VRoid Hub models and Desktop Mate

What VRoid Hub is

VRoid Hub is pixiv's hosting platform for VRM avatars. Creators upload models — often ones made in VRoid Studio — so others can view them in a 3D viewer, follow the creator, and in some cases use the model in connected applications.

It is best understood as a portfolio and distribution platform rather than a free asset library. Plenty of models on it exist purely to be looked at, and that is a deliberate choice by their authors, not an oversight.

Whether you can actually download a model

Downloading is per-model and opt-in. The uploader decides whether their model can be downloaded at all, and a large share of the catalog is view-only. If you do not see a download option on a model page, that is the answer — there is no workaround that is not simply taking a file its author chose not to give you.

Two further points surprise people regularly:

• You cannot re-open a Hub download in VRoid Studio. Hub distributes .vrm files; VRoid Studio edits .vroid project files. This applies even to your own model that you uploaded yourself — the round trip does not exist, so keep your project files.
• Some applications connect to Hub directly rather than through a downloaded file, using an account link. Desktop Mate is not one of them; anything you use with it has to be a local file.

Reading the conditions of use

Every VRM file carries licence metadata inside it, and VRoid Hub presents that metadata in a more readable form on the model page. The fields you should actually read before committing to a model:

• Personation / avatar use — whether you may use the character as your own avatar, or only the original author may.
• Commercial use — usually off by default. Relevant if you stream, monetise videos, or use the desktop in any paid context.
• Modification and redistribution — whether you may alter the model, and whether you may pass the file on. These are separate permissions and are frequently set differently.
• Credit — whether attribution is required and in what form.
• Violent / sexual expression — explicit flags some authors set, which constrain what you may depict with the model.

These conditions travel inside the file. Loading a model into Desktop Mate does not strip them, and a model being technically loadable says nothing about whether your intended use is permitted.

Using a downloaded model with Desktop Mate

Once you have a .vrm file you are permitted to use, the procedure is the same as for a model you made yourself, with the same caveat: Desktop Mate has no publisher-supported custom-model feature. Loading it means the community Custom Avatar Loader, whose repository has been archived since 4 December 2025 and which targets an older MelonLoader and .NET stack than the current app.

1. Confirm the model's terms allow the use you have in mind.
2. Check the VRM version. VRM 1.0 is what current tools produce and what current loader builds expect; an older 0.x file may need converting.
3. Store the file somewhere your Windows account can read without elevation, on a simple path with no unusual characters.
4. Follow the safe install checklist checklist, keeping a Steam file-verification path ready.
5. Test one model before adding a second. Two unknowns at once make failures impossible to attribute.

Where else models come from

VRoid Hub is not the only source, and the others have distinctly different permission cultures worth knowing about.

• Booth and other creator storefronts — often paid, usually with clearly written terms, frequently the highest quality. Read the product page's terms section, which is normally more specific than a VRM metadata flag.
• Nexus Mods — where most Desktop Mate character replacements circulate. Permissions are on the item's Permissions and credits tab and vary enormously; many authors explicitly prohibit re-uploading their file elsewhere. The mod catalog catalog on this site links to those original items rather than mirroring them.
• Make your own — the only route with no permission question at all. Covered in making your own VRM model.

Whatever the source, the rule that keeps you out of trouble is the same: if you cannot point at where the file came from and what its author said you may do with it, do not build a setup around it.

VRoid Hub models and Desktop Mate FAQ

Sources and verification

• VRoid Hub ↗
• VRoid Studio official site ↗
• VRM format specification and documentation ↗
• Custom Avatar Loader repository (archived 4 December 2025) ↗

Checked against the sources above on 2026-09-01. Desktop Mate, its DLC line-up, and community tooling all change; recheck the originals before acting on anything time-sensitive here.