Some of you may have already seen this post asking for test Volunteers: https://devforum.roblox.com/t/looking-for-volunteers-testing-relative-character-replication-on-moving-platforms/167336

We have enabled a new improvement for characters walking on multiplayer platforms on Monday evening.

Behavior Changes Expected:



Characters can more easily move around on top of platforms/vehicles/boats that are controlled/simulated by other players without dragging behind.

Should be easier to interact with OTHER player characters on top of these moving platforms.

DISCLAIMER

If we detect any significant bugs introduced by this, we may have to roll back!

We’re essentially trying to solve the problem of people who wanted to make great games like Galleons (https://www.roblox.com/games/5310452/Galleons-v7-1) without having to jump through all the hoops of re-implementing characters from scratch and having them behave completely differently when running on boats or vs other ground. This feature works without the user or developer having to do anything specific. We’ve been testing this on various places to make sure this was safe to release, but there may have been some issues that slipped past. Please let me know of anything weird that you may observe!

Tech Details:

We replicate character positions in local-coordinates of the platform they are moving on top of.

We use built-in character floor-detection logic to find platforms. If you have a custom character that doesn’t use Roblox Humanoid Running or RunningNoPhysics states, this may not work for you.

Caveats/Behavioral Specifications

Jumping from a platform someone owns to another platform someone ELSE owns may cause a small visual discontinuity for 1 frame for other players.

Small objects will not be treated as platforms and will not locally replicate characters.

Anything parented to Player Characters will never be considered a platform. If you parent vehicles to Player Characters, do not expect this feature to help you. Try using PartInstance:SetNetworkOwner instead putting vehicles in PlayerCharacter.

If your platform is controlled/moved by BodyGyro, BodyPosition, or is constrained to Anchored objects (such as Baseplate or Terrain), this improvement will work but it may work sub-optimally. You may see characters vibrating a bit. We are looking for a way to resolve this.

Known Bugs