As a Roblox developer, it is currently too hard to edit small assets in larger maps.
Right now, when working with large maps, we have the entire map to work with, but no way to selectively edit a single asset without it being in the whole map. Lets take Roblox’s 2023 city template to highlight this problem.
Lets look at this building
If we currently want to edit the sides, we need to drag it out of its current location to edit the asset, which can result in the position being incorrect when we finish working with it. Instead, we should be able to open a seperate view window which is just this building to edit it without affecting it’s place in the overall workspace.
example of editing the single model in its own window (extremely primitive because viewports aren’t that good)
Another usecase for selective view models is for plugin tooling. With the release of editables, it really got to me that you somehow cant render adornments in ViewportFrames, I’m sure there’s a valid reason for this so that’s why I’m not suggesting it.
The reason ViewportFrames cant be used is because they are very low quality and have a part filter, and Studio can already support multiple DataModels, so it seems weird that we cant selectively render a chunk of the workspace in its own window.
Here’s a GIF showing how much detail is lost when we switch between the ViewportFrame and Workspace.
Obviously, I dont expect the lighting to be the same between both views, but I’m referring to the material quality and lack of anti-aliasing. This task should be able to be performed by the main renderer as it lives in its own full-size DockWidget.
If Roblox is able to address this issue, it would improve my development experience because it would be easier to edit single buildings or smaller props in a larger map such as a city, as well as allow plugins to create 3D asset editors without needing to worry about the game in the background.