Weekly Recap: April 6 - 10, 2026

Updates Announcements
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Key Takeaway

This week, the Character Controller Library hit full release, Roblox Plus was announced launching April 30, and Studio gained a Playtest Agent beta. We also saw Data Store storage limits go live and legacy game pass and developer product APIs set for deprecation on April 23.

Check the full recap!

Betas and Tests

[Studio Beta] StyleQuery: More Styling Features

  • StyleQuery is now in Studio beta. This feature lets you build responsive UI that adapts to layout constraints and global user settings without writing scripts.
  • Enable it via the Beta Features tab in Studio.

[Studio Beta] Studio Assistant MCP & Playtest Agent

  • Studio MCP and Assistant now include a dedicated playtest subagent that spawns a test character that agents can assign to perform basic playtesting in experiences.
  • In Studio, go to File > Beta Features and check Playtest Agent.

[Beta] Introducing Automated RTBF Processing for Data Stores

  • We’re introducing the beta for Automated Right to be Forgotten Processing (RTBF) for Data Stores. Define deletion “templates” once for your data and use Automated RTBF Processing to action against your Data Stores.
  • Read the post to see if your experience is eligible.

Updates and Announcements

New Spatial Query Filters

  • We’ve added a simpler and more flexible replacement for FilterDescendantsInstances to allow simultaneous exclude and include lists.

[Full Release] The Future of Character Movement: Character Controller Library

  • The Character Controller Library is now available for use in live experiences. Switching between the legacy Humanoid and the new Character Controller Library is available via Avatar Settings.
  • Go to the Movement section of the Avatar Settings and select the Character Controller Library to try it out!

Improved Audio Configuration for VideoFrame Instances

  • VideoFrame now includes RollOffMaxDistance, RollOffMinDistance, and RollOffMode properties for precise control over how video audio fades over distance. VideoFrame.Volume will be capped at 10 on April 22 to match Sound instances.
  • Find these properties in the Properties window when selecting a VideoFrame.

Evolving Luau OSS: Community Contributions & More

  • We’re rolling out open-source community contributions and Wally/Creator Store publishing for our newest Luau repositories, including our new Signals library, and open-sourcing our CLI for running locally-developed Luau projects on Open Cloud.

Introducing Roblox Plus

  • Starting April 30, Roblox is introducing Roblox Plus, a new subscription designed for the most highly engaged users.
  • As a creator, you can earn from Plus subscribers’ purchases, driving Plus sign-ups and subscribers spending time in your paid private servers.

Testing More Recommended For You Algorithm Signals

  • We’re testing broadening our algorithm signals to measure how players interact with your games across various timespans: from the first few minutes of a session, to daily, weekly and monthly.
  • Once testing is done, the signals will be shared on the Creator analytics dashboard along with any algorithm updates.

[Live] ClientAnimatorThrottling Phase 3 Rollout

  • On April 29th 2026, ClientAnimatorThrottling becomes an always-on performance feature of the engine and will no longer be toggle-able in Workspace.

[UPDATE] Testing Time-Based Avatar Items

  • The test across t-shirts, pants, and sweaters categories was successful with promising increases in avatar usage and purchases. Timed options are now expanding to most 3D avatar categories, excluding dynamic heads, bodies, shoes, animation packs, and emotes.
  • Creators now have toggles at the category level to help manage their catalog more efficiently, in addition to existing per-item and global toggles.

[UPDATE] Extended Services for Data Stores Is Now Available

  • Data Stores Storage Limits activated on April 9, and Access Limits rollout began with staged deployment continuing through April 23.
  • Creators should monitor usage via the Data Stores Observability Dashboard on Creator Hub and ensure DataStore error handling follows guidance for new throttling error codes.

[UPDATE] Level Up Your Community: Assign Multiple Roles per Member

  • Community managers can now assign colors to custom roles, choosing from 16 color options via the Roles section’s Settings tab.
  • Role deletion is simplified — roles can now be removed directly without requiring prior unassignment from members.

[UPDATE] New StarterPlayer Property: EnableDynamicHeads

  • The EnableDynamicHeads rollout is now complete. Facial animations are enabled across all R15 experiences and the StarterPlayer.EnableDynamicHeads property has been removed.

[UPDATE] Action Required: MeshPart Heads & Accessories

  • The MeshPartHeadsAndAccessories rollout is now complete. R15 experiences now load heads and accessories with MeshPart instances, and the Workspace.MeshPartHeadsAndAccessories property has been removed.

[UPDATE] Avatar Makeup is Here! A New Category to Create, Sell, and Wear

  • We have officially opened Avatar Makeup creation to all UGC creators!
  • Please see the documentation for best practices on how to create makeup, including regional templates and 3D export requirements.

Deprecations

[UPDATE] Official List of Deprecated Web Endpoints

  • Legacy game pass and developer product APIs will be deprecated on April 23, 2026, including endpoints for creating/updating game passes and developer products.
  • Developers should migrate to the Open Cloud APIs, which support API key, OAuth 2.0, and cookie-based authentication.
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This topic was automatically opened after 11 minutes.

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You really are stubborn aren’t you. Noticed this wasn’t on any update posts this week.

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I love this weekly recap!

Also my weekly recap: a great vacation in Tennessee!

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I’ve been noticing a lot of great announcements recently keep it up

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It’s a genuine miracle we’ve gotten more than 6 good updates this past week.

The makeup and dynamic heads are still stupid and pointless investor slop though. I feel bad for the Roblox engineers actually making good updates.

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When are y’all implementing first-person player shadows? c’mon I know y’all want to!

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The players’ body parts are made transparent so they won’t cast shadows unless you prevent Roblox from making them transparent. A better question will be:

When are y’all implementing the option to enable shadows, even for transparent parts?

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This is the HyperWeek of updates.

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Goodbye to infinite DataStore storage. At least I tried an experiment to see how many keys I could possibly fit. And I found out I could store MILLIONS of keys in one single DataStore before I hit the 100-megabyte limit.

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Wouldn’t that cause an issue of transparent players still casting shadows in third-person? That doesn’t seem ideal, that’s why I left my question open-ended

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I said “the option”. Which means that we should have the right to make choice that will that specific part cast shadow or not.

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Oh I see, your “better” question is asking for something else entirely.
I’m asking for first-person shadows to be a built-in engine feature, not for an option that lets developers implement it themselves.

Having that option would still be nice though! I can imagine some use cases for it

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@robinhara1956 do you have anything to contribute

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[ROBOTIC SUMMARY // STATUS: PROCESSED]

KEY TAKEAWAY:
WEEKLY UPDATE INGESTED.

  • CHARACTER CONTROLLER LIBRARY → FULL RELEASE
  • ROBLOX PLUS → LAUNCH DATE: APRIL 30
  • STUDIO PLAYTEST AGENT → BETA AVAILABLE
  • DATA STORE STORAGE LIMITS → ACTIVE
  • LEGACY API DEPRECATION → SCHEDULED: APRIL 23

ACTION: REVIEW FULL DATASET IF REQUIRED.

BETAS AND TESTS:

STYLEQUERY [STUDIO BETA]

  • FUNCTION: RESPONSIVE UI WITHOUT SCRIPTING
  • ACTIVATION PATH: STUDIO > BETA FEATURES

PLAYTEST AGENT + STUDIO MCP

  • FUNCTION: AUTOMATED TEST CHARACTER EXECUTION
  • ACTIVATION PATH: FILE > BETA FEATURES

AUTOMATED RTBF PROCESSING [DATA STORES BETA]

  • FUNCTION: TEMPLATE-BASED DATA DELETION
  • STATUS: ELIGIBILITY REQUIRED

UPDATES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:

SPATIAL QUERY FILTERS

  • REPLACES: FilterDescendantsInstances
  • ADDS: INCLUDE + EXCLUDE SUPPORT

CHARACTER CONTROLLER LIBRARY [FULL RELEASE]

  • SWITCHABLE VIA AVATAR SETTINGS
  • REPLACES: LEGACY HUMANOID (OPTIONAL)

VIDEOFRAME AUDIO UPDATE

  • NEW PARAMETERS: ROLLOFF DISTANCE + MODE
  • VOLUME CAP: 10 (EFFECTIVE APRIL 22)

LUAU OPEN SOURCE EXPANSION

  • ADDS: COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS
  • INCLUDES: SIGNALS LIBRARY + CLI TOOLS

ROBLOX PLUS

  • TYPE: SUBSCRIPTION MODEL
  • CREATOR BENEFIT: REVENUE FROM SUBSCRIBER ACTIVITY

RECOMMENDATION SYSTEM TESTING

  • TRACKS: SHORT-TERM → LONG-TERM PLAYER ENGAGEMENT
  • OUTPUT: CREATOR DASHBOARD METRICS (PENDING)

CLIENTANIMATORTHROTTLING

  • STATUS: ALWAYS-ON APRIL 29
  • TOGGLE: REMOVED

TIME-BASED AVATAR ITEMS

  • EXPANDED TO: MOST 3D CATEGORIES
  • EXCLUDES: HEADS, BODIES, SHOES, EMOTES

DATA STORES UPDATE

  • STORAGE LIMITS: ACTIVE
  • ACCESS LIMITS: ROLLING OUT
  • ACTION: MONITOR DASHBOARD + HANDLE NEW ERRORS

COMMUNITY ROLES UPDATE

  • MULTIPLE ROLES: ENABLED
  • COLORS: 16 OPTIONS AVAILABLE
  • ROLE DELETION: SIMPLIFIED

DYNAMIC HEADS

  • STATUS: FULLY ENABLED
  • PROPERTY: REMOVED

MESHPART HEADS & ACCESSORIES

  • STATUS: COMPLETE MIGRATION
  • PROPERTY: REMOVED

AVATAR MAKEUP

  • STATUS: AVAILABLE TO ALL UGC CREATORS
  • ACTION: FOLLOW CREATION GUIDELINES

DEPRECATIONS:

LEGACY GAME PASS + DEV PRODUCT APIS

  • DEPRECATION DATE: APRIL 23, 2026
  • REQUIRED ACTION: MIGRATE TO OPEN CLOUD APIS
  • AUTH METHODS: API KEY / OAUTH2 / COOKIE

END OF TRANSMISSION.

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They can add a property like “CastShadowWhenTransparent” or something like that, and it would be set to false by default so it doesn’t break old scripts and you have the choice of which part you want to cast a shadow exactly. Do you think that would work?

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Considering that SurfaceAppearances are getting a ResampleMode property, will MaterialVariants get it too?

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If this is about the option of letting transparent parts cast shadows, yea something like that could work

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all these recent announcements give me hope that websockets will come into RCC soon