In mid-November, we released GUI rotation, which allows you to rotate a GUI for such purposes as a clock or compass, among other things. Now, we’ve taken GUI functionality one step further with the release of SurfaceGUIs, which give you the ability to place a GUI on the surface of a part. This is a small piece of functionality with big potential, as it opens up the possibility of creating interactive vehicle dashboards, virtual computers, and elevator buttons, and better 3D integration of menus and important player information.

To use SurfaceGUIs, we recommend you first create your GUI as a standard ScreenGUI object in ROBLOX Studio. Once it’s created, you add a new SurfaceGUI object to the part on which you want to project the ScreenGUI. This can be accomplished by selecting the part and double-clicking the new SurfaceGUI object (View > Basic Objects). Finally, you add the components of your ScreenGUI to the SurfaceGUI by nesting them beneath the SurfaceGUI object. The SurfaceGUI will then appear on the part.

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“Terrain” water has existed in ROBLOX for the last year and a half and, while the physics have always behaved in satisfyingly realistic fashion, the appearance left something to be desired. Last week, we turned on a new look for our water, bringing waves, reflections, and blue underwater “fog” to ROBLOXian H2O. The feature is primarily eye candy, but it fits in our grand rendering overhaul that started with improved performance and lead to dynamic lighting, part outlines, and in the near future new building material textures.

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