New Terrain, and Parts, and Built-In Materials, Oh my!

Hello devs,

We are pleased to announce that we will be releasing the first major update to the built-in materials across Studio! These updates will take these materials to a new level of realism and fully utilize PBR from the ground up.

In addition to that, we’re happy to announce a list of materials we’re adding to the built-in library! Finally, we need your feedback and suggestions to help us extend the build-in materials even further, so please read this announcement and comment below!

When we started this project, we had several goals in mind:

  1. Strive for a high level of realism, using real world examples to drive our direction.
  2. Unify the appearance of similar parts and terrain materials, making them more compatible.
  3. Author for the most common uses for each material to maximize usefulness and uniqueness of each material.
  4. Improve the responsiveness of color shifting terrain and parts, giving you greater range of possibilities.

Each material has been reimagined from the ground up to look closer to its real-world counterpart. We also wanted to make the different materials more distinct, so users have plenty of options for their terrain and parts.

Material Examples

First, let’s talk about terrain! Terrain materials were very important to us because of how much they can root a game world when done properly. These updates will also go a long way to allow you the opportunity to more fully realize some biomes.

Second, let’s go over Parts (terrain can’t get all the love). Part materials are central to many games, whether or not they’re using the terrain, making a realistic game or a cartoony one. We wanted to update the part materials to both allow them to blend better with their terrain counterparts, and also give you broader visual range in the current built-in materials.

…Speaking of built-in materials, we also wanted to expand the current part materials to include ones that were previously exclusive to terrain. Now you can have snowballs, lava columns, and asphalt roads!

This is by no means the end of our expansion, so keep an eye out for opportunities to share your opinion on additional materials!

Material Naming

One small bit of house-cleaning we’re doing is renaming several of the existing materials. This way, the existing and new materials will have clearer relationships and a clearer connection to the real-world materials they’re based off of.

Changing this won’t affect the enums called for the particular materials. It simply changes the naming/representation in the material list.

Examples of this renaming are:

  • Pavers (Brick Pavers)
  • Rock (Gabbro Rock)
  • Foil (Aluminum Foil)
  • Diamond Plate (Diamond Plate Steel)
  • Metal (Scratched Aluminum)
  • Corroded Metal (Rusted Iron)
  • Fabric (Knitted Fabric)
  • Ground (Dirt Ground)
  • Grass (Wild Grass Ground)
  • Leafy Grass (Leafy Grass Ground)
  • Wood (Wood Grain)

Details of Beta Release

This material update will be part of an opt-in beta initially. You will have the option to turn it on in Studio and see their impact on your games. We will also take applications for whitelisting places so you can publish your game with the new materials for users to see!

Once we’ve gotten all your fantastic feedback, the updated materials will be applied across all games, including existing games.

This beta will contain the updated materials for terrain and parts, as well as 13 more part materials that were previously exclusive to terrain:

  • Asphalt
  • Basalt
  • Cracked Lava
  • Glacier
  • Ground
  • Leafy Grass
  • Limestone
  • Mud
  • Pavement
  • Rock
  • Salt
  • Sandstone
  • Snow

Material Expansion!

Lastly, we are pleased to announce we are working on expanding both terrain and part materials to include many more options. We want to empower our community to create what they envision with a more robust built-in library. Below is a list of the materials we’re looking to add:

  • Terrain/Part Materials
    • Thatch
    • Wood Bark (Pine)
    • Moss
    • Carpet
    • Tile Surface (ceramic)
    • Marshland (dense/sparse emergent)
    • Leafy Dirt Ground
    • Snowy Grass
    • Jungle Floor
    • Snowy Rock
    • Dried Leaf Ground
    • Gravel Ground
    • Plains Grass Ground
  • Part Only Materials
    • Stucco Plaster
    • Cardboard Paper
    • Painted Metal
    • Iron (refined)
    • Diamond
    • Fur (short hair)
    • Rubber
    • Full Grain Leather
    • Denim

Now, we want to hear from you!

What other materials you feel need to be added to the built-in library? What real-world materials are you missing? This can be terrain ideas, part materials, or both!

Our continued mission to power imagination is driven by what you need. So comment with materials/imagery you feel would unlock your creations, and we will consider adding them to future material releases!

2212 Likes

This topic was automatically opened after 13 minutes.

ARE YOU SERIOUS?

DAMN is this amazing! The new terrain looks so cool! I love how realistic we’ve come and the difference between terrain on the ground and vertical terrain- take the sand, for example. That is top-notch!

I am SO hyped for this. I LOVE the new terrain Roblox is trying out. Vegetation was so needed instead of just grass! As a terrain developer I can’t wait to see what I can make!

image

I would love to opt-in! IDs: 5862353130, 1758949784

This is INSANE! Props to Roblox staff!

417 Likes

Yes! A huge turnoff for me was that I couldn’t have lava parts. And I’m working on a project which requires snow for parts. Much thanks.

Oh @WoodReviewer !

Even if this isn’t the end, why aren’t these available for terrain? I was expecting with the terrain materials being available to parts that any new ones would be available to both. Would allow for more customization.

My big question here is: can we also expect the ability to make custom materials for terrain in the future?

140 Likes

This is so exciting! I’ve been waiting for new Roblox materials and terrain for quite a while, so this blows me away. Can’t wait to see what people create with these!

90 Likes

Lovely! As a terrain artist, I am very, very happy with this! I was actually going to make a feature request regarding this. This is so nice! Thank you to the team who did this!

Place ID:

6106310011

70 Likes

Hi, one question I have is in regards to the wood. It mentions that wood is being renamed to wood grain, and it mentions that the terrain materials are being ported to part materials, so does this mean there will now be three wooden materials that can be used on parts?

Also, if a new wood type is being added, can I have a comparison between all of the wood textures now since my main complaint with wood grain and wooden planks is how visibly different they are, despite being the same material.

406 Likes

This is one of the best additions to Roblox since I’ve been developing! This will make Roblox games look much cooler and more realistic, yet another step to better game creation on the platform. I cannot keep saying that this update is simply great for the platform. I have been waiting for something like this for a very long time, I am extremely excited to start using this feature! I will miss the original materials, but, these are much better! Roblox keeps getting closer to being as good as all the other game creation engines out there, which hopefully will begin to attract more people to the platform. I would absolutely like to opt in if possible! And a surprise – I couldn’t stop commenting about how amazing this is!

Is there a specified release date, a private beta or will this be available to the beta stream of Roblox Studio - I’m incredibly interested!

A suggestion I have would be the feature to paint color onto terrain with pout changing the entire terrain texture’s color. This could allow for painting road markings and such with these amazing new textures!

79 Likes

Amazing, roblox is getting on par with unreal engine!

90 Likes

This is one of the most coolest surprise updates. I love those new materials. They look really good. Good Job on this one Roblox :eyes:. I really want this to be added in Beta.

66 Likes

Are there plans to no longer have part only and terrain only materials?

I’m hoping for pratical materials to come with this as well like smooth, glass, neon, and forcefield instead of all materials being super realistic.

Having parameters on Forcefield materials (to change frequency and thickness) would also be great.

Will we have ways to fine-tune specular for these materials as well? (smooth plastic…)

86 Likes

This is incredible! Love the new materials and can’t wait to use them in my game. I’d like to have this enabled on my place, the game ID is 5998652803.

41 Likes

Congrats Roblox, gotta give it to you that this is one of the best updates! Keep the good work up! Can you add this to my game?

Also, in my opinion you should try adding reflective glass that actually reflects as a default material instead of the reflection setting to make it reflect the sky.

80 Likes

Amazing update! I cant wait to see how these textures affect roblox, and look forward to testing them out in some realistic builds in 2021! (Hopefully this doesnt affect the performance of lower end devices?)

48 Likes

I’m most happy about the standardization of textures across Baseparts and Terrain. That’s amazing and builds interfacing between the two will be much more frequent because of it.

Personally I would want to see more textures like Smooth Stone, Textiles like carpet, Kevlar, more organic materials, Cracked plastic, corkboard as well as a cartoonish wood texture.

62 Likes

Super excited with what I can do with this! It looks so realistic I had to think “Is this Roblox?”. I LOVE IT, CAN’T WAIT TO USE IT!!!

46 Likes

a- a… AMAZING
this is PERFECT, we 100% need this.

46 Likes

Finally Terrain gets a full revamp!!! Super amazing, but I have a question:

Are the old terrain/part materials staying the same? I don’t want some of my builds to change appearance…

Also, how do you opt-in?

51 Likes

This is great! I finally feel like I can’t think of very many more materials to add! Roblox always felt a bit limited in it’s materials. I cannot say I feel the same way about it now!


This one looks great ^

79 Likes

This update is going to be incredible and will greatly amplify the quality of so many of my builds. Can’t wait to communicate feedback once I get my hands on it

35 Likes