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#46

There is a lot of talk about how this contest is limiting and counter productive. I wanted to post my thoughts here for whoever cares to listen.

again this my opinion, you don’t have to agree…

Contests and events such as this are likely not targeted towards developers who have the skills and knowledge to make cool things using external tools.

Keep in mind that Roblox is a huge platform with players of all ages and developers of all skill levels. There are a lot of people who are just trying to put their foot into the game development world and have no knowledge or experience of any tools including studio itself.

Personally I see this contest to be a great motivator for new developers to get started using studio. As everyone starts somewhere, once you’ve become comfortable and decently experienced with how studio works, you can use the things you’ve learned to explore areas outside of Roblox and begin to use external tools to grow your skills even further.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, don’t be so quick to judge these opportunities like this.

For people who DO know how to use external tools and know a have a great deal of knowledge in their craft, why not come together and suggest contests and events for Roblox to make, or even make them yourselves as a community?

I’d personally love to see contests for skilled builders, artists, composers, programmers, animators, etc

15 Likes
#47

Yeah completely agreed, and also Happy Anniversary for the day you joined the DevForum community!

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#48

The event is honestly counter productive. Anyone whose gonna try to carve out edges using roblox’s CSG is gonna realize how horrible the program is in comparison to other modeling software. Trying to manually shape bevels for the low poly aesthetic using studio’s CSG is just a massive time sink which honestly burns out people.

Studio is notorious for crashing if you have “complex unions”. Good luck trying to carve out any flat shapes or bevels for this low poly challenge without the program shutting down and losing your progress.

If you somehow manage to get past the tedious work required for beveling and making low poly shapes, you are gonna end up with a polygon count inefficient model. Any “low poly” shape carved out using unions will be more inefficient and lag more in comparison to a mesh part.

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#49

@DevBuckette Well, Blender is an external application, am I correct? Therefore I believe you aren’t allowed to use it.

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#50

You are correct blender is an external application anything outside of RobloxStudio is an external application.

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#51

So no blender? For modeling assets? Most low-poly builders use external software.

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#52

How do you ensure that builders do not use plugins or any other third party applications?

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#53

Most developers that have experience can tell when someone uses meshes for example it just doesn’t look the same as parts.

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#54

I’ve used just Roblox Studio to create low poly models.

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#55

No texture or mesh instances allowed
it is pretty easy to tell since the texture and mesh instances have a different icon when represented in the studio workspace.

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#56

Yes but what if they don’t notice. What if you use a plugin that looks very similar to standard Roblox tools? Nobody would see the difference if so.

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#57

Fair enough, but I wasn’t just aiming at meshes either.

1 Like
#58

Well basically im pretty sure if someone breaks the rules of a contest hosted by Roblox themselves something severe would happen to their account most likely. And this is also for fun I believe so someone to cheat in it is just wow.

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#59

I’m sorry, your first Builder Challenge?

Considering the amount of contests, (which haven’t existed as a feature for quite a while now) that I poured my heart into, I am very offended.

Kidding of course, I’m happy to see a return of these events; but I can’t help but note my disgruntlement at the fact that User-uploaded Meshes, which are such a quintessential feature of Roblox in these days cannot be used.

9 Likes
#60

To put it all together:

I think this is a nice event, and it definitely will bring some nostalgia back for the old style of Roblox games that used to be around, but I think it should be made more clear that this is not a ‘boundary pushing’ sort of challenge. By disallowing third-party programs such as 3D modelling software and graphic design software, you immediately eliminate the possibility for a higher range of quality and creativity.

While Roblox didn’t used to have MeshParts years ago, we still had textures. And even if we are going for a low-poly style, which generally means less detail, the use of fake shadows and shading can really make a big difference.

Restricting the use of 3D modelling also means being restricted to CSG. Restricting the use of programs like Photoshop (and the likes of it) also restricts the use of very innovative features that Roblox has introduced such as ParticleEmitters, Beams, Trails, and so on. Theoretically you wouldn’t be able to use any skybox except for the default one.

I don’t mean to sound pessimistic, but I disagree here. I think what this does, is show how limited Roblox is on its own, and how limited its default on-board content is without the use of external programs.

If this was the case, the post would not state something like ‘You, the amazing builders in the Roblox development community, will apply your skills, use your creative drives, and your knowledge of Roblox Studio to demonstrate the extent of your capabilities to the rest of the community’

While I’m excited to see what people make of this, I think the overall terms weren’t thought through enough. The base look of Roblox parts is far from a low-poly look. Are we expected to CSG every part we want to look more stylized?

I agree with @OurDearLadyMaria here in the fact that this is instead counter-productive. What this does, is bring attention to the fact just how limited Roblox studio truly is without the help of external programs. That is okay and is only natural but I believe that making a challenge out of this, is only going to make people:

There is a number of reasons why builders and artists, new or experienced, use external programs to express their artistic skills. And the main reason for that is that the bare Studio program, and the base content that Roblox provides, is insanely limited.

20 Likes
#61

As you said, it is for fun, so even if they did use tools that are disallowed, they wouldn’t be punished. Most likely just instantly denied by judges.

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#62

Coding challenge? That would be great at least for me!

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#63

I honestly completely agree. It would take minutes to make a low poly tree in blender, and I’m a beginner at it. It’s quick and reliable. Not to mention, meshes are way easier to manipulate than unions.

I’m trying to make a low poly tree right now using unions and it’s…tedious, to say the least. It’s an unnecessary headache.

Let’s say you spend time making a low poly tree with bevels and added polygons to add that extra shape you need for low-poly builds. You can’t manipulate it in the same way afterwards. Not to mention, unions disappear, they have errors, and they’re extremely difficult to work with in terms of making “foliage”, in particular.

If the theme of this was different, I’d probably be far more supportive. Trying to make, say, a low poly city with unions and parts is a much more realistic task, than making a “ravine forest” which requires nature and foliage that is certainly not something you’d want to make with unions or parts.

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#64

Yeah pretty much but it would still be sad to see cheaters but this is a good community so I dont think we will see any. :slight_smile:

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#65

We haven’t seen any legitimate building contests hosted by Roblox in quite some time, so I think it’s awesome that Roblox is willing to try bring them back in some way or form.

As for the primitivity of the challenge at hand, I think its a good opportunity for developers to show what they can do when confined to certain rules and regulations. It would be probably be beneficial to have different rules depending on the contest at hand (assuming there will be more than this single event), that way certain developers would be able to showcase their niche abilities that they currently can’t otherwise use with the current rules format.

1 Like