Future Is Bright: Phase 2.5 Released

Usually there is less light coming from bottom. But the default skybox has a bottom as bright as top. It’s a legacy thing that doesn’t work well with our new lighting. We plan to change the skybox in our templates.

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Oh ok, thanks for the explanation.

Edit: Just a quick question: will the default skybox for all games be changed or will it just be a new skybox for when you make a new game using a template?

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i changed the skybox, went from blue to white which is a bit better, still though, everything seems overly reflective and theres no control over it, i use non reflective or low reflective smooth plastic quite a lot, and matte metal.

I have a request, i love the metal so much on this update, my complaint is i would like to see a "smooth’’ metal, where the scratched up effect of the texture is not visible, a car guy would be rather annoyed that every inch of his candy red Ferrari is covered in marks.

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This is stunning! Roblox lighting is getting better and better all the time. When will 2.6 release, I am so excited for it?

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Material authoring is coming as mentioned in the Avatar evolution topic as well as this one, it’s a better idea for Roblox to focus on shipping that instead of adding a specific material for a niche use.

Here’s an example of an imported SurfaceAppearance that someone made, which would open the door further for cars which have more than one metal material as well such as chrome or matte bits.

They’re expected to ship this year according to this post from last December:

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Not so sure custom materials is a great idea. There’s a real thirst for better game mechanics over eye candy from what I’ve seen. The mobile devices, minecraft and Roblox have proven that. Large studios use crazy investments into visual fidelity to keep out smaller, more innovative shops that can’t compete in the visual fidelity weapons race.

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Custom materials are an amazing idea that has been wanted for years, there is no reason that they shouldn’t be added. Plus roblox already has a bunch of default materials, so the code to have materials is already there. There is no reason why we should be limited to only 22 materials.

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I get the idea and the desire. I’ve used custom PBR materials extensively in both Unreal and Unity (alongside custom shaders). I just don’t know if another Unreal / Unity is what people are looking for. SL tried going in that direction and there was zero interest.

I’ve talked with some younger folks who have steam and rock csgo/cod/etc like virtuoso. Yet they play Roblox these days. Why?

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agreed, robloxes still uses its ancient concepts of a “lego” like world as far as the visuals go, roblox is vary much cartoon like, this may be perfectly fine for some, however some would like to step it up a notch.

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I just hope we as game developers don’t get distracted with the eye candy. Compelling and creative game play that let’s folks fill in the visual gaps with their imagination makes a lot of sense I think.

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I don’t think they shouldn’t add custom materials, since you have a choice whether to use them or not, and some developers will choose not to, which I respect. But a lot of developers have been wanting it for a while.
I think custom materials is a good idea because it allows more depth in games, and eyecandy isn’t totally bad, as long as the game is fun and playable.

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Is this bug also the case for my post? Here is an image for what I am talking about, which when EnvironmentDiffuseScale is set to 0, is pitch black, but anything above and it starts to become visible.


I want to use EnvironmentDiffuseScale, but I can’t use it in my friend’s dark ride games if it is going to make areas that are supposed to be not visible(pitch black) become partially visible due to the light it brings.

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You could either raise the Ambient value to something like 80,80,80 or put in lights to brighten that space. Its most likely because your Ambient and OutdoorAmbient values are set at 0, which cause the room to get dark.

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I think you might have misheard me, I want it to be pitch black, however raising EnviromentDiffuseScale makes it partially visible, which I don’t want so riders cant see that they are transitioning between scenes.

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Use a dark or black skybox.

thirtychars

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They’ve already started development of custom material maps, mentioned at RDC last year (also you can test this feature out right now with one of the links in their avatar evolution beta announcement, if I recall correctly.) But I can definitely agree that a smooth metal material built into the engine would be pretty nice.

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I have a question, when I bring up the two scales, my place looks really blue, am I doing something wrong?

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This new lighting looks amazing, can’t wait for more updates related to it and custom textures!

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Amazing to see Destiny stuff on Roblox! :heart:

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