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So, I have quite some suggestions in terms of visual features for Roblox, and it's nothing next-gen nor anything like that, I am talking about very simple visual stuff, some of which was possible to do in games 15 years ago, some others since 10 years ago (more or less), and doesn't really weight more than what we currently have in terms of processing (a lot of this stuff be done purely in the shaders), or so I think from what I have done and learned so far over the years.
I have been toying with the studio, but I am still a newbie on it thus if there's anything that was already denied or already exists in some way, apologies in advance.
These suggestions are:
1 - Blending types: right now all we have is transparency. It would be really nice if we had blending types such as additive (color + color), difference (color - color), exclusive (color xor color), multiplier (color x color), lighten (brightest color), darken (darkest color) and real alpha channels (meaning a RGB image with an alpha image).
2 - Sprites and vertical sprites: in other words, sheets (single face squares) with a texture always facing the player, or always facing the XY axis of the player (vertical sprite), which could potentially have frames (for explosions, sparks, etc).
3 - Custom textured particle systems: I know the particle systems just came out, but it really strikes me why the particle textures are static, it makes them so limiting for absolutely no reason imho. The ability to define a custom texture for the particle systems is a must imo.
4 - A sheet part: as far as I see there's no sheet part. I guess to make something close to it I would have to have a part with one of its axis set to 0.
However doesn't this keep all the polys anyway, or is it smart enough to just render 1 square or 2 triangles?
5 - Custom materials: since custom decals are allowed, materials are basically the same with simply the addition of extra stuff such as specular, bump or normal maps, and they are as easy to moderate, I think.
The thing is that it's just sad to see the same granite, slate and plastic all over the place...
I realize that in case you make that new terrain update soon, which depends on the kind of material (and which is very very cool btw), this gets harder to manage. But for that is just a matter to add a setting on which terrain behavior we want that material to have.
I also realize that you can use decals to give pretty much a different "material" to every face of a part, but the colossal overhead that implies just annoys me (1 extra node per face, that the game has to process *and* render), when the solution could be much simpler.
6 - Manipulating the texture UV offset and scale: may not sound like much, but it usage of this would be to scroll the texture at will, having a bigger image and set just a part of it (for icons, monitors, frames, proper UV skinning for CSG modeling, etc). Plus, loading a bigger image is generally better than loading a ton of smaller ones (less HTTP requests, less opened sockets and all the overhead that comes with them, so the speed pays off, just look at the Google doodles).
7 - Coronas/lens flares: it's minor, and can be done almost directly on the GUI, but still have a native functionality of this would be nice.
They make the map more atmospheric, provide nice flashlights, the exhaust of a rocket/jet, and complement explosion effects quite well (makes you "see" the "heat" of the explosion to an extent when properly applied).
I have to note this sort of stuff exists for 10-15 years already (some of it already existed even before that in a N64), so any computer/smartphone able to run Roblox as it is right now, would certainly have no problem with these as far as I can see (unless I am missing something).
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