Small & Invisible Avatars Wreaking Havoc on Games

Feature Requests Engine Features
#1

Edit: Roblox called out hitboxes @ RDC, but this isn’t a solution for hard to see or invisible avatars.

The Problem

With Creator UGC expanding ever wider, problematic avatars including those against the rules are becoming more common than ever. Players in games with any amount of PvP including Jailbreak suffer from these players who have an unfair advantage.

What We Do in Jailbreak

In an effort to fight these avatars, we:

  • Detect small avatars. We scale avatars up when detected. Unfortunately this affects innocent players or won’t detect depending on new package tricks from creators.
  • Apply a minimum hitbox to all players. This helps in gunplay but is not a solution if the avatar is hard to see in grass or completely invisible.

Screenshot 2024-09-25 at 3.50.08 PM
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(Invisible player in the Jailbreak prison yard)

This is Important

Avatars as tiny as a mouse (literally!) or as transparent as an invisible man are repeatedly bypassing any sort of UGC moderation at rates faster than Roblox or ourselves can react to. These avatars are cute for roleplay but damaging to PvP. We don’t want a future where games with PvP are overriding player avatars out of necessity instead of out of style.

We need help making improved detection happen platform wide and we strongly believe in giving players a choice in how they look.

87 Likes
#2

Couldn’t you just add a whitelist instead? so if the player doesn’t have the boy bundle or the girl bundle (or any of your choosing!) , just overwrite it? the player still keeps their avatar accessories (temporarily ofc until roblox potentially adds support)

3 Likes
#3

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I’m not 100% sure how the Paper Sketch Boy bundle works BUT it does look pretty cool however I can definitely see how it could be an issue during pvp as well as those small avatars. Best thing I can think of is to have someway of detecting the arm or legs being way to small and giving the player a blocky avatar

4 Likes
#4

I agree, it is an issue. The people who upload these should be banned after the second time they upload stuff like this. The first time should be a warning instead. I covered this in a recent post.

The only thing that can be done for now is a blacklist. I like how you are making a minimum hitbox, that is a great idea to help the current situation.

Also you are very cool asimo

4 Likes
#5

Perhaps make setting where players are able to see a visible hitbox that applies to all avatars? Of course this would be kind of inconvenient while not in PvP so it should be a togglable setting. The other option would be to rely on moderation which can be improved but it can never be perfect and like you mentioned will be continue to be bypassed and this will remain an issue.

#6

That would be impossible to maintain. The amount of existing and newly added UGC on a day by day basis is absurdly high and would work require a tremendous amount of work.

10 Likes
#7

I outline in the last sentence why this is not an option.

4 Likes
#8

I agree, in games such as jailbreak I constantly see people with small avatars to the point where I can’t even see or taze them. Maybe a solution Is to detect the transparency of an avatar aswell

#9

It’s a fair solution though, you don’t just need boy/girl bundle, you could have a list of hundreds! It would also port the accessories and clothing over, which isn’t crazy hard to script.

But yes I do believe roblox is being incredibly lazy for not taking action on the offending publishers.

#10

What I meant was a whitelist, if the players bundle isn’t in the whitelist, then it replaces it to whatever.

1 Like
#11

This would be, as asimo stated, unfair to the innocent players who have spent robux on their avatars, there must be an alternative solution. One idea I had in mind is that, upon entering pvp mode, a highlight effect could be applied, allowing visibility through any grass or other obstacles that might otherwise obscure the player:


Additionally, we could control the size of the highlight by attaching it, not directly to the player, but to an “invisible” character or object within the player, giving us the flexibility to scale the effect as needed.

Another option, which you are probably already using is:

local bannedPackages = {
    -- Add the asset IDs of packages you want to restrict
    [youridhere] = true,
    [youridhere] = true,
}

game.Players.PlayerAdded:Connect(function(player)
    player.CharacterAdded:Connect(function(character)
        local humanoidDescription = player:WaitForChild("Humanoid"):WaitForChild("HumanoidDescription")

        for assetId, _ in pairs(bannedPackages) do
            if humanoidDescription:FindFirstChild("BodyType") and humanoidDescription.BodyType == assetId then
                humanoidDescription.BodyType = nil
                humanoid:ApplyDescription(humanoidDescription)
            end
        end
    end)
end)

I understand it may be quite challenging to stay on top of the constant influx of new avatar accessories, but many players tend to use popular items like the Fly Bundle.

An additional solution could be enforcing stricter avatar scaling limits within the Avatar Settings, which you’re likely already employing.

Would it also be feasible to detect whether a player is using a bypassed method to make their avatar excessively small by implementing a system that checks if their avatar can fit through designated “test gaps”? If their avatar is small enough to pass through, it could trigger an automatic action, such as kicking the player for violating size restrictions:

Apologies if this sounds like a bit of a brainstorm, but these are just some ideas that came to mind.

P.S. I’ve been a huge fan of the game since 2019! One suggestion for the trading system: perhaps consider adding a filter to search for a specific car/item by username, rather than having to click through each player individually.

3 Likes
#12

I made a UGC cleaner script that might help as a temporary solution: UGC Accessory Cleaner Script

#13

For anyone wondering; these kinds of LC items have never been allowed on the Marketplace:
image

They abuse loopholes and vulnerabilities in the UGC validation system which allow them to be uploaded. Roblox is well aware of this issue and the teams involved are actively working on it, and coincidentally, most of the offending items were deleted just before this post was made:

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2 Likes
#14

The problem with this although is that official items like the Fly Bundle for example will most likely not be moderated in the future and players will keep using these thin avatars to abuse character scaling.

#15

That’s good, but keeping track of literally every single bundle would take AGESSSSSSS… Maybe like @urgentnotice said, You could add visible hitboxes, And make it a toggleable setting.

I will admit I am a die-hard jailbreak fan, and If I had a dollar for every time i’ve been arrested by a small avatar abuser, I’d be a billionaire…

#16

The primary reason for denying the use of small avatars is that they are essentially invisible. By incorporating an invisible character rig directly into the player and applying a highlighting effect, the avatar would become visible as soon as it is in close proximity to others. Naturally, this visibility would need to be restricted to prevent it from being seen through walls or similar obstacles.

Imagine such a highlight would still be shown, even if the character is too small/invisilbe:
Bildschirmfoto 2024-09-26 um 15.45.10
Additionally, you are absolutely correct in noting that managing all the various bundles manually would be virtually impossible. It would require Roblox itself to implement a system-wide solution to address this issue effectively.

2 Likes
#17

Definitely, Not to mention, There is a property in the highlight object that literally does occlusion for you:

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So an alternative to my solution would be if the player doesn’t have the man, woman ect ect bundle, it would add the highlight. (Not sure if it would ruin pvp, tho)

#18

Good remark and no, this would not destroy pvp in any way since you can adjust the Transparency of the Highlight, thus making it adapt to the landscape.
Bildschirmfoto 2024-09-26 um 18.24.06

EDIT: another point would be to make the highlight only visible to the player facing the cop/criminal

1 Like
#19

Highlights unfortunately do not solve the hitbox issue on their own and could look unappealing in many experiences; especially if they appear on every enemy player. Ideally we would have standardised character sizes (both visually and hitbox) for competitive experiences to better deal with these problems rather than needing to insert a non anti-aliasing highlight just so players can see the opposing team.

3 Likes
#20

:+1: Highlights shouldn’t be a necessary intervention here and they’re not used in any non-Roblox games of the sort (FPS, for example); it doesn’t make much sense

2 Likes