As a roblox developer it would be convenient to load a character only on the client using a Humanoid Description. This would allow you to create a more responsive client side character editor for example. In my case it would be useful because I use the player’s avatar with several pieces of clothing replacing their own, and I would like to create a selection menu that would reflect what they would look like with the new outfits through the usage of viewport frames. In this case it would require me to generate and store 18 R15 characters per player server side and then transmit these models to the client either through some other shared container. It would be more efficient if these could be generated on demand by the client, possibly even as part of a loading sequence with ReplicatedFirst.
You can just create a new HumanoidDescription and do your own code to apply it. As I did here.
Note this module, only deals with Spawning an NPC… which is essentially a character. It can spawn a character in less than 0.3 seconds… if I remember correctly… But it doesn’t handle large numbers well. And it doesn’t do anything more than that at the moment. Also doesn’t work with R6 Rigs… (It does, but there’s some caveats)
As far as loading any players Avatar… you can do so freely using the PlayersService… There’s a function that lets you get the HumanoidDescription from a PlayersID. You don’t really need a shared container for this. You may still need a local copy of a rig however.
As far as NPCs (This is what a local humanoid is) go… for applying a HumanoidDescription. I believe they said that it would be added shortly. (Don’t know how to quote).