Please Roblox! Let this be a thing. The Future Is Bright update was pretty underwhelming when it comes to things that are actually needed. Stuff like lights longer than 60 studs and better skyboxes are the kinds of things we need
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I wish there would be a structured procedure for feature-requests that will at least guarantee there will be some staff response within 6 months, even if it’s a rejection or clarification.
Space-exploration games are taking a rise on Roblox recently, and it’s clear to see that something as basic and low-level as a simple skybox is genuinely affecting games’ potential. Games like the Wild West take the engine to the maximum by utilizing virtually all graphics features, so far as I can tell, and it’s also clear to see that the only part the skilled developers can’t control is the skybox.
I agree with all the points in the original post, and especially with the points from Evercyan. This topic deserves recognition!
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Having more customization with the sky would make a ton of games look better, especially more open-ended ones like open worlds and space games. The sky is really restricted right now, so having more control would make it much easier to work with!
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In addition to the above suggestions, I would like to see the ability to rotate the skybox on all three axes. It could even be tweenable so you could have a constantly rotating skybox. Other game engines have this capability. It would definitely give the illusion of being in space.
To address the OP’s list…
- Custom sun/moon paths: The paths of the sun and moon are governed by Newtonian physics and Kepler’s laws of motion of planetary bodies. These are real world physics with real equations. However, having the moon directly opposite of the sun doesn’t exactly fit the bill for in real life since the moon is on an inclined orbit of about 5°. Not only that, there are times when you can see the moon during the day. Earth rotates once every 24 hours, the moon’s orbit takes roughly 28 days.
- Night Time Skybox: This is possible, but the two skyboxes need to have similar imagery and the imagery will have to fade in at the appropriate time.
- Custom Skybox Objects: This would really lend itself to creating a non-earth environment. Imagine having three suns and 10 moons. The orbital dynamics would have to be calculated for each object though, but that’s not a problem. I could see celestial objects being removed from the skybox and broken out into their own objects. That would enable multiple objects being defined such as multiple suns, moons, other planets, asteroids, constellations, stars, galaxies, etc… whatever you can imagine. This is basically the celestial body class that @Evercyan suggested
My suggestion:
- Rotating Skybox: The ability to rotate the skybox. The rotation can even be tweenable to give the illusion of rotating in space.
@Evercyan It is possible to simulate atmospheric extinction using atmospheric effects and color filters, but it’s hard to get right. I have recently developed a script that handles twilight lighting just using the lighting service. I have also simulated the illusion of the size change where the sun/moon appear larger at the horizon and smaller at the apex.
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this would be amazing for having source-style control over the sun for lighting
This needs to be done. If I had to add something, it would be to make space events such as eclipses possible through scripting. By this I mean being able to script the moon to move towards and cover the sun to create the solar eclipse. Tweening would make it even better too. Then do the same but for a lunar eclipse. It surprises me how you can make almost everything complex in Roblox, but not the skybox. You are so limited when it comes to altering the skybox, apart from changing how the sky itself looks with images.
Roblox we need more control on lighting and skyboxes!!
If you want us to make better and better games for you to show to all your investors, then let us do more with our lighting and skyboxes! It’ll greatly boost your cash flow and have more developers come in as well as making our lives much easier and better!
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I’d like it if roblox decoupled directional light sources from the skybox. The skybox texture and celestial bodies should also be decoupled from time of day. Limiting a game engine to physically accuracy, no matter how ridiculously overengineered and true to the real world you get, is not the way to go. Looking at you, guy who wrote up a whole astronomy lesson up in the second reply… If you instead give developers the most control possible, they’ll be able to make a 1:1 simulation of our night sky if they so please, but more importantly, they’ll also be able to make anything they could ever imagine.
Directional light sources, like the sun’s, should be treated just like any other light source. Though I should point out that the ux would be something you’d have to keep in mind, because since directional lights don’t really have a position, only direction, it’d make for something a bit awkward to work with depending on the implementation.
Optimally the skybox would be controlled on a much lower level, but since I know roblox won’t do that anytime soon, a way to blend and layer between different skyboxes would be nice. Being able to set skybox orientation would be useful as well. The ability to freely create, manipulate, and blend “celestial bodies” would be needed too.
Ofc there should be an entirely optional and easy way to sync celestial bodies, directional lights, and skybox blending to the time of day, so as to maintain ease of use and backwards compatibility. This should be the default setup. While we should expect the most control possible, we simultaneously shouldn’t expect every user to reinvent the wheel whenever they want simple day/night functionality.
On the related topic of skyboxes, roblox PLEASE give us control over our lightprobes and outdoor env map.
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You can do almost anything in Roblox if you are dedicated enough. I made this a while ago sky - Roblox, I can’t say that it’s 1:1 accurate, but it’s definitely possible to make even with the current limitations of Roblox.
Not saying that we don’t need this, I think it would be a great addition to let us have better control over the sky and it would make it a million times easier and more convenient than having to do what I did in order to get my off-brand sky overhaul working.
Technically you can do a lot of things, but a hacky solution will always be much worse than the real thing. Not only are hacky solutions crappy to create and work with as you already know, but they often result in a worse product. A custom skybox like yours would not affect env lighting, unlike a real skybox, nor would it run as well as a traditional solution.
It’s not just ease of use either, because putting required effort aside, I’d much rather make a bare metal solution, where I’m actually programming the exact behavior I want on a low level, just like roblox does whenever they add features to the engine, than finick with roblox’s existing features to make them do things they were never meant to do. Ofc if we can’t get bare to the metal for whatever reason, then we need very flexible and configurable features to compensate, neither of which exist for skyboxes.
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It would be also cool if we could use a single environment map instead of having to still use the up, down left, right, etc images. Just a thought.
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Praying something like this happens. Skyboxes are very limited to what you can do with them. So, It’s really tough to make them look good. I’d even be happy with just having the ability to change how they look at night, since you can’t even do that.
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I would like more options for our very limited skybox system too.
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