Camera Avatar Animation now enabled by default for new experiences

[Clasifex (Thariq_q)]

[Update] December 7, 2023

@Clasifex

Hi all, this has been re-enabled after resolving stability issues. We’ve also addressed the UI concerns about the camera toggle above the head. If you are not interested in this feature while testing in an local file, you can choose to close the self-view and it will remain closed in future sessions.

[Update] November 10, 2023

@Clasifex

Hi all, we’ve temporarily rolled back this change due to a related bug impacting Studio stability. We have identified a fix that is expected to roll out in the coming weeks. Thanks for your patience.

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Hi Creators,

Our vision is to allow people on Roblox to easily and naturally express themselves just like in real life. To achieve this, we want to make camera-based avatar animation a standard way that people can expect to express themselves across experiences, just like avatar emotes today.

In line with that vision, we have now made camera-based avatar animation enabled by default when you create a new experience!

Please note that this affects newly created experiences only. You can always opt-out if this feature is not well suited for your experience.

As a reminder, a user joining your camera-enabled experience will still have their camera OFF by default unless they directly choose and consent to turn it on. When the Roblox client accesses your camera for this feature, your video is processed entirely on-device in real time and only used to detect your movements. No other information from the video feed is used and your video is never stored, shared with us, or accessible by Roblox or anyone else. Only the resulting inferred animation data from your movement is sent to the server and other players.

You can read more about facial animation privacy here.

If you opt-out or have any requests to improve this feature, please let us know by filling out this survey.

Thank you.

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FAQ

I don’t like the camera bubble above the user’s head. What are you doing to solve that?

• We are going to soon remove the camera bubble above users’ heads with the launch of the new Experience Controls, which is currently in Beta.

For users, why does Roblox ask for their consent to use their device camera?

• To animate their avatar, users will need to consent to provide Roblox with temporary device camera access. Roblox does not record or store any of the information that is captured from a user’s device camera. For more information, please review Roblox’s Facial Animation Privacy Notice.

Is any of the data stored when users enable their camera?

• No, we take your privacy seriously. When you use your camera to animate your avatar with your movement, animation keyframes created by this process are deleted in real-time after they have been used and cannot be shared. Video from your camera never leaves your device. Learn more here.

My account still doesn’t have access to Camera, when will I get access?

• We are still testing this feature so some small % of accounts still do not have access. Regardless of your account-level access, you should still be able to use the feature when testing in Studio. Thanks for your patience as we work to roll out and conclude the test in the coming months.

[iGottic]

99% of Roblox games are not trying to get a real life connection. Forcing this and creating headaches/friction is annoying; please make this opt-in, not opt-out!

Something Roblox is known for is fast creation and deployment – if anything, decisions like this take away from that. It’s not the end of the world, but it makes more of a difference as more minority-favoring features are forced to be opt-out, thus increasing initial build time by a tiny bit.

Cool feature though, just wish it was opt-in until it was more widely adopted. All well, it is what it is

[Varonex_0 (Varonex)]

I kind of agree with you assuming your perspective is true. But yet it is just a button to toggle. If you are making a game, you should tweak properties of the place first.

[Elttob (dphfox)]

I actually wonder what the data is for this. I suspect this is true for many experiences, but perhaps there is a long tail of smaller or less technical creators where this doesn’t apply.

I would be hesitant to extrapolate from the opinions of people on here, because truth is that, as many people as there are on here, perhaps we are an elite minority ourselves and we’re speaking over a bunch of people who aren’t here and who aren’t making what we are. We’re more technical users, remember. So I’m wary of mindless groupthink. Perhaps a staff member could drop in to explain what patterns they’re seeing that make this feature valuable.

This is not to say I disagree, btw. I would probably not turn this on for a fair few games I’ve made (mostly just because they use custom characters), but I’m just careful about assuming what other people think.

[iGottic]

Hm, fair enough. To my knowledge though (and this is just my eyes, not facts), devs don’t usually aim for that sort of experience. Something that is not used often enough should be opt-in because it just creates more friction for the majority.

[KarimFound (DarthKarim)]

Please do not launch the new experience controls or at least don’t increase the TopbarInset for PC devices.

[liqznaa (Nae)]

im not sure why we need this but its cool i guess i suppose?
maybe do not enable it by default and have it disabled? not many experiences are gonna use this feature anyways, whats the point? we can stay soulless, no problem, we have text bubble chats to save us [and dialogs]

[Elttob (dphfox)]

A lot of Roblox is based around social experiences. People often play with their friends, people often compete, chat is always pretty active, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if developers were looking for ways to further that aspect of their games, especially for platforms like mobile where text chat falls flat.

[iotalua]

great… forcing new games into having another useless feature that people don’t really use in general…
not everyone has a camera

but seriously, like @iGottic stated:

@iGottic

please make this opt-in, not opt-out!

if anyone has an actual reason to use facial animations other than dynamic heads pls show me

[HealthyKarl]

I think the option still exists to toggle it off.

It’s just enabled by default if you create a new experience.

There are different teams that work on different things. Maybe this one is not specialized for new idk, API stuff.

[Varonex_0 (Varonex)]

@Elttob is right saying we actually do not have the insight. These are just speculations.

And again, this is just a setting that you can toggle. It is just a little change that every dev can manipulate if it is not suitable for what they want to do does not fit that social aspect.

[OnceCrowned]

@iGottic

Forcing this and creating headaches/friction is such a bad call and is blind to the audience of the platform

bro its just facial animations. its not game changing, like voice chat (which is opt-in iirc). plus its kinda necessary for dynamic faces. if it truly bothers you that much, just opt out

[static2240 (DevStatic)]

What point in having Camera Animation enabled by default, if the feature itself, is supposed to function with Mircophone enabled?

That’s like watching a YouTube video of a guy talking but having audio on mute, and using subtitles only.

[SomeFedoraGuy (rusuRares)]

When are you unlocking IsMirrored??

[Reditect]

The inclusion of a survey is awesome; future products should include one.

An argument could be made that the replies to the post can serve as feedback, to which I agree. But, I still enjoy it being there. Maybe it could ask specific questions that wouldn’t fit in the announcement post itself.

[charliej4y (CharlieJ)]

its not really the update itself thats an issue, but the fact it sets a precedent that roblox can and is going to continue to shove updates like this in an opt out fashion, sure this is a small update, but eventually it could become a norm with things that impact how your “experience” works fundamentally.

[PlanckDEV]

man I thought Roblox was making it easier to animate cutscenes, just to find out its this virtual reality theyre trying to push out… Not only has the metaverse investment not been fruitful whatsoever, you are not accomodating all users, which is funny considering thats what this aims to achieve. Roblox should have various versions, which have different features. Over the years, I am sure as a corporation you can recognise all the features youve pushed which have destroyed games or made people abandon the platform? It’d be nice to get some responsibility but I suppose Im speaking to a brick wall here. All of you guys whor read this, moderators and Devs, if you truly are discontent with Roblox,why do you do nothing about it?

[OnceCrowned]

There’s realistically nothing developers can do about it. Roblox isn’t required to listen to their developers. In this case, this was opt out since roblox has been pushing dynamic faces in an attempt to innovate.

@charliej4y

become a norm with things that impact how your “experience” works fundamentally.

You and I both know that isn’t happening. Most of the latest game-changing features are opt-in. Roblox has a good track record with backwards compatibility (not counting fe, which was necessary)

[Dierythros]

Oh dear god, another awful decision that’s going to get the forum raided to hell and back again. How come I struggle finding a job but the suits with fancy degrees that make the worst decisions I’ve ever seen are making 6 figures?