Use Your Own Character in AI Host

AI Host can be hosted by your own 3D character instead of Max. You upload the file, Livecade finds the body and the mouth and gets it ready for your stream, and you check it in a live preview before you save. Then you give it a name, a voice and a personality, and the AI plays that character.

What you need

• A 3D character file: GLB, VRM or FBX, up to 60 MB, with a skeleton.
• The right to use it. Only upload a character you made, bought with a licence that allows streaming, or have permission to use.
• Pro to go on stream. On the free plan you can upload a character and see it talk in the preview. Your game preview and your stream show Ember until you have Pro.

You can keep up to 5 characters. Delete one to add another.

Supported files

Where to get a character

• Make one with VRoid Studio, for free. It saves VRM files, which come with a skeleton and a mouth that moves.
• Buy one with a licence that allows streaming, from a store like Booth or Sketchfab. Read the licence before you buy: some allow personal use only.
• No skeleton? Mixamo adds one to your model, free with an Adobe account. Download the result as FBX with skin and upload that file.

What works best

• A body with a head, two arms and two legs. Characters that stand on two legs work. Animals on four legs and objects do not yet.
• Standing, facing forward. If it comes in upside down or facing away, you can fix that in the review.
• A mouth that can move. A VRM's mouth shape or a jaw bone talks best. If the mouth is only painted on, Livecade makes a jaw for it. With no mouth at all, the head nods as it talks.
• Not too heavy. Livecade makes big files lighter for OBS and phones, but a file near the limits loads slower.

Step by step

1. In your dashboard, open AI Host settings. Under Look, choose the Upload your own tile.
2. Drop your file into the window, or click to choose it.
3. Tick I made this character, or I have permission to use it on my streams. You must tick it for every upload.
4. Click Upload. When the file has arrived, Livecade prepares it. This usually takes under half a minute. You can close the window: it carries on, and the tile shows when it is ready.
5. Check your character in the review (below), then fill in who it is.
6. Click Save. A new character becomes your look straight away if it can play.

The review

When your character is ready, the window shows it on a live stage, talking without sound. Next to it is a list of checks:

• A green tick is something that worked, like Body found or Mouth moves as it talks.
• An amber warning says what it means and what to do, like The mouth will not move.
• A grey dot is something Livecade did to the file, like Converted from FBX or Made lighter for OBS and phones.

Below the stage you can fix what looks wrong. Every fix shows on the stage, and your stream uses the same result.

Looks right?

For GLB and FBX files. VRM files say which way they face, so they do not need it.

• Flip upright turns a character that stands upside down.
• Turn around turns a character that shows its back.

Livecade prepares the character again from your original file. If it does not work, your character stays as it was.

Mouth

For GLB and FBX files. Pick how the mouth moves:

Camera

• Level looks at your character straight on. This is the default.
• From above looks down a little. It shows a face under a hat, a snout or a bill.

The whole body stays in view either way. You can still move and resize the host on your stream as before.

Motion

Pick how your character moves:

The file's own animations. For GLB and FBX files that come with animations. Each one Livecade can use is listed, and you can pick one for Idle and for each expression: Happy, Laugh, Surprised, Sad, Thinking, Wink, Smirk and Skeptical. Ours keeps Livecade's own motion for that slot.

• Picking an expression shows it on the stage.
• Idle needs an animation that loops. If the file has a standing one, Livecade picks it for you.
• An expression plays for up to 6 seconds, then the host goes back to talking or waiting.
• Talking always uses Livecade's gestures.
• An animation that walks or runs is held in place.
• With No body motion, the file's animations do not play.

Animations Livecade cannot use are listed under Not usable, each with the reason: one still pose or a T-pose, no body movement, too short to see, lying down or bending over, sitting, crouching or falling, or turning its back to the camera.

Who it is

• Name. Leave it empty and it is called Max. The host says its name, and answers a little sooner when viewers use it.
• Who is your character? Up to 500 characters on how it talks, what it loves and phrases it uses. Start from one of the buttons above the box and make it your own. The AI plays this character, but your stream's rules still come first.
• Voice. Pick one in the voice picker, the same one the other looks use.
• Background. Optional. Without one, your stream shows through behind the host.

A licence inside the file

A VRM file can carry its author's licence. If that licence limits how the character can be used, the review says This file's licence limits how it can be used and lists why:

• Only its author, or people they allow, may use it as an avatar.
• It may not be used to make money, and a stream that takes gifts does.
• It may not be changed, and Livecade makes its textures smaller for streaming.

The character goes on stream only after you tick I have the author's permission to stream this character and click Confirm. Until then its tile says Licence to confirm. If you made the character yourself, you are the author.

Edit or delete a character

Your characters show as tiles under Look, before the Upload your own tile. Pick one and click Edit to change its name, voice, personality, background, mouth or camera.

To use a different file, delete the character and upload the new file. When you delete a character, its file is removed from Livecade, and if your stream is showing it, Ember takes its place.

If your file is refused

These are the exact messages and what to do about each.

When a file is refused, the window shows the message and the steps to fix it. Click Upload another file to try again.

Rig it with Mixamo

1. Open Mixamo (free with an Adobe account) and upload your model: mixamo.com.
2. Place the markers on the chin, wrists, elbows, knees and groin, and let it rig the character.
3. Download it as FBX with skin, then upload that file to Livecade.

Other messages

Rights and takedown

• Upload only what you may use. That means a character you made, one you bought with a licence that allows streaming, or one you have permission to use. You confirm this at every upload, and Livecade keeps a record of it.
• Your character is yours alone. It plays only on your own streams. Livecade does not share the file or offer it to other creators.
• Reports. If someone reports that a character uses their work without permission, Livecade can remove it. It stops playing at once, Ember takes its place on your stream, and the character window says This character was removed from Livecade after a report. with the reason.
• If you think a removal is a mistake and you have the rights to use the character, you can send a counter-notice.
• Repeated reports can turn off uploading for an account.
• To report a character, see Copyright and reports.

For AI assistants

If you use an AI assistant to prepare your file, paste it this block.

Livecade AI Host: custom character file requirements

FILE
- One file: .glb (glTF 2.0 binary, everything embedded),
  .vrm (VRM 0.x or 1.0) or .fbx (binary).
- Not accepted: .gltf with separate files, .zip, .obj, .blend,
  ASCII FBX.
- Size: 1 KB to 60 MB.
- Compression: meshopt is fine. Refused: Draco mesh compression
  (KHR_draco_mesh_compression), KTX2 / Basis textures
  (KHR_texture_basisu), GPU instancing (EXT_mesh_gpu_instancing).
- Textures: PNG, JPEG or WebP, each side 8192 px or less, about
  134 million pixels in total. Resized to 1024 px for streaming.

DETAIL
- GLB or FBX: up to 150,000 triangles. Reduced for streaming,
  usually to 20,000 or fewer.
- VRM: up to 40,000 triangles, kept as they are.
- Structure limits: 10,000 nodes, 1,000 meshes, 4,000 primitives,
  256 materials, 256 textures, 128 images, 32 skins,
  2,048 joints per skin, 512 animations,
  512 morph targets per primitive, 16 scenes, node depth 256,
  scene JSON 8 MB, all data decoded 512 MB.

SKELETON
- Required: a skinned mesh with a skeleton. One character per file.
- Humanoid: hips, head, and on each side an upper arm, forearm and
  hand, plus two legs. The body is found from the skeleton's shape
  and checked against the bone names.
- Pose: standing upright, facing forward.
- A VRM's own humanoid bone map is used as it is.
- Recognised bone names (any case). Ignored: prefixes such as
  "mixamorig:", "mixamorig_", "ValveBiped.", "Bip01", "CC_Base_",
  "DEF-", and number endings like "_01". Side words: L, R, Left,
  Right (LeftArm, Arm_L, L UpperArm).
    hips:      Hips, Hip, Pelvis
    head:      Head
    neck:      Neck
    upper arm: UpperArm, UpArm, Arm
    forearm:   ForeArm, LowerArm, Elbow
    hand:      Hand
    upper leg: UpLeg, UpperLeg, Thigh, Leg
    lower leg: Leg (when an UpLeg exists), LowerLeg, Calf, Shin,
               Knee
    foot:      Foot, Ankle
- Mixamo names work as they are: mixamorig:Hips, mixamorig:Head,
  mixamorig:LeftArm, mixamorig:LeftForeArm, mixamorig:LeftHand,
  mixamorig:LeftUpLeg, mixamorig:LeftLeg, mixamorig:LeftFoot
  (and Right).

MOUTH
- VRM 1.0: the "aa" expression opens the mouth, "blink" closes
  the eyes.
- VRM 0.x: the blend shape groups with preset "a" and "blink".
- GLB / FBX: a jaw bone. Its name contains jaw, chin, mandible,
  lower lip or bottom lip, or starts with "mouth". It must be
  skinned to the lower face (20 vertices or more) and, turned,
  move the chin down at least 3 mm on a 1.7 m character.
- A name with "upper" or "top" is taken as the upper jaw.
- A bone with a plain name (Bone.012, Joint_5) under the head that
  opens part of the face can be picked by the creator in the
  review.
- Never used as the jaw: bones named for the eyes, brows, lashes,
  lids, glasses, hair, a hat, horns, the tongue or teeth.
- No jaw bone: a mouth painted on the texture gets a jaw made
  along it. With no mouth at all, the head nods as it talks.