THE SHORT ANSWER
Roblox has fully launched Custom Terrain Materials and the first wave of terrain performance improvements. Developers can now publish games using up to 62 custom materials with significant reductions in file size, load time, CPU memory overhead (90% reduction), and meshing latency (45% reduction). The features require opting in via the Expanded Terrain property in Workspace.
- Custom Terrain Materials and performance improvements exited Early Access on October 22, 2026
- Up to 62 custom terrain materials can be painted onto terrain in a single place
- Benchmarks show 90% reduction in CPU memory overhead and 45% reduction in meshing latency
- Developers must enable Expanded Terrain in Workspace properties and reopen the place
- Several known issues remain, including Team Create sync delays and thin terrain streaming problems
What Launched Today
Roblox has moved Custom Terrain Materials and the first batch of terrain rendering, storage, and delivery optimizations out of Early Access. As of October 22, any game using these features can be published and played by the full Roblox audience. Places edited during the Early Access period are already live based on their publish status, but creators still need to re-enable the features manually for each place.
The headline capability is support for up to 62 custom terrain materials per place. These materials can be painted directly onto terrain through the Terrain Editor, allowing distinct biomes or visual variety within a single world without relying on mesh parts or decals.
How to Enable Expanded Terrain
The features are gated behind an "Expanded Terrain" property on the Workspace object. To activate them:
- Update and restart Studio
- Open the target place
- Select Workspace in the Explorer
- In Properties, change Expanded Terrain from Default to Enabled
- Save, close the place, and reopen it
Places that were edited during Early Access still require steps 3 and 4 to reactivate the full feature set. Without this, custom materials may revert to displaying as grass.
Performance Gains
The launch includes measurable optimizations. In one benchmark cited by the team, CPU memory overhead dropped by 90% and meshing latency by 45%. These improvements reduce terrain's contribution to place file size and improve streaming and load times across devices. Roblox frames this as the first set of terrain performance work, with more planned as new features roll out.
Quality-of-Life Fixes Since Early Access
Feedback during testing prompted several interface and workflow fixes:
- Added sorting to the quick context menu
- Synced material selection between the Terrain Material Manager and the Terrain Editor brush
- Fixed the color picker to close correctly when clicking away
- Improved window resizing across device screens
- Moved the Terrain Materials Manager from the Studio ribbon to Window > 3D system menu (still accessible by right-clicking a material in the terrain editor picker)
Known Issues and Workarounds
Several limitations remain active:
- New unsaved places won't auto-reopen after enabling Expanded Terrain; creators must select the place from the start screen
- Team Create places require exiting and waiting roughly 15 seconds before reopening to apply the setting change
- Custom physical properties on Material Variants aren't yet respected by custom terrain material slots
- Thin terrain features (under 16 voxels thick) can disappear on client when streaming is enabled with a small radius; the fix is adding thickness, since thinning terrain no longer saves meaningful memory with Expanded Terrain enabled
- A script to thicken existing thin terrain is available, though it may struggle with cave systems
Roblox is actively working on these items and soliciting additional bug reports through the Developer Forum.