Roblox Drones

A few years ago, when I was working on events in RBLX, we decided to put together a drone show. It was somewhat last-minute, so based on a video from "usercontent" that featured a drone show, I quickly designed something simple yet effective for the event.

Recently, a friend wanted to create a drone show, so I gave him my old script. However, I decided to recreate and improve the script since the original was quite basic, lacking in functionality, and poorly optimized. This led to the birth of this new project. I created it and gave it to him for his event. After the event, I told him I would publish it so that it could be accessible to anyone who wants to use and contribute to this community, which I still hold dear despite no longer being active in it.

There isn’t much to explain about the script itself. It simply creates drones that can perform shows for all connected clients. The drones are generated on each client, and their functions are handled locally. However, the drones are controlled from the server using the API to ensure that all clients see the same show. This setup ensures that the server does not have to expend resources on movements or maintaining additional active actors, among other things.

Demo

Bugs

I found two bugs

• A drone is missing to be generated sometime
• When you use "joint" it may not return to the initial position or rotate from a pivot that is not the exact center.

Installation

• Download Release section and add this item to your game.
• Put the folder in "workspace" and configure the "Settings" file.
• Done.

You can use the Drones-Controller or delete this and create your custom console.

Documentation

Settings

In Settings file.

• Whitelist (array): Add members so they can use Drones-Controller (only works with Drones-Controller)

• Speed (number): This is a default speed for drones.

The spawn actor (in folder Drone), the larger it is, the more random the output of the drones is.

How create figures

With one group

• Create new folder in folder figures and put a custom name.

• Open folder drone and copy Drone-Template to new folder.

• Copy Drone-Template as many times as necessary to create your figure.

(optional) you can edit the Group value (number) in the Drone-Template.

With various groups

• Create new folder in folder figures and put a custom name.

• Create a new folder within the previous one created and make the name just numbers (1 - 999..), so that they are identifiable

• Open folder drone and copy Drone-Template to new folder.

• Copy Drone-Template as many times as necessary to create your figure.

• Repeat step number 2 until you obtain the desired number of groups.

(optional) you can edit the Group value (number) in the Drone-Template.

API Reference

How to call API

local API = require(game.ServerStorage:WaitForChild("Drones-SS").API)

API Functions

GetFiguresName()

• Description: Retrieves the names of all figures available.
• Parameters: None
• Returns: A table containing the names of figures.

  local figures = API.GetFiguresName()
  print(figures) --returns {[1] = "figure1", [2] = "figure2", ...}

GetCurrentFigureName()

• Description: Retrieves the name of the currently selected figure.
• Parameters: None
• Returns: A string representing the name of the current figure.

  local figure = API.GetCurrentFigureName()
  print(figure) --returns "figure1" or nil

GetTotalDrones()

• Description: Retrieves the total number of drones associated with the current figure.
• Parameters: None
• Returns: An integer representing the total number of drones.

  local drones = API.GetTotalDrones()
  print(drones) --returns 0

ChangeFigure(figureName)

• Description: Changes the current figure to the one specified.
• Parameters:
  • figureName (string): The name of the figure to change to.
• Returns: None

  API.ChangeFigure("figure1")

MoveDrones(modelId, x, y, z, speed, isGlobal)

• Description: Initiates movement for drones.
• Parameters:
  • modelId (string or number): ModelId or "all" or "joint".
  • x, y, z (number): Movement distances in each axis.
  • speed (number) (optional): Movement speed.
  • isGlobal (boolean) (optional): Whether the movement is global or local. Default false
• Returns: None

  --Example 1
  API.MoveDrones(1, 0, 0, 10)
  --Example 2
  API.MoveDrones("all", 0, 0, 10, 4)
  --Example 3
  API.MoveDrones("joint", 0, 0, 10, nil, true)

RotateDrones(modelId, x, y, z, speed)

• Description: Initiates rotation for drones.
• Parameters:
  • modelId (string or number): ModelId or "all" or "joint".
  • x, y, z (number): Rotation angles in each axis.
  • speed (number) (optional): Rotation speed.
• Returns: None

  --Example 1
  API.RotateDrones(1, 0, 0, 10)
  --Example 2
  API.RotateDrones("all", 0, 0, 10, 4)
  --Example 3
  API.RotateDrones("joint", 0, -5, 0, 3)

OrbitDrones(modelId, xSpeed, ySpeed, zSpeed)

• Description: Initiates orbiting movement for drones, similar to RotateDrones but is infinite
• Parameters:
  • modelId (string or number): ModelId or "all" or "joint".
  • xSpeed, ySpeed, zSpeed (number): Orbital speeds in each axis.
• Returns: None

  --Example 1
  API.OrbitDrones(1, 0, 0, 10)
  --Example 2
  API.OrbitDrones("all", 0, 0, 10)
  --Example 3
  API.OrbitDrones("joint", 0, -5, 0)

CancelMove(modelId)

• Description: Cancels ongoing movement for drones.
• Parameters:
  • modelId (string or number): ModelId or "all" or "joint".
• Returns: None

  --Example 1
  API.CancelMove(1)
  --Example 2
  API.CancelMove("all")
  --Example 3
  API.CancelMove("joint")

CancelRotate(modelId)

• Description: Cancels ongoing rotation for drones.
• Parameters:
  • modelId (string or number): ModelId or "all" or "joint".
• Returns: None

  --Example 1
  API.CancelRotate(1)
  --Example 2
  API.CancelRotate("all")
  --Example 3
  API.CancelRotate("joint")

CancelOrbit(modelId)

• Description: Cancels ongoing orbiting movement for drones.
• Parameters:
  • modelId (string or number): ModelId or "all" or "joint".
• Returns: None

  --Example 1
  API.CancelOrbit(1)
  --Example 2
  API.CancelOrbit("all")
  --Example 3
  API.CancelOrbit("joint")

SetColor(dronId, color)

• Description: Sets the color of drones.
• Parameters:
  • dronId (string or number): DronId or "all" or "group-GroupId" or "model-ModelId".
  • color (Color3): The color to set.
• Returns: None

  --Example 1
  API.SetColor(1, Color3.fromRGB(0, 255, 0))
  --Example 2
  API.SetColor("all", Color3.fromRGB(255, 0, 255))
  --Example 3
  API.SetColor("group-1", Color3.fromRGB(0, 0, 255))
  --or
  API.SetColor("group 1", Color3.fromRGB(0, 0, 255))
  --Example 4
  API.SetColor("model-1", Color3.fromRGB(255, 0, 0))
  --or
  API.SetColor("model 1", Color3.fromRGB(255, 0, 0))

SetTransparency(dronId, transparency)

• Description: Sets the color of drones.
• Parameters:
  • dronId (string or number): DronId or "all" or "group-GroupId" or "model-ModelId".
  • transparency (number): The transparency value to set, which must be between 0 (fully opaque) and 1 (fully transparent).
• Returns: None

  --Example 1
  API.SetTransparency(1, 0)
  --Example 2
  API.SetTransparency("all", 0.6)
  --Example 3
  API.SetTransparency("group-1", 1)
  --or
  API.SetTransparency("group 1", 1)
  --Example 4
  API.SetTransparency("model-1", 0.2)
  --or
  API.SetTransparency("model 1", 0.2)

API.Reset()

• Description: Resets drones and various parameters to their default values.
• Parameters: None
• Returns: None

  API.Reset()