Wow Roblox graphics just keep getting better! I’m excited to see how this works in games in the future!
4 Likes
Hello! Will be be able to use height maps? I’ve had so many textures with them, and height would add a lot more detail! Thanks 
5 Likes
This is definitely one of my favorite updates! It’s amazing the fact that we will can do a lot of cool things with it 
2 Likes
When exporting height, convert it to normal. Substance Painter automatically packs height info into their OpenGL compatible normal maps, and in Blender, this is handy for turning bump info into a normal map node editor - How to generate a normal map from a bump map? - Blender Stack Exchange
3 Likes
So… Are we gearing up to see custom environment maps and general reflections with these implementations? I find it so tiring that we see more engine features (that is great), but what about something just as important – the UI rendering?
Also, can someone explain to me why this preexisting technology and different features has been so slow to implement? We see AAA titles consistently blow Roblox out of the water and somehow we get excited to see another feature added to a slow to develop engine. Exibit A: Clouds weren’t even a thing until 10 years later.
5 Likes
This is amazing!
Just look at how realistic this BMW looks with it (note some textures are resized incorrectly)
it took me a little while to figure out why it wasnt working but i got it to work and this looks amazing!
31 Likes
The issue wtih assets we were seeing was resolved last night. This feature should be working again now. Please let me know if you still see this issue.
6 Likes
Not sure if this is a bug, or I’m just not doing something right, but even when I put SurfaceApperarance on a mesh, it just does not show up. What am I doing wrong? Here is the issue:
Pictures
Mesh without the anything inside the maps:
Mesh after pasting the asset IDs in. (still looks the same)
Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong? Thank you so much! 
@Homeomorph please let me know if I need to put this under #platform-feedback:studio-bugs.
4 Likes
I think its due to the reason that ROBLOX didn’t really wanna be realistic at first. And then they wanted to so they can appeal to teens more. So now there releasing more realistic updates and also it takes a while to make these updates. Maybe some stuff like clouds they didn’t really think they needed to add that feature and wanted to focus on other stuff. And also i’m pretty sure engines like unreal started out making a realistic engine while i’m pretty sure ROBLOX didn’t really start out on becoming realistic. It will get more realistic I assure you, it will take some time to compete with unreal and other engines cause there’s a lot of stuff they need to add and it takes time to add those, and especially keeping it optimized. And they can’t just ignore the other stuff and only care about graphics. They still need to make updates for their script editor and other stuff and fix bugs for other stuff, and also performance updates. And these can take quite some time.
8 Likes
Honestly, I don’t really know what to tell you besides yeah you are right. The thing that is really exciting is that we’ve that both last year and this year, Roblox is releasing really nice features faster then ever before. This it self just gives us as developers the that “yeah, Roblox was slow before, but wow they are putting effort into catching up.” But the problem is this: The roadmap is very inaccurate. This feature along with many others were supposed to release last year. So it’s disappointing to see that Roblox isn’t able to meet their goals.
I also kinda agree with your UI rendering point. It’s definitely important, but it’s clear Roblox is trying to go for flashy right now, so that is just probably not a priority right now.
Keep in mind, Roblox also has to stream this data in real time, not just download it from the hard drive. That makes it extremely difficult for them. Think of this way, if you have ever made a website with images you probably have noticed the images load really quickly from your own hard drive. But when you actually deploy and load your website to the web, even a single high resolution image can take a near minute to load. I don’t even know what kind of magic Roblox is doing to get even multiple 1024x1024 images loaded in real time, but whatever they are doing, I appreciate it.
4 Likes
Found an interesting issue when testing the surfaceappearances on trees - when you go a certain distance away from trees using surfaceappearance in alpha mode, they appear to gradually become more transparent -
Note: Transparency is set to 0 for all of the trees.
12 Likes
I’m pretty sure it is a bug. Same thing is happening with me. But when I put it in a different mesh it shows the textures. Hope it gets fixed soon!
2 Likes
I would file a bug report, but it’s closed right now. Definitely a serious bug. I can’t believe my timing…
5 Likes
nice now my pc has a reason to fall anyway update is nice puts a lot more detail but they look kinda real in 10+ graphics if you know what i mean so uhh or low end pc guys it aint that much of a difference
7 Likes
Hello I found some bug that surface apperance just being a texture being duplicate and layout texturing instead one picture of pbr xd
4 Likes
Did you use a Texture or a SurfaceAppearance?
Textures repeat the image but SurfaceAppearance should just apply the image across the entire mesh
2 Likes
I use surface Appearance
before this it work but now when i try to use it that happen
3 Likes
Getting the same issue on my end!
2 Likes
Thank you.
Also do you have any idea if PBR will be released by the end of this month? We’re anticipating it’s release very much and are waiting on it to release our next game.
7 Likes
Exactly that.
I’m super excited and basically am waiting for the SurfaceAppearance to show up for the public because only then can I share my W.I.P showcase.
Otherwise all the assets with a SurfaceAppearance will appear grey… 
4 Likes