2024 Year in Review: Buoyant Balloons, Fine-Tuned Audio, and More Grass!

[frecklesnspectacles]

Hi Creators!

2024 gave us Brat Summer, Moo Deng screaming, and celebrity lookalike contests — BUT, much more importantly, this year you all continued to raise the bar for developing on Roblox.

Per tradition, we’re highlighting some of your creations using our new features launched in 2024. From creating optimized city maps with Occlusion Culling to echoing caves using the Audio API, you used our tools in innovative ways that make Roblox unique. Let’s take a look!

Audio API

At the start of the year, we released our Audio API as a beta, and by fall launched it generally available in Studio. This API gives you more control over sound and voice chat to make experiences feel even more immersive. You showed us some cool use cases, like creating a speaker system and themed sound effects.

Creator: @Zomebody

Experience: Paint Punks FPS

“Using the new audio API, I created an in-world speaker system for maps in Paint Punks. One audio file is synchronously played in multiple locations at once. Using the roll-off curve editor, speakers are fine-tuned to only play their audio within a sensible area, creating an immersive feeling as if the players are really there.”

In Paint Punks, @Zomebody also used generalized shapecasts to program a feature that lets players place down power-ups in Paint Punks with high accuracy:

Previously it was difficult to write bulletproof code that would prevent players from clipping their power-ups inside walls, but generalized shapecasts made it easy to position power-ups into unobstructed areas.

Creator: @Intykat

Experience: On Tap 17+

In the experience On Tap 17+, the developers needed to fix an issue of hearing other players through walls, as the noise was too generally too loud. They used the Audio API to make people in other rooms sound muffled. They also added location-based effects like an echoey cave, and they created microphones to broadcast players’ voices from speakers. Overall, they saw an increase in retention and it helped the game feel more realistic.

Today’s Picks on Marketplace

Shopping can feel overwhelming, and sometimes you just need some inspiration. We launched Today’s Picks on Marketplace in June as a curated sort with items selected by a team of in-house editors.

Today’s Picks on Marketplace featured one of @WhoseTrade brand collaborations, in which he created items for Skibidi x INVIZ. This feature spread awareness of the collaboration, driving noticeable sales.

Check out more of his items here.

EditableMesh and EditableImage APIs

As we continue building towards our vision for in-experience co-creation, we enabled EditableMesh and EditableImage APIs to be published to experiences this year. EditableMesh gives you direct access to the vertices, faces and attributes of a given Mesh. EditableImage objects allow for the runtime creation and manipulation of images by giving you direct access to the underlying pixels of the image.

Creators: @ObscureScrumptor @GalacticLemons

Experience: Doodle Deals!

“By using EditableImages, we fixed the issue of having to create individual frames for every pixel placed and meshing it together when finished with a single ImageLabel pointing to the EditableImage. We entirely rewrote our experience’s scripts to take advantage of this feature, and to take performance into account to make drawing fun and stress-free.

This new feature encouraged a creativity spark within our community members, as we were also able to increase the canvas sizes, resulting in more art being shared within the Doodle Deal’s community. We also saw more players taking advantage of our “Draw Together” feature with the entire server drawing on a single canvas! From a development perspective, this new feature not only streamlined asset management for us but it also encourages our players to stay in game for longer due to the performance increase.”

@OutOfDinos implemented geometry slicing to break apart a donut and slice open a smiley face using EditableMesh, allowing for much more immersed VFX impacts and abilities in real time!

Occlusion Culling

We also released Occlusion Culling, which improves FPS by not drawing objects hidden behind other objects. This can be great for dense scenes like interiors and cityscapes .

Creator: @Lyzzz520

Experience: NewSmith🏠 RP

“We’re making a role-playing game, which involves a large scene, so we need to optimize the performance of the scene more. Occlusion culling perfectly solved our problem. And we can customize clothing for sale in our clothing store, it’s really a win-win situation!”

Creator: @EinMarek

Experience: Cookies

“Our game contains heavy maps using many parts & textures. By using occlusion culling, we were able to drastically optimize the maps. We updated them to include more walls and blocking objects so the player can’t look at the whole map while normally playing.”

Material Generator

Generating a brick wall or wood floor shouldn’t feel like a hassle. We fully released Material Generator so that with just a text prompt you can create a new pattern almost instantly.

@MrPiglr (Lone Star Studio) used Material Generator to create custom textures for the carpets and walls in his upcoming game, Lone Star Bar.

@DanBuildsTrains made custom grass materials using both Material Generator and Grass Length for their experience Rail Sim Universe.

… and MORE grass!

ICYMI (which, if you did, are you living under a patch of grass?), GrassLength is fully released for anyone to publish custom grass length.

Creator: @TAYFUN7

Experience: TPS: Street Soccer

“I created realistic grass for my soccer experience, delivering superior quality that surpasses traditional textures.”

SurfaceAppearance Tinting

With SurfaceAppearance Tinting fully released this year, you can multiply a Color property with your SurfaceAppearance’s ColorMap to create color variations.

@ThatSinisterPumpkin created a sinister castle for a showcase and used SurfaceAppearance Tinting to easily make changes to foliage like the trees and shrubs without having to re-import new textures constantly.

Aerodynamics

Your players can try defying gravity with Aerodynamics now available in experiences . From realistic weather to flight simulations, you can take your players to new heights.

Creator: @Tyrosaur

Experience: Balloon Buddies🎈[+2 Player Obby]

“Aerodynamics seemed like a no-brainer to use with our core gameplay utilizing Balloons with Buoyancy. I turned on the Aerodynamics feature, added a VectorForce on the Balloon BasePart that moved the Force’s Y Value slightly above the gravity multiplied by assembly mass weight (Workspace.Gravity * BasePart.AssemblyMass) to achieve the desired Balloon Buoyancy. I’ve seen more realistic behaviour in our Balloons, which has allowed us to create unique and fun dynamics with our Balloon Obby.”

Native Code Generation and New Type Solver

To further improve code performance this year, we made Luau Native Code Generation available on Roblox servers and in Roblox Studio. We also introduced the beta for Luau’s New Type Solver, providing early access to upcoming type systems features and improvements.

@TenebrisNoctua used both features to enhance their Studio plugin Class++. With Native Code Generation, TenebrisNoctua saw significant performance improvements in the module. And by using the New Type Solver beta, there was a significant drop in total amount of time spent from 16µs to 6-8µs, as seen in the before and after image:

Thumbnail Personalization

Roblox experiences got more personal with our new thumbnail personalization feature, allowing you to show the most relevant thumbnail to each user on Home.

@Adudu21 used thumbnail personalization for Push a Friend! and created four different thumbnails for various audiences. This led to more impressions, higher qPTR and increased revenue.

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These of course aren’t the only achievements of this year, so a round of applause for everyone here who expresses themselves through creating on Roblox! We can’t wait to see what next year brings !! And ICYMI, check out our Creator Roadmap 2024: End of Year Recap!

See you in 2025,
frecklesnspectacles

[awry_y (Charlotte)]

Great features! Now, if you don’t mind, when will we be getting a better rendering pipe line and improvements for gui designing? And vfx too! I can’t wait for reversed particle emitters.

[FroDev1002 (FroDev)]

I didnt know the half of these even existed lol, but they look great! Im gonna have a fun time goofing around with editable meshes!

Thanks for your hard work bringing us these updates~
~ Frodev / some weirdo on the internet

[Stjoin1 (Stjoin)]

Best year for Roblox! So many incredible updates, it feels like everyday a new cool update gets announced!

Keep up the work in 2025!

[bvetterdays (roman)]

Great year with equally great updates, and I can tell a huge amount of effort has gone into making this announcement. Well done & happy holidays to the team

[TAYFUN7]

Thanks for adding our project!

[pinker_stinker69]

Can you please explain where your grass is? I don’t see it. I thought this was about long grass.
Or did you use it to remove the grass? In that case, congratulations. You made a texture.

[slav4335 (slav)]

now we just need particles to have optional collision because i am losing my mind trying to calculate trajectories

[TAYFUN7]

Yes of course! To understand the whole system, you should research “reflection mapping vs texture.” I used Roblox’s Material Generator AI to create the realistic material. It allows you to simulate reflections, bumps, or a metallic look (not to mention making it feel organic), which is far more advanced than just creating a texture.

[EinMarek (Marek)]

Thanks for including our game! A thing to note: The creation was made by @Nova_MrRoyal ,@herrluft7_0 and me.

[pinker_stinker69]

So this wasn’t about the long grass at all? I thought that was the entire point of that update. I’m confused.

@frecklesnspectacles

… and MORE grass!

ICYMI (which, if you did, are you living under a patch of grass?), GrassLength is fully released for anyone to publish custom grass length.

//devforum-uploads.s3.dualstack.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/5X/8/d/4/a/8d4a43e2797ea9107c38908a80b58fd6489daee1.mp4

Creator: @TAYFUN7

Experience: TPS: Street Soccer

The material generator segment was before that.

[TAYFUN7]

It’s not really confusing actually. Both were fully released in 2024. The Material Generator and Grass Length are two different features. In my opinion, Grass Length is not very compatible with a soccer experience, even when set to a very short length (currently limited to 0.1, still too tall). If I wanted to showcase grass length, I would probably create a separate experience, but that’s not my intention.

[pinker_stinker69]

Your game is featured as the showcase for grass length. What are you talking about?

[TAYFUN7]

If you check under the Material Generator title, you’ll find my experience listed along with other experiences. Feel free to share your creations, as seeing your approach to Grass Length might be helpful to both you and others. Maybe you can get on the list and featured in the future. Happy creating!

Edit: I felt like I tried to explain myself to someone who couldn’t even communicate politely, acting with disrespect and rageful jealousy. Anyway, we’ll be focusing on more updates moving forward with the people who are creating positive contributions.

Edit 2: S/he is still trying to convince me I’m wrong in private messages, even I tried to explained all in here.

[pinker_stinker69]

No it’s not. It’s listed in “and More grass!”, which is for the GrassLength. That’s why I was confused.
Anyway, this explains it. It’s not actually even using it.

@frecklesnspectacles

… and MORE grass!

ICYMI (which, if you did, are you living under a patch of grass?), GrassLength is fully released for anyone to publish custom grass length.

//devforum-uploads.s3.dualstack.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/5X/8/d/4/a/8d4a43e2797ea9107c38908a80b58fd6489daee1.mp4

Creator: @TAYFUN7

Experience: TPS: Street Soccer

“I created realistic grass for my soccer experience, delivering superior quality that surpasses traditional textures.”

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Edit: I felt like I tried to explain myself to someone who couldn’t even communicate without ChatGPT and reading anything themself, acting with disrespect just because I asked a perfectly reasonable question.

Edit 2: S/he is still trying to ghost me in the DMs.

[atom1779 (Dash)]

@frecklesnspectacles

Today’s Picks on Marketplace featured one of @WhoseTrade brand collaborations, in which he created items for Skibidi x INVIZ.

Ah yes, the pinnacle of UGC

sigh

[ThatSinisterPumpkin]

Very happy to be featured this year!!

[ThatSinisterPumpkin]

& Congrats to everyone else, the stuff on here is awesome

[DevHelloBack]

I love the updates that make the game more optimized and increase FPS!