Every week, we’re busy telling the stories behind our platform, our technology and our place in the gaming and technology industries. For those of you who catch up with ROBLOX over the weekend, the Weekly ROBLOX Roundup collects the best stuff to hit our various avenues of publication in the last week. This time: Virtual BLOXcon this September, the creation of Apocalypse Rising’s v5.0 update, a spotlight on UlrichStern25′s impressive pirate ships, impending contest deadlines, a ROBLOX build of Minas Tirith, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

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Seven-day Blog Recap

Virtual BLOXcon is coming this September

Only a small fraction of ROBLOXia’s current population will actually get to attend the sold-out BLOXcon in person this summer. As much as we’d like to show up in every town and throw a live BLOXcon for you and your friends, we haven’t yet mastered the technology or hired the couple thousand minions we’d need to make that possible. We will, however, be making our way into your home on September 21st, 2013, the date of our virtual BLOXcon. For a general idea of what we’re planning to offer and why you should attend, check out our announcement from last week. Stay tuned for more concrete details in the coming weeks.

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Every week, we’re busy telling the stories behind our platform, our technology and our place in the gaming and technology industries. For those of you who catch up with ROBLOX over the weekend, the Weekly ROBLOX Roundup collects the best stuff to hit our various avenues of publication in the last week. This time: our custom-built binary file format, the BLOXcon poster contest, level design expertise from MahPizzaIsHere, an inspiring story (and video) from our “mini-BLOXcon” at Maker Faire, the Memorial Day Sale, a roundup of recent ROBLOX press, Ye Olde’ Village by ClonedFett35, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

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Seven-day Blog Recap

Our custom-built binary file format

As our developers release new features that expand the limits of the ROBLOX engine, new problems occasionally surface. For instance, we’ve made it much easier for builders to create huge ROBLOX places with tens of thousands of parts, but the amount of data in such worlds tends to result in unwieldy file sizes. We tackled that problem head-first by not just improving the way we store ROBLOX place data, but completely rewriting our file format for efficient storage. Arseny devised brilliant methods to make our custom file format super efficient, and the benefits stand to make the entire ROBLOX experience better — in an intentionally subtle way. It’s a dense article, but, if nothing else, a good insight into the problems our developers encounter and solve every day.

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Every week, we’re busy telling the stories behind our platform, our technology and our place in the gaming and technology industries. For those of you who catch up with ROBLOX over the weekend, the Weekly ROBLOX Roundup collects the best stuff to hit our various avenues of publication in the last week. This time: how to make your dynamic lighting and shadows look amazing, renting plots of land in KlamKnights City, our weekend at Maker Faire Bay Area, tips for submitting to the ROBLOX Film Fest, Team Zombie Defence Tycoon, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

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Seven-day Blog Recap

How to make your dynamic lighting look amazing

While there is a considerable benefit to simply enabling dynamic lighting in your place — that is, your parts immediately cast realistic shadows — ROBLOX builders have found many ways to manipulate the feature for much more impressive and immersive effects. In this article, we had four proven dynamic lighting aficionados provide tips, techniques and resources for creating amazing atmosphere. From beginner to advanced, there’s something for everyone who’s looking to make their mark with dynamic lighting.

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Every week, we’re busy telling the stories behind our platform, our technology and our place in the gaming and technology industries. For those of you who catch up with ROBLOX over the weekend, the Weekly ROBLOX Roundup collects the best stuff to hit our various avenues of publication in the last week. This time: a whole bunch of dynamic lighting coverage, a day in the life of the Content Team, the development of Strobe (one of ROBLOX’s hippest games), a game-design showdown between competing FPS developers litozinnamon and Spookyfox, free gear bundled with ROBLOX cards for May, The Old Town by Aonux, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

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Seven-day Blog Recap

Dynamic lighting has arrived (and is quickly changing the look of ROBLOX)!

This week’s top story, by a long shot, was the official release of dynamic lighting. That’s not a surprise; dynamic lighting is a feature you’ve been requesting for years and we’ve been prototyping and developing for several months. Our announcement provides a detailed guide to enabling and implementing dynamic lighting in your ROBLOX place, so it’s worth taking a few minutes to learn the steps. The payoff is huge — in just the first 24 hours of dynamic lighting’s official existence, many cunning ROBLOX builders harnessed the feature to breathe new life, style and dynamics into their games and places. Keep up the great work and don’t hesitate to share your dynamic lighting creation with us and others — here or via ROBLOX on Twitter.

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Every month, we release a new set of gear and hats you can only obtain by redeeming ROBLOX cards from particular retailers around the world. That means when you’re turning your prized red slice of ROBLOXia into Builders Club subscriptions or Robux, you’re snagging yourself some stylish virtual goods at no extra cost. We just swapped in a whole new selection of personality-rich robot-themed hats for May, and we’re sure at least one of these will push your buttons!

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Every week, we’re busy telling the stories behind our platform, our technology and our place in the gaming and technology industries. For those of you who catch up with ROBLOX over the weekend, the Weekly ROBLOX Roundup collects the best stuff to hit our various avenues of publication in the last week. This time: the launch of the ROBLOX International Film Festival, the fantastic winners of our dynamic lighting video contest, the new in-game sales feature, ROBLOX’s booth at Maker Faire Bay Area 2013, crazyman32′s advice on getting your ambitious ROBLOX project off the ground, the first issue of Feedback Loop, Avert the Odds II, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

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Seven-day Blog Recap

ROBLOX International Film Festival now open for submissions

A few weeks ago, we announced the ROBLOX International Film Festival and, on Friday, we opened the doors to your submissions. We’re looking for films in five categories and you have until June 2nd at 11:59 p.m. PT to submit your entry. For complete details and a Film Fest FAQ, read our Friday blog announcement. A word of advice: use the time you have available to produce the best film you can. Test it out on friends and see what they think. After all, it’s a prized BLOXY Award and live screening at BLOXcon on the line!

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Every week, we’re busy telling the stories behind our platform, our technology and our place in the gaming and technology industries. For those of you who catch up with ROBLOX over the weekend, the Weekly ROBLOX Roundup collects the best stuff to hit our various avenues of publication in the last week. This time: how to “win” at ROBLOX, a trading system strategy guide, a day in the life of a web developer, a Spotlight on manops5 and his virtual home, your chance to vote on our dynamic lighting contest, nostalgic ROBLOX memories, Aiedan Kemaneska, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

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Seven-day Blog Recap

Five ways to “win” at ROBLOX

In ROBLOX, there’s no real “endgame.” There’s no victory screen, nor final credits. So, how do you “win?” As it turns out, you have a lot more options here than in a traditional game.

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