Hi. Just thought making a thread series like this would be a good way to express my thoughts on any new condo items added. I think something like this will help the devs improve the quality and consistency of their items.
Disclaimer: I want to say beforehand that I’m not trashing or disparaging any of the developers for their hard work. I know game dev isn’t as easy as it seems, and things won’t always be perfect, we won’t always get want we want, and I’m grateful that the Pixeltail team has been so transparent and open to the community about their work.
In these item reviews, I will be scoring every new condo item added in each new update in a by 4 criteria:
(Click each for details)
Necessity
How much a condo builder might need an item like this to complete their project. An item that would only be used in very specific circumstances would score lower than an item that would be used for more general circumstances.
Fidelity
The visual quality of the item’s model(s).
Generally, a higher fidelity item will have:
- No harsh polygonal edges. (Proportional to the default size of the model.)
- High resolution textures. (Proportional to the default size of the model.)
- Realistic/believable shading and materials (e.g, a pillow should not look like it’s made of metal, a toaster should not look like it’s made of wood. Rounded edges should be rounded.)
- No bugs or glitches (Z-Fighting, lighting inconsistencies, customization not saving, scaling offset issues, etc.)
Customizability
How customizable the item is. An item with high customizablity might have:
- Coloring options. Ideally, every part of the item should be colorable, including particles and emitted lights, and the color of the item should not be tinted with the original color of the item. (i.e an item that is green by default should not have that green tint influence the player selected colors.)
- Object Variation. Item should have multiple variations available in the edit menu. If necessary. For Example, a Jar item might have an option to remove the lid, and options to fill the jar with either a solid substance or liquid. A new canvas primitive should have half, quarter, and eighth divisions if necessary.
- Canvasable: Any item which could have a generic, labelless version of itself should have one. This is mainly for food items. Jars, bottles, cans, sealed bags, should all have their own respective canvas item for personalization.
Interactivity
How interactable the item is through the game and through I/O. An item with good interactivity might have:
- Item should have believable and expected function within reason. Any Item with similar functions to previously existing items should have similar interactivity. (e.g, a lamp should be able to be turned on and off, and have all light functions. An item with a door or hatch should have all door functions.) Items that are purely decorative, and expected to be decorative will always score a 3 out of 5.
- Any interactivity provided by the item should have some way to be removed for decorative purposes. (A door should be lockable, a machine should have an option to not be useable.) Some objects, like the “Basic Shape Button” allow deactivation of interactivity through I/O.
- I/O functionality: Any interactable item should have inputs and outputs for each interaction. These should be consistent with other items of it’s kind. Chairs should have the same I/O functionality as every other chair.
Each category will have it’s own respective scoring out of 5, which will then be used to determine the overall score of the item.
Item Review: 18.0.1.0 “Content Creator Update”
There were 16 purchasable condo items, and 29 SDK and I/O items added in this update. I will only be reviewing items which can be reasonably used in condo, and not in the custom gameworlds. Out of the 29 SDK items added, I will only be reviewing 5 of them, totaling at 21 total reviewed items
Item 1: Mirror Panel
Necessity: 5/5
This item was requested a lot by the community, and for good reason. Most living spaces have mirrors, and as such, most condos would have mirrors too. Because it’s a frameless, basic panel, it can be used in a variety of different contexts, such as a bathroom wall mirror, a framed mirror in any room, or in a vanity in someone’s bedroom.
Fidelity: 4/5
Being a basic mirror panel, it isn’t expected to have a lot of detail. The mirror works as intended, at least within it’s defined render distance. However, the draw distance of the reflection does not scale with the mirror, which causes issues if scaled up. There are also issues with unintended items appearing in the reflection.
Customizability: 2/5
While the back of the mirror can be colored, there is no way to remove the back or change it’s material. There is no option for a circular mirror, which makes it difficult to use in certain contexts. There also is no way to change the distance when the mirror disables.
Interactivity: 4/5
Item can be toggled on or off clientside to help with performance. However, there is no prompt to tell the player that it can be disabled, the prompt only appears when already disabled. The color of the back frame can be changed with I/O.
Total score: 15/20
Grade: B
Although this item can be finicky, it overall fulfills it’s intended function. There should definitely be a circular variant, however.
Item 2: Standing Mirror
Necessity: 4/5
Much like the mirror plane, a much requested item, but a bit more specific, since these kinds of mirrors only really appear in bedrooms.
Fidelity: 5/5
The model is very high quality. As detailed as expected. The wood material is consistent with other wooden objects in the game, and the wood grain’s direction is realistic and believable. The side pieces of the stand clip slightly into the base feet, though this might be intended. This mirror has similar scaling issues to the plane item.
Customizability: 4/5
Both the stand and frame can be colored separately. The item has no permanent tint, and becomes a vibrant white at 255,255,255. The item doesn’t have an option to tilt the mirror up or down, as expected with standing mirrors such as this. It is inconsistent with the Chalkboard item, which has a similar construction and does have an angle option. Same as the plane, there is no way to change the render distance of the mirror.
Interactivity: 4/5
Mirror can be toggled by activating it. Same issue of missing prompt as the plane.
Stand and frame have individual ChangeColor outputs.
Total score: 17/20
Grade: A
A very quality item, with a high fidelity model and good customization. I wish it had a way to tilt the mirror.
Item 3: Shipping Container
Necessity: 4/5
A pre-existing model, used in SDNL. Can be used for warehouses, shipping yards and other large facilities. It’s a very large, complicated object which would be difficult to create with canvas.
Fidelity: 5/5
The model is very high quality. The painted container looks painted, the metal hinges look metallic, and have detailed trimming on them. The hinges have a slight cartoony feel to them, which might look strange in some contexts, but it’s consistent with the art style of many other items. The inside of the door’s texture also looks a bit stretched compared to the outside door texture.
Customizability: 4/5
Both the painted metal exterior and the metal floor inside can be separately colored. The metal hinges, however, cannot be colored. There is no color tint on the object, but the painted exterior has a very dark shade which cannot be lightened, making it impossible to make a white container. (255,255,255 looks gray).
Interactivity: 5/5
Doors function like doors, with standard door options. Extensive I/O options, with individual outputs for the front and back doors. My only concern is that there is no way to lock an individual sides doors. Either both are locked, or neither. You could set up I/O to put blocking volumes over the doors as an alternative.
Total score: 18/20
Grade: A+
A nearly perfect item. The colorability issues bring it down.
Item 4, 5, & 6: “Destrutcible” Crate, Crate Long, Pot
I have lumped these items together because of their similarities.
Necessity: 5/5
Destructible physics objects were commonly requested. These objects are common in many video games, and can be useful for adding interactivity to a condo.
Fidelity: 3/5
Both crates reuse the existing crate models seen in SDNL. The wood material is a little glossy, but overall looks correct to a wooden crate. The wooden pieces seem to be accurate to a real crate’s construction, even including nails hammered into the planks!
The pot’s model is slightly polygonal, more than what you might expect from a clay pot, but the object is small enough to not be concerned about. The material used for the pot looks like baked clay, as expected, and even has subtle imperfections in the normal map, which implies that they were hand-crafted. The paint on the pot has slight wear, obviously from age.
All three items contain the same typo in their names.
There is also an issue involving stashing the item. Stashing the item will only stash it’s origin point ghost, and not the item itself. The item must be destroyed by the player in order to disappear completely.
Customizability: 1/5
The only customization options are changes to object health and respawn time. All three items lack any colorability. There are no lidless variants for the crates, and no way to remove the paint from the pot. (Most likely due to the fact that these objects were originally intended for their respective maps.)
Interactivity: 4/5
Objects can be picked up and destroyed as expected. All three have a wide variety of I/O Inputs. However, there is no Output for “OnPickedUp”, “OnDropped”, or “OnDamaged”, unlike other physics items.
Total score: 13/20
Grade: C
Although they look nice and function as intended, they lack important customization options.
Item 7: Exploding Barrel
Necessity: 5/5
I’ve seen multiple people make their own explosive barrels with I/O, but there was no way to give them physics. This item is a much welcome addition for many condo builders.
Fidelity: 4/5
The model of the barrel looks a bit lumpy and low poly. It makes the barrel look old and worn, which is fine, but someone might want a barrel that’s a bit cleaner.
Same stashing issue as the other destructibles.
Customizability: 0/5
Same issues with this as the other destructibles. No coloring, no labelless variant.
No way to change the damage or radius of the explosion, either.
Interactivity: 4/5
Similar to other destructibles, but explodes. No Output for “OnPickedUp”, “OnDropped”, or “OnDamaged”.
Total score: 13/20
Grade: C
A nice addition. Similar issues to the destructible objects.
Item 8: Wooden Wall Shelf
Necessity: 3/5
Although shelves are commonplace in homes, the item is so basic that it almost seems redundant. Nonetheless, many people will use this item anyway, since it can save some time with building.
Fidelity: 5/5
The wood looks woody, and has a rustic, carved, handcrafted look to it. There is a minor texture seam on the left rounded corner. You really can’t mess up an item like this.
Customizability: 5/5
1 color option for whole body, no color or shade tint. No option to color the support pieces separate from the body. 3 different options for shelf length.
Interactivity: 3/5
As expected, item has no interactivity beyond decoration.
Total score: 16/20
Grade: A
A solid, simple item. They would have had to try to mess it up.
Item 9: Military Crate
Necessity: 4/5
Good clutter for any military themed condo. Changing the color makes it more versatile for any sci-fi/tech map.
Fidelity: 5/5
Extremely detailed model. Seriously. This looks AAA. Material looks accurate, lots of subtle detail. Both the inside and outside are detailed with good material and normal mapping. There is subtle wear on the latches. This is as good as it gets.
Customizability: 4/5
Only the main plastic exterior can be colored. Interior and metal hinges cannot be changed. No size variants, but can be scaled and stretched without looking too bad.
Interactivity: 5/5
Has proper door options, and all necessary I/O settings.
Total score: 18/20
Grade: A+
This thing looks great. Just needs more colorability options.
Item 10: Power Generator
Necessity: 4/5
Good clutter item for anything outdoors. Would be difficult to make with canvas.
Fidelity: 5/5
Model itself is high fidelity, texture resolution is a little blurry for it’s size. Plastic and metal look as expected. Very detailed interior, even though it’s not clearly visible without noclipping.
Customizability: 2/5
Only top plastic part can have color changed. No color tint or shade. No way to open or change the plug covers. (making it impossible to plug things in.)
Interactivity: 1/5
Generator can’t be turned on. Model’s switch will always be off. Purely Decorative.
Giving a pity point since you can at least add sound and particles yourself.
Total score: 12/20
Grade: C
Nice looking decoration, but lacks customizability and interactivity.
Item 11, 12 & 13: Rental Shelf, Physical Media Shelf and Physical Media Shelf Stackable
Necessity: 5/5
Highly requested items. Not useful for me personally but people really really wanted these. The rental shelf could be good for stores though. Physical Media and Stackable shelf would be useful for home decoration as well.
Fidelity: 4/5
All 3 items have high poly models, with appropriate material usage. The Physical Media and Stackable Shelves are a bit glossy, but within reason for treated wooden shelves. Liner on Rental shelf legs is very smooth and good looking. Metal net texture also looks good. Tiny texture seam on the bottom of stackable shelf holes.
Bug with rental shelf prevents it from being colored.
Customizability: 3/5
Rental shelf can’t be colored, even though it has a color wheel. Stackable shelf’s legs cannot be colored. Wooden shelves color is shaded a little dark when compared to other new wooden items. (Light gray at 255,255,255)
Interactivity: 4/5
Shelf functions work as intended. No I/O inputs or outputs to Respawn or Eject objects.
Total score: 16/20
Grade:A
Not something I’d use much, but a welcome addition. Coloring issues should be fixed ASAP.
Item 14: Lilypads
Necessity: 5/5
Highly requested. Good for gardens, swamps, lakes, etc.
Fidelity: 5/5
They look like lilypads. Flowers look good too. Lilypads have a subtle, plant-like gloss to them.
Customizability: 1/5
Only lilypads part can be colored. Pads have a faded green tint to them even when white (255,255,255). No variants to remove flowers, or to change to pad number or position.
Interactivity: 3/5
Purely decorative, can be stood on for water platforming, though.
Total score: 14/20
Grade: B
Good-looking and highly requested, lacks customization.
Item 15: Ceiba Tree
Necessity: 4/5
More plants are always welcome, good for jungle environments. The leafless variants could be used as dead trees for a halloween map.
Fidelity: 2/5
Looks like a Ceiba tree, but is very cartoony, which limits it’s usefulness.
There is an issue with the lighting on the leaves, the top leaves look very different to the bottom leaves depending on lighting.
Customizability: 2/5
Can be colored, both leaves and trunk are tinted to the default color. 2 variants, with leafed and leafless options for each.
Interactivity: 3/5
Purely Decorative.
Total score: 11/20
Grade: D
Item that’s a bit niche, ported from a pre-existing map. The cartoony look of it makes it hard to use in more realistic builds, and the lighting bug makes it unusable in certain instances. Nice of them to include dead versions though.
Item 16: 3D Text
Necessity: 5/5
Highly Requested, Highly versatile, even with just 1 font.
Fidelity: 4/5
Text is as detailed as it needs to be, has a nice bevel to it. Only contains capital letters and some punctuation. (no accented letters)
Glow feature doesn’t function on any materials.
Customizability: 4/5
Text is colorable with no tint or shade. 7 different materials to choose from. Has (bugged) glow options, and spacing options much like the floating text item.
Interactivity: 3/5
Only has “ChangeColor” and “SetText”. No way to change material, glow, or spacing with I/O.
Total score: 16/20
Grade: A
A well thought out item with good customizability for what it is. More font options would be nice but understandably difficult. The item can also be used for purposes beyond it’s intended ones, some letters can be used for designs on walls and such.
Item 17 and 18: Ball Race Bumper and Attractor / Repulsor
Necessity: 3/5
These items could be useful for platforming and physics sections in a condo, unfortunately the Attractor / Repulsor does not work outside of the SDK.
Fidelity: 3/5
Both items reuse models from ball race maps. They look good for what they are.
Sadly the Attractor / Repulsor doesn’t work.
Customizability: 3/5
No colorability options on either one. 5 variations on the bumper, one being an invisible bumper. Attractor / Repulsor only has 1 variation, and no invisible version. Both have power sliders. Attractor / Repulsor has sliders range and kill radius, and can be changed to either attract or repulse.
Interactivity: 2/5
Only bumper works as intended outside of SDK. No unique I/O Inputs/Outputs on either of them.
Total score: 11/20
Grade: D
Poor Bumper got brought down by the non-functionality of the Attractor / Repulsor.
The items look fine, but more I/O functionality, and colorability would help them a lot.
Item 19: Ball Race Trampoline
Necessity: 2/5
We already have trampoline items available, though having a new one is always nice. The star variant could be used for decoration, and an invisible trampoline could be useful.
Fidelity: 4/5
Models are good. Obviously reused from ball race maps.
There is a typo in the Item’s description (“An trampoline”)
Changing the power in the edit menu doesn’t change the power outside of the SDK.
Customizability: 1/5
Has 3 variants, one is a hidden invisible version. No way to color or customize other than variant and bounce power. No way to remove sound or particles.
Interactivity: 3/5
Functions like a trampoline. Bounce power doesn’t work outside of Ball Race.
Total score: 10/20
Grade: D
This item could at least use colorability.
Item 20: Ball Race Button
Necessity: 1/5
Can be used as a pressure plate, and as decoration. Not much purpose outside of ball race.
Fidelity: 4/5
Looks like a nice button. Has a subtle curve to it. Frame looks untextured and flat.
Customizability: 1/5
Can be turned into a single press button. No colorability. 
Interactivity: 4/5
Can be stepped on or walked into. No way to activate it other than with your body. I/O Input to reset, I/O output for when pressed. No Output for when it resets, though.
Total score: 9/20
Grade: D
Sorry to be cruel to you, little fella. You don’t have much purpose, and no customization.
Item 21: Ball Race Tile
Necessity: 2/5
Makes for nice wall and floor texturing. Could also be used for stairs.
Fidelity: 4/5
Marble version has nice little design on side, though it could use a bump map to make the design look carved into it.
The more plastic looking tiles serve their purpose, too.
Customizability: 2/5
Has 3 color options, Inner, Outer, Alternating. Can only change outer color on plastic tiles, which tints the whole object, white part of plastic tile only changes in extreme color tints. Both Tile types have multiple variants in different sizes, and a ring shape for plastic tiles. No ring shape for marble tiles.
Interactivity: 3/5
They are tiles. You can stand on them.
Total score: 11/20
Grade: D
The item’s fine, just not very useful outside of the SDK.
There were a lot of items added this update. Most of them very good for condos. It was a bit exhausting doing this the first time. But I think it’s worth it to help the developers improve for future updates.
