Roblox showcases new avatar style at RDC 2022

pcgamesinsider.biz:

At this weekend’s RDC, Roblox Corp., the company behind Roblox, shared a new stylistic direction for its online games platform as it looks to the future of the metaverse.

Roblox is implementing improvements to avatars, chat and even its physics engine to keep up with the growing demands of its widening fanbase.

Fans of the Lego Minifigure-style player avatars do not need to worry as the old will mix with the new, meaning classic Roblox designs will mix with more realistic Sim-like player characters.

In the last 12 months, Roblox Corp. has announced an overhaul to graphics with new in-game textures alongside these new avatars with realistic clothing and improvements to the developer tool kit.

These quality-of-life improvements come at a time when Roblox developers will be gaining access to new options as they build new experiences for players.

Developers will be able to create new facial animations and sell them on the Roblox store using the new “self-view” feature, allowing developers to project facial expressions onto an avatar.

Currently, this feature enables developers to create animations that are up to 60 seconds long.

Players can also take advantage of this feature as players can dynamically project their real-world expressions onto Roblox avatars using image capture technology.

Along with creating new facial animations, developers will have the option to send players to other experiences on the Roblox platform through “tunnels”. These tunnels work in a similar fashion to 'Portals' which developers have begun implementing in their games to cross-promote, however, these new tools are said to be managed through Roblox Corp themselves, rather than being a solely developer-powered integration.

Acting like fast travel