A FREE Unity TOOL that turns VRChat AVATARS into VRM files became one of the most-shared avatar-creator posts of the week after developer cucumberworks (Cucumber Bomb) ANNOUNCED it on X on October 13. MoguLive and Mogura VR reported it as RELEASED that day. The developer’s own GitHub release history tells a LONGER STORY: the FIRST BETA went up on October 4, and SoulFlame VRM Exporter has shipped 17 BUILDS since. The two features that matter MOST to VTUBERS and Cluster users, VRM 0.x export and a DEDICATED Cluster path, are STILL in PRE-RELEASE.
What the Tool Does
VRChat avatars are built in Unity around VRChat’s own components and SHADERS, so they do not drop straight into the wider VRM ECOSYSTEM of VTubing apps, social platforms and web viewers. SoulFlame’s package listing says it “converts a VRChat avatar into a VRM 1.0 file” as it looks in PLAY MODE. In practice that means a creator can SWITCH OUTFITS and accessories through the VRChat menu, then EXPORT that exact look in ONE STEP.
According to the developer’s announcement and Mogura’s write-up, the exporter SUPPORTS Modular Avatar, the lilToon and Poiyomi shaders, and AUTOMATIC conversion of PhysBone hair and clothing physics into VRM SPRING BONES. Facial EXPRESSIONS can be tuned in a LIVE preview, and the FaceEmo expression tool is supported. Mogura adds that SpringBone sway was CHECKED in the avatar photo app FumiFumi. The tool is MIT-licensed, targets Unity 2022.3, and INSTALLS through the VRChat Creator Companion or ALCOM by adding the CucumberWorks repository URL.
That Japanese-language announcement had about 211,000 IMPRESSIONS, 4,144 likes, 4,453 BOOKMARKS and 680 reposts when Metaverse Watcher checked it on the evening of October 15. The fact that bookmarks OUTNUMBER likes suggests CREATORS are SAVING it to try later, not just reacting to it.
Seventeen Builds in Twelve Days
The release log shows how FAST the tool has moved. Version 0.1.0 landed on October 4. On October 7, FOUR releases added Poiyomi Toon 8.0 through 10.0 support and an interface in English, Japanese, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese. KOREAN followed on October 9. Version 0.6.0 on October 12 BUNDLED a PRIVATE copy of UniVRM 0.131.2, the VRM Consortium’s MIT-licensed Unity library, so installing the exporter no longer pulls in any other package. The developer says all 21 of its test exports came out BYTE-IDENTICAL to the previous build. Version 0.6.1, published later that day, is the CURRENT STABLE release.
The bigger changes sit in two BETAS. 0.6.2-beta.1 (October 14) adds a switch between Standard VRM, SoulFlame and Cluster outputs. It can WRITE VRM 0.x files for apps that read only the OLDER format, with VSeeFace named as the example. A Cluster mode fits avatars to that platform’s UPLOAD LIMITS and BLOCKS the export where it cannot. The same beta builds the 52 ARKit “Perfect Sync” face shapes from Unified Expressions or SRanipal blendshapes for apps such as Warudo, and the preview can follow an IPHONE live through iFacialMocap.
0.6.3-beta.1, published at 9:14 a.m. ET on October 15, goes after PHYSICS ACCURACY. Each PhysBone angle, hinge or polar limit is now written into the VRM 1.0 file’s VRMC_springBone_limit extension. The notes say apps built on UniVRM 0.129.4 or later will stop hair, ears and SKIRTS where VRChat does. Apps that IGNORE the extension, including three-vrm viewers, behave as BEFORE, and VRM 0.x files carry NO limits at all. The developer also says that before this beta, a HINGED skirt could swing up to 15 times as far as it does in VRChat.
The Caveats Creators Should Weigh
THREE points deserve CAUTION. First, the VRM 0.x, Cluster and ARKit features exist only in pre-release builds, which VCC and ALCOM HIDE until pre-release packages are turned on. Second, the exporter has CHANGED output in both betas, and the notes say exports differ from the previous build for avatars those fixes touch, so anyone UPDATING mid-project should RE-CHECK their files. Third, a technical conversion is not a LICENSE. Mogura reminds readers to check the TERMS of use published by each avatar’s creator before modifying or converting it, and many commercial VRChat bases are sold under terms that RESTRICT where they may be used.
The release notes also mention a “SoulFlame app” as a SEPARATE VRM viewer, but the repository does not describe it, and Metaverse Watcher found no PUBLIC product page for it. For now, the exporter is the part that is PUBLIC, FREE and DOCUMENTED. Its pace, roughly one build a day, makes it worth WATCHING as a bridge between VRChat’s walled avatar format and the OPEN VRM standard used across VTubing and other social platforms.
Sources: CucumberWorks VPM releases on GitHub, CucumberWorks VPM listing, Mogura VR (October 15), cucumberworks on X (October 13), and UniVRM.