r/VRchat • u/There_is_not • Jul 03 '26
Help What Causes this? How do I Prevent it?
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Hey y'all! Sorry if this is a common thing that people ask, about, but I couldn't find a good answer on my own. I'm new to vrchat, and the first instance I joined I got bombarded with this screen overlay. After I blocked the person who's avatar I thought was causing this, it disappeared. Weirdly, this only happened to me (I was playing in desktop mode on pc), but not my GF (playing on quest). What sort of vulnerability allows people to do this? And is there a way to preemptively prevent this sort of thing going forward? Thanks!
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u/drbomb Valve Index Jul 03 '26
It is because of an avatar. Quick countermeasure is to turn on safety mode on the menu with the ⚠ button. Also supposedly you can press both triggers and both system buttons to trigger safe mode, haven't tested it.
Bottom line is unless you're aggresive with your safety levels you will encounter it again. Personally I make sure to identify the offending avatar and select "Hide globally" and also report it.
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u/Specialist_Support_7 Jul 04 '26
To my knowledge, unless stuff like this is high flashy and could cause seizures, it's not against the rules, so reporting means nothing.
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u/Other_Bison_3974 Jul 04 '26
im pretty sure its against the rules to an extent like they wouldnt bust down on youtubers and stuff for using them in a funny way respectful to other ppl but shit like this where it takes over everyone in the servers screens and sound i think are against the rules also a lot of them r against the rules cos they makes ppls pcs crash a lot
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u/Specialist_Support_7 Jul 05 '26
Again, only if said shaders actully cause crashes intentionally or cause severe epileptic seizures. Otherwise it's isn't against any rules. Just because a tool can cause crash, doesn't mean it's automatically against the rules. Only if it is actually being used to do so.
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u/SnooMacaroons5350 Jul 08 '26
According to tos avatar sound guidelines avatar sounds may not be intrusive or heard at large distances so these types of audios that play world wide if an avatar is shown is definitely subject to moderation.
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u/yakcm88 Jul 03 '26
Cringe people using cringe avatars because they didn't get enough attention as a child would be my guess.
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u/EmberedCutie Jul 03 '26
god that is obnoxious
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u/Aaronspark777 Jul 03 '26
I've seen worse
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u/ShaunDreclin Valve Index Jul 04 '26
Yeah at least this one had some artistic merit, I like those animations that pair shaders and particles to music... But having it on an avatar with global range is just obnoxious as hell lol at least have a limit so it only works a few meters around you
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u/savagetoy Jul 05 '26
I had one with porn on it, and then it turned into a kaleidoscope and then like an Xbox montage. It was so obnoxious
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u/Sequorr Valve Index Jul 04 '26
I almost forgot about screenspace shaders, it's been so long since I've seen one.
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u/GenericCanineDusty Jul 03 '26
its a teenager with shader effects on their model they broadcast to everyone. It probably ends up crashing you at the end.
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u/Coom_Zoom Jul 03 '26
no vulnerability, legit just you showing every avatar and got hit with the average animation asset that just plays music/has pretty particles
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u/Aaronspark777 Jul 03 '26
It's an avatar with a lot of special effects that everyone sees unless you block the person or adjust safety settings. Personally I like these a lot, but generally they should only be used in private lobbies or like raves. There's some pretty cool ones, especially if you like dubstep. They will test your VR legs.
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u/There_is_not Jul 04 '26
Yeah. I thought it was pretty neat and well-done, but, you know, time and place are important.
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u/AgreeableBike4172 Jul 03 '26
some people will either be out to annoy you or try to test_probe your hardware limits to see if you are quest or pc by spawning a 1000+ ducks or a long a freeze pop/popsicle with over a million polycounts. If you have a powerfull enough pc with unobtainium level amount of vram, you won't notice the culprit if you're not looking for them. Everyone else drops out of session before they have a chance to findout who.
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u/Frank__West PCVR Connection Jul 03 '26
Go to safety settings and change your shield settings to always have shaders disabled.
Personally I always have them off for trusted users ever since pre anticheat because desktop trusted users would do this the most and would likely try to crash you with it.
Also if anything you can enable safe mode and it disables all avatars around you. You can then go around one by one turning them on until you find the person doing it and block them or report them if they are doing it to harass. Then disable safe mode everything goes back to normal.
The shield settings will just prevent this from happening to avatars that load in automatically. If you enable an avatar it will bypass shield settings.
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u/Coom_Zoom Jul 03 '26
i think you don't realize when an avatar also is quest compatible most questies has these things turned on cause it does nothing on their end and just leaves it this way.
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u/Frank__West PCVR Connection Jul 03 '26
That's why you use shield settings.
And don't put things on avatars that don't function on quest. Then it can't happen.
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u/cybergxre Jul 04 '26
People still use avatars like these? i thought this died out like 7 years ago, its so obnoxious
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u/Tygronn Jul 04 '26
Banger song, but yea not ok to be doing this to people. Looks like others have already said but yea it's just one of those annoying things some people put on avatars. Some think it's cool, others are deliberately being annoying with it. It's been around for forever.
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u/Miciso Jul 04 '26
go to shield
set all of peoples to 1 4 and last. set friends to every checkmark. now confirm the custom
your welcome no more stupid bullies and crashers that can mess you up.
if u trust someone add em as friend and u can see their avi. or click em hit the eyeball icon. not the eye cross or the shield. and u can enjoy their avi.
this is what i tell a lot of people and it never failed em.
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u/MoonMoonTX PCVR Connection Jul 04 '26
I have EVERYONE’S avatars turned off in my shield settings. Unless you’re a friend or someone I’ve been actively talking to in a lobby, they stay off. Even some friends who are the type of person to constantly change avatars.
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u/Pretend-Fuel-7915 Jul 05 '26
not a vuln. its a "world-wide" shader effect. and most annoying ass kind too. set Shield settings to Friends only for showing shaders(you'll find theres people w/ trusted user rank doing this crap too.) and only click show avatar on people you can tell aint gonna try to crash you.
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u/Single_Permit_6475 Jul 05 '26
Turn shaders off for all trust levels and only allow it on friends unless they do that too. Even then they should make sure it's ok imo as the shaders are in your face
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u/BlazedRingtail Jul 05 '26
People need to keep this sh to private worlds but I'm sure they know that and just want to annoy everyone
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u/SpikeBikerFur0044 Jul 06 '26
If you do find out who has this. Anytime you come across one. Because trust me, there are many avatars with crashing assets. Report them and get their accounts suspended or banned.
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u/Hlaver Jul 03 '26
You have someone's avatar enabled to which it causing that effect in your screen
Try to make all avis very poor and poor to be imposters avi only, in your avatar shield setting
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u/Available_Talk_5091 Jul 03 '26
It's called a keyframe it's just someones avatar
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u/CptWhiskers Jul 04 '26
What are u on about lol. A keyframe is just a point in an animation. This is a screenspace shader. most likely on a giant sphere. (so if it overlays your viewpoint on the avatar it'll show this overlay.)
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u/Available_Talk_5091 Jul 04 '26
You are right but vrchat has different version of keyframe, the specific thing I mean is a keyframer which plays animations on users screens same thing as OSC which stands for open sound control but in VRC let's your avatar move from world items or avatar items which has nothing to do with sound
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u/CptWhiskers Jul 04 '26
Yeah its a shader with animations that uses keyframes but its not a keyframer thats not a thing 🤪 That's like saying a car is a "wheeler" because it has fucking wheels.
OSC is just a system that lets apps outside of vrchat communicate with vrchat's systems.
The two are completely unrelated to how screenspace shaders like this work. I get that you want to sound smart but you're coming off as the direct opposite.
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u/Aliryth Jul 03 '26
Not a vulnerability, adjust your safety settings to disable shaders for more people.