VRChat Beta Is Now Open to Everyone

Tupper, picture posted by Spray and Pray.

Last Friday, VRChat team made an official announcement on their Discord server by stating that the VRChat Beta client is now available for download to everyone on Steam.

On May 25th, Tupper left a message in “Announcements” with a link to a brand new channel called “Open Beta Info” where he said, “In an effort to provide more opportunities to give feedback and test the usability and impact of new features, we have decided to open up our beta testing program into an Open Beta. ”

We’re reminding you that VRChat already had specific features in Beta this month, and users had to enter a secret code on Steam in order to access the Beta, but now it looks like the VRChat developers wanted to gather as many testers as possible before releasing another (sort of) big update. Also, but by the time this article gets published, the update should reach the main client, so you should be able to see your “favorites,” even if you’re not a tester.

On Friday, Tupper also added the following to his announcement, “As an important note, Open Beta testing will work a lot like new updates to VRChat: you will be unable to see users on the current Live release if you are in the Open Beta,” he said. “In other words, the Open Beta is meant primarily for testing and feedback, since you won't see users in the Live release when running around in the Open Beta client.”

Some people are using VRChat Beta to hide from crashers, and, as Trap said in the new “Open Beta Discussion” channel, “Beta can just become the Shadow Realm of VRChat.” However, Tupper stated in his response that the VRChat team will be actively discouraging use of the beta as a hangout.

It is known that the Open Beta doesn’t support the custom scripting system yet, but since PlayMaker support is most likely going to need more testing, we might get more information on that sooner or later.

Custom scripting is still going to bring a bunch of new bugs and glitches to the table, but as soon as it comes out, after what already seems like “nine years in development,” hopefully, it would have been worth the wait.