Update to Avatar Body Validation: Ensuring Consistent Scaling for Avatars
Key Takeaways
We’re improving bounding box validation enabling avatars to scale consistently across games. Geometric workarounds will no longer pass checks, and we’ll soon auto-update existing Marketplace content. This will help creators trust gameplay choices will work across all avatars.
Hi Creators,
Players should be able to bring any Marketplace avatar into your game, and you should control how it plays. Both depend on consistent avatar scaling, which you can manage with Avatar Settings. However, we’ve identified that some Marketplace avatars can break this consistency when they’re built with geometric workarounds that bypass our bounding checks.
Starting today, we’re improving our existing bounding box validation checks to stop allowing geometric workarounds for newly published avatars. Geometric workarounds can distort an avatar’s bounding box, making it difficult to scale the body correctly and creating unintended advantages in gameplay. For example, in a survival or stealth game, an avatar that remains unusually small may be able to hide behind objects that other users can’t. In the near future, we plan to better support these small avatars without needing to use any workarounds.
As these changes roll out, please review the Character Body Specifications to make sure your avatars comply.
What This Means for Existing Avatars
We understand that existing small avatars can be meaningful to their creators and the players who enjoy them, so we’re taking the following steps:
• [Today] Adding new validation checks to prevent new avatars from using geometric workarounds to circumvent bounding-box requirements.
• [Soon] Re-evaluate our bounding box restrictions to better support various character bodies while preserving consistent avatar scaling across the platform.
• [Soon] Autofix affected avatars that can be made compliant, including removing the problematic mesh pieces and upda…