[Full Release] New Base Materials available in production

After discussions with the art team, it was reviewed as an intentional artistic choice, but we’ve received a lot of feedback about this one during the Studio Beta and on this thread again. We’ll review once more on our end and I’ll update with the decision from our Art Direction as soon as I have it.

4 Likes

It is normal! We author base material textures with a chosen tint color (so not white) and we look into giving them an intentional depth and complexity in the coloring. When we then apply what we call our “normalization” step to make the texture as white as possible, some of that coloring depth and complexity remains. Removing these shades would create some very bland looking materials when tinted, so this is an intentional trade-off we’re making to make base materials visually rich and interesting!

7 Likes

Is it possible for this “normalization” step to be published? It would be useful to create materials in the same style as the base materials that Roblox provides to keep the same style.

2 Likes

It would be really nice if the extra detail color could be disabled or a per-part basis, and for material variants to support said detail colors.

2 Likes

I think something to note - and this has likely been brought up multiple times in the past on other new material threads - is that Roblox developers prefer a lack of pre-baked color in base materials. It means the color they choose for their parts/objects always shows through, and for base materials that could be more ambiguous in what they look like, it allows a developer’s own artistic intent to show through in their world. Even if it seems “bland”, the blandness is part of what allows Roblox base materials to be such a Swiss army knife outside of their intended use cases.

On a positive note: loving the leather, cardboard, and rubber materials for my vehicle projects.

5 Likes

Very cool stuff. Are there any plans in the future for more base materials? Also, some kind of “official” and/or more easily browsable materialvariant selection system (sort of like how Fonts have a separate section in the Toolbox) would be very cool, especially since the current Toolbox navigation specifically for Materials is somewhat limiting

2 Likes

Is it safe to use it and publish it into game now? literally last time I used them it was being smooth plastic on roblox after publishing it

1 Like

I know these colored areas are supported by a mask where the part color is intentionally not applied on the material. I really wish we could separately tint the material within these areas so we could have e.g. green “rust” on copper pipes.

7 Likes

i mean, i dont really see that much of a point to this. if you are confused about what is what just use the search feature? or better yet, use the dropdown menu in the properties menu with the part selected so you are automatically shown the names of each one.

2 Likes

I was thinking it could be more like a texture pack like @PIayanad said and you could check the texture packs you want because not everybody needs a lot of textures and the dropdown menu would be really chaotic if there were over 100 materials.

3 Likes

ah, i thought you were talking about just the base materials and not ones added through material service, my bad

1 Like

Why instead of adding new features to the engine. You just need to bring free materials to the studio. Why not add the emission texture that the whole community is already asking for?

1 Like

Yes yes YES! Use the materials!! I want to make more, too!

4 Likes

Re: regarding tint/normalization

Thank you for the feedback! We try to find a balance, such that it allows our materials to still look like what they are meant to represent (for instance, if all the shingles were exactly the same tint with no shading, it could be hard to make out that these are indeed shingles), but we will keep this feedback and the “swiss-army knife” perspective in mind.

Your request makes sense, @PeZsmistic. The colored areas are not all supported by a mask and some materials have baked-in tints that will multiply by the object’s color, but I see the value of being able to customize the masked areas. I am tracking feedback about tint masking in general and will add your point. While it’s on our radar, unfortunately we don’t have plans to announce on this front for now.

We have tinkered with the idea, but we’re currently not planning to make material normalization public. I’m noting this request. Thank you!

4 Likes

The materials are available in production, so you can now publish them!

2 Likes

Quick update after re-assessment with our Art team. We will be modifying Roof Shingles to remove its tint masking which will significantly reduce this yellowing effect. I will post an update once the material is updated.

3 Likes

There definitely is an issue with the new materials and the new topbar FFlag

1 Like

We have updated the Roof Shingles material and removed its tint masking to significantly reduce the yellowing at the shingles’ edges. Please let us know if there are any other issues encountered with the new materials!

7 Likes

image
They look awesome now. :happy3:

3 Likes

Hi Creators!

Our new materials are now fully released and out of beta! Thanks to all who tested them while they were in beta and gave us feedback.

We also thank everyone for your feedback on the material system in general! Many of you mentioned interest in getting more base materials, more customization flexibility such as tint masking and material shaders. We don’t have plans to announce about these requests at this time, but we are keeping them on our radar! :pray:

4 Likes