Precision Building: The Benefits & Getting Started
This article was written by CorrivalRhyme, the architect behind numerous places that Roblox users come to work, live, and play in. From games such as BuildWorld, Cursed Tales, and Audio City to creating one of the startup images for Roblox Studio with Martxn, CorrivalRhyme has a wide range of experience with creating on Roblox.
Updated as of June 11, 2021
Precision is a virtue. A principle of which governs many aspects. A principle I learned myself over years of work. For the builders novice or experienced on Roblox, precision building is a beneficial practice for which is great in these primary ways: realism, complex builds, working mechanisms, and showcases. Advantages of this include visual satisfaction, immersion, minimizing potential future issues, and overall evenness of elements within the build or scene.
For perspective, think of the art of Origami, paper folding:
If you start folding a model with folds offset by a minuscule length, these offset folds will become increasingly more noticeable as you fold the model. This principle applies to building too. If there’s a part that is offset in very small decimal increments, it’ll show, whether manifesting itself in weird, inexplicable lines that show up everywhere because of shadows, or in the realism aspect of building for immersion, being perfectly aligned on one area of the build and marginally offset on another.
For starters, my primary driver plugins which I believe to be the best are: Building Tools by F3X (GigsD4X), and Stravant’s suite of plugins such as GapFill and ResizeAlign. They each go hand in hand, and I switch back and forth between them for different steps in the process of a build or scene. This small selection of plugins ultimately is what drives the precision building principle for my workflow.
In F3X, the increments can be adjusted in the three tools of moving, size, and rotating. The best increments for moving and resizing are the even ones that coincide with the scale of the stud, Roblox’s standard universal unit for everything. 1, 0.5, 0.25, 0.125, 0.0625 (all just halves of the other) and even 0.03125 for those pesky details are the most useful in terms of moving and resizing. This goes for Studio’s increments as well in the Model pane. I’ve personally grown most towards 0.0625 and 0.03125 (surprisingly). Working in 0.1 and 0.01 consistently throughout, tends to throw you off and becomes hard to keep things even, efficient, and keep track of. Special case increments that are any value, are useful for editing something at a specific increment.
For example, I may be moving an obstacle temporarily that is interrupting the completion of something within the build or scene such that I can put it right back where it was exactly. As for rotating: 15, 10, 5, 2.5 (halving values again) degrees would be the most ideal and even increments for when you are rotating things; working with radial symmetry, corner rotating (like offsetting a part from the corner/edge of another) and more. This would be the key portion of precision building that matters most.
In the event you need to create something (like a fence/pattern) containing incremental, repeating elements, a method to solve this as a builder is quite simply math. As example, there needs to be fence posts that go along a set distance. The first step is to identify the length of the distance. This length is 10 studs. With that, whatever the value of the width of these posts are going to be, subtract that width value from the railing length. The width of each post is 0.25 studs.
The simple math operation will be this: 10–0.25 = 9.75
Now, depending on how many posts exist along this railing, it must be divided by one less than how many are needed (If that isn’t accounted for, the post could appear on the other side of the end of the railing when the last post is placed). If 5 posts are needed, divide 9.75 by 4, with the sum being the increment (2.4375) that you need to use to duplicate and move those posts evenly along this distance.
For summary: 5 posts needed along a 10 studs long length > Divide 9.75 by 4 > 2.4375 (needed increment).
In the flooring department: I have found that a fairly realistic (and precise!) method to make non-textured tile look great as well as have a nice 3D effect is to build with two layers of parts. Layer 1 being below this tile, for the “grout” layer, of which can be any real desired thickness, and will allow to independently change the color of the grout layer for the tile lines. Layer 2 is the actual tile itself. While the pattern may be anything you can think of, getting the thickness of the tiles as well as the thickness of the grout lines is key. I personally aim for a tile thickness of 0.625 studs (1/16 studs). For the overall grid proportions, I will set the X and Y sizing as 0.05 studs less for the desired size values. For example, if tiles are 3 x 3 studs, the actual size for them will be 2.95 x 2.95. This also helps with moving them after duplication. You will not need a complex number of a custom increment! That is because the proportions are kept the same such that it won’t change upon duplicating across a floor area.
A key aspect when it comes to just building overall, is the use of reference imagery and thinking of original works. From my standpoint, aim for some of both. I come from a background of building almost entirely out of my own mindscape, which is really hard to do for most. But I’ve found that it’s also good to use reference imagery and whatnot for building too.
Some of the time, there will be a case where I need to come up with a filler element for a scene, but I have never made it before. I search for images to give myself some ideas of that element, build it based off of them, and go from there. But here’s where this is key: I now know significantly more about that element than I did previously. The next time I am in a similar situation, I will have a greater knowledge base on that so that I can use less and less imagery (not that using any is a bad thing) and be in the real architect position I strive for. This relates to precision building in the realm of how accurate different elements interact and connect with each other in a build or scene.
Another key aspect, is what to even build in the first place? When having the burning passion to build something in general, I’ve made the observation over time that many wish to, but draw blanks on what to create and may ask others for suggestions. Now, this can be a difficult situation to get past. Sometimes because of what is interesting to build at the moment, what is not, and what will provide a great result. What I can elaborate on the subject is that you should have patience. It should come to you at some point in time. Wait for the idea and drive to come. Trying to force yourself to build something that does not ultimately interest you will not be created at a 100% level, and not in an engaging and tuned-in workflow. It can result in loss of motivation and a lack of real productivity while developing. It could get boring over time when what you thought was a good idea ends up being an overly-ambitious goal that couldn’t be accomplished in the timeframe that you wanted it to. A word I could use to describe the process is flow.
When you become lost in the process of creating it, you know that you love what you’re doing and when I first had this feeling getting into architecture, I then knew that it was going to be one of my biggest passions in life. I have come to love designing places that people would figuratively come to live, work, and play in. When an idea does come to mind, don’t go all in on it right away.
Take time to make a mockup of what you’re thinking. Make the entire idea, but in a simplified form of a few basic gray parts; known as a “block-out.” This relates to precision building in the idea of how accurate the idea of what to build will be aligned with being in the mood to create such that it comes to full fruition and is high quality.
The creation above is a concept-to-reality build of an office building. Notice that I did the mockup such that it was around the same scale as the finished product. I took what I had for the mockup and expanded on it element-by-element, detail-by-detail to eventually become the resulting masterpiece. I initially created this in 2017, and then revisited it in 2021.
For precision building, this workflow all comes down to your own thinking process of the desired product. How invested you may be into what you are creating. Using even increments to precisely put it together, and knowing whether or not the process is flowing. Sometimes, an idea can come out of nowhere, and it just works beautifully because of your passion for it. Precise, concrete ideas with your newly-acquired precise skills of building and lastly, a precise result.
Interested in keeping up with CorrivalRhyme’s building? Follow him on Twitter and check out his Roblox profile!
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