Add new terrain materials to Terrain Editor

Feature Requests Engine Features
#1

Most of you have played Roblox when voxel terrain was introduced for the very first time, it was blocky and fun to work within studio with different types of materials and structures such as Asphalt, Iron, and especially Gold! You could make bridges, generate the landscape, and especially stamping models, but today we are not here for more terrain tools, this is for newer and revamped version of terrain materials.

As a Roblox developer, it is currently impossible to bring in different type of materials into development while working with Terrain Editor to create something and especially open up a new world of customizing and generating a huge world with many materials to choose from instead of using the same old materials that we have had ever since smooth terrain was introduced to Roblox.

Off-topic about terrain:

Since PBR is coming into Roblox soon, I think it will change how the terrain will look from other players, and will it change how the terrain will look like in the future? Enough of that topic, I wonder if it is possible for us to create new material like a system and then use it while working on terrain, ok back to the topic. :eyes:

I don’t think PBR is going to affect terrain texture, correct me if I am wrong here.

We all know and love the terrain we have today, the grass on the grass material, realistic dunes and caves like the Grand Canyon, and especially many games that use terrains such as Jailbreak, Mad City, Dungeon Quest, and many more. For me, I was amazed at what I can do with terrain with new tools being added in Beta or release every couple of months and so on, but I was getting bored of using the same material over and over again and so I thought to myself: Hey, what if Roblox could add in old materials from the past and maybe new materials that I had in mind?

Below there will be the old materials and new materials that we have currently inside studio, I will also have a Key on what each color means below:

Old and New Terrain:

image
image990×705 389 KB

image

Key:
:red_circle: = Current material
:large_blue_circle: = Not in Roblox currently

Some materials that I had in mind and wish were added back were:

  • Gold
  • Mossy Rock
  • Plastic
  • Metal
  • Cinder Blocks
  • Asphalt/Gravel
  • Magma
  • Iron
  • Steel
  • Cement
  • Granite
  • Bark

It won’t be like blocky for most of them like maybe Gold, Mossy Rock, and Cinder Blocks that will be a blocky form like Brick and Wooden Planks that we have currently in studio.

If Roblox is able to maybe have the ability to upload our own terrain for materials and modify it, it would improve my development experience because it would make it much more easier to customize a whole world with new structures, colors, and materials to paint and add into the virtual world of Roblox.

For me, I think this is something I wish there was more materials to choose from or a way to upload your own terrain material and customize the color of it inside studio, but it is either add in new terrain materials with newer texture or to have a system in place where you can upload and paint in a certain terrain material onto studio which would be very nice to have for many developers.

So, what are your thoughts on this feature?

10 Likes
#2

As a terrain developer, I’ve experienced this problem. If I’m going to make a large, open world with multiple biomes, I have three options:

1- Choose a pre-existing material and change it’s color, and use that as a substitute. This is currently the only solution, and trust me, it is painful to use. Each terrain has it’s own “outline,” which severely limits its use, as the color may not match.

I’m currently making a canyon, and having to make the walls sand and leafygrass is painful. They’re the closest colors I can get to sandstone without an absurd green or blue or purple outline, and have an okay texture. But okay is not enough.

Why, may you ask, does the rock look like grass? Now you know why.

2- Option two is to have different colors for the same material. This currently isn’t a feature, but I’d like it to come into existence. (Feature request here.) While this would solve some problems, such as having dry and regular grass in one area, it doesn’t solve the fact that terrain will still have the disgusting outlines (rock has a purple outline, making it useless to color it something different.) Furthermore, there would still be a lack of terrain textures to choose from. The rock in one area is not like the other, and even if the color is different, the texture is the same. This brings me to point 3:

3- Upload your own textures, and add new terrain materials. This would be a game-changer. Problem one would be completely erased as there would be no need to use a sort of okay alternative, and Problem two would be quenched in that the outlines wouldn’t matter so much. Imagine if there was more vegetation terrain other than grass and leafygrass! Logs, gravel, mossy rock? Stupendous! Add them back. I know this is on the roadmap, to add more features to “decoration,” and I absolutely love that.

TL;DR: Roblox should add new terrain materials.

9 Likes