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Roblox’s new face tracking feature is for the memes

The Roblox man face has rizzz

An image showing a demo of the new face-tracking feature from Roblox. It shows a Roblox character in an empty 3D environment. A window in the upper left-hand corner of the image shows the front face of the avatar. Image: Roblox
Ana Diaz (she/her) is a culture writer at Polygon, covering internet culture, fandom, and video games. Her work has previously appeared at NPR, Wired, and The Verge.

If I can count on one thing, it’s that Roblox users will meme just about anything. So of course, when developers at Roblox released a useful new feature that adds face tracking to the game, players didn’t just use it to enhance communication, but instead to make jokey videos. Now, TikTok is filled with players using the new feature to make memes.

Roblox is a platform where users can create and publish games, as well as play one another’s games using an avatar. On Tuesday, Roblox developers rolled out a new feature that allows some players thirteen and older to use face tracking, which would animate their avatar based on a live video feed of the player. A representative told Polygon that the feature is “part of a series of interactive features we have available so people can communicate and express themselves like never before.”

Basically, when you have the feature toggled on, your Roblox avatar will match your face. If you talk, the mouth will move — and if you smile the avatar will smile. Now, users have been repurposing the tool to just make goofy videos.

The feature only works with certain avatar faces that support animation mode, and one of them is already a meme. Players have used the smirking Roblox man face in shitposts and memes since Roblox released it. But users are now using the interactive version to make videos. This video from TikTok user, Bussiepoppinshaker81, shows one of the avatars lip-syncing to an audio clip, to more than 3.2 million views. The character bobs its head as it says, “Wake yo ass up, because it’s time to go beast mode.” At the end, the character winks as the base drops.

There’s another avatar face that’s more detailed. With this face, players have been showing just how creepy the eye balls and eye brows look when moving them around. It sort of reminds me of Apple’s Memoji, but a little more busted and a whole lot more uncanny.

@starflmzz

Been side eyeing people the whole time with ts (ik this not an edit but yk)#robloxupdate #roblox #robloxfacetracking #update

♬ original sound - Edits

So far, players can’t replicate the nuances of the fuckboy emoji, but that hasn’t stopped them from using the camera to rizz players up.

The feature is still in the process of being tweaked. However, I can’t wait to see the mayhem that unfolds once it rolls out to an even wider audience.

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