Non-sequential Asset ID Generation Coming Soon

Updates Announcements
#84

Yes, but animations have to be loaded by the client in the first place. Models are different because they are instance content that can only get loaded by the server, animations have to be able to be loaded by the client.

This is just making an API call, but in the browser. When I say API call, I mean via HTTP requests to the different asset delivery endpoints that Roblox uses to fetch asset content. You can’t make something private without actually making it private, you can’t have animations not be loadable by the client without making animations not loadable by the client.

If you insert a model into a game it can be stolen in the exact same way that an animation can, the difference is that an animation has to be loaded by all clients so that they know the keyframes to play back in the first place.

You can’t get rid of this without getting rid of the client’s ability to play the animations unless you are suggesting that the server should be downloading the animation content and then having connected clients then download it from the server, which has its own large set of flaws and complications for a fairly insignificant gain.

Notably, this would mean that all of this content delivery has to get routed through Roblox game servers which would be pretty inefficient and would ultimately slow down asset loading and, if you actually want to protect the assets, prevent you from being able to cache it at all.

Caching is also another way content can easily be stolen, I have even written tools experimentally that can rip unions and meshes out of the cache, and even recover the contents of scripts included in the parts that made up the unions since that data is part of the union (for the purpose of separating the union).

I am not really sure I understand what you mean by this at all, Roblox already does automatically check the contents of models.

Okay but that’s still definitely not a reason to justify sequential asset IDs, the ‘feeling’ that sequential asset IDs are somehow necessary here is a symptom to the greater problem of moderation tooling.

2 Likes
#85

No it doesn’t, it only does for small files but not big ones.

#86

To update, thanks for the feedback: We’re investigating what options we have to solve the decal → image issue.

19 Likes
#87

I agree, if I can insert the asset from the toolbox, what’s the difference when using InsertService? It’s an annoying limitation and I want the old insert service back. There’s already work arounds with people using the “require” feature and parenting models to the MainModule. Seriously just remove the limit on InsertService already.

2 Likes
#88

Whatever is possible for getting an image id from any and all decals would be great.
If it could include information about the dimensions it’d be even cooler. As right now the only methods to get actual image sizes is via 3rd parties or unreleased features(editable umages)

5 Likes
#90

I think this would be a good time to resume focus on native Roblox domain requests being a feature instead of having to use proxies:

Or just create a method to obtain more information about a given asset, such as ContentId.

2 Likes
#91

whats gonna be the new system?

#92

and also what is the point of this change?

1 Like
#93

Agreed. this benefits absolutely nothing

1 Like
#94

its just to stop from people leaking assets

1 Like
#95

probably like the new badge ids, an 16 digits randomly generated number

#96

This is enjoyable, mainly because this will probably kill the DebugStoleYourModels stuff I had to clear up a few times on this site due to a skid I knew thought it’d be funny to make an absolutely terribly made bot that “leaked” assets and used them for AI training, which was all a lie for attention.

Thank ya’ll for adding this as I genuinely hated having to clear up a skid’s intentions.

2 Likes
#97

leaking assets is still gonna happen lmao

#100

this is so god damn stupid removing the sequential asset ids bro

1 Like
#101

ok cope? who cares if their assets gets leaked, removing this iconic system is such a dumb move

1 Like
#102

It will certainly give more room for complaints from users unable to see images. Forcing roblox to release some solutions that benefit the update(such as unlocking :LoadAsset so we can use it like they do in studio

3 Likes
#103

Hi Creators,

When developing this feature we knew about some historical usage of sequential IDs to translate decal ids into image IDs, but underestimated how many creators were still relying on that approach. Thank you for your feedback on this.

The sequential ID trick is an unfortunate solution thanks to eating up a large amount of http request budget. Instead of continuing to support the sequential ID trick, we’ve enabled a more convenient solution.

Decal assets are technically Models containing a Decal Instance. You can extract the image ID easily after loading the Decal with InsertService:LoadAsset, but previously this only worked on Decals you owned, failing with public Decals.

Today, we updated the InsertService. It can now insert any publicly available Decal. That means you can now use InsertService to reliably translate the ID in a single request. Here’s a production-ready reference implementation:

local InsertService = game:GetService("InsertService")

-- Takes in a user input containing the assetId of either a decal
-- or image and returns an image assetId string ready for use or an
-- empty string if no assetId could be found.
function getImageFromUserInputAsync(decalOrImageAssetUri: string): string
	local a, b = decalOrImageAssetUri:find("%d+")
	if not a then
		-- Return an empty assetId in the case of no id in input.
		return ""
	end
	
	local assetId = tonumber(decalOrImageAssetUri:sub(a, b))
	local st, result = pcall(InsertService.LoadAsset, InsertService, assetId)
	if st then
		local decal = result:FindFirstChildWhichIsA("Decal", true)
		if decal then
			-- Note: Do not directly parent the found Decal to avoid
			-- security issues if untrusted Instances somehow ended up
			-- underneath it. Instead, extract the id.
			return decal.Texture
		end
	end
	
	return `rbxassetid://{assetId}`	
end

We’re also delaying the non-sequential ID launch by a week to allow creators additional migration time.

Thank you for your patience.

FAQs

What if I don’t migrate?

  • Your code will continue to work on existing Decals but will start failing on new ones as we complete the move to non-sequential ids.

Can I load non-Decal assets in the same way?

  • The insert permission change applies to Decal assets only, not to other assets like Models.

What are the “Untrusted Instances” mentioned in the reference?

  • Some Decals from very early in Roblox history may have non-Decal Instances smuggled inside of them. In the unlikely event malicious Decals exist, the reference implementation shows how to handle things safely by extracting the id rather than inserting the Decal directly.
38 Likes
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#104

Great now open InsertService further just like how the toolbox works.

2 Likes
#105

There’s a granular script permissions system coming down the pipe soon which will give us more room to mitigate security / safety concerns and potentially open things up. Check back after that comes out.

3 Likes
#106

@BackspaceRGB @NobleReign @xChris_vC @metatablecatmaid @mohas191 @completelyhazel @Rocky28447 @Stratiz @xyrafrost

Just doing a quick @ of the creators who expressed concern over the decal id translation trick no longer being possible to let you know that we’ve provided a solution above.

7 Likes