Ming Light Controller
After reading this page, you will know what Ming Light Controller builds on your avatar and what it leaves alone, and you can pick the page to read next.
What Ming Light Controller is
Ming Light Controller (MLC) is a separately sold Unity add-on that builds the VRChat expression menu for avatars that use MingToon materials. Installing MLC does not replace the MingToon shader package.
MingToon itself never builds an expression menu, parameters, or FX layers on an avatar. For the wearer to turn lighting, shadow, and photo-look values inside VRChat, a menu has to expose those values, and MLC is what builds that menu.
Nothing is installed on the authored avatar
The notice at the top of the component inspector says it outright.
This component stores settings for this avatar only. It does not modify authored FX, menus, parameters, or materials; actual MLC setup is created only on a Play Mode or upload build clone.
In detail:
- The only thing attached to the avatar you are editing is one settings component.
- Menus, Expression Parameters, animation clips, and the FX controller are created on the disposable clone NDMF makes, and nowhere else.
- The NDMF Play Mode preview and the VRChat upload build share that same path.
- The authored avatar, its VRC descriptor, and its existing FX, menu, and parameter assets stay unchanged.
- On the finished clone, the settings component itself is removed as well.
- No generated folder is left behind. Called without an NDMF asset save path, MLC reports a diagnostic and fails instead of creating a folder.
Build with every MLC feature turned off and the build simply succeeds, with no runtime setup created and nothing attached.
What you need
| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| VRChat | VRChat Avatars SDK 3.x |
| Build pipeline | NDMF 1.x |
| Materials | MingToon materials on the target avatar |
| Attachment | One of Modular Avatar, VRCFury, or an empty VRC avatar descriptor (Direct) |
The VRCFury integration targets the public API of 1.1426.0 and later. Modular Avatar and VRCFury are optional, and MLC installs neither of them for you.
The install procedure is in Installation.
The default menu at a glance
Leave the default catalog as it is and the root menu has seven slots.
| Slot | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | Reset |
| 2 | Final Output |
| 3 | Hue / Saturation Color Wheel |
| 4 | Photo Looks |
| 5 | Virtual Light |
| 6 | Master Adjust |
| 7 | Performance |
The Virtual Light folder holds the light on/off toggle, Direction, Intensity, Follow Character, and Mode. The Performance folder holds Cast Shadows, Depth Effects, Outlines, Normal Maps, PBR / Reflections, the performance distance scale, and the Disable All and Enable All commands.
Default item names are shown in whichever language MLC is set to. Names you changed yourself stay as you typed them when the language changes.
A feature you leave out of the menu layout drops out of the compiled menu, and out of its parameter cost with it.
Where to go next
If this is your first time, Installation followed by Your First Menu takes you all the way to an upload. The rest are pages to look up when you need them.
| Page | When to read it |
|---|---|
| Installation | Putting MLC into a project for the first time |
| Your First Menu | Adding the component and going through one upload |
| Component Inspector | Seeing what the inspector cards and the two windows each edit |
| Starting Presets | Deciding which of the five starting values to use |
| Menu Layout | Reordering folders and items, or registering a material group |
| Features and MingToon Properties | Checking which material value a menu item drives |
| Profiles and the Parameter Budget | Running short on synced bits or parameter entries |
| Photo Looks | Using or dropping the eight shooting items |
| Build and Upload | Checking the attachment method and what the build clone does |
| VRChat | Doing the final platform-limit check before uploading |
| Troubleshooting | A warning or error message came up |
| Patch notes | Looking at what changed in each version |
| Third-Party Credits and Licenses | Checking the credits of the packages MLC depends on |