Hello! Around 2022, Roblox migrated from avatar Packages to avatar Bundles. In the past, these Package assets would be displayed with default 2D clothing:
Because bundles extend from Roblox’s outfit system, they rendered the actual contents of those outfits without any default clothing. This resulted in all of Roblox’s old bundles suddenly appearing naked on the website:
Funny enough, this default 2D clothing is still rendered on body parts today, as its supposed to be:
So why is this a problem? Well, it brings me to the main derailing topic of discussion in this thread:
Modesty Layers are a well-intentioned, but flawed feature in Roblox’s arsenal of safety features.
In essence, Roblox requires avatar artists to put a black texture over private areas when an avatar is perceived to be a human-like individual who should not ever appear naked.
And to clarify, this is 100% fine and necessary!
It’s reasonable to expect etiquette like this for normal characters, when they don’t support 2D clothing.
HOWEVER...
There is a huge flaw in this policy. This modesty layer policy is enforced for bodies that support 2D clothing as well! That wouldn’t be a problem if say… the 2D clothing removed the modesty layer.
But… it doesn’t:
In essence, you are forced to wear black underwear on top of your clothes because Roblox can’t decide whether you’re naked or not.
Why is it okay to not have a modesty layer with 2D clothing support?
Well, as it happens… Roblox has a feature where if you aren’t wearing 2D clothing, they will automatically put 2D clothing onto your avatar to cover up nudity!
This can even be observed on the recently uploaded “Bold Animation Pack”:
Okay! So this issue has been happening ever since UGC bodies became a thing. It has been pointed out by dozens of people, and yet Roblox has still quadrupled down on moderating innocent UGC bodies. Why?
I see a few possibilities, and they are not mutually exclusive:
1. Legitimate confusion in moderation over whether these bodies are actually naked
Because of the 2D clothing not rendering on these bundles, moderators are just trying to enforce the policy based on what they are observing and what reports they are receiving, and it’s not unreasonable given the lack of context and information. If these characters were rendered with clothing, then it wouldn’t be a problem.
2. Some higher ups are grumpy?
This is speculation, but I reckon some higher ups at Roblox would prefer we all adopt hyper-realistic human avatars over the cartoony stylized avatars that we all grew up on and have a fondness for. They don’t want us to support 2D clothing period.
I hate to be cynical, but I feel like there’s some merit to this. I’ve heard the term “body paint” thrown down the grape vine, suggesting someone or some group of people with power at Roblox dislike(s) how primitive the system is. So they might deliberately be sabotaging support in favor of layered clothing.
Don’t get me wrong, layered clothing is great! But the accessibility and “filling in the gaps” simplicity of using 2D clothing has always had a charm that allows for much more creative expression with avatar bodies that support it. Instead of abandoning 2D clothing, maybe it should be expanded with higher resolution textures and PBR support? Just some random food for thought.
TL;DR?
Hey Roblox! I think this issue should be solved so legitimate non-malicious use cases of 2D clothing in new UGC bodies can be preserved.
It is infuriating to see super nice custom avatar bodies get moderated over perceived nudity when it is ENTIRELY FALSE and merely the result of Roblox neglecting to properly give necessary visual context. The excuse of people misusing 2D clothing UVs does not have any merit either, because you can do that even with modesty layers forced.
Stop arbitrarily limiting the creativity of your community, moderate things properly and concisely, and let safe creative expression thrive without any misunderstanding or confusion. Misuse of systems should be dealt with appropriately, but don’t punish people who are not doing anything wrong.
EDIT (6/12)
Some current thoughts I want to add given where everything currently is.
On one hand I’m super passionate about preserving Roblox’s identity and the aesthetics of retro avatars, but I also respect Roblox’s desire to push the medium forward. That said, I feel like the retro style has a future and should not be gatekept or discontinued. It’s incredibly frustrating how unwilling Roblox is to maintain support for one of their basic foundational avatar features.
The reason I’ve been so charged up about this situation is because I’ve felt mislead. I was fine with the direction Roblox was taking their avatar technology, under the condition they would give the UGC community free reign to upgrade the retro avatar and utilize that technology as they please. And I deemed 2D clothing to be within that scope.
This insistence on layered clothing makes it comically inefficient to have retro styled avatars. Now if you want to have a 2D clothing fit, you’ll have to manually assemble it as a layered clothing item. And if you want it to have the same topology or you want it to look like R6, or suddenly you want to change one of the colors… or even just want to swap the shirt/pants, too bad! Now you’ve gotta upload an entire new layered clothing item to get that. It’s expensive! Have fun!
It just boggles my mind to no end how anti-consumer this is. All of the 2D clothing you’ve collected over the years is now worthless on these shiny new avatar bodies.
I can personally get over it and move on, but seeing just how many of my adult friends still use 2D clothing in my friends list, and just how many Roblox users still actively use it? All of this modesty layer moderation bs combined with a lack of public communication from Roblox over what the hell they’re doing… I can’t see it as anything other than a hostile takeover of our personal customization.
