Winter 2021 Recap

Updates Community & Events
#1

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!

:desktop_computer: 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

image

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 :bulb:

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!


:dancing_women: 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. :dog:

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 :sunglasses:

125 Likes
#2

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#3

This winter was great! :grinning: I cant wait for more updates in the future.

It’s also weird to think how fast this year is going. It felt like just yesterday when we were celebrating the new year.

Thank you roblox for giving us these great updates! :slightly_smiling_face:

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#4

As you can see by this article, roblox has released a plethora of great updates i make an exception for one or two of them but the good outweighs both of them.

To tie it together we had @coefficients anchoring it by writing this article such a legend.

Things like the new avatareditorservice, new studio baseplate, parallel lua are some of my personal favorites.

Things such as more efficient collision detection would be nice to see in the future

Thanks roblox and keep up the hard work!

17 Likes
#7

Winter 2021 has probably been the highest point for me in what’s now been an 11 year journey on this platform. I just want to give my thanks and appreciation to all the developers and players out there supporting each other, their own dreams and lastly helping me achieve mine.

With lots of great updates has also been a lot of big opportunities and I’m excited to continue to keep tackling more. I’m so glad I’m still on the platform today and that it’s been the “beacon of light” in bad times and good. I say that especially now as about a month ago marked the conclusion of a year in a pandemic.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a recap retrospective, or my own little “recap”. I want to jump right into it, since this month’s been big.

Bloxy Awards

First of all, I want to say congratulations to everyone who won a Bloxy Award. The saying “hard work pays off” isn’t for nothing and when you dedicate yourself to your work you can see yourself going far. Take the time to learn your craft, put it to good use and improve it around the clock.

These year’s nominees were phenomenal and well-deserved. Those who won awards, those who were nominated and even some unheard gems. Everyone’s worked so hard these days and it’s great seeing what developers are capable of as the platform advances. Like browsing through the developer Twitter tag and seeing all kinds of great builds.

The venue was also really cool too, showcasing the talents of developers in the community and some of the upcoming technology we’ll get. Getting to cruise around feeling like we were on an adventure as the main show went on. JParty was on point as always with his anchorship. :joy:

The next thing is… I won an award there and I was really stunned. I never thought that in my years of being on the platform I would ever see my name in a Bloxy Awards show. It wasn’t in the main showing but it was in the lobby instead. I know it’s ironic because I tell others that hard work pays off, but I guess I never believed that what I did was enough for one. Truly, I am the happiest I could’ve been.

I hope to continue to provide support for developers, improve my own craft and way of responding and eventually start getting to developing a large project of my own, enough to contend in the Bloxy Awards main show. That would be so cool, to be able to win such a big award like that. Even this much has made me so happy I can’t begin to express it all.

Can’t wait to receive my virtual and physical trophies - to me, it’s going to be such a big mark on how far I’ve really come with my work from someone who understood nothing about development. Roblox has been the foundation for my hobby, my passion and what I want to do in the professional world when I start branching out to learn external languages and such. :slight_smile:

Accelerator Programs

I’m not sure if any of the Accelerator sessions are under way yet, but some sessions should be rounding up their final list of attendees and doing their reviews. I believe the Summer session was the most recent one to finish up. A huge congratulations to anyone who was chosen for an interview and passed it. Good luck for upcoming sessions, hope you’ll get the most out of the program!

Studio Updates

Winter 2021 has been packed with my all time favourite updates, personally. Although I’m not as excited as I was initially when I heard about Attributes, that doesn’t mean I don’t love the update… I mean I’m literally abusing attributes anywhere I can, for no reason, even if it’s not a good idea. :sweat_smile:

Without further ado, my highlight updates for this period:

  • Attributes: Of course. How could I not? Attributes have been a life saver and absolute game changer in many of my environments. I’ve already built a few systems around attributes like doors with security clearance levels and locally configurable trophy visibility (wearable accessories with passive in-game boosts). They’ve been an interesting pair with CollectionService.

  • Parallel Lua: I’m by no means a technical person and want to get the most information I can out of this before I start using it, since I might be in that boat of users who just makes everything parallel and then later wonders why my code doesn’t work at all. That being said: I’ve followed a few use cases from other users for PL like generating nodes for custom pathfinding or handling NPCs on their own threads and I can safely say learning this would be a worthwhile time investment.

  • New Endorsed Models: What an absolute treat! Vehicles are one thing that I’ve just never been able to develop and the pack of vehicles released have been great for me. Not only are they already great for use as they are, but you can even build your own appearances on the chassis and learn vehicle code through them. I have not yet checked out the other packs though. Thank you to the team that made this possible, it really helps out!

  • New Terrain Materials: Materials updates always need to be a highlight. An expanded arsenal of materials worth using, as well as custom ones coming soon™, is exciting. This expands the capabilities of builders to make much more fitting builds and enticing environments with a higher degree of accuracy or realism, or just to get down a better feel. Can’t wait to actually start breaking into them with my teams.

  • MaxVisibleGraphemes: Woohoo, typewriters! One of my projects has a tutorial Gui with RichText and I’ve been thinking about how I can typewrite it while keeping the RichText - this solves my problem for me. Unfortunately I will still have to write my own code if I want extended animation control, but for simple typewriter effects this will be my go-to point. Time to convert.

  • Increased Premium Payouts: :sunglasses: :moneybag:

I’m also still working with my newest team - they onboarded me last year to try our hand at Accelerator 2020 (wow, a year ago, time flies!) but we did not pass the application stage. I’m glad I made the decision to stick it through rather than leave; I’ve bonded so well with that team and have had lots of fun working on our RPG project. We have a lot planned for the year ahead.

It’s been a really exciting year worth good updates and big opportunities for the developer community and I can’t wait to see what Roblox has in store for us next. Thanks for the recap and to the engineers who’ve been working to bring us more tools to improve our development experience.

(RDC SOON WOO!)

:slight_smile:

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#8

Cool to see how far Roblox has progressed in these 3 months, I am looking forward to crazy updates in the future!

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#9

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#10

This winter has been amazing! So many updates, this means I need to get some hot choco to read all of this, there is so many amazing updates!

Keep it up, Roblox.

leftyjrc is now gone :sunglasses:

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#11

yes. There will be. Its being delayed. OR people are just guessing when it starts. Roblox hasn’t confirmed it.

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#12

noice thats will help the small developrs

1 Like
#13

Wait, it’s winter already?

Wow, time sure does fly

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#14

Any animation updates?

I don’t think there is one

#15

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