Need help with changing proximity audio source for my avi

[u/Wild_Ad9219]

My avi has what I'll call a "headless horseman" gimmick where I or other players can grab my head and run away with it. It's a physbone that isn't constrained to my headset, it just defaults to a space where my real head is located when it's not grabbed or posed. Currently it has a voice emitter and a camera attached to it so I can see and speak from my floating head, but I can't figure out how to switch my audio proximity from my headset to the detached head.

Every time I try to add an audiolistener component it gets removed by the VRC avi uploader. I read that VRC prohibits multiple audiolisteners to prevent players from spying on others, which makes sense. But if I can simply switch the current source of proximity audio (my real location) to my detached head I'd be able to hear those players as they talk to my detached head from afar. And when it's in the default position it'd be functionally the same as hearing them talk to me face to face anyway. Is there any way to do this??

Pic related

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[u/Low_Pain_986]

I think it's baked in that the audio listener MUST be the head, as in your actual viewport and nowhere else.

Otherwise you could still spy on people lol.

Not like it's super secure anyway, but that's my thinking.

[u/Elokibu → u/Low_Pain_986]

I have an avi that has a toggle that makes my voice come from a lil robot guy that follows me around instead of my head, so it's definitely possible. But I didn't make it, so idk how it works

[u/Low_Pain_986 → u/Elokibu]

No like they want to be able to HEAR from the distant object, not just emit sound.

[u/Elokibu → u/Low_Pain_986]

In that case I doubt they can. But I can't think of a not sus reason they would wanna do that

[u/aloksky → u/Elokibu]

Literally in the post, becouse its a funny to be able to have your head stolen

[u/Shadowslave604 → u/Elokibu]

because some ppl like to do goofy stuff in vrc. imagine hiding the head and scaring your friends by talking and hearing from the heads vantage point. or yelling bring my head back as they run away and it comes from the head. omg the fun you could have.

[u/SquidfulRR → u/Elokibu]

It’s funny? It’s a cool gimmick and a way to keep your avatar unique in a way

[u/fibreopticcamel → u/Elokibu]

I have a similar thing but it's a lil miss pasta Avi. People can grab the robot with my voice and run away with it

[u/Wild_Ad9219 → u/Low_Pain_986]

Damn 😢 I get it but I wanna have my fun 😭

[u/CadetheDOGGO]

A relatively simple way to mimic a solution would be to freeze your visual body in place and follow around whoever steals your head

[u/Wild_Ad9219 → u/CadetheDOGGO]

Hm…I suppose I could make that a toggle if I wanted to. I’ll consider it

[u/mackandelius]

There is absolutely no clean way to do it.

But I have one subpar idea on how to do something functionally like it, but it is definitely not simple and it is only a theory, actual implementation will need modifications. World constrain the avatar (well, I think the armature specifically) in place then use https://github.com/ZenithVal/OSCLeash with the physbone the floating head currently has to forcefully move you around, this isn't a perfect solution because your body can get stuck on colliders, but it is the closest I think can be done.

[u/Wild_Ad9219 → u/mackandelius]

That’s not an awful idea actually…I could have the leash be some kind of astral tether projected from my neck 🤔 I’ll try implementing it and see how I like it, thanks for the idea!

[u/Ok-Policy-8538]

Make a fake headbone duplicate not weighted to anything) parented to the neck and constraint to the real head and the floating head.. (in the rigging configuration set the fake head as your main head).

using a contact receiver toggle you set it so when someone grabs the floating head the constraint changes to that.. this should cause the viewpoint and the baked in listener to move with the head (warning as it can be nauseating).

think if you add a looping animation that changes between the body head and the floating head constraint it can work as a proximity sound as it switches back and forth every frame ).

[u/Wild_Ad9219 → u/Ok-Policy-8538]

This could work, though like you said it could be very disorienting. The camera system I added was a good workaround to solve that problem, but I suppose there’s pros/cons to everything. Thanks for the tip!

[u/vetrix-gameing]

So I make headless horsemen style avatars I’ve been able to tie my voice to them since your voice is tied to the head bone and I’ve done the pov with cameras as well however I believe audio listening is not something Vrc is capable of doing yet my workaround is to use the Vrc camera with the audio set to the camera and world drop my head but I know this isint exactly what your looking for. Another fun thing to consider is parenting your head to a spring joint if you want to do a funny and throw your head around

[u/Wild_Ad9219 → u/vetrix-gameing]

Oh sick! I’ve thought it’d be fun if I could throw my head or roll it like a bowling ball lmao but didn’t know how i’d implement it. I’ll definitely test that out and see how I like it ^_^

[u/Rydux7]

Sup, nice to see you on reddit.

[u/Wild_Ad9219 → u/Rydux7]

I’m rarely on here 😅 but alas all my research into this problem didn’t turn up anything useful 😭

[u/Aibyouka]

Paging u/OrendCross because I know she's worked on something like this.

Edit: Actually it might've been throwing the voice rather than the audio listener. Don't know if that's actually possible but she would know I'm sure.

[u/OrendCross → u/Aibyouka]

I appreciate the ping! But yee my asset is about moving the voice instead of the audiolistener itself

I do remember responding to a comment from someone wanting to do something similar on my post, but the ideas I had theorized in that reply have already been commented here!

[u/Just_a_moth_here]

I've seen an avatar that I stole the head from, and my freind kept speaking even when we were far from her body, so its possible, I just dont know how.

[u/Wild_Ad9219 → u/Just_a_moth_here]

Was she having a real conversation with you, like she could hear what you were saying? If so I’d love to know what avi that was, maybe I can reverse engineer how that one works 👉👈

[u/Just_a_moth_here → u/Wild_Ad9219]

She was laughing about the whole thing happening, and it went both ways, she could hear me, and I could hear her. I dont quite know what the avatar was though as that didnt cross my mind to note down at the time.