Avatar

Computing and Science Fiction. A graphical representation of a person or
character in a computer-generated environment, esp. one which represents
a user in an interactive game or other setting, and which can move about in
its surroundings and interact with other characters.
— Oxford English Dictionary (draft entry), 2008.

Once a human being enters Habitat, he or she takes on the visual form of an Avatar,
and for all intents and purposes becomes one of these new-world beings.
— Habitat, Lucasfilm Games, 1986.

An avatar is the form of a user in a given world.

Structure

An avatar is a hierarchy of slots, with an Avatar Root containing Avatar Nodes

In general, some components may (and do) appear in multiple places over the hierarchy of an avatar:

Components
Component	Summary
AvatarUserReferenceAssigner	#on avatar equip, this assigns the reference of the user that equipped the avatar to the slot assigned to the assigner's target.
SimpleAwayIndicator	This applies the away material to a mesh target MeshRenderer or SkinnedMeshRenderer when the user equipping the avatar goes to away state.

Avatar Root

Any slot with an active AvatarRoot (Component) defines the root of an avatar.

Commonly the avatar root will contain the following components:

Components
Component	Summary
AvatarRoot	Indicates that this slot is the root of an avatar.
Grabbable	Indicates the avatar can be grabbed.
ObjectRoot	Indicates that this slot is the root of an object.

Avatar roots of avatars created with the Avatar Creator have these additional components:

Components
Component	Summary
AvatarGroup
PBS_RimMetallic	The #away material of the avatar.
SimpleAvatarProtection	Sets permissions such that only the user bound to the avatar may equip and save it.
MeshRendererMaterialRelay

Humanoid avatars also contain:

Components
Component	Summary
Rig
BipedRig
VRIK	Computes the logic to map the input #IK Targets to #IK Proxies.
VRIKAvatar	Chooses when and how to bind the User's controls to the #IK Proxies.

Most often, an Avatar Root contains the Avatar Nodes proxies, #Centered Root, and user defined Logix modules (modules do not need to be defined here, but they often are for ease of access).

Avatar Nodes

Any slot under an #avatar root that contains an AvatarPoseNode (Component) is considered an avatar node. Most often, avatar nodes are direct children of the Avatar Root.

Avatar nodes represent a strongly identifiable piece of the avatar, such as LeftHand or Head.

With VRIK-based avatars an Avatar Node is named <pose node name> Proxy by convention, and contains:

• AvatarObjectComponentProxy (Component) - This copies the global transform of the avatar node, onto a target node (at least it appears to). Scans for the node kind identified by the AvatarPoseNode (Component) will find the target of the proxy as well.
• A child slot named Target - This is where the part of the avatar model will actually try to go to. - Ex: A proxy moves to exactly where a VR tracker is in space, the Target offsets that tracker back to where that body part should be. - Avatar calibration is done by moving the Target slot under the proxies being calibrated.

The Head node of the avatar is usually where the avatar's voice comes out of, and so usually contains these additional components:

Components
Component	Summary
AvatarVoiceSourceAssigner	Assigns the audio stream of the user #on avatar equip. There may be multiple of these.
AvatarAudioOutputManager	Configures the avatar's AudioOutput with the configured settings based on the user voice setting.
AudioOutput	Emits the user's voice. Many fields on this component are driven by the AvatarAudioOutputManager.
AvatarVoiceRangeVisualizer	Configures the whisper bubble for the user based off AvatarAudioOutputManager provided settings.
VisemeAnalyzer	Computes the values to be routed to DirectVisemeDriver elsewhere in the avatar, which drives blendshape movements.

In addition, the Head slot contains a child slot named Voice Range Visual. This is the whisper bubble, the slot is inactive unless the equipped user is in the whisper voice mode. This slot commonly contains:

Components
Component	Summary
MeshRenderer	The visual part of the whisper bubble.
PBS_IntersectMetallic	The material applied to the whisper bubble. Changes based on the user's audio volume.

Centered Root - VRIK specific

This slot represents where Neos thinks the center of the avatar is.

Tips

Blocking avatar equip

Apply the AvatarEquipBlock component to the avatar's root.

See Also

General avatar creation

• Neos VR Tutorial: Avatars Pt.1 - Your first Avatar by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Tutorial: Avatars Pt.2 - Setting up a known Avatar Model by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Tutorial: Avatars Pt.2.5 - Saving an avatar you've made by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Tutorial: Avatars Pt.3 - Working with multiple Materials by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Tutorial: Avatars Pt.4 - Importing Unity Package Contents into Neos by ProbablePrime

Avatar modification and customization

• Neos VR Tutorial: Customizing your Whisper Bubble by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Tutorial: Remote Audio for your Avatar by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Tutorial: Setting up an Avatar without fingers for Physical Buttons by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Tutorial: Manual Viseme Setup for Problematic Avatars by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Tutorial: Manual Eye setup for tricky Avatars by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Tutorial: Setting up a Near Clip for your Avatars by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Tutorial: Driving Blendshapes with Multiple Gestures Example/Discussion by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Tutorial: Moving your Avatars view point by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Tutorial: Custom Hands for Head and Hands Avatars by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Quick Tutorial: Change Shader / Material Type on an Avatar by ProbablePrime
• Neos VR Tutorial: Making Avatar UI only you can see! by ProbablePrime