Roblox supports a wide variety of mesh configurations created from third-party software such as Blender or Maya.
Check that your model meets the following modeling specifications and guidelines before exporting to ensure Studio compatibility. Specific types of assets, like characters and accessories, have additional specifications:
- If you are creating a rigid accessory model, ensure that your model follows the accessory specifications.
- If you are creating a clothing accessory model, ensure that your model follows the clothing specifications.
- If you are creating an avatar character model, ensure that your model follows the character specifications.
When ready to export, see the export settings for mesh export settings for Blender and Maya.
If you meet certain account requirements, you can sell your custom meshes as accessories on the Marketplace. See Rigid accessories for an overview on the creation process for these types of accessories.
Geometry
See the following specifications for general geometry:
- Budgets - Individual meshes can not exceed 10,000 triangles. Avatar items have their own individual budget requirements for characters and accessories.
- Watertight - All geometry must be watertight without exposed holes or backfaces.
- No N-gons - Meshes must be in quads where possible.
- Volume - Meshes cannot be 0 thickness and must have some volume.
Rigging and skinning
Roblox supports third-party meshes with an internal rig, or skeleton structure that can be used as additional articulation points in your model. See Character rigs for specific standards for an R15 character rig.
See the following requirements for general rigging and skinning:
- Transformations - All bones (Blender) or joints (Maya) must be frozen and have scale values set to 1, 1, 1 and rotation values set to 0, 0, 0.
- Symmetry - When possible, maintain symmetry when applying influences to a rig
- Root joint - The root bone or joint should always be set to 0, 0, 0.
- Max influences - A vertex can not be influenced by more than 4 bones or joints.
- No Root influences - Do not apply influences to the Root bone or joint.
Textures
Roblox supports basic color textures and modern PBR textures. For technical requirements and best practices when generating individual texture images, see Texture specifications.
Animations
An animation can be included on any .fbx mesh export. For information on prepping a character animation from a modeling software for export, see Export animations from Maya.
See the following requirements for assets with animation:
- Single track animation - Only a single animation track can be exported with a mesh or model. If you want to export multiple animations, you need to create separate exports for each animation you want to import.
Inner and outer cages
Inner and Outer cages are non-rendered meshes that Roblox uses to define the inner and outer surfaces of a mesh using a WrapLayer or WrapTarget instance. These cages are most often used with characters and accessories, though you can use cage meshes for any mesh object.
Character models must include an outer cage in order to properly equip layered clothing and accessories. See Character specifications for additional information.
For general use, see the following requirements for adding inner and outer cage meshes to your model:
Naming conventions - The inner and outer cage must be named after the primary mesh object with _InnerCage and _OuterCage affixed.
Outer cage - Models, such as a playable character, that aren't expected deform but are the target of meshes that will stretch over it, only require an Outer Cage.
Vertices and UV map - Don't delete vertices or alter the UVs on the Inner or Outer Cages as this can cause errors when importing in Studio or when equipping onto a character.
Symmetry and consistency - Keep each face (the space between vertices) consistently sized and retain symmetry wherever possible. Use symmetry tools in your modeling software whenever possible.
