UGC validation system

The UGC validation system is Roblox's technical mechanism that checks if avatar assets meet platform specifications before you can upload and publish them to the Marketplace. This process ensures that avatar bodies, cosmetics, clothing, and accessories behave consistently across the platform.

The UGC validation system runs each time you:

• Try to upload an avatar asset to the Marketplace through Studio.
• Call AvatarCreationService APIs for in-experience avatar asset creation.

During this process, the UGC validation system looks at your asset to see if it meets the requirements in validation categories that are specific to its asset type. For a comprehensive list of these requirements, see Body specifications, Dynamic head specifications, Makeup specifications, Rigid accessory specifications, and Layered accessory specifications.

When an avatar asset passes validation, you can proceed with the Studio upload process by paying the upload fee, submitting the asset for moderation, and selling it on the Marketplace, or the player can proceed to purchase the avatar asset they created within an experience.

When an avatar asset fails validation, you or the player receive error messages with information on why the avatar asset didn't pass validation. For troubleshooting assistance, the UGC validation has visualization tools with checks that provide asset-specific visual guides on how to fix or improve your asset so that it can pass validation.

Validation categories

The UGC validation system organizes validation into several high-level categories. For information on these categories and some areas that they validate, review the following table.

Visualization checks

The UGC validation system includes optional visualization tools with checks to help you identify, understand, diagnose, and fix avatar assets that aren't yet ready to be on the Marketplace. When active, the visualization checks provide information on validation errors for non-compliant assets, and quality assessments for compliant assets that could use improvement.

To access the UGC validation system's visualization tools, you must first enable the beta feature. To enable and use the optional visualization checks:

1. In Studio, navigate to File > Beta Features.

2. Enable Visualizing UGC Validation.

3. Restart Studio, then in the mezzanine, click the plus icon to add a custom tab. A new tab displays.

   

4. In your custom tab, click the Add tools button. The Add Tools pop-up window displays.

   

5. Enable UGC Validation to add it to your toolbar, then close the window.

6. Navigate back to your custom tab and select the UGC Validation button to run the plugin. A UGC Validation window displays.

7. In the Explorer window, select a character body, dynamic head, rigid accessory, or layered accessory, then navigate back to the UGC Validation window and click the Run validation button. A pop-up window displays.

8. In the pop-up window:

   1. Confirm the asset type of the avatar asset that you selected. For example, if you selected a Enum.AccessoryType.Pants layered accessory, use the drop-down menu to select PantsAccessory.

      

   2. Click the Run validation button.

The validation service will run in the background and report back results in the UGC Validation window as a combination of errors and/or warnings depending on the state of your asset. For information on each visual validation check, review the following subsections.

Measure_Cage_Distance_Head

Measure_Cage_Distance_Head is a validation check that scores how closely the avatar head's outer cage hugs the head mesh, checking that the cage neither floats too far from the mesh nor sinks inside it.

Measure_Cage_Mesh_Distance

Measure_Cage_Mesh_Distance is a validation check that scores how closely the layered clothing's outer cage tracks the rendered mesh, flagging when a cage drifts too far away or pushes inside the mesh.

Measure_Cage_Mesh_Distance_Avatar

Measure_Cage_Mesh_Distance_Avatar is a validation check that scores how closely the full body outer cage follows the body mesh, flagging when a cage floats too far off the surface or intersects it.

Measure_Cage_Relevancy

Measure_Cage_Relevancy is a validation check that scores how much of the outer cage you moved actually sits over the accessory, so cage edits stay where the garment needs them.

Measure_Cage_UV

Measure_Cage_UV is a validation check that checks if the inner and outer cage UVs match the layered clothing template; UVs that don't match the layered clothing template break how the asset wraps over the body.

Measure_Cage_UV_Avatar

Measure_Cage_UV_Avatar is a validation check that checks that each body part has a cage that keeps its UVs on the standard template; wrong cage UVs distort how layered clothing wraps over the body.

Measure_Degen_Triangles

Measure_Degen_Triangles is a validation check that scores each mesh part for degenerate triangles (faces with zero or near-zero area); degenerate triangles add no surface and can break rendering.

Measure_Dynamic_Head

Measure_Dynamic_Head is a validation check that verifies if a dynamic head is animatable. Dynamic heads that are animatable have a head cage, FACS data, aligned landmarks, and can close their eyes, open their mouth, and express emotions.

Measure_Joint_Number

Measure_Joint_Number is a validation check that scores the body rig's joint setup against the expected configuration. The body rig's joint setup includes the joint counts in the left and right hands for higher-fidelity rigs.

Measure_Mesh_Manifold

Measure_Mesh_Manifold is a validation check that scores each mesh part for manifold integrity, catching holes, non-manifold edges, and similar topology problems in the geometry.

Measure_Mesh_Outside_OuterCage

Measure_Mesh_Outside_OuterCage is a validation check that scores how much of an accessory's render mesh stays between its cages; a mesh that pokes outside the outer cage deforms badly when worn.

Measure_Texture_Complexity

Measure_Texture_Complexity is a validation check that scores each texture for visual complexity, flagging flat or near-empty textures that add little detail to the asset.

Measure_Texture_Resolution

Measure_Texture_Resolution is a validation check that scores each texture by its pixel dimensions, rewarding resolution high enough to keep the asset sharp on the body.

Measure_Triangle_Intersection

Measure_Triangle_Intersection is a validation check that scores each mesh part for self-intersecting triangles in which faces pass through one another and create messy, overlapping geometry.

Measure_UV_Bound

Measure_UV_Bound is a validation check that measures how many of a mesh's UV vertices fall outside the 0-1 texture space; it reports a score but never blocks upload.

Measure_Vertex_Similarity

Measure_Vertex_Similarity is a validation check that measures the share of near-duplicate vertices in a mesh; it reports a score but never blocks upload.