Reverse Avatar Whitelist System
WingmanDraws
A common way for avatar theft to happen is by abusing the game's automatic content delivery system.
In order to mitigate avatar and asset theft from said system an implementation of a sort of "reverse whitelist" could be used. Essentially, it would function similar to how showing avatars would work, but in reverse. The individual user would have to allow other users to view their avatar fully, otherwise a fallback is used.
So seeing avatars would be a two way system: You allow X user to see your avatar and they show it\allow it via safety settings. This would potentially stop the aforementioned abuse of the content delivery system currently in use.
Perhaps there could be an option to individually allow users to see an avatar as well as some blanket ones to give a finer control to who can see your avatars (perhaps an allow instance\all\individual setting).
All in all, this would protect users and their uploaded content as well as give them a more direct control over who views it\has access to it.
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Sophie123p
While the idea will indeed stop or mitigate the ripping of avatars there are of course some issues that I have with this type of system:
The whole point of VRChat having custom avatars is to see them, now imagine this system being implemented. Who wants their avatar stolen, no one. You'll definitely use the system but now people cant see your avatar. You could join a friend only to disallowed to see their friends' avatars because they don't allow it, and sure they might give you permission but that's still an unknown factor. At the end of the day, I can't see this persons avatar and it feels more awkward since it's a fallback avatar.
This also won't fix it for every case for example the way ripperstore works is by using a mod and encouraging users to use it by offering private avatars, in which they gain points to buy private avatars. Who says your friends aren't using it? How can you trust them?
Ultimately, I understand your request for better avatar protection and the idea on paper sounds like it could work, in fact, it would work in practice, however you now have to ask the question, why even make a model if no one will see it? I feel that we will fear people in publics to the extent that no one with their own unique model would be seen for who they are, why should I make a model if I'm just going to be hidden from everyone?
I'm sorry if I misunderstood something about your request, however I still believe the best way to solve this is simply using a public model you or someone else made, it still lets us see everyone for how they're meant to be seen while keeping some level of protection.
WingmanDraws
Sophie123p: I appreciate the input!
While at the core I would LOVE for everyone to be able to be fully shown all the time and, as you put it, "seen for what they are". That simply isn't the case these days.
The way ripperstore and other such clients work is actually through a modded client interpreting your catche data. Which is only accessable when a model is fully shown for the local user.
This system would allow for a person to control who gets to see or who doesn't get to see an avatar. In my post, I did suggest a setting that allows for a sort of "blanket" option such as an "allow all" button.
Now, like any solution, this is not perfect. I will be the first to admit that. Any person you allow to see your avatar runs the risk of that person being a ripper of some sort. However, this would be a defensive barrier against that happening without the users input or force cloning. Simply suggesting that everyone either use a public avatar or make their avatars public to stop ripping would remove any and all individuality that this game has on an avatar level.
✩Frisk✩
Sophie123p: Im still in favor of Reversed Whitelist Avatars.
Plus, It will promote better Performance to VRChat as a whole and with how They strives for better stability of the Server, they continue to make changes to the Avatar and World Requirements.
Yet completely ignores this golden bullet for over a yr.
Oh and about the 18+ Contents, this will fall under that category as well in added " Security and Safety " towards younger audience.
Also not everyone who has Personal Avatars wants to be shown to the World.
Not everyone is gonna look at your avatar and yet rendering your Very Poor 2Mil Poly or 8bit Avatars
As it stands, Many of users would just go right to their settings and then Set Show all " Very Poor " Avatars.
Then we get Ticket reports saying " I'm Crashing or Lagging so bad cuz of " either World or Avatars and it can be One or the other if not both.
✩Frisk✩
I have made a post such as this a year ago ... and of course ...it gain no traction ..... it may be far to difficult for them to do so ... since i had no response from it....
But the Idea works great when combatting " Force Cloners " and " Avatar Rippers " for both Public and Private....
It gives more control over the Individual user.
Sadly though...RipperStore still manages to Archive VRChat's Avatars......which that in itself is a security hole....
WingmanDraws
✩Frisk✩: The way RipperStore works is that once an avatar is fully shown, they can access that users cache and "archive" the avatar. If this system were to be implemented, this would help solve this issue by putting up a barrier between the local and remote user. Would this completely solve the issue? Not at all. Anyone you show the avatar with runs the risk of being a ripper, but at least at that point, you cannot be force ripped or cloned.
✩Frisk✩
WingmanDraws: didn't understood back then >.<;;
frostyfrog
How would this work with avatars that are marked as public for sharing with friends?
This is a use case that I don't see covered in your post. Does the whitelist only work for private avatars? Is it for private and public avatars? Only private avatars? If it's for public's as well, does that mean that we're limited to VRC default avatars as fallback?
WingmanDraws
frostyfrog: This is something I had thought about, however I feel that this would be something better left to the Devs! My original consideration was that this setting would possibly be considered separate from the public or private avatar system, as the original system pertains to cloning.
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Mauro_VS
This is very well thought, I like the idea a lot.
Dark_Jaws
I like the sound of this and it is similar to your own safety settings. May I also recommend a easier way to report people with mods. I know I had the so called Force Clone done on me at least twice.
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Wolfdragom
sounds like a great idea to me
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KonekoGreen
this is also a good idea for self implemented moderation. because sometimes you might know that someone isn't good with a certain subject and you can pre-emptively white list that person before doing something.
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Beelzeboob
Agreed, 100%. Support fully
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＝OASIS
Sounds like a great idea to me!
MEESTER SoupCan
Would finally alleviate the worry of joining public instances and remove the need to having first switched into a public avatar or one that wouldn't be a problem getting ripped.
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