i mean this in the nicest way possible, but this isn’t worth anything more than 1 dollar
after testing the demo, and looking around for what alare can offer, its safe to say that its just a very laggy combination of particles and gui’s. the motion blur is nothing special, in fact you can get the same result from a free toolbox model. most of the effects are just particle emitters, billboard gui’s, and future lighting onto reflective custom pbr materials or metal. the only thing that i liked about the demo was the reflective floor, but yet that can easily be created by just adding a highlight and disabling it onto a part that has its transparency set between 5-10.
although i will still say that you did probably spend a good amount of time on creating the effects, selling this for 10-20 dollars feels very scummy considering how you can easily find tutorial on these exact effect on youtube for free, or a even better system for free on the dev forum itself.
I have told this to many, and after reading this, I just want to say that ROBLOX’s lighting engine is third rate - yes, but if you learn the ins and outs, you can easily make nice things. I mean no hate to this creator or engine, but I want to tell everyone reading this that all of this is easily achievable on your own/there are cheaper (or even free) resources like these. The point is to simply become proficient with what you have, instead of buying resources that do these simple things for you at outrageous prices.
i agree with you a lot, considering how roblox studio (or really any other game engine like unreal or unity) have all the developers skill come from practice and time.
i was able to recently create some nice volumetric lighting effects using particles and nothing else, and revisiting this topic now, paying anything more than $5 for this lighting system is a scam and a utter waste of money.
That looks great, nicely done. And while I won’t call it a ‘scam’, the place I checked seems to just be… future lighting.
So we have to pay 20 USD for… lighting you can already make? And your reasoning on why consumers should buy your product is pointless, I joined the test game and i’m running 25fps on a macbook, it’s so unoptimized and not worth the money.
I agree completely.
The bloom, depth of field, exposure control. The enhanced godrays too. All of it is never shown/listed for the purpose of listing.
Specular Reflections: A simple future lighting trick since it does not actually give reflections… just light glare on surfaces.
Lens Flare: many many billboardguis/particleemitters with lens flare pictures. they don’t look realistic and i think it’d be nicer if there was customizability.
Motion Blur: Minimal effect. exists for free on toolbox and everyone has discovered it by now.
Volumetric Lighting: Again, test place didn’t demonstrate, but from what I see it looks slightly cheap.
Global Illumination: I’d pass it as your run of the mill basic solution, but the title does it no justice. “powerful and affordable GI solution” when it just looks like objects emit their own color from a pointlight with no thought behind it… this should be a selling point for the engine, since I mean, it literally is the “Hardest” thing to implement by roblox standards.
I do not understand the price tag or specialties, and I tried asking the creator but got ignored.
Bro took minecraft shaders to roblox 
(its good, REALLY good)
Guys there is way better and more optimized alternative to this:
Bro, how are you comparing minecraft shaders to this? Minecraft shaders are way better. This looks ugly and everything looks like mirror for some reason.
you can make this in less than 5 hours by just putting beams all over your cameras frustum
its a good effort, and it is close enough to most of the shader pack settings i use
Oh ye i see. I only tested the demo place, i didn’t check the video. It kinda looks cool. Tho the performance isn’t that good.
here is the CONSUMER review for those who may stumble across this
errr little update i bought it (i will saywaste of money), and bleh. the tech is laggier than i expected and it seems to somehow throw off the good looks of any lighting you may have had. the gi likes to dance around and flicker on shadowmap (while not giving correct results) and the only other noteworthy metion is the volumetric light, which is only noteworthy because it isnt an incredibly annoying effect that smothers your screen (thank you blur, depthoffield and the other ppe). the “volume” is just a few circular dots on the light source. the gi also has a very small range.
aside from the notable features, the “lens flare” “enhanced bloom” “depth of field” “Motion blur” “enhanced god rays” yeah all that is just padding in OP’s message, and it actually tears apart the way ur game looks. to start, motion blur, and depth of field, are both buns. they blur your whole screen and just make everything look like you got pepper sprayed. the enhanced god rays (?) and lens flare (?) are unnoticable but they are fine.
i had to disable most of the aforementioned to even make it look normal. i DID test multiple times and diff conditions but overall it is just hard to setup if you aren’t the owner.
that brings me to my last point, editability and the god forsaken scripts. editing this is difficult as the settings are very bleak, only on/off, which is you’d expect more for about $15. this would be easy to pass up if the scripts were well organized and readable (which ok, i get it, the average consumer doesnt care about this) but this all spells something out to me.
a lot of these things (no accusations just assumptions) seem to be pulled from the toolbox. the GI and Volumetrics may be made but a lot of these seem to be adapted freemodel scripts, just added so the price can be marked up. Not to mention that some thigns are LITERALLY just using the base lighting objects (bloom, depth of field, sunrays, they all just use their base lighting obj)
My first impression of what i saw set the bar quite low and I blame myself not OP for buying this.
A good thing is that while performance is bad, (on shadowmap somehow), it still is technically real time so, full marks for that.
** I forgot to mention that after enabling volumetric lights the whole workspace became bright white, and was absolutely tearing my fps to shreds…
TLDR; don’t buy unless you’re willing to be let down or have deep pockets
hopefully 2.0 addresses some of these issues
here are some pictures i snapped (with an UNALTERED version of alare, nothing tweaked so “out of the box”)
- an honest review, no offense intended
Why do you promote features that are already implemented within Roblox?
Bloom, DepthOfField, and Sun Rays are already on Roblox. Also, creating motion blur is impossible for now within Roblox
alare looks better than this.
Alare isn’t inherently bad, just not what the owner sells it to be. It can produce decent effects sometimes but again, as mentioned in my message, for the price point, not very much.
alare just seems like its loaded with post processing effects. There are free solutions that are much better
I HEARD YOU. || Announcement
First and foremost, I want to apologize. Many of the concerns and criticisms raised about ALARE are valid and I take full responsibility for not addressing these issues sooner. Your feedback has been important in helping me recognize what needed improvement, and I appreciate your patience.
This post was originally made when ALARE was in its 1.0 stage. Since then, I’ve worked tirelessly to address the problems and shortcomings you’ve pointed out. By version 1.5, many of these issues had been fixed, and I am confident that ALARE 2.0 will resolve all of them.
Here’s what’s been improved so far:
- Godrays and other arbitrary, unnecessary features have been removed.
- Depth of Field has been completely reworked to be dynamic, adjusting based on distance and context.
- Global Illumination has been overhauled for better performance, delivering smooth and consistent framerates.
- A number of exciting upgrades are in progress, including:
- Screen-Space Reflections
- Enhanced Lens Flares
- Improved Volumetric Lighting
- Advanced Volumetric Fog
…and much more to come.
Addressing the Criticism
-
Toolbox Assets
I want to be transparent about the earlier versions of ALARE. Some features were implemented by a developer who has since left the project. They requested to remain uncredited, but I should have been more diligent in overseeing and ensuring the originality of every asset. I regret this oversight, and I assure you that moving forward, everything in ALARE is being built from the ground up with care and integrity. -
Pricing Concerns
I understand the frustration around pricing, and I don’t take your concerns lightly. Developing ALARE has been a labor-intensive process, especially doing it on top of my other project ATHENA as well, requiring significant time and effort. For context, other Roblox lighting plugins like VOLUMIKA cost $30–$50 USD and offer fewer features. ALARE’s goal has always been to provide a more accessible, feature-rich solution, and I am committed to making sure it delivers on that promise with ALARE 2.0.
A Better Future for ALARE
I fully acknowledge that ALARE’s earlier versions didn’t meet everyone’s expectations, and for that, I am truly sorry. I’ve learned a lot from your feedback, and it has driven me to create something better.
ALARE 2.0 is not just an update it’s a complete evolution. Every feature, every detail, and every aspect of the engine is being reimagined with your concerns in mind. I want you to know that I hear you, and I’m working hard to ensure that ALARE 2.0 exceeds your expectations.
Thank you for holding me accountable and for supporting this project. Your feedback is the reason ALARE is improving, and I’m incredibly grateful for your patience!
P.S if i missed anything, please let me know.
- lesser
How are you gonna do true screen space reflections. WIll it just be glass?
no. Viewport frames likely. we’ll try a few things