As a Roblox developer, it is currently too hard to “truly” turn off all player controls.
The Problem
In order to remove ALL player controls, you must:
- Call PlayerModule:Disable() - to turn off movement controls
- Call StarterGuiService:SetCore(“ResetButtonCallback”, false) - to turn off resetting
- Toggle DevEnableMouseLock - to turn off “Shift Lock Switch”
- Turn off “AutoRotate” in a player’s humanoid - to turn off spinning if a player were to go in first person (but this may be undesired if you wish to move the player in a cutscene)
- Depending on the device, unbind (or use booleans) for various ContextActionService actions + listeners
Use Cases
Problem One - Not Knowing the Above
This will sound somewhat sarcastic, but I mean it genuinely. The first problem with disabling player controls is even knowing all of the above options exist and can be utilized.
Problem Two - Knowing the Above, It’s Still Tedious
Even if you know all of the options to turn off player controls, it’s still tedious. You have to tap into 4-5 different areas where player controls exist. This is neither streamlined nor straightforward. New developers must have one heck of a time.
Problem Three - Pcalls and Future-Proofing…
Even if you perform all of these tasks, there is no guarantee they will all succeed. Pcalling and retrying is the solution, but a player may be able to slightly move their character during those failed frame(s).
In addition, all of these workflows are rather scattered. It does not feel future-proof. If Roblox ever changes the default location for these control sources, your approach will be broken.
The Solution
Add a centralized spot for toggling player controls off (perhaps a single property on the Players instance?).
Having granular ways to toggle off player controls is greatly appreciated, but the way to turn OFF everything is incredibly hard to discover + is not user-friendly.
If this issue is addressed, it would improve my development experience because I will be able to more easily turn off player controls and have control over my experience.