As a Roblox developer, it is currently impossible to apply HumanoidDescription instances to local characters/NPCs. Attempting to do so results in the following error:
Humanoid::ApplyDescription() can only be called by the backend server
If HumanoidDescription::ApplyDescription() could be called on the client, this would allow for developers to create local characters/NPCs with the desired appearance.
Specific use case:
I’m working on the results display for my game. There are two sections to the results display - the “Team results” section, which displays the results for the winning team and the player’s team, and a “Your results section”, which focuses on your avatar and displays your personal stats.
In the team results section, the winning team’s avatars are cloned and lined up side by side, so that they can run taunts and the likes (similar to Splatoon’s results section). I specifically clone the avatars to avoid avatars suddenly disappearing from the row because a player left/respawned.
I want to display the clones on the client so that only players that are currently viewing the results can see the avatars. It’d be pretty immersion-breaking to exit the UI, and see a clone of yourself still lined up with the rest of the team in the middle of the lobby (this is what would occur if the team’s avatar clones were on the server)!