You ever see a photo of someone’s work on Roblox online and have a hard time believing it’s a Roblox game due to how realistic it looks? The work is always quite impressive but getting started isn’t as difficult as it may seem. In this community tutorial, I’m going to show you how to get started on creating your own realistic environments. Below are some honourable examples of some of the finest works I have ever seen when it comes to realism on Roblox.
“Showdown Festival” by @tryler2 “Vortex Engine” by @CDDevelopment “Lab” by @thisfall & @boatbomber
Step 1: Getting Started
Sometimes the most difficult challenge to overcome when starting a new project is to actually get started. Apart from figuring out what your game will be, you’re going to need resources. Typically devs will be working in a team of people who possess many different talents. This isn’t always the case however, so we’re going to be as self-sufficient as possible.
Step 2: Obtaining Assets & Resources
Part 1: Meshes
To have a realistic game means doing things a bit differently than what you might be used to. We won’t be able to accomplish making assets using bricks/unions in a reasonable manner, so what we’re going to to instead is utilize the use of MeshParts.
There are two ways you can go about obtaining MeshParts. You can either create them in a 3D modeling software, or you can use free-to-use meshes available from many online outlets. This includes outlets such as TurboSquid and Free3D. But either way we decide to do this, we’re still going to need to install a 3D modeling software. For this tutorial, I will be using Blender. I will not be showing you how to create a 3D model in Blender. For that, you can watch this series of tutorials that can teach you.
(Do be careful about getting free meshes online and on the Roblox toolbox browser to ensure they are not stolen copyrighted assets from other games)
Depending on the setting of your game, you’re going to want meshes of many different things in your environment, such as foliage and plants, boulders, machinery, buildings, etc. The more detail you put into your environment, the more realistic it will be
Part 2: Textures
Meshes alone won’t make your game look realistic. If you have any interior structures, those will still be made out of brick, but you need to slap a texture on it to make it look good. This includes floors, walls, and ceilings (Alternatively, you can also use MeshParts for walls, floors, and ceilings too) You can either make your own textures or get some pre-made ones online. Again, be sure to be careful that none of the images you are using are stolen or copyrighted. The textures will need to be seamless and high quality. Do remember that the max texture resolution Roblox accepts is 1024x1024, so there is no need to make the texture any larger than that.
Once you have your texture uploaded and approved to Roblox, here are some optimization techniques I use for interior level design.
Technique 1:
I have two walls here in a 90° angle. As you can see, there is a gap on one side of the corner. That’s because we’re looking at the side of one of the blocks.
Now it would be foolish to place a texture in that one spot since it would create a seam in the texture. To fix this issue while not negatively effecting the optimization, there are two ways we can solve this issue.
If I want the inside corner of the wall to be used as a room, I can slide the right wall over by 1 stud. The texture will overlay the other block despite not being attached to it, which prevents clipping.
Technique 2:
If the inside-corner of this wall isn’t going to be seen or used by any of the players, then I can actually reduce the brick count to just a single block and improve performance by doing this:
Step 3: Importing & Exporting (Blender)
If you’re wanting to import a pre-made model into Blender, make sure that the model file you downloaded is supported in Blender. Blender supports a wide variety of different file types, but not all of them. It’s also possible that certain files that are supported may not be supported in Blender if they have any sort of effects coding or anything foreign implemented into the model. The screenshot below displays all the supported file types for Blender.
When you have your model imported into Blender, there are a few things you need to know:
- Roblox Studio only supports up to 10,000 tris in your model. If you’re unsure how to reduce the amount of tris that are present in a model, use the decimate modifier (It’s not the best way to reduce tris but it’s the quickest and easiest way to do it).
- Roblox Studio only supports .obj and .fbx file types
- Most pre-made meshes are quite large. You may want to resize the size of the mesh by pressing the “S” key while in Blender
- You will want to remove any hitboxes on the model if there are any present
Step 4: Lighting Effects
Understanding how lighting can make your environment not just more realistic-looking, but also more immersive, and greatly benefit your build. For realistic lighting, you’re going to need much more than just PointLights and SpotLights to aid you. I highly encourage you to read up on my other community tutorial linked below to see how you can make your lighting effects look much better.
Step 5: Skyboxes & Weather
This might come off as a bit obvious, but you’re going to want to have your skybox match the mood/theme of your build. If it’s supposed to be bright and cheerful, then you’re not going to want a dark grey, cloudy skybox. Furthermore, if it’s raining or snowing, then there’s lots of ways you can implement effects using either a script function or a particle emitter.
Step 6: Sounds
Believe it or not, but sound plays a critical key role in immersion. Without sound, the player won’t be as immersed, and having the player be immersed is important to any realistic build since you want the player to feel like they are actually there in the world that you created. So add sounds for absolutely everything: a light breeze, footstep sounds, rain sounds (if it’s raining of course), birds chirping, creaky doors opening, etc. Anything that should make a sound, should make a sound.
There’s a ton more I could go over, but the information I have provided should greatly aid you in getting started on creating your own realistic games. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them below.
Thank you for reading, and have a nice day :]
