@asimo3089 If you are trying to make sandstone I would recommend a reddish-beige.
1 Like
Can’t say I agree… Concrete used to be great for stuff like FNaF models (yes funny haha). Now it looks like rough plastic.
1 Like
As much as I was very hyped about this update, I pulled a copy of the game I work on into this beta build and oh boy… I really hope the old textures will be available at the same time as options for their versatility, and the terrain materials on parts are put as grey scale.
1 Like
Would the old materials still be compatible, because if the new materials fully replaced the old ones, some people’s creations wouldn’t look as good as it had with the old materials.
1 Like
The new materials aren’t that compatible compared to before which makes some stuff look funky.
Really quick: it is absolutely insane that Roblox can just destroy the aesthetic of existing games on the platform through pushing changes like this. This would be completely unacceptable in any other modern game engine and to be quite frank it makes me extremely uncomfortable as a developer. The fact that this is even happening when we do not have the tools to fix it ourselves is ridiculous as well (though I don’t think it should be on developers to fix something that wasn’t broken to begin with)!
In my game Bad Business, we have a ton of maps that largely depend on a mix between built-in materials and smooth terrain. The reason we use built-in materials so much is because it saves significantly on development costs; many of the live materials are ambiguous enough that they can be reused effectively in many different situations, something this update is looking to take away completely.
Here are some examples of before and after images, comparing the live version of our game to the beta build. Not a single existing map in Bad Business looks better with the new materials.
This is our map Runoff, which uses a lot of concrete to create an futuristic, industrial feeling. As you can see, our concrete slab texture immediately looks out of place with the new concrete, which brings up a huge complaint that these new materials drastically change the actual color of the bricks in-game. Again, it should not be the developer’s responsibility to fix something that wasn’t broken to begin with, but if this update were to get pushed in the state its in currently, we would have to spend time going through every map, making sure every one of our textures fits in because of the color changes. Not to mention the new coloring makes this map look extremely drab, which is something that was narrowly avoided originally through smart usages of lighter grays and green accents as well.
Here is our map Area 51, which utilizes a lot more smooth terrain than some of our other maps. As you can see, the smooth terrain materials almost seem lighter in comparison to their live counterparts, an opposite effect from the part materials. This mismatch provides really weird aesthetic inconsistencies between objects, basically smashing to pieces all the work we put into figuring out how to best match up parts and built-in materials with smooth terrain. But hey, at least that sand looks nicer!
Here’s another set of screenshots from that same map, this time in the tunnels. These are massive visual discrepancies and completely robs this area of the mood we were originally envisioning.
This map is Courtyard. This map uses a lot of grass, but because of gameplay factors we do not have the entire map filled with actual grass, so in the past we used leafy grass in order to achieve the desired effect of having patches of overgrown grass mixed in to a larger landscape. This is no longer viable at all - leafy grass now is a distinctly different texture to regular grass and will have to be completely repainted over. Our cobblestone pathways also no longer look like they are overgrown at all - instead they stick out a ton. We previously consciously used terrain smoothing to help add variety to the ground surface (that’s why we even chose to use smooth terrain for our maps in the first place actually) but now that also has been taken away from us.
Here’s a case where the ambiguity of previous materials, when used to our advantage, looked pretty alright in some situations, like using the grass material for tree leaves. Was this perfect? No. Does it look a whole lot worse now? Most definitely. This is exactly the situation where we wanted to save money by just using Roblox materials, and yet that doesn’t seem to be valid any longer. This also, yet again, shows that the new materials are completely different colors from before.
I feel like I could go on and on, because nearly every map in my game suddenly has to be changed drastically to fit the new style that Roblox sees fit for us, not what we see fit for us. This will cost us a lot of time and it will cost us a lot of money, and there is absolutely no good reason for it. If you want to empower us to make better looking games, give us the tools to do so if we want to, don’t force us into an aesthetic that doesn’t fit with what we’ve been developing for 2 years.
61 Likes
The area 51 “after” screenshot looks like it was textured using Deep Dream 
Huge agree though. I think visual updates should really strive to push similar colour grading as builds with styles developed over years of using the old materials. I get it, we’re like, at least 7-8 years on from the previous material iterations, but if materials are making everything darker there’s a huge issue with the art direction of whatever you’re trying to ship.
…And the old materials have horrendous colour grading to begin with!
7 Likes
The issues and improvements that are needed.
- The slate material needs some improvement. It’s too smooth and not rough enough compared to before and in real life.
- The grass material looks a bit rough sometimes, a bit similar to the og slate material.
- Some materials have pre defined colours and some are dark which can be annoying.
- On lowest graphics levels some materials barley look like the ones on the highest and the diamond plate on the lowest look like there isn’t even a material. I’ve made a post all about it.
- The plastic material looks strange and distorted on balls.
- It’ll look better if the lava cracks in the cracked lava had a neon glow.
- The materials make builds look a LOT darker. I also made a post about this.
- The wooden plank and brick materials have funky lines in them.
- The brick and pavement textures on terrain seem to have the same texture overlapped on each other the top one being a bit transparent
- You can notice it tiling kind of noticeably
- On lower settings (I tested it on lowest settings) you can see studs on the baseplate but on higher settings (I tested it on highest) you cant.
- Concrete material looks a bit too wet
And @RBLXImagineer Will this be optional? This is the most important question we need to know. The new materials have really ruined a lot of games because they were built around that look. People use grass for leaves and it looked fine. Now it looks terrible with it on. The materials look great dont get me wrong, it’s just games originally didn’t intended for hyper realism and built it around the art style ordinally provided.
Also will there be stylized materials? Having only realistic materials will make it harder for stylized games to look unique and not use smooth plastic. If there’s gonna be super realistic materials there has to be stylized materials at least.
9 Likes
Please consider adding all of the new materials to the current material listing without replacing any that already exist. Besides the damage that would be done by this replacement, some of the materials are so fundamentally different that they should just both be there to provide adequate options to developers.
10 Likes
Before a testable version of the materials was released, I was very hyped to see them come out. After seeing some of the before/after shared by some of my friends and seeing the maps that @ruddev_ethan has shared (especially the Area 51 map, holy smokes I want to cry), I am leaning towards learning substance painter and just using SurfaceAppearance but knowing how terribly optimized newly released Roblox features are, I am probably just going to drop the builder aspect of my portfolio…
10 Likes
my only hope is that this is simply a really early beta and some of the bigger problems we’ve been pointing out for the past 12 hours will be fixed upon public release.
but i’ve downloaded roblox github betas in the past and they were really polished and ironed out even in their earliest versions, so… 
not looking forward to how this goes down
4 Likes
I’m sure it is. It was just released 3 ago and it’s called V1 so I’m sure it’ll get fixed up.
3 Likes
What seems to be the biggest issue with these new materials is their lack of ambiguity. Roblox should definitely upgrade the look and feel of these materials, but not change it to the point where their niches and uses have completely shifted. A material like slate has always been used for its rough texture, but it cannot fulfill that same role with this smooth cobblestone look to it
10 Likes
I actually prefer the new material versions of most of your examples, but I agree with your general sentiment that the new materials should be more backwards compatible.
I suspect that you’ll be able to opt-out of the new material types - it’s of course not a long term solution, but could definitely help limit any possible damage until developers have time to adjust their games and Roblox has time to adjust their textures.
4 Likes
I don’t like seeing people quit stuff they might of liked so. Before that, try to make something based around these materials. A big reason why before and after pics made other materials look terrible is because games originally never were built around them which makes other stuff look funky. Some stuff are on the material. Concrete looks a bit worse because it looks too wet, and some materials have pre defined colours which ruined some stuff, and slate looks too smooth which ruined some stuff. If you run into issues like these, just wait until release or when it’s sorted out. Just give it a shot.
6 Likes
^ this, a million. I wouldn’t write off this update because it doesn’t look perfect on existing content - by that metric, dynamic lighting would be Roblox’s worst update ever since it ‘broke’ almost all games when it was first introduced back in the early 2010s.
As long as there’s a good transitional period, Roblox is willing to listen to the community for feedback, and developers have options, there’s no reason to worry.
6 Likes
I want to repeat the points I made in my previous post that this is not simply just a matter of new textures looking kinda meh on old games - these are massive aesthetic changes that Roblox is making for nearly every single game on the platform presumably (because there has been absolutely no mention of flipping it on and off from what I’ve seen, and I cannot think of a single time in the past that Roblox has done that aside from lighting settings and that’s just because phones turn into bombs when overworked).
The state of Roblox in 2010 was very different from how it is now. This isn’t a hobby that they are messing with any longer, this is my business and my livelihood. The idea that Roblox is still willing to go in and completely change the aesthetic of games while we do not have the proper tools for true, tileable, custom materials is ridiculous. The amount of work that will need to go into retrofitting these old maps is really, really stupid and the cost of that lands entirely on developers.
16 Likes
Okay. Here’s my opinion. I feel there’s still lots of work that needs to be done on lots of these, but there are a few I love.
Bricks: They’re fine, but make it so the color isn’t forced, because even when it’s white, it still has a red tint; also, it has a bit of a tiling issue.
Cobblestone: I don’t like the fact that it’s colored by default, I would like a solid color. Also, the specular texture doesn’t seem deep enough.
Concrete: Still suffers from the default color, a bit too shiny, needs a bit more depth.
Corroded Metal: If the rust is fleshed out to have a smoother transition with the metal, it would be good.
Diamond Plate: Good the way it is.
Fabric: Good the way it is. I love the ripple look to it when zooming out.
Foil: Good the way it is.
Forcefield: There’s no change. Good the way it is.
Glass: Good the way it is.
Granite: Suffers from the forced coloration, remove that and it’s perfect.
Grass: Suffers from forced coloration big time. The specular map doesn’t feel deep enough.
Ice: Good the way it is.
Marble: Suffers from the tiling effect, which may or may not be intentional. Other than that, it’s good.
Metal: Suffers forced coloration; other than that the speculars are PERFECT.
Neon: No change. It’s good.
Pebble: It feels like it’s lacking detail. It could use a few more pebbles thrown in there!
Plastic: It suffers weird stretching effects. Keep the original texture.
Slate: It doesn’t look rough enough. Try basing it off actual rough slate in real life. The whole point is the roughness. Better yet, separate the materials into slate and another stone type.
Sand: Not actually that bad. It looks good.
Smooth Plastic: The same, keep it.
Wood: Suffers a discoloration issue, but the texture is perfect.
Wood Planks: Suffers a forced discoloration issue. The texturing looks tiled, but other than those two it
looks good. Speculars check out.
Terrain Textures
Instead of going through all the individual textures, I’ll be focusing on the ones that need work, and the ones that are fine.
Need work:
Slate: Suffers the same issues as the part material.
Grass and Leafy Grass: Too flat of a texture.
Cobblestone: Too flat of a texture.
Bricks: Too flat of a texture.
Pavement: Just needs a texture overhaul in general.
Basalt: Looks too similar to rock.
Perfect the way they are:
Ice: Very shiny and pretty!
Glacier: Again, shiny and pretty!
Asphalt: Looks pretty dang realistic and good compared to the old one.
Sandstone: It basically looks like the old one but more detailed, I like it.
Cracked Lava: I like it, but the only thing you should do is make it actually have a Neon glow.
Salt: Looks like actual salt flats. I like it.
Sand: Could use a bit more lightening, but I do like it.
Mud: Looks nice and detailed!
Ground: Nice and detailed.
The biggest issue is forced coloration, that’s my biggest issue with it.
Good work to whoever made these textures, and feel free to reply with any other ideas may be good.
10 Likes
Good lord, man, you really told them. I actually could not have put it better myself. You’ve hit the nail on the head. Considering the popularity of your game, as well, I have huge respect for you speaking up about this so vocally. It’s helpful to everyone, and I appreciate that.
7 Likes
I totally agree with you. I just hope the forced base coloration doesn’t stay though. People will have to adjust there games to fit the style, but if we give them enough feedback, we can help reduce some of that. They still need to add custom materials though.
2 Likes