[Studio Beta] 4k Texture rendering

[FGmm_r2]

Key Takeaways

The 4K Texture Rendering beta is now available in Studio for higher visual fidelity and detail. This update enables the engine to render textures up to 4096x4096px, significantly improving the look of high-quality assets.

Enable the beta in Studio to start testing today.

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1/30/26 Update

@FGmm_r2

Thank you so much to everyone who responded to this thread for all your feedback!
We are thrilled to announce that 4k Textures are now available in published experiences! Please take a look at this dev foum post to learn more: 4k Texture Rendering

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Hello Creators,

We are thrilled to announce that 4k Texture Rendering is now available in Studio Beta for instances that support Texture Streaming! The texture streaming system will use 4k textures if it determines that a resolution above 1k is needed for a given object based on its importance in the scene and if the device has enough resources to handle it.

Reminder:
If your experience currently uses image assets that were originally uploaded at >1k resolution, these will now automatically be transcoded and can stream into clients at up to 4k resolution.

Please test out your experience using this Studio Beta to ensure this “automatic upgrade” does not inadvertently break anything in your experience.

A close up of an axe using a SurfaceAppearance instance driven by 4k color, metalness, normal and roughness maps

To test 4k rendering within Studio,

1. Go to File > Beta Features.
2. Check the box for “4k Texture Rendering”.
3. Restart Studio.
4. Try it out by creating a Decal, Texture or SurfaceAppearance instance and drop in a high resolution texture asset.

Note: The texture streaming system will only load up texture mips based on object importance in the scene and the available texture memory budget. So, you might need to get up close to the instance and have it fill a lot of the screen to see the texture(s) at 4k quality

Here is a link to the .rbxm model of the Golden Axe above that already has a MeshPart and SurfaceAppearance instance with 4k textures if you would like to quickly drop it into a baseplate to try it out.

The Foundation: Texture Streaming

We are able to release 4k texture support today because of the foundation laid by our recently announced Texture Streaming system.

Texture Streaming intelligently manages video memory by dynamically loading and unloading texture data based on the importance of each object in the scene. Instead of keeping every high-resolution texture mip in memory at once, the engine now streams in the highest quality mipmaps only when they are needed.

This allows us to unlock rendering at up to 4k resolution (4096 x 4096) for your assets without significantly impacting the memory footprint or crash rates on lower-end devices. If a device cannot handle the full 4k texture, Texture Streaming will automatically serve a lower-resolution version that fits its memory budget.

Every instance that supports texture streaming will also support 4k texture rendering.

What This Means for You

• Crisp Surface Details: SurfaceAppearance maps (Color, Normal, Metalness, Roughness) can now utilize 4k resolution, making PBR materials look sharper than ever.
• Immersive Environments: Large-scale assets like massive meshes, architectural walls, and skyboxes will no longer suffer from pixelation when viewed up close.
• Future-Proofing: You can already import image assets at up to 8k resolution today into Roblox. These are stored at original quality, and will be transcoded down to 4k today. As hardware and the engine improves over time, these will automatically be upgraded for higher-end devices while still performing well on current devices thanks to texture streaming.

Known Issues

• Import times for 4k assets may be slightly longer than 1k images and these make take a little longer to transcode and then render at full 4k resolution when you first import them into Studio
• The Roblox base material textures are in the process of being upgraded to 4k as well. Keep an eye out for an update to this Studio Beta when we will make these available to you.

We Want Your Feedback!

This is a Beta, and your feedback is crucial. We want to see how this impacts your workflows and the visual quality of your experiences. Please reply to this thread with screenshots of your high-fidelity 4k creations, or let us know if you encounter any unexpected behavior.

Happy Building!
The Rendering team

[index_self]

Best Christmas present from the rendering team after a bombshell of a month.

[Puma_incredible (Stickz)]

Okay now tell the rendering team to fix streaming enabled deloading the entire lobby in my game also if you use 4K textures does that render games unplayable for mobile players?

[officiaI_ld]

This is a massive W🔥

My team applied this to a WIP bus model we’re developing, and it’s making the UV map output so much better - no more relying on extra decals for text/extra details.

[riftkuro]

BANNNNNNNNGGGGG THANK YOU (yes this is topic related)

[INBOUNDNUKE]

Finally. Already see a huge difference in my game. So glad this is actually out so I can stop dreaming abt it.

[enzogamer123vv (8800GTX)]

Textures looks more sharper, nice rawblocks

[7z99 (cody)]

Huge, easily the best release this year followed by emissive maps.

[CorrivalRhyme]

Right on! The base PBR materials getting 4K will be a welcome addition. Especially for me since I use a lot of them for my architectural builds.

[Nxght_Devv (Nxght)]

Wait will textures that have been downscaled by roblox before be 4k now or do we have to re upload them

[enzogamer123vv (8800GTX)]

no, if you enable the cool beta feature, and you join the place, it will automatically apply the 4k textures or lower (2k, 3k)

[justadude180812 (calledkey)]

you can put your lobby into a model and set the model streaming to persistent to stop it from unloading, probably not as roblox already makes textures a bit worse on mobile for optimization

[patopro77]

after more than a year finally

[jmsimulations (iJM)]

PBR’s are really standing out now. Quality update!

[TenebrisNoctua (Noctua)]

Now, we need some love for post processing effects and clouds…

[luauwiz (breakon)]

holy peak thank you god

[EffBeeCee]

Cool update. Makes up for whatever the other department is doing with the publish experience moderation stuff.

I’ll definitely be testing this out!

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One question though:
Do you know the performance impact of this update? What is the estimated minimum device specs required for an average game to be rendered with 4k textures?

[craftman1261 (Craftman)]

Finally. We’ve been asking for this for years.

Too bad this company got nuked.

[PeZsmistic]

With texture streaming, does this mean that I can indiscriminately use 4K textures for environmental materials and model surface appearance? With these changes, what will change about when I should be careful to micromanage my texture size?

[Ron1n_Sim (Ronin)]

I hope we can automatically scale texture quality in-games without needing to use streaming enabled!