Heisters | Using Terrain for Roads

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a solution I’ve developed for my game Heisters that reimagines how roads are built in Roblox — entirely using custom terrain materials and textures instead of traditional parts or meshes.

This solution allows roads to blend seamlessly with the environment, especially on hills, slopes, and uneven ground without the usual clipping or visual breaks you get from part-based roads. It also results in fewer individual parts for things like road lines, and makes better use of terrain that would usually just sit hidden underneath road parts.

Here’s a video demo showing the results in motion… you’ll see how clean the transitions are and how naturally the roads sit within the landscape.

HQ video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48ISyW89-oc

I haven’t really seen other games using terrain like this for their road systems, so I figured it might be helpful or inspiring to others here.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

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It looks really nice, but how’d you get the road lines?

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Road lines uses a singular part with a texture slapped on top for each segment — but fewer parts overall.

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Using terrain for roads is awesome! It’s very smooth and looks a lot better in my opinion! It’s definitely better in many ways than using parts for roads!

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This is brilliant. It kind of makes me want to try this.

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I’m probably just dumb here, but for the lines in the road, did you align them with anything? How did you get the road so perfectly out line that? (I’m sure I’m probably just not thinking right, but still.)

Either way, this is really impressive! Definitely bookmark-worthy!

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ok this is actually something that I am surprised no most game has done, it looks amazing considering the hills and stuff

Realized this was taken down at one point…?? Glad it’s back up because it’s an innovative idea and shows good work.

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Hi — thank you :upside_down_face: No tricks or sorcery here haha, just some precise work using the Archimedes plugin!

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It looks like much more than that. Archimedes is used for building with surface objects such as Parts; could you elaborate more on how you used Archimedes exactly here as I’m still a little confused — I’m sure that road is not made using parts (telling from this topic’s context).

Thank you for your kind words — appreciate it man! :heart:
I love that Roblox is becoming more and more advanced allowing us to innovate even further!

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Apologies if I’ve caused some confusion, parts are definitely used as a host for the road lines. The wording of the original post was supposed to suggest that individual parts for each road line, including the asphalt part underneath (aka the traditional method of doing roads) isn’t being used here. Instead, the terrain itself serves as the base, and only one transparent part per road segment is placed on top for the lines.

The road lines [that sit on transparent parts] are laid out (using archimedes) well before the terrain is generated. Hopefully this helps clear it up a bit — let me know if you’re still unsure!

Oh dang, I’d never have guessed — the road looked to me like it was also terrain-based, doesn’t look like parts at all. Dang I’m surprised. :open_mouth:

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Is it possible that you’d visualize your road lines process to get a clearer picture? I’m still confused upon reading this and I am trying to see if this can be the answer to my recent post.

How to create paths on uneven terrain?

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I really like that concept, could you provide us a example place of how you did it?

So far I have only seen the Roblox racing template implement this method, but honestly it’s very much worth it if your game can handle it