First released in 2014 for Microsoft Windows and the prototype Oculus Rift (DK1), VRChat has historically been a social hub game exclusive to those with a gaming PC or advanced PC VR headset rig. This truth led many of the unique experiences associated with the VRChat name to be missed out on entirely by a majority of gamers around the world. In 2017, alongside the initial release of the first high-end commercial VR headsets from HTC and Oculus, VRChat was entered into Steam’s early-access program, which, alongside the early-stage widespread adoption of commercial virtual reality headsets a year later, boosted VRChat’s popularity sky-high.
This popularity, however, came in part thanks to the fact that at the time, so many people in the gaming community still couldn’t get their hands on virtual reality for themselves. The commercially available HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets were both rather expensive at the time, running an average person around $800, plus the added fact that they required a powerful enough gaming PC to even have a hope of running a PC VR game, let alone VRChat.
For the time being, fans of VRChat and VR games in general were relegated to merely enjoying social media content centered around virtual reality games. Both VRChat and the virtual reality community thrived in this environment for a good amount of time, with the years between 2017 and 2019 seeing a slew of memes and comedic YouTube content surface, taking place within VRChat, which effectively raised the game’s popularity among the average netizen while simultaneously only making those who were left out due to the high cost for entry wanting to try it for themselves even more.
That same year, in 2019, alongside the release of the first Oculus Quest standalone headset, players gained an unprecedented level of accessibility to not only VRChat but the virtual reality world as a whole. With the original Oculus Quest at the time running you around $400, half of the base cost for the earliest PC VR headsets—minus the added cost of an entire gaming PC—thanks to the Quest’s standalone nature, was like a dream come true for gamers who had been eager to get a taste of virtual reality for years up until that point. Today, as of just a few days ago on October 24, we see a moment in VRChat history that mirrors the release of the first Oculus Quest, that being the release of VRChat to mobile iOS and Android devices.
As was the case for the original Oculus Quest version of many games, including VRChat, gamers playing on the mobile port will understandably experience a far less hardware-intensive version of the game. VRChat affords players the ability to import their own custom-made avatars into the game, equipped with a slew of potentially dangerous weapons, such as visual effect spammers that have the possibility to slow down one’s game and even overheat one’s internal processor. Due to this risky possibility, VRChat mobile users will, by default, be unable to see any other user’s avatars as long as they are designated “poor” or “medium” by the game’s systems, and reduced visual and audio effects for custom player avatars will be significantly reduced in general. While these feature changes are necessary in reducing visual clutter for users playing on a small-screened device such as an iPhone, they are not permanent, as gamers will still have the option to alter their performance preferences to see whatever intensive visual effects they want, at the expense of their own hardware. That being said, these default performance adjustments for the mobile port are welcomed, as long as it means that even more players will have access to the endless possibilities that VRChat’s social hub has to offer.