I just tried to rotate a camera part so the front face would face the direction i needed it to face, but then realized i can’t even check what the front face is anymore. Yes i see there’s alternatives but none are as simple as clicking a button and the face being highlighted. I do believe this update was made for good reasons but I wish they could’ve at least addressed this issue first because now I need to figure out a way to find the front face of multiple parts efficiently…
3 Likes
To help alleviate the problem I addressed in my earlier post, I have created a plugin for the purpose of showing off part sides by mousing over them. https://www.roblox.com/library/5581257655/Surface-Highlight-Plugin
Preview Image
This should ideally assist users who relied on selecting one of the surface properties (e.g. FrontSurface) to find the direction of said surface. It is fully compatible with meshes and standard parts.
10 Likes
I have a pet game - which uses viewports, now i cannot use surface appearance to set the front surface?? How do i do such now.
Looks great! Is it going to be public, or just a demonstration/testing? (wasn’t at the time I commented)
1 Like
It says the plugin is not for sale
1 Like
Sounds like a fix for something that was already working…
1 Like
This type of thing, should be a default tool or setting on Roblox Studio it self.
2 Likes
You’ve definitely made some good points for a lot of people’s situations here, there’s just a few things I am iffy on for my own uses (I unfortunately need a plugin for a majority of cases).
I definitely agree that setting different surfaces isn’t too terrible for most situations, but, there are a lot of situations where some sort of CFrame usage would be required. For example, Wedge pieces, MesheParts, or Unions. Plus, I don’t want to end up changing a lot of surfaces or Transparency when I need stuff to be invisible when I finally want to release my game (even if its through a script, it kind of feels meh to do).
When I say there aren’t better alternatives, I more mean to say that there are certainly alternatives but, they’re roughly on the same level haha. And, the piece of move tool info is certainly true, but, still, it’s not really a great alternative since without being able to discern the Front from the Back otherwise, its not helping unfortunately.
I’ll definitely be writing a plugin to display certain faces, because, I think this is definitely the best alternative for now, and, its something that you can continue to rely on forever and ever if you really want to. I think my biggest annoyance with plugins is when I switch between studio installations. I never ever keep the plugins synced between all of my installs, because, it just takes so so long to do so. I have no idea if this is something on Roblox’s radar, but, that’s not too big of a deal imo.
My mistake. I could have sworn I put it on sale.
1 Like
I am going to take inspiration from a couple replies (notably @Zeezy2204’s reply here)
This looks the best in my opinion.
Basically, the plugin will highlight the Front, Right, and Up surfaces with their respective R/G/B colors. To indicate their “negative” directions, I’ll maybe use darker, slightly smaller arrows (in a way that it will be obvious from a distance).
It’ll simply have a toggle to turn it on and off (it’ll be on by default) and it will help you identify local faces of Models and BaseParts.
1 Like
Hiding the “surface” and “surface Inputs” tab if all of it is smooth isn’t a good idea to me.
I occasionally use these properties to determine a lookvector of a part, with it hidden I’ll need to convert all the parts to have some sort of different type of surface where it wouldn’t even be needed just to see where the lookvector of that specific part is.
This is highly annoying and consumes a lot of time just to get that up.
I would prefer it if these properties remained to be shown despite all the surfaces being smooth, there are more uses to these properties other than just surface adjustments.
needing to write a plugin for this isn’t something I got time for now and I do not want to rely on 3rd party plugins which could be dodgy considering the toolbox in it’s current state, which should be understandable.
7 Likes
Well. I’d say it will be sad for some of us, good for others, some won’t care about it, but hey, as long as there’s an alternative way to get what we want i think it’s all fine.
3 Likes
I used the surface tool a lot for cutscene and where the camera is facing. Welp is one solution, and that is to use decals.
Like many others have said here, I used the Surface section in Properties to tell which way a part was facing so I could make functional cameras, interactive objects, etc. I think this was an oversight.
All the other ways to tell which way a part’s surfaces are facing are far more clunky than what we had before (I understand it wasn’t the intended use).
7 Likes
Horrible update 
How am I supposed to tell which surface is the front surface now??
2 Likes
You make a plugin to do it. Showing part orientation was obviously not the purpose of this feature in the first place, and doing this yourself is relatively trivial.
Here’s a plugin I wrote quickly to fill in the gap now that part surface types are finally on their way out.
I was annoyed at first that they were removing ability to easily to see part surfaces so I decided to try and make my own plugin. It currently features the ability to select faces and directional vectors for multiple parts simultaneously, and doesn’t require you to have them currently selected to show the faces and vectors (using locked selection).
4 Likes
I am disappointed in the surfaces tab being removed from the properties window. Whilst I can understand the removal of old surfaces such as hinges or motors, it is now annoying to set surfaces to Smooth or Studs by having to use the tool in the models tab. As well as this, it’s harder to see a specific face / direction of a part - although this isn’t exactly an elegant solution, it should’ve been considered when removing the tab and added as its own feature beforehand. Plus, developers following tutorial videos become confused when trying to find the tab in properties.
17 Likes
To add onto your point, I think I would be really helpful if there was a new “Show direction” option in Studio that displays the front, left, right, back, top and bottom sides of your model, part, mesh or whatever. This would remove the need for surface for this.
5 Likes
Great, now I can’t tell what direction a part is facing. Thanks, devs, got rid of something that people used for reasons you didn’t expect, and now we have a worse product as a result. Classic roblox.
I literally only used hinges as a way to find the front of a part (hint hint: important when building if you want to do cframe related things later on.) and that’s plfltlfltpt dead now. Judging by some replies I’m seeing, I’m not the only one. Seems out of touch to not add in a solution before removing something. But that’s just ROBLOX’s typical development method I guess.
9 Likes