Warudo is a 3D VTuber tracking solution. Wait, that's not quite right...

Warudo is a virtual streaming studio software. That's not it either...

Warudo is a visual coding environment for interactive streams. Close, but...

In its handbook, Warudo introduces itself as "an avatar animation software specifically designed for 3D Vtuber livestreaming", and while that is certainly true and its focus, do not be fooled to think that's all you can do with it. Warudo can, and has been, used to make videos, record mocap animations, make interactive 2D Vtuber content, used for 3D pets, and make truly innovative and fresh interactions between viewers and streamers beyond what the software itself has intended.

While Warudo can be used as your regular standard character tracker, while also providing some nifty pre-defined features like throwing props and ragdoll, where it really shines is both its blueprint system and mod support. No matter your level of tech expertise, you can make the software work for you.

Feeling confident in figuring stuff out by playing around with it? Blueprints give you a huge sandbox to discover interactions, like making your model react when they get hit by a thrown prop, or connecting a Twitch redeem so make your lighting change colors.

Less interested in having to fiddle with nodes and just want to get it going? While Warudo does have a bit of a learning curve, it offers not only a Onboarding Assistant that gets your model and tracking set up for you, it also features Workshop support to give you more things to plug into the software itself directly from within the editor, like extra props, environments, and loads of other functionalities. Still getting stuck or running into issues? There is a dedicated community found on Discord that loves to help newcomers and share their own setups and discoveries with each other.

More the deep dive tech type? Warudo features a Unity Modding SDK, which gives you near infinite opportunities to make truly unique and specialized features, like highly advanced models, reactive Props, animations and poses, or highly custom assets and nodes that plug directly into Warudo's interface, allowing you to transform Warudo into an even more advanced application. Thanks to the blueprint system it's trivial to have your mod "talk" to the rest of the features, creating emergent behaviours you might not even have thought of. Want to share your amazing creations? Workshop support has you covered, uploading your mod directly from inside the app in just a few clicks.

Warudo can be whatever you want it to be, and with a bit of dedication and effort you can bend it to your desire. I've been using Warudo for probably nearly a year now, having created countless mods and blueprints, taking the app to its absolute limits, breaking, iterating, and most importantly playing with it.

Don't get me wrong, while I absolutely gush about and love the software, it isn't bug free. With it being absolutely jam packed with features, issues with systems interacting with each other are bound to happen. Especially if you work with a whole stack of other apps, debugging can become a project in itself. That being said, Tiger, Warudo's main developer and the cute face decorating the banner, has been proactively squashing those bugs whenever they are identified, improving performance whenever it seems possible, and helping with the more esoteric problems some users run into where the community is unable to help otherwise.

I hope this software will be developed and improved for a long time, as I think it is truly something special. as of the time of writing this, there are still some areas that require a lot of attention to be truly great, like the SteamVR native tracking currently being fairly barebones, and some improvements to the Modding SDK. But even with these fairlt specific flaws, the overall package is, at least in my eyes, sheer unbeatable. Here is to another year of Warudo!

Lastly, some hints from me, as I see them often discussed:
- Warudo has a Handbook! You can google for it, and it will provide you with a huge amount of information about features, how to create blueprints, and even tons of code snippets if you want to jump into modding!
- Warudo will take around 2-3GB of RAM no matter what, as it reserves that space to allow for interactions to go smoothly within it. If you are stripped for performance, you can check the before mentioned Handbook for some performance tips, but know that Warudos minimum required specs do not take into consideration all the other stuff you might be running, like OBS and games.
- If you are concerned about not seeing any Updates since forever in the Steam News: Don't be. Warudo gets regular updates for both its regular and beta branch, but you will mostly just see them either on Twitter/X or Discord. Discord is also the best place to do bug reports, if you ever find one!