I’ve never seen so much backlash for a quality update. It makes me sad more than anything.
3 Likes
Great update! but it is better to make 2 section like Materials V.1 or Materials V.2, so we could have a better choices on the materials. And also some users prefer the old materials, so i think making it to 2 sections would be a great idea.
( Theres an explanation of why there cant have 2 section of materials nvm ;-;
3 Likes
I wouldn’t consider it the best on how it was rolled out when 80% of games aren’t built for these new textures.
Adapting is a thing but it will cost a lot of performance issues with textures and we aren’t gonna spend time applying textures to every single part…
I think its easier if we have both versions for use so that there is more variety.
2 Likes
This makes me very excited! Cant wait to see new materials that really help bring out the depth in my 3D models!
1 Like
Its not about the quality of the textures, its about how it both steps right on people by forcing them to rebuild up to years of work in just 2 weeks and also how it doesn’t have any alternative to it
3 Likes
Custom Materials (Aka SurfaceAppearance) are currently in open beta. Perhaps use these instead of Textures.
How hard is SurfaceAppearance on performance compared to materials. Asking to carry this information onto a group I’m in that’s concerned about how to make the jump to the new textures
Those are only available for MeshParts, which is very inconvenient. Also, we dont want to put them in every single part nor convert everything to a mesh just for it.
2 Likes
MeshParts are used for more complicated geometry to be added into the game or experience, then again you might already know that.
In no way are MeshParts different from Parts in anyway. They just open the ability of imports of other 3D models to become a thing.
If you want to keep it looking like a part but with PBR materials, simply export a part as a obj, and import it back in as a mesh. It will still look like the part, only is now compatible with SurfaceAppearances.
Only real solution for you.
I personally cannot test this myself because I have a Beast computer… But if Textures and this is a thing, I would assume SurfaceAppearance is a better alternative. However, it is only available for MeshParts, which you could easily make a part out of one. Check my reply below to @estonice2
You can convert them to MeshParts, or simply download them here, and import them using the Asset Manager.
Part.obj (1.7 KB)
Sphere.obj (38.0 KB)
Wedge.obj (1.5 KB)
Cylinder.obj (10.1 KB)
Edit:
They still make your game too realistic.
Left = Surface Appearance
Middle = Regular material
Right = Texture
2 Likes
6 Likes
WARNING: take my following long post with a grain of salt because I am currently the whole salt shaker, and today has been a LONG day even before this new material hoo-ha.
I am disappointed and exhausted. I have been following this whole new materials thing for months now, testing the different builds, giving my honest opinions and feedback. A part of me was holding out hope that SURELY Roblox would actually listen to the overwhelming number of developers suggesting to allow some way to utilize the old materials and not just force these new ones down our throats! Apparently, I was giving this increasingly soulless corporation too much benefit of the doubt. I started to get a feeling this storm was coming when they wouldn’t or couldn’t comment on the release plans and concerns of devs before this point.
So now its my turn to add to this chaos. Take a seat pals its ranting at nearly 2am time!
So the game I have been working on for the past two years is not compatible with these materials. It was never designed to be compatible with them. Realism is simply not the style of the game and was never supposed to be. Both because of our limitations as a studio and as a passion project, and because my overwhelming mediocracy in the practice of texturing in blender. We utilize(d) the old materials in ways that they were not originally meant for much like a lot of devs here. Granite for jam in jars, grass for leaves, sand for fabrics and things we wanted to appear soft, slate for leather hides and rough looking objects like rocks and pots. You get the point. I have spent a good while now between all the various beta builds and this latest one trying to make these new materials work for us. They don’t, obviously, because our game was never built to utilize them.
Heres the fun part our game has over 80,000 parts to adjust and only a few types of items I have found can have their materials replaced with any in this build and still look decent / how they were intended to look. There are likely going to be over 150 items I am going to have to take, remake, and create custom textures for. Then I will have to spend hours on top of hours replacing the 20-30 THOUSAND instances of said items on the map. All in a new style that was never the vision I had for this game just to make everything blend with the new “realistic” vibe Roblox is shoving on us. This is really not an update I would consider to be “powering imagination” Roblox. I haven’t even started to consider what I’m going to do about the terrain materials that I don’t like.
This announcement couldn’t have come at a worse time for me as well. Today was already awful and testing my patience and ability to stay sane before this announcement. Hearing the tight time frame we have to adjust things and the supposed release time is going to fall right when we wanted to finally release this two year project we had in store, is like the icing on the dirt cake. We were getting ready to release our closed beta within the next 2-3 months maybe even sooner and now that’s just flat out not going to happen no matter what we do next.
Don’t get me wrong, the new materials will be great for showcases and games that are built for the style these materials cater too. I even like some of the new materials myself. Cracked lava on parts is cool, i’d use that for some interesting effects. Slate material for terrain is pretty nice now 9/10 would slap on the floor of a den. I would totally like to have the new wood and wood plank textures for things. Some materials still need work imo but yeah they aren’t all awful and some are honestly overall improvements. They just don’t fit every game and are way more restrictive now in use cases.
I just hate how all of this is being handled. I hate the fact that it feels like suggestions about ways they (being the roblox higher ups not the staff communicating with us) could better handle the release fell on deaf ears. I also hate how its likely that roblox staff who saw and read the communities feedback probably had barely any input or influence on how things are actually being handled.
I’m honestly probably going to quit developing my current projects until material service is released to save myself grief, and just plug in the legacy materials or make my own that fit what I want for the game. If that will even be a possibility.
So I guess all I got left to really say is:
Thanks Roblox very cool 
16 Likes
Can’t there simply be a set of material packages game developers can change in game settings (like R6, R15 and so on…) for the time being?
I don’t see the big problem with making that a feature, then again, I’m not a Roblox employee.
All I can say is that it was quite obvious you’d get negative feedback, no one likes to get their projects modified without their permission.
5 Likes
Okay, time to see these materials for myself.
Plastic: Same as old one, just a bit smoother. Surfaces are still supported and have not changed, that is a good thing for me.
Wood and wood planks: WoodReviewer says it has improved, and it looks good. Cool.
Slate: Oh god what did they do to this?
Concrete: Seems too smooth. eh.
Metal: Why is this so bright and reflective. Oh yeah, metals are lustrous. Still weird.
Corroded metal: The corrosion looks like a texture from an old game, but still good.
Diamond plate: What the hell is this? This is DIAMOND PLATE. NOT PLASTIC PLATE. THIS LOOKS NOTHING LIKE A METAL MATERIAL. PLEASE CHANGE THIS DISGRACE OF A MATERIAL.
Foil: Too smooth.
Grass: Holy moly this is a downgrade. All creative uses of grass materials are ugly now.
Ice: Ice? More like snow.
Brick: Meh. It’s fine.
Sand: I don’t like it.
Fabric: I don’t like this either.
Granite: OH LORD WHAT DID THEY DO TO THIS WHY IS IT SO LIGHT? Goodbye Granite lava I guess.
Marble: Meh.
Pebble: Why is the pebble outline so think?
Cobblestone: Ew
Smooth Plastic: Nothing changed so it’s very good.
Neon: Nothing changed so it’s very good.
Glass: It’s good.
Forcefield: Nothing changed so it’s very good.
In conclusion, this update is a downgrade in many aspects.
12 Likes
Or keep the old materials and just add the new materials to the list instead of replacing the old ones. Some of the new materials are nice but many of the new materials look bad or just decent. It would be much better if we can keep the old materials instead of replacing them.
Using texture/decal so we can “keep” the old materials isn’t a great idea at all considering textures use a lot of memory as well so I wouldn’t even wanna consider doing that.
1 Like
You see, if this update was anywhere close as important as filtering enabled, developers would complain less, as the main concept of filtering enabled is to weaken exploiting, and that’s a welcome change, even if it means old abandoned game might suffer from it.
However, this update is an aesthetic update, which IS NOT worth the implications that come along with it.
And that’s why it should be a set of textures you can select.
2 Likes
I think it could be a good idea if they even kept the temporary option to keep the old materials until a bit of time after a material service for custom user made materials gets implemented. Even if it would inevitably still ruin no longer maintained games in the end it would at least be something. It would allow active devs to just snatch the legacy materials, and put them into the material service and avoid a period of there game just looking wrong.
Not acceptable in the slightest. I can only describe this as change for the sake of change and a complete disregard in spitting in the face of the work of developers. I will not tolerate this.
7 Likes
Honestly this is a joke, with all due respect these new textures don’t look better in any way shape or form. The new slate literally looks like wet mud was slapped on a wall.
(both pictures are at 10 graphics)
8 Likes
People used sand for bedding because it looks like it. Fabric is too dark for a lot of games, so sand is the best option. The new materials cant be used for anything except what they were made for. There is no bedding material, so people will use the closest thing. The problem with the new materials is they can only really be used for one thing.
4 Likes