Community:Terminology

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[Reason: VRChat's community has a diverse lingo!]

This article contains a list of terms, abbreviations, and slang commonly used by users on VRChat.

A-F

Terms Explanation
Ask Forum A forum service that VRChat operates for users to ask questions, search for answers, and view Developer Updates.
Avi (plural: avis) Abbreviation for the word “avatar”.
Badge Icons that may appear on a user's profile to signify their contributions to the platform.
Base Short for 'Avatar Base', an avatar made available for download or purchase by an avatar creator to act as a template or starting point for a user to create their own custom avatar.
Big Menu A colloquil name for the Main Menu

.

Canny Referring to VRChat's Official VRChat source Feedback Forum, also known as Canny.
Circle Menu (also: Radial Menu, or erroneously, Expressions Menu) A colloquial name for the Action Menu.
Cloning A feature in VRChat that allows a user to change into a selected user's avatar.
Crash A malfunction or error that causes VRChat to forcibly close or freeze.
Deskie Shortening of "Desktop User", someone who uses the desktop version of VRChat.
Crasher A malicious avatar or world that is made to crash the user.

Please be aware that these are against Official VRChat source VRChat's Guidelines and using them can result in action taken against your account.[1]

EAC Abbreviation for "Easy Anti-Cheat" - a security program used by VRChat on the PC version.[2]
Earmuffs A feature in VRChat that allows a user to limit the range of their hearing. This can be useful in instances with many people in close proximity.
FBT Abbreviation for "Full Body Tracking". FBT is defined as anything that adds the ability to track, at minimum, hips and feet. Some users may also refer to this as "obtaining legs".
FT Abbreviation for "Face Tracking". Facetracking can include eye tracking as well as tracking of the lower face.

G-N

Terms Explanation
Home (also: home world) The world a user will spawn into when entering VRChat. This, by default, is the VRChat Home world and can be changed to any world.
IK Abbreviation of “Inverse Kinematics”, an algorithm calculated in Unity, which VRChat uses to properly track the movement of bones and Physbones on an avatar.
Instance An instance is a copy of a world that up to 80 users can join. Multiple instances can exist, each hosting different groups of users. There are different instance types.
Inv Abbreviation for “Invite” in the context of invites. Such as “inv me” meaning “invite me.”
Kitbashing A method of creating models, especially avatars, from a myriad of assets from various sources using the VRChat SDK. The term comes from real-world scale model making[3].
Meet (also: meet-up) A scheduled gathering taking place in VRChat by a community with a similar interest such a hobby, a content creator or users of a specific avatar. Meets normally take place using a Group or Group+ instance and organised in game or via a community Discord server.
Mute Referring to either a user who is unable to use voice communication, either by choice or due to disability; may also refer to the action of silencing the sound of a user, world, or a video player.
Notifs Abbreviation for “notifications”, referring to one of the tabs in the Quick Menu.

O-S

Terms Explanation
OSC A protocol to allow external devices and applications to connect to VRChat, and communicate with each other, usually on an avatar or world.
Performance The level at how optimized an asset in VRChat is, usually referring to avatars.
Phantom Sense A sensation of experiencing one or more senses because of virtual stimuli, e.g. touch, smell, taste.
Physbones A feature in VRChat that allows a way to add fluid motion to avatar bones.
Ping The number referring (in milliseconds) to track latency, showing how much time it takes for a sample of data to travel from your device to the VRChat server, and back to your device.
Polys Abbreviation for polygons. Refers to the 2D shapes that make up avatars and worlds in VRChat. Synonymous with 'tris' (triangles).
Portal A placeable object that allows multiple users to teleport to the same instance of a different world.
Prefab A premade asset made to be used on avatars or in worlds, such as GoGo Loco by Franada[4] or VRCBilliards: Community Edition[5].
Pretzel Refers to a user whose full-body tracking has broken or lost tracking, causing their avatar to fold in on itself like a pretzel.
Quest Refers to the Meta Quest headset[6], or Quest-compatible content; synonymously used with the "Android" build of VRChat.
Questie Refers to someone using VRChat on standalone Quest. Context and tone for this word may vary, but unfortunately can have a pejorative connotation.
Req Abbreviation for “Request” in the context of invites. Such as “req off of me” meaning “request an invite off of me.”
Retexture The act of changing the textures of a common avatar to customize it and make it specific and unique to a given player. A person who does this for others is known as a 'Retexture Artist'.
RP Abbreviation for "Role-play" - assuming/playing a role, solo or in a group. There are dedicated groups and themed worlds for RP in VRChat.
SDK “SDK” is short for Software development kit[7], it's a collection of tools that allow people to develop software for certain platforms. The VRChat SDK is what is used to create worlds and avatars in VRChat.
Shader In Unity, a shader is a program that contains instructions on how to render materials. These are used in conjunction with materials. An example of a shader is Poiyomi's Toon Shader[8].
Shapekey Also known as “Blendshapes”[9], allows for the deformation of a model for animation purposes, most often used for creating mouth movements and blinking. An animation that goes from Point A to Point B, and back again.
Shield (also: safeties) Referring to "Safety" shields on the Quick Menu, a method to disable aspects of users' avatars, as well as voice, to increase performance and enhance your experience.
Small Menu (also: little menu) A colloquial name for the Quick Menu.
Spawn Usually the starting point of a world or the act of summoning an object.
Status Statuses allow a user to vary the extent to which friends can join them and see their location. Users can also write a message to accompany this.

T-Z

Terms Explanation
Udon VRChat's C# derived object-oriented programming editor for the VRChat World SDK.
Unity The game engine VRChat utilizes.[10]
Viseme Portmanteaux of "visual phonemes" (vai-zeems), a type of shapekey that refers to mouth positioning and animatics on an avatar.
VRC Abbreviation for VRChat.
VRChatter (plural: VRChatters) A user of VRChat.
World hopping A solo or group activity involving exploring several worlds in a short period of time.

References