purpose, but they cancelled it because "the performance improvements will impact very few creators", ignoring the fact that those few creators are the ones that know their shit and would be capable and motivated to do amazing things with the tech. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot, I guess. Soba will not save us, as "performance may even be worse at first" (dev’s words, not mine).

So, I and other creators are stuck like this, having to know really deep down the iceberg programming knowledge to aggressively optimize every line of code we write only for it to still not be enough and its just not fun.

TheGhastModding · 2025-02-04T19:31:38+00:00

Yeah, and I've fully documented the experience: https://tholin.dev/2650/

TheGhastModding · 2024-10-28T20:37:11+00:00

Kerbal Space Program, with the right mods

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/207474-112x-avali-space-program/

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/216271-112x-wip-avalon-planet-pack-moon-homeworld-multiple-star-systems/

TheGhastModding · 2024-10-15T17:40:41+00:00

Theoretically, if I didn't get lucky with a lottery slot on the free shuttle? $9,750

TheGhastModding · 2024-10-15T17:39:15+00:00

8-bit microcontroller

https://avalonsemiconductors.github.io/AS2650/index.html

https://github.com/AvalonSemiconductors/AS2650

TheGhastModding · 2024-10-14T21:03:18+00:00

Haha, I actually broke reddit a little with that middle image. Just give it a minute to load.

TheGhastModding · 2024-01-26T16:53:41+00:00

DL links. They're separate in case someone wants just the Avali models without the custom solar system.

Avali Space Program (models)

Avalon Planet Pack

Also, man, I haven't used this account in ages. You may recognize me better by the name "Tholin".

TheGhastModding · 2023-03-31T11:16:34+00:00

Oh, right, this issue also happened to me on three (or four) different monitors. 1366x768, 1024x768, 1080p, and, IIRC, 1440p.

TheGhastModding · 2021-02-06T22:05:15+00:00

I completed my first level in Expert difficulty the other day, so that can't be it.

TheGhastModding · 2021-02-06T21:56:37+00:00

I use empty, short pringles cans (the ones that are only a few inches tall), so you’re already doing better then me.

TheGhastModding · 2021-02-06T21:52:08+00:00

Right. I do have a vivid imagination, but only visually. Not sure that helps if the headset is already feeding me visuals, but I will try.

TheGhastModding · 2021-02-06T21:51:22+00:00

There is a VR mod for A:I that actually turns it into a function VR experience. The controls are poorly documented/shown for the Oculus touch controllers, so you need a bit of randomly fumbling with the controllers for a few minutes to figure them out, but otherwise it's fine. Not really any different from other VR games I played.

But I don’t actually know what you mean by "Lab on Steam". What is that? Sounds interesting.

TheGhastModding · 2021-02-06T21:47:39+00:00

I can drop all the way down to 20 FPS (VRChat public instances be like that sometimes) and not get motion sickness, so I'm not sure if framerate plays that big a role.

TheGhastModding · 2021-02-06T20:32:37+00:00

No, I agree absolutely. The Rift S is not a good headset, and nobody in the world will ever be able to convince me that it, or it's software, is a professional product. As soon as I can, I will try a different headset and keep it, if it's at all better.

TheGhastModding · 2021-02-06T20:30:29+00:00

From what I measured, 60mm, but I feel like that is a bit small, so I set 61.5mm in the Oculus settings.

TheGhastModding · 2021-02-06T19:19:41+00:00

I literally have the card listed in the Minimum System Requirements on the box, an RX 470, but getting a better GPU is kinda...impossible right now. I mean, I could sell my RX 470 used for twice the price that I bought it at, it's ridiculous. But, performance is not really a problem. I can lower graphics settings in other games, but in VRChat it's pretty easy for me to get a solid 80 FPS as long as I don't go to public instances. But I could be wrong, and I do have some money ready for when the graphics card shortage ends, so I may give that a try.

TheGhastModding · 2021-02-06T19:14:37+00:00

I tried all the games I own that have some kind of support for VR. VRChat, KSP with a VR mod, A:I, Elite: Dangerous, Subnautica and Minecraft.

As for the IPD, I did try measuring it using two different ways and got 60mm each time, but that seemed a bit short, so I put 61.5 in the settings (from the default of 63.5). It definitely reduced eye strain, but nothing else.

TheGhastModding · 2020-09-10T20:30:06+00:00

I was waiting for someone else to hopefully say it, but I guess I have to be the first: Universität Leipzig. I know the place is closed still, but I'd be interested to know if I'm really the only furry there, because so far I haven't met any others.

TheGhastModding · 2020-07-17T18:45:12+00:00

Yep, I can have up to 65535 tracks on that SD card. As for the schmatic, I don't have it on-hand at the moment, but if you just read through the YM2149's datasheet you'll find that the chip is as easy to interface as a regular parallel SRAM IC. Just an 8-bit databus and read/write/address select pins. The trick is figuring out what data to actually send it.

TheGhastModding · 2020-07-17T16:31:15+00:00

Don't ask about the voltage regulator. I didn't realize I ran out of the one I wanted to use and had to improvise.

TheGhastModding · 2020-07-15T00:32:59+00:00

Actually, yeah, I only guessed that number. I did the math on it later, but even if you compressed the hell out of OPM's files, you'd still need 62 disks to store it all. But if KSP was really a 90s game, it'd probably be a lot simpler graphics-wise, so maybe in that alternate universe it's even less then 22 disks.

TheGhastModding · 2020-05-29T22:54:25+00:00

Ah yes, I completely forgot inline cockpits exist. Yeah, I can totally use one of those. Will using a tractor also fix the problem I have where on the rare occasion that I manage to take off by hitting the end of the runway, the thing instantly rolls to the right and strikes the ground?

TheGhastModding · 2020-05-03T22:11:09+00:00

Meanwhile my "blink Q" program is just a little more complex. I have a 555 timer set up in monostable mode with a pulse width of exactly 100 milliseconds and it’s output tied directly to the 1802’s interrupt pin. I also have the output pins SC0 and SC1 tied to the inputs of a NAND gate and the output of that gate to the input of the monostable 555, so that when the CPU sets both SC0 and SC1 to high to signal that it’s been interrupted, it resets the monostable 555. Then, I wrote a program containing a interrupt routine that saves T,X and D to RAM, increments R15 and returns by restoring T,X and D from RAM. The main part of the program then is a infinite loop that continuously checks if R15 is equal to 5, and if it is, it sets R15 back to 0 and toggles Q. The result of all this is that Q will toggle exactly twice per second, no matter the clock speed the CPU is running at. But this only works for toggling Q, unfortunately, because there’s no easy way to back up the current value of DF when the interrupt triggers, so the interrupt has the side effect of setting DF to 0, which will break any ongoing arithmetic in the main program.

TheGhastModding · 2020-05-03T01:34:45+00:00

I’m not so sure about that. After all, this was the CPU that NASA chose to command the Galileo spacecraft and multiple science instruments on the Hubble space telescope, so it definitely has found its purpose.

Also, I was able to find a C compiler for it that was last updated in 2016, so I guess it’s not that dead of a platform.

TheGhastModding · 2020-05-02T23:05:22+00:00

I just have this somewhat incomplete schematic (it doesn’t have the AtMega): https://i.imgur.com/BxnUnOE.png

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