As a Roblox developer, it is currently impossible to distort the rendered output of an image to make unique effects in games.
By this, I mean something like the following:
Of course, there is distortion beyond this, such as using control points with radii or control lines that could be used to create custom distortions beyond this.
If Roblox is able to address this issue, it would improve my development experience because it would allow me to create a more immersive experience in games. For example it could be used in horror games for sanity, shooter or fps games for health / disorientation, and RPGs for teleportation.
I am aware post-processing is difficult to implement effectively, but it could greatly expand whats possible possible on the platform.
I would see this used to mimic the flame effect where heat meets air and it distorts light slightly, a lot of modern games use this feature for water distortion such as Source when you are submerged under water. I believe this effect can be done using Glass but it has it’s problems.
i was looking for this and of course, you can’t do it. not even a reply like “we aren’t doing it it’s too heavy on potatoes” (which i doubt, i played outlast on a laptop with integrated graphics with effects on medium and outlast uses the pincushion distortion a lot and sometimes literally bends the camera) or “yeah we’re gonna make this a feature sometime in the future idk when probably like 5 millennia from now”
If you’re in a pinch and desperately want a current solution, it’s not a perfect solution and it definitely has its drawbacks, but this is somewhat possible with current features. It’s utilising the Glass material which has an in-built refraction effect that you can combine with unique meshes and overlay on the camera.
This mesh is positioned and resized to be slightly in front of the camera’s NearZ clipping plane:
