Hi Creators!
We are excited to announce that support for Emissive Masks have officially been released and is now available for published experiences across all clients!
You can now use the emissive properties on SurfaceAppearance, MaterialVariant, and TerrainDetail to create stunning, detailed glow effects in your games.
To learn more about Emissives, check out our previous post!
Emissive Masks are used in a variety of ways in this sample experience to get different glowing effects using SurfaceAppearance, MaterialVariant and TerrainDetail instances.
A Quick Note on Emissive Terminology
We wanted to provide some technical context on the emissive feature. To ensure the best performance and memory usage across all devices, the feature we shipped is built around Emissive Mask support, rather than full RGB Emissive Map support. This uses the exact pipeline as the current Neon material but gives you a lot more granular control with a mask and the new properties.
The key difference is that an Emissive Mask uses a single-channel grayscale texture to define only the intensity (how bright it glows). The color of the emission is derived primarily from your existing ColorMap (Diffuse texture) and can be further modulated using the EmissiveTint property on the material.
Heads up for PBR/Surface Appearance creators:
- If you happen to upload a standard 3-channel RGB texture and apply it directly to the EmissiveMaskContent property, please know that only the Red channel will be used to determine the glow intensity. This means the texture itself cannot be used to define multiple glow colors on a single material instance. (More details)
- If you import a model through the 3D importer and it contains a 3-channel RGB Emissive Map, the importer will automatically generate the correct Emissive Mask and modify the importer Color map to match the original intent. (This works in reverse for exporting as well) (More details)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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When will this be supported for UGC / Marketplace items?
- Emissive support for UGC items is planned for a later phase after the feature is stabilized in-experience. Until then, items with emissives will not pass validation.
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Will Emissive Masks cast actual light on the environment?
- It functions exactly like the Neon material—it produces a bloom/glow effect but does not currently act as a dynamic light source that casts light on surrounding geometry.
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Will Decals get Emissive support?
- We are working on getting Emissive Mask support for Decals but do not have a timeline to share at the moment. Please stay tuned for this
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Why is my emissive area dark/black or white/washed out?
- Emissive Masks are additive to the diffuse color. If your ColorMap is pure black (0,0,0), there is no color to “brighten.” To fix this, ensure the area on your ColorMap has at least some color value or use the
EmissiveTintproperty. - Conversely, If the
EmissiveStrengthis set too high, the color will “clip” into white due to the maximum dynamic range. Try lowering theEmissiveStrengthto fix this.
- Emissive Masks are additive to the diffuse color. If your ColorMap is pure black (0,0,0), there is no color to “brighten.” To fix this, ensure the area on your ColorMap has at least some color value or use the
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Can the strength and tint values be changed via script at runtime?
- Yes, EmissiveStrength and EmissiveTint can be modified via script at runtime to create dynamic effects. Take a look at the sample experience for examples.
We can’t wait to see what you build with this feature! As always, please provide any and all feedback so we can continue improving this feature. Happy creating!
Roblox Rendering Team
