Update the Video Player Allowlist with more options for world developers
Eremite
We desperately need more options for hosting videos and audio for worlds.
Hosting audio and video allows world creators to shrink the size of their world's download by offloading big tutorial videos, BGM, etc to a 3rd party hosting service. The existing allow list is comprised almost entirely of expensive, niche, streaming-only, or user unfriendly websites.
To summarize the existing allowlist at https://creators.vrchat.com/worlds/udon/video-players/www-whitelist/ :
Akamai CDN - Expensive and not user friendly.
Facebook Video - This seemed good until the account I made for VRChat content got banned within 30 minutes for being a bot and requiring ID to continue.
Google Video - Doesn't exist. Hasn't since 2009? Not sure how this is on the list.
Hyperbeam - What even is this? Expensive either way.
MixCloud - Audio files only. Free option super limited, then becomes expensive.
NicoNico - Region locked. I was unable to view uploaded videos from the US.
Soundcloud - Audio only. Limited free tier, then paid.
Topaz Chat - Site doesn't exist anymore?
Twitch.tv - No way to upload without just streaming it to an account and then clipping the VOD.
VRCDN - Paid and pretty much just for live/DJs
Vimeo - Doesn't play Audio in VRC worlds. Video Only.
Youku - What even is this? Chinese netflix?
YouTube - DMCA takedown if you scratch your butt vaguely to the tune of Happy Birthday.
Discord CDN - Not documented, but allowed. The links expire after ~24-48 hours though.
This has created a system where most worlds making any attempt to do anything more interesting than "chill world with youtube player" is forced to rely on untrusted URLs. I've heard no end of complaints from other world creators when asking around about this situation. Furthermore, even if you have Untrusted URLs allowed, they still get blocked in some public worlds.
There are a plethora of other video hosting sites that would be useful for uploading to. To suggest a few:
* https://kick.com/ (for streaming)
It might also be useful to define what a "Trusted" domain actually is.
My understanding was that the trusted system was implemented to prevent URLs in worlds from leaking IP addresses to world creators hosting their own videos. (One of the allow-listed URLs is a VR Chat community project though)
If the goal is to only allow from heavily moderated platforms to prevent explicit material, nothing is stopping someone from uploading that content and posting a link before it is moderated. (The domains I linked are moderated as well at any rate)
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