Hey developers,
With winter officially over in the northern hemisphere, it’s time recap all of the things that happened in our developer community so far this year. Take a seat, make yourself comfortable, and get ready to zoom through a few months worth of news at the speed of however fast you scroll through it!
Studio Updates
Of course we have to start a developer-centric recap off with Studio updates! Here’s all the big news you may have missed:
> Scripting Updates
Attributes - Now Available!
Attributes when? Attributes now!
Script Version History Phased Rollout
Script Version History has been high on the list of requested features since the dawn of Team Create, and we’re happy to announce that the wait is over!
Upcoming Change to In-Game Thumbnail URLs
The way we handle thumbnail endpoints in-game has changed to be more efficient. If you were previously using the old way, you’ll definitely want to check out the change.
Parallel Lua Beta
Parallel Lua is here to make your scripts more… parallel! There’s a lot of specifics in the announcement that you should definitely take a look at if you’re interested.
Script Editor - Temporary Tabs Rollout
Temporary Tabs are now live for everyone, meaning you can go and use them right now!
> Building Updates
New Endorsed Models in Toolbox!
Every once in a while, the Endorsed Models in the Toolbox get an update to add fresh new models as helpful resources and useful assets. There are new vehicles, a forest pack, and a few city-themed packs for you to mess around with and use in your games!
Surface Orientation Indicator - (Currently Disabled)
Temporarily disabled, but this nifty update will show you which way is up! That is to say, it’ll indicate which surface of a part is the front face and the up direction.
New Studio Template - Baseplate 2021
There’s a new baseplate template for Studio, updated to keep with the times. Take a look for yourself!
Physical Draggers Full Release
Physical draggers are changing the way developers move parts and models in profound ways. Probably. Definitely an update worth taking a look at if you do a lot of building or moving parts around!
Align Tool Full Release
Physical draggers weren’t enough, you need a new Align tool too? Well, alright, here you go. Enjoy your shiny new tools!
New Terrain and Parts Materials Preview Build! Oh YES!
Fresh new textures for materials! You can check out these beautiful new materials in a preview build of Studio, allowing you to see what your game will look like when the new materials go live.
Heightmaps Go to New Altitudes!
Heightmaps 2, featuring instant iteration, is a huge upgrade to the way you can generate terrain heightmaps. You’ll want to check this one out!
Return of Changes to Non-ReplicatedFirst Loading Order
Changes have been made to Non-ReplicatedFirst Loading Order - read the announcement to find out what the changes were!
> UI Updates
Gamepad Virtual Cursor - Studio Beta
It’s never been easier to develop games that support gamepads thanks to the Gamepad Virtual Cursor, an emulated gamepad cursor that allows you to design and troubleshoot around gamepad usage.
UIStroke - Studio Beta (UPDATE: re-enabled)
UIStroke is here to bring your UI into the modern era! You can use it to add a stroke to your text or UI object borders with plenty of customization options.
Typewriter Effect: New property MaxVisibleGraphemes (Live)
More UI stuff! Now, you can create a typewriter-style effect for your UI without doing that tedious “add-characters-one-at-a-time” method.
Automatic Size Property: Now Available
UI bonus round? Now you can automatically resize GuiObjects to fit child content on the their X-axes, Y-axes, or both!
> Physics Updates
Introducing UniversalConstraint
UniversalConstraint ensures that two attachments are co-located and their secondary axes remain perpendicular. There’s a lot to explain, so you should see the announcement for all the details.
New Physics Stepping Method: Adaptive Timestepping
Adaptive Timestepping allows for a middle ground in physics simulation, a nice medium between accurate physics and bearable performance.
Servo Motor Responsiveness
A change for servo motors is coming very soon that aims to increase stability. There might be an impact on behavior, though, so if you use HingeConstraint, CylindricalConstraint, or PrismaticConstraint with their AngularActuatorType or ActuatorType set to Servo, you’ll want to read the announcement.
> General Updates
Introducing Our New Studio Logo!
Studio has a sleek new logo, in case you somehow missed that!
Indoor Dynamic Environment Maps Beta
Once again, the lighting engine gets an upgrade that revolutionizes Roblox. This time, the target is indoor lighting! A short blurb can’t do this one justice, so go and check it out for yourself
Surface Appearance Textures Backend Upgrade
SurfaceAppearance got a backend upgrade for textures, but there are some caveats. Take a look at the announcement to find out what they are!
New Teleport API: Now Available For Everyone
Simplifying TeleportService? Yes please! With TeleportAsync() out now, it should be much simpler to teleport players between places.
Changing the Mac Studio Command Keycode: Control vs Meta
To make Studio more consistent with the client, we are changing the keycode for command keys on Mac. Learn more in the announcement!
Changes to the /Data/Upload.ashx endpoint (X-CSRF-Token validation)
We enabled X-CSRF-Token validation on the /Data/Upload.ashx endpoint on the Roblox website in order to improve account security. This change may break scripts that were hitting the endpoint. There are more details in the announcement.
> Luau Recaps
Here’s a bit of light Luau reading for those interested in following the development of Luau closely!
Community Updates
Want to know what else is going on? Not necessarily Studio updates, but you’ll definitely want to be aware of some of the things happening in the community!
Increasing Premium Payouts - Starting Today!
Premium Payouts have been increased roughly 9x since their launch early last year!!!
Developer Roadmap Update: 2021
The 2021 Developer Roadmap has been published! Take a peek at the new features and changes we have planned for this year!
Roblox 2021: The Accelerator Program
Information on the Accelerator Program for 2021 is out. Take a look for information on how to apply to the Fall Accelerator (apps close May 18)!
Upcoming Changes to Affiliate Fees & Catalog Item Configuration Options
We think there’s a lot more potential for selling avatar items in-game that is being underutilized because there’s not much incentive. We’re upping the incentive and are excited to see what impact this has on in-game sale of avatar items.
Try the New Roblox Studio Onboarding Experience!
The DevHub has a new onboarding experience, designed to give newer developers a crash course in how to make their imagination come to life on Roblox.
Community Feedback Program Application!
There’s a new program designed to give developers the opportunity to collaborate closely with internal teams to provide feedback on upcoming changes. Learn about it and apply for it if you’re interested!
New Programs Available: “Roblox China” Licensed to Operate
We recently received our license to operate in China. Take a look at the announcement for more details!
Roblox Community Rules Update
The Community Rules have had some minor amendments in the past few months, so you may want to refamiliarize yourself with them if it’s been awhile.
New "My Money" Page - Available for All Users
There’s a new My Money page that has a whole lot of upgrades and it’s now live for all users! Go see it for yourself!
Announcing the Bug Report Wizard Beta
There’s a new way to report bugs in the works and we need your help to test it out! Take a look at the announcement to learn more.
Creator Dashboard Ability to Configure Badges - Now Available!
Pretty straightforward: the Creator Dashboard now gives you the ability to configure badges so you never have to leave the page. Ever.
Fresh Configuration of Private Servers
BitwiseAndrea and I collaborated on an epic announcement that’s basically a lot of words that just mean “we made the private server configuration page better”. Check it out for some entertainment, or to leave feedback on the new page!
Automatic Translation: Full Platform Rollout!
Automatic Translation is being fully rolled out to all games on the platform, giving every game the opportunity to reach audiences around the world!
As you can see, a LOT has happened so far this year!
We’re looking forward to seeing what the coming months hold for development on Roblox and continuing to give you the tools you need to create the games you’ve always wanted to make. Stay tuned for more, as always.
coefficients out