As a Roblox developer, it is currently not possible to make a game which was built around Outlines make beatiful again after their removal. All current workarounds suck too much to be considered Outlines number 2.
Since one of the most major issues with their previous implementation was too deep integration, reworked (if they will be) Outlines should be more separated from rendering when they are disabled. Other than that, it would also be nice if reworked Outlines would have almost all features of previous ones - shading and Featherweight parts technology (especially this one cause it kinda performs better, cough). Maybe they wouldn’t support some cool shading features like PBR, or would be an option that would require you to restart Studio.
Issues
The main issue is that games which had Outlines as a core design component now look horrible. Plus, a lot of builders used it because it was a lot easier to see part edges. You might think that there are alternatives, but actually no:
- Selection boxes have 0 reaction to shadows
- Decals are not compatible with bricks of different sizes
- SurfaceGuis make your microprofiler go omg (insane lag even on new hardware)
- Wall textures don’t work when Outlines were applied to a construction which isn’t a wall.
Why?
Around 25 thousand developers manually turned Outlines on, because they are essential to visual style of their games. Even though 25k makes up a small percentage, it’s still quite a big number.
If Roblox adresses this issue, they won’t suffer in search of alternatives anymore, and keep their game looking as good as designed.