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ROBLOX Just Got Prettier: New Textures Unify Terrain and Parts

April 24, 2014

by Tara "tarabyte" Byars


Archive Gamers News
See terrain with a new set of eyes. Pictured here? The KlamKnights HQ, a part of their expanding universe of games.

See terrain with a new set of eyes. Pictured here? The KlamKnights HQ, a part of their universe of games.

In an effort to unify the visual aesthetic of ROBLOX, we’ve revamped all of our terrain textures. That means grass, sand, bricks, stone and every other terrain texture have higher-definition textures, and more realistic slopes, ridges, and wedges — all without using any additional computational resources. Parts and terrain no longer face such a stark juxtaposition, mutually benefiting both the look of our platform, and those who build and play inside it. Let’s take a look at some of our new terrain and touch on the logic behind these changes.

Grass – Before/After

GrassTerrainBefore

Grass looks much more realistic now, and matches the look and feel of the parts you use inside ROBLOX. This was an intentional move on our part to close the gap between part and terrain aesthetics.

Bricks – Before/After

TerrainBricksBeforeAfter

The new bricks have a pattern more grounded in reality, and vary more in size, color and shape. They also have matching wedges, which makes them look much more streamlined and uniform. The new bricks also scale more realistically with the size of your avatar.

Asphalt – Before/After

TerrainDarkStoneBeforeAfter

Asphalt now has the rough, gritty texture that you’d find on most streets. If you haven’t noticed yet, we’re replacing the sort of “brushed,” cartoon-ish look of our previous terrain with textures grounded more in realism.

Gravel – Before/After

TerrainGraySpeckledRocksBeforeAfter

Gravel has a much more nuanced look to it now, and is actually very detailed upon close inspection.

Mossy Stone – Before/After

TerrainMossyRocksBeforeAfter

Our mossy stones have a lot more variance in the amount of moss patterns, and no longer blur or stretch when applied to sharp corners and edges.

Sand – Before/After

TerrainSandBeforeAfter

Sand looks drastically different. You’ll notice surface terrain has the same sand texture as parts, while the wedges are custom built textures.

Plastic – Before/After

TerrainPlasticBeforeAfter

Plastic is now much smoother with a very subtle texture that you can see up close, and still reflects light from the sun or moon!

As always, we’ll be keeping a very keen eye on what you guys create with these new textures — we’ve only touched on seven new terrain textures in this article, so jump into Studio and start experimenting with all of our new textures.