When it comes to social VR platforms, Resonite isn’t exactly a household name, although the studio behind it is making some serious efforts to change that. The powerful PC VR social creation platform just got its biggest update yet, bringing massive improvements to performance across the board.
Launched into early access on Steam back in 2023, Resonite is a PC VR-only app, which has critically limited it from hitting the glut of VR users over on Quest. Its worlds can be pretty big and complex, making PC VR the only real fit in its current form.
Still, developer Yellow Dog Man Studios has carried on, further refining the app’s admittedly dizzying array of tools so its users can build, create, and script anything—all in-world, meaning users don’t technically need to rely on third-party software, such as Blender, AutoDesk Maya, or the Unity game engine.
To boot, in its August 20th performance update the studio is actively trying to uncouple from Unity altogether, as the studio has moved its native ‘FrooxEngine’ out of Unity and onto the modern .NET 9 runtime, which is said to have dramatically improved framerate, reduced hitching, and sped up startup and loading times.
According to the app’s latest update on Steam, Resonite is essentially shifting toward a fully independent engine, enabling deeper optimizations like multi-threading, variable rate updates, and potentially replacing Unity’s renderer entirely at some point in the future.
Beyond raw performance, the update introduces a host of bug fixes, as well as a new Help Tab in the dashboard to ease onboarding, although that really only touches on some of what’s keeping Resonite squarely in its current niche.
Besides being a PC-only social platform, the app can be intimidating for users not used to the sort of depth its in-world tools can bring, notably its ‘ProtoFlux’ visual scripting tool, or its ability to import assets from third-party creation tools. In short, the truly amazing things you see still require an advanced skill level to create, which is ameliorated somewhat by the fact Resonite encourages social creation, and not just solo, offline tinkering.
It’s difficult to say whether Resonite will ever truly be able to scale to the size of its main competitors one day, such as VRChat or Rec Room. It’s a different animal, albeit one with a core foundation of hardcore maker types and contributors via the app’s Patreon. As it is, the app’s Patreon is bringing its creators over $11,000 per month—a testament to the community’s commitment to keep Resonite their social platform of choice.
You can find Resonite over on Steam for free. Hardcore users looking for more storage space for their avatars, items, assets and worlds can opt for paid tiers, ranging from $5 to $75 per month.
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