I remember they mentioned something like this at one of the RDCs but I think now is the right time to implement this. As it would help keep the old materials in tact while still being able to replace them with different styles at the click of a button.
I don’t think this is the way to go - what if a developer wants to use both the new and classic materials? This restricts creativity and goes against the remit of the platform, to power imagination.
Please see my post on the original topic: New Terrain, and Parts, and Built-In Materials, Oh my! - #1544 by BuilderBob25620
A basic summary of it is that we need a way to get the enum types for terrain and part materials separately. This update will be adding new materials for both parts and terrain which will make the current process of manually creating a list for each type tedious and not as reliable. We need forward compatibility.
Also, I’ve seen the new material textures. Please don’t force colors onto them! That just restricts the possibilities and ways in which we can use them!
This seemed good at first glance and you obviously had put alot of effort into these, but they ruin some games. For example, Mugen’s Veszteseg will go from this To below:
It in a way ruins the game’s vibe and turns it into an odd looking build, and the material they had used was slate and I live next to 2 huge slate mines and I’ve never seen any of them look like this.
As I said before this depends on the scene where I use it in my case since I do vegetation it is very horrible but that already depends on what you are going to do
While I like the new textures, I feel like it should be optional.
Cause otherwise older games will basically be broken building wise, as every texture messes up.
ALSO DO NOT FORCE COLORS ONTO A TEXTURE! This limits the possibility’s we can do with those parts!
Please make these updated materials an optional thing to use. These materials really only work for specific art styles for games and just don’t work for many games that aren’t designed to look realistic.
Where can I get access to the beta? Would love to see my projects with the new materials. I checked the github link attached and its just a readme.md file. Unless i’m missing something?
Some of these materials are definitely a downgrade. The new CorrodedMetal looks like something taken off of google images with the use of a magic wand tool to cut the white background (leaving a white outline around the erosion).
It also looks like the Ice material around the non eroded parts, This material definitely needs some work.
There’s also some inconsistency of detail with the materials, some look really realistic while other materials look very cartoony, or lack a sense of depth.
I saw several on the og post, so I don’t know where you are coming from…
Edit: I just checked, there were no complaints about that, so idk where I was coming from. I still do like the new bricks better, I just think the forced coloration needs to be removed.
So I was under the impression that we would be getting new materials along with the older ones staying, but now that I’ve learned that we will be getting the new ones but not keeping the old as well, I’m pretty disappointed with this update.
A lot of the textures don’t combine well together and I HATE when there is color baked into a material, as it SEVERELY limits the usability of the material.
Also, a lot of the materials don’t even have the same style as each other, which is problematic.
The only thing that could save this update for me is if there was a way to toggle between the new and the old styles, or the new materials just got added to the current list while keeping the old ones.
I really hope the community’s concerns are actually listened to, but this being Roblox I know that can be a tall order for some reason.
Overall, I’m pretty dissatisfied with the new look of everything, and I honestly think a lot of the older textures look at least 100% better.
Honestly, I think you should add a property to keep the old material set (similar to the “Technology” setting in lighting) for backwards compatibility.
The last time materials changed was a bit jarring because it came without much warning and affected builds universally.
It’s been years since we had a large-scale materials change like this, and so many builds and games have been created in the meantime. It would be a shame to enforce this immediately on all games instead of making it an option. Even if it’s a non-scriptable option that gets deprecated in the future, that would be better than replacing materials across the board.
I would almost be fine with these new materials being released iff the ability to set the materials of parts to the terrain version also ships, because limstone is actually a decent approximation of the old slate material
The only problem with limestone is that it has colors appearing in the diffuse channel that… shouldn’t be there. White limestone appears yellow, black appears brown, etc.
It looks like a bunch of eyes staring at you. And the normal map is like a topographical map. It’s like someone with little prior experience threw this together in substance designer while listening to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” if you catch my drift. Not only does it not look realistic, it does not meet the needs of 99% of roblox games, and wood is an essential texture for most roblox games.
Using this on all of my current games makes them look much better but I do have a few issues with certain textures.
Grass alone looks great but when using the grass ‘decoration’, it looks very strange. (This is just my own opinion)
The brick material looks absolutely wonderful when you are close but, once you move backward it starts to look not so great.
I really don’t like that some materials have forced colors. It makes them very hard to use in certain applications where they look best being a certain color.
Other than that I feel that this update will be a very nice feature for people like myself who work with terrain often.
Many of the materials look less realistic than previously. Some, such as concrete and metal, look great. But others, such as brick, grass, stone, and rusty metal look cartoony.
For example, here is a souvenir shop before the changes:
To below: 
