SDK is either not working correctly, or is far too restrictive for quest uploads.
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~~Xenon~~
I've uploaded several avatars in the past that are more or less just lite versions of their PC counterparts, which admittedly made it a little unoptimized at times, but it was functional and wouldn't lag much on quest at all. It would take some effort, but I always managed to squeeze them below 10mb download limit (which by the way, in my honest opinion should be raised to 15-20mb), but now there's some new restrictions on the SDK (the uncompressed size and the texture memory) that, from my experience, makes it virtually impossible to upload an avatar to quest without the textures being compressed into something completely unrecognizable, even with the more optimized quest version of a given avatar.
I've tried everything that I can think of, compress textures, delete unnecessary assets, but none of it works. I barely even managed to squeeze it under the 10mb download limit and even then it still doesn't even work in-game with a "Security Checks Failed" prompt. I tried going back to older versions of the SDK without these new restrictions as a test, and it still fails these so called "Security Checks" (which by the way is vague and unhelpful as fuck) It doesn't help that the SDK doesn't update when you make a change, so its impossible to tell if a change helped or hindered the problem. The only way to force it to update is attempting an upload, which itself is now impossible with the inability to even try until the "critical issues" can be solved.
I've asked multiple people who have experience with avatars but they're completely stumped. My most recent attempt to upload and fix this issue slaps me in the face with a random extra mb out of nowhere putting it at 11mb which is outside the basic download size requirement, making the problem even worse.
Either the SDK is straight up broken with its measuring or other systems, or its too restrictive to do even basic avatars with a single accessory, a few material slots and no toggleble items such as clothing that were possible in older versions of the SDK. I don't feel like its much of an ask to raise the requirements for quest compatibility (especially as content on quest felt very limited WITHOUT these new requirements) as well as making general improvements on quest to support that increased liberty
Quest shouldn't have to be such a chore to make things on. Maybe instead of making dumb branches on iOS and android that no one asked for, you guys focus on the VR part of VRChat.
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needs more information
Hi ~~Xenon~~! Have you reducing resolution of your textures?
The most common cause for failed uploads are extremely large textures.
Here's an article that might help: https://www.poiyomi.com/blog/2022-10-17-texture-optimization#reducing-resolution
~~Xenon~~
Fax Unless there's some other system that I'm unaware of, I tried reducing the size of the textures to all the options available in unity, as well as trying different variations of crunch compression, (which to my understanding doesn't even work on quest to begin with) The main textures that have the most detail sit around 1-2k resolution, which in the past was more than sufficient.
As of writing this reply, some issues, such as the texture memory as well as the extra MB on the compressed download size has disappeared, which is incredibly confusing, and I suspect to be some kind of error on the SDK (which was more or less the whole reason I made this post, Is it a bug? or is it just unreasonably restrictive?).
There's a total of 7 material slots, which although is technically above the supposed maximum, is far less than a number of avatars I've seen on standalone. On my most recent attempt to upload (a few minutes before writing this) The uncompressed size is 47.43mb, which is far smaller than numerous quest avatars I've seen, but the new SDK denies me uploading it for that reason. I've already compressed all textures to a certain extent, the largest size is around 1024. while the smallest are around 256, I haven't reduced them any further for fear of losing details and the avatar textures turning into a blob of colors. I've also added crunch compression at 50 to all textures, but I haven't noticed any changes.
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~~Xenon~~: To clarify - is the SDK preventing you from uploading the avatar?
Or are you able to successfully upload the avatar, but VRChat shows you a "Security checks failed" message?
~~Xenon~~
Fax Both actually, when I first made this post, it disallowed an upload on the newer versions of the sdk, then allowed uploads on older ones but with the security checks issue. My most recent attempt is on 3.6.1, which was more or less the in between of what I tested, and it rejects the upload.