Introducing Step Forward Physics

[m0bsterlobster (mobsterlobster)]

[Update] September 11, 2024

@m0bsterlobster

Hi everyone,

I’m excited to announce that we have transitioned Pause Physics and Step Forward Physics out of Studio Beta! We appreciate all your feedback and support during the Studio beta.

Please note this will only affect the current Studio Ribbon, not the Next Gen Studio Ribbon (yet).

Thank you for your continued dedication and creativity!

Best,
M0bsterLobster

Hi all, we’re excited to release a new Step Forward Physics button, which enables you to step the simulation while physics is paused! Our hope is that this new functionality will enable more precise debugging workflows, addressing one of the top Creator pain points we’ve heard regarding the usability of our Physics Engine.

This functionality will be added to the existing Simulation Pause Studio Beta (which will now be called Simulation Pause and Step). This means that those who have already opted into this beta will see this feature automatically.

To enable this Studio beta, go to File > Beta Features > and enable Simulation Pause and Step.

Internally, this button calls the new workspace:StepPhysics API, stepping physics with an input timestep value of 1/60th of a second, or the time elapsed per world step. For more details, see our announcement on the StepPhysics API.

This button supports stepping either of the following, just like the new Pause and Resume Physics buttons:

1. Both the client and server (Step Forward Physics: All), or
2. Only the currently visible workspace (Step Forward Physics: Current)

See an example here:

As always, we encourage you to try out this new feature, explore its capabilities, and let us know what you think. If you have any questions, concerns, or requests, please let us know!

Best,
M0bsterLobster

[NegationPro]

This new Step Forward Physics button is definitely helpful for pinpointing issues. Being able to step the simulation incrementally makes it much easier to identify and troubleshoot specific problems in the game. Thanks for this great addition!

[coolcostupit]

Very amazing update, this can help a lot of developers at designing obbies or Parcours.

Additionally I have 1 question, I know it has been asked plenty of times in the previous post already (which was about the physics stepping api), will we be able to have control over this in localscripts as well sometime? This can be a great addition when creating special effects such as slow motion or speeding the simulation up (making it step faster than usual). Great update though!

[sheyler1j (sr_animaciones)]

Oh my God. This function is perfect, helping all developers a lot. Good job.

[completelyhazel (hazel)]

great, now pls make this feature usable by live games because we want to add time-stopping features to our games

[sheyler1j (sr_animaciones)]

literal. Can you imagine slow motion functions with this? It would be perfect.

[BIGHEAD_RIPOFF (BIGHEAD_RIPOFFWX)]

Would love this to be introduced in live games. Overall it’s a good feature.

[Fan_Len4ika1Tvink123 (0glzk)]

StepPhyiscs, StepForward. What next? StepBackward? (rewind would be much easier, pls pls and make them into live games)

[lordanpacioioiu]

This is one of the most useful features!

[PrestigeToken]

wow all of these new additions to the physics are amazing,
will definitely help with my workflow

[WillyEdison]

This is amazing!! This seems like it could be useful for debugging, and observing physics closely. Thank you Roblox for this new feature!

[smashbros122 (whiteroach)]

Usually I don’t comment on updates like this, but I can tell that this is an amazing update. Good job, I can see myself using this in the future.

[jabuszko98 (Jab98)]

Can’t see a use case yet, but definetly cool seeing the physics engine being more interactable with. I am really looking forward to more updates and configurability settings in the future.

[Baysights (Gaius Maecenas)]

Thats actually super cool and great for debugging physics issues

[PeZsmistic]

Moments before disaster…

Using this right now to debug this dumb bug exploding in the water.

[coolchristopher912_2]

i really thought this was gonna be a new physics update/upgrade

[LiamKyd (JohnWick)]

Is there a way to decrease the step increment?

nvm

[skyblox7862 (YourLocalNoob)]

Is roblox planning to add a function to slow down physics anytime soon? It would be cool if that is possible

[Azrellie (FxmboyStormie)]

This is a pretty cool feature that I may use often for earthquake and tornado damage simulations.
Also that top demo video is really amusing for some reason.