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Creating Your First World

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Parts of this page are in the process of being updated.
Need help? Visit our Discord at discord.gg/vrchat or our official forum at ask.vrchat.com.

Before getting started, ensure you have a Unity project with the SDK set up.

Step 1 - Setting up a scene​

The first thing you need is a scene. This can either be an existing one with content or a new one. With the scene open, you should drag and drop the VRCWorld prefab into your scene.

You can find the VRCWorldPrefab by searching for it in your 'Project' tab, and setting your search to 'In Packages' or 'All'.

Step 2 - Creating spawn points​

You now need to set up at least one point in the scene where users can spawn in. By default, players will spawn at the location of your VRCWorld object. This is the simplest setup and the setup that most users employ.

If you'd like to create additional spawn points, create an empty GameObject and place it where you want users to appear. Add the GameObject to the spawns list in the VRC_SceneDescriptor. Do this for as many spawn points as you want.

If you have more than one spawn point, you can choose the order in which people will spawn into them by changing the Spawn Order property.

Step 3 - Descriptor Settings​

There are various different options you can set the VRC_SceneDescriptor which change the behaviour of the room. Here are some of the more important ones.

Spawns - An array of transforms where players will spawn when they join your world. By default, players spawn at your Scene Descriptor's transform.

Respawn Height - Y-Height at which players respawn and pickups are respawned or destroyed. Anything that exists below this Y level will be respawned (or destroyed, in the case of configured objects).

Reference Camera - A camera which you can apply settings onto that are applied to the player when they join the room. Most often used for adjusting the clipping planes and adding post-processing effects.

More settings can be found on the VRC_SceneDescriptor page.

Step 4 - Setting up the Scene​

Let's get started! Go to VRChat SDK > Show Control Panel > Builder. There, you'll see optional things you can set up in your scene as well as options to build your world. Go ahead and run through these operations:

  • Setting up layers to match VRChat's layers. You should definitely do this, otherwise your world may not work properly.
  • Setting up the collision layer matrix to match VRChat's. See above. Don't skip this!
  • Apply 3D spatialization to 3D AudioSources automatically at runtime. Use this if all AudioSources in your scene are going to be spatialized.
  • Apply 3D spatialization to 3D AudioSources in the scene currently. You should use this if you want to later add AudioSources that are 2D, like background music.

Step 5 - Configure your World in the SDK build panel​

Before you can upload your name, you need to give the VRChat SDK some basic information about your world - such as its name, capacity, or content warnings.

VRChat's SDK World build panel.

  • World name - The name of your world, as shown to everyone.
  • Description - This will be displayed on the 'World Details' page in VRChat and on the website.
  • Content warnings - Warnings that work in conjunction with VRChat's Content Gating system.
  • Maximum capacity - The maximum amount of players allowed in your world.
    • If an instance has reached its player capacity, new players cannot join.
    • The instance creator, world creator, or group owner can always join, even if it would exceed the player capacity. (Unless they do not have permission to enter/see that instance)
  • Recommended capacity - The recommended maximum amount of players for your world.
    • If a public instance has reached its recommended capacity, VRChat will discourage more players from joining. The instance will stop appearing VRChat's list of public instances.
    • Players can still try to join the instance under some circumstances if they have a direct invite URL on vrchat.com.
  • Tags - Keyworlds that help users find your world in VRChat.
  • World debugging - Allows other users to debug your Udon code.
  • Thumbnail - A preview image of your world.
What if my world doesn't have a recommended capacity?

If you uploaded your VRChat world with an old VRChast SDK, without 'recommended capacity', player capacity works differently:

  • 'Recommended capacity' will be the same as your player capacity value

  • 'Player capacity' will be twice your player capacity value

    For example: If you set 'Player capacity' to 10 and did not set 'Recommended capacity', your actual 'Player capacity' will be 20. 'Player capacity' was sometimes referred to as the 'soft cap' for this reason.

Step 6 - Building and publishing your World​

Next you need to build the world! You'll need to choose what you will be doing first: you can either make a test build to test your world without uploading it, or publish your world directly to VRChat. Under both "Test" and "Publish" headings you will find buttons to publish a new build or your last build. Last Build takes the last successful build of the world to either test or upload. New Build puts a new world together to either test or upload.

(Optional)
If you wish to test your world, press the New Build button under the Test heading. This will build a new version of your world and launch into the world in VRChat. The Number of Clients option is used for when you want to open multiple clients for testing networked behaviour.

Now, we can build and upload your world by pressing the "Build and Upload" button found under the Publish heading! This will build you world and get it ready for upload. Keep in mind that you're not permitted to upload content to VRChat that violates our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. Doing so will result in moderation action.

After upload your world, it will become available in VRChat! You should able to see it in-game, or via the content manager in the SDK via VRChat SDK > Show Control Panel > Content Manager.

World Upload Failures

If your world fails to upload, check Unity's console to see if there are any errors. If so, then solve them before trying to build your world again. Make sure to read the entirety of Unity's log, and click on errors to see additional information.

Check our other documentation, the Ask Forum, or ask on Discord if you need help. Make sure to provide as much information as possible, such as Unity console errors.