What is booth.pm and for who is this guide?

What is booth.pm?

Booth.pm is a Japanese website where independent professionals can distribute their creations. These creations vary wildly. But they mostly focus on things like bags, clothing, acrylic stands, 3d models, jewelry, music, stickers and art. In a setting that most people would categorize as “homemade”.

In 2023 this market ballooned to a small powerhouse, generating 21 million dollars in revenue just on 3D assets alone.

Since booth.pm is a Japanese website, the content tends to be focused on the Japanese speaking market. The people selling their products usually don’t speak English and can be limited in their ability to write English. Those that sell 3D models specifically for VRChat will assume you have some basic understanding of Unity, VRChat and/or be able to comprehend Japanese.

Over the past years I have met some people in VRChat that were disappointed with their first time purchase or at least had a hard time getting their 3D asset/avatar to work.

This was for me the reason to make this guide so you don't need to pull hairs out of your head or clash with a language barrier to get basic questions answered.

This guide is will cover:

• Advice on deciphering Japanese text.
• Zip file code page issues.
  
• VRChat Creator Companion (VCC) - WiP
• Unity installation.
• What version of SDK to use.
• Additional shaders and scripts.
• Dynamic bone shenanigans. (not done yet)
• Unity basics.
• Photoshop basics. (not done yet)
  

This guide will not cover:

• Complex Unity/Udon.
• Uploading avatars with Quest compatibility. (requested feature)
• Blender/Maya/3D modeling.
• Making adjustments to UV/Masks.
• SDK 2 to 3 conversions.

The goal of this guide

With this guide you should be able to successfully upload most avatars you can buy from booth.pm

But before you even buy an avatar on booth.pm you need to become aware of certain hidden costs, efforts and VRChat requirements that we will cover in the next chapter.