Ren'Py VAM What are the "must have" plugins/assets for VAM and how to strart creating proper renders with it (step-by-step)?

[Handyfff]

Hi, (an Absolute Virt-a-Mate Beginner Here and I want to make a comprehensive guide for myself and others who will in future try VAM and they should have a good guide because I think VAM is awesome but there's really no proper/total guide for becoming a VAM creator)

So, After launching Daz and realizing my pc isn't built for this, I went for VAM. I downloaded some looks and clothes and I thought okay now I need to create a scene, load assets, pose, light etc. like Daz and I will be making renders in no time haha!

Safe to say I had no idea what I was doing. I loaded a character and then a scene and had no clue what to do. I realized it's not that simple and I have to ask for help, so here I am asking you:

General question to creators: What do you do (in sequence) when you open VAM and want to make renders normally?

(1) What are the must have plugins for a creator? I mean for saving/loading scenes, Posing, Rendering (and how to use them)?

(2) Do I need to pose the characters myself (How?) or are there gender specific pose packs like Daz which can be used for every character?

(3) Clothing and Accessories? Can I change clothing on a character (How?) or is it fixed and I need both the nude and clothed version?

(4) How to create sex scenes properly, I mean posing characters and controlling genitalia (which plugins and how?) at the same time.

(5) Lighting? Of couse I need to ask this.

(6) Performance and FPS plugins and Tips/Tricks for an optimized experience?

(7) Something useful you want to tell me which I forgot to ask?


And finally asking again (with a bit of embezzlement):

IF you are a VAM Creator and you meet your past self bashing their head on the desk trying to figure VAM out, How would you guide them STEP-by-STEP from Opening VAM to creating renders?

 

[AllNatural939]

I don’t wanna be annoying (or maybe I do), but I’ve never used VAM, and the moment I saw this I immediately thought "YouTube tutorials". Took me like 8 seconds to open YouTube and 15 more to type... and there’s a ton of tutorials out there. That’s how all of us started, watching tutorials. Everyone in Blender went through the Donna tutorial, and everyone in DAZ watched Rauko’s stuff. There’s no better way to learn than digging in yourself... then once you’ve figured out the basics and want something extra, that’s when you start asking questions for real.
If you already fail at putting in a little effort from the start, you’re not gonna get anywhere... and that’s not just about VAM, that goes for everything in life.

 

[Handyfff]

I don’t wanna be annoying (or maybe I do), but I’ve never used VAM, and the moment I saw this I immediately thought "YouTube tutorials". Took me like 8 seconds to open YouTube and 15 more to type... and there’s a ton of tutorials out there. That’s how all of us started, watching tutorials. Everyone in Blender went through the Donna tutorial, and everyone in DAZ watched Rauko’s stuff. There’s no better way to learn than digging in yourself... then once you’ve figured out the basics and want something extra, that’s when you start asking questions for real.
If you already fail at putting in a little effort from the start, you’re not gonna get anywhere... and that’s not just about VAM, that goes for everything in life.

Thanks I watched them but they are way too basic that using them will waste time. I am looking for creators who use plugins/assets to effective ways and save time. Those tutorials are also for a single character and not really deal with heavy scenes with many people and assets.

 

[osanaiko]

Game Creators learn by doing, because as you have found there are basically no "advanced how-to" resources to get to the level needed.
Once they know how to create their own assets, very few of these creators are motivated to make training materials for others - its already more than enough work making the game! But maybe you'll be lucky and someone will drop in to answer... although there is another force working against you...

As far as I know there are very few games using VAM as the graphics source. So the pool of people who could answer your questions is much smaller than for DAZ or AI tools or even blender.

This "why don't more devs use VAM" phenomenon was discussed once before and I recall that one plausible explanation was that there are relatively few "non sex scene" assets available for VAM - basically the opposite of DAZ. So you could use someone random's characters and sex animations and make specific subset of the images you might want for your game, but it's much harder to make the in-between scenes (dialogues etc). I suppose there are some game types where only the sex scenes are needed...

 

[Handyfff]

Game Creators learn by doing. Very few of them are motivated to make training materials for others - its already more than enough work making the game!
Maybe you'll be lucky and someone will drop in to answer...

But as far as I know there are very few games using VAM as the graphics source. This phenomenon was discussed once before and I recall that one plausible explanation was that there are relatively few "non sex scene" assets available for VAM - basically the opposite of DAZ. So you could use someone random's characters and sex animations and make specific subset of the images you might want for your game, but it's much harder to make the in-between scenes (dialogues etc). I suppose there are some game types where only the sex scenes are needed...

Yes the nonsex assets are very limited but I am using characters dialogue on fixed backgrounds. The assets are okay for a porn game not preferrable to daz but people have made good games like In Her Service or Instinct Unleashed. Also it won't take more than a few minutes for someone to post here if they want to help.

 

[Kind Nightmares]

Hey!
Not sure if my advice will help much — I don’t claim to be a great VAM creator — but I can share a few things I learned the hard way. Maybe they’ll save you some trouble I went through.


1. Plugins I consider essential:

My biggest mistake when starting out was building futa characters on male base models. If your game focuses on futanari, like mine does, avoid that. There’s barely any decent clothing for male models, so I had to improvise a lot.

If futa content is what you’re aiming for, I highly recommend

You must be registered to see the links

. It works similarly to Dicktator or Futalicious in DAZ — basically adding a dick to a female character.

Must-have plugins I use:
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: Adds post-processing effects like background blur, vignette, etc.
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: A good alternative for Depth of Field if your FPS is suffering. A player of mine recommended it.
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: Essential if you’re on a low-end machine. I used this when I worked on my old laptop — it really helped.
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For eyelashes — some characters have pretty “bald” lashes, but you can find some decent ones on the Hub.

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is also super helpful for hiding or removing props and environment objects.

For sex scenes:

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: The essential tool for animations. Not going to explain it in depth here — there are plenty of tutorials online.
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: Does what it says — just assign it to a character and activate joint (I usually pick the dick base) and set the movement axis.
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: Helps line up penetration automatically. Great when starting out, but can conflict with other plugins and break things, so use with caution.
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/

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: For kiss and Handjob animations. I haven’t used them personally, but I hear they’re fine.
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: Makes character models smoother and less blocky. (Heads up: there’s a bug where it can black out the eyes after reloading a scene. Just disable, delete, and re-add the plugin — fixed it for me.)
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: Good for building scenes, though the preset pose library isn’t huge.
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: Nice for HJ animations, especially paired with Timeline. I’m not big on HJs personally, but it worked well for the one I did.
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: Super useful if your character’s dick is too big to fit anywhere it should. Read the plugin page carefully before using.
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: Lets the legs move naturally during sex instead of sticking in place. I still forget to enable it sometimes.
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: Helps fix hair that clips into the face during certain poses.
— And my personal favorite —

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. I only found this right before releasing Chapter 12, but it made my life so much easier. It adjusts the vagina/anal morphs to fit the dick size, smooths penetration, and adds stomach bulge instead of having the mesh clip through. Highly recommended.


That’s about it for plugins. Maybe I missed something, but you’ll figure it out as you dig deeper.


2. Posing:

You can pose using plugins or do it manually — depends on the pose and what you’re trying to build.
I recommend turning on all visible joints through Control & Joint Visibility, so you can find and activate the ones you need.



There are plenty of poses on the Hub, mostly for female characters, but I’m sure you can find some for male ones too. Or just build your own and save them.



3. Clothing and accessories:

Changing and removing clothes is easy. Unlike in DAZ, outfits adjust automatically to the body (including genitals, except for Alt-futa).
Just click the character → go to Clothing → Active → Remove. Actually it's the same with hair.


4. Sex scenes:

Everything depends on good posing and properly configured plugins.
You can download a couple of scenes from the Hub and check what they use.


5. Lighting:

Totally depends on your setup. Personally, I think VAM’s lighting isn’t great — but I’m no expert in this.
Use ForcePixel Lights instead of Auto.
On weaker machines, try using Spot lights with increased range — Point lights eat more resources.


6. FPS optimization:

If your FPS tanks, lower everything with GiveMeFPS while building your scene, then turn it up when you’re done.
Hair complexity can kill your FPS too — some hairstyles are crazy heavy.

My main advice:
Don’t download stuff you’re probably not going to use, even if it looks cool at first. Removing plugins and assets in VAM is a pain, and they take up a lot of disk space.
So only download something when you’re 100% sure you’ll actually need it for a scene.

I’m far from the most experienced creator out there, and plenty of people know way more than I do. But if even a little of what I said helps you — I’m happy I could contribute.