Introduction

Welcome to the Tungsten documentation! This guide explains why Tungsten is the modern standard for Roblox asset management and how it outperforms legacy tooling.

What is Tungsten?

Tungsten is a high-performance command-line utility for managing, packing, and syncing Roblox assets.

Created out of frustration during the development of LucideRoblox, Tungsten was built to address the stagnation in the Roblox ecosystem. While existing tools like Tarmac and Asphalt provided the foundation, they either lacked features or were hindered by aging infrastructure.

Tungsten bridges this gap by combining the best of the industry’s past with the modern demands of Roblox’s Open Cloud API.

Features

Core Capabilities

• Multi-Asset Syncing: Push images, audio, models, and animations directly to the Roblox Open Cloud API, Studio, or your local workspace.
• Automatic Packing: Combine UI images into optimized spritesheets on the fly.
• Code Generation: Automatically generate type-safe Luau code and TypeScript declaration files to reference your assets.
• Smart Initialization: Auto-detects project folders and instantly generates a valid configuration structure.
• Watch Mode: Experience live, instant syncing the moment your files change. Similar to rojo serve.

Developer Experience

• SVG Rasterization: Native, high-fidelity rasterization from SVG to PNG.
• Image Compression: Lossless image compression built directly into Tungsten powered by libcaesium.
• High DPI Detection: Automated scaling for high-resolution displays.
• Metadata Support: Define custom names and descriptions via .tmeta files.
• Flexible Targets: Seamlessly switch between User and Group-owned assets.

Roadmap

• External Asset Mapping: Link to existing assets already on Roblox.
• Video Syncing: Sync video assets over to Roblox.

Tip

Have a feature request? We’d love to hear it! Open an issue with the enhancement tag at Tungsten’s GitHub repository.

Choosing the Right Tool

Asset management is the backbone of your pipeline. Here is how Tungsten compares to other tools:

Feature	Tungsten	Asphalt	Tarmac
Status	✅ Active	✅ Active	❌ Deprecated
API	Open Cloud	Open Cloud	Legacy Web API
Spritesheet Packing	✅ Supported	❌ No	⚠️ Partial 1
Luau Codegen	✅ Supported	✅ Supported	✅ Supported
TypeScript Declarations	✅ Supported	✅ Supported	❌ No
Asset Support	Images, Audio, Models, Animations	Images, Audio, Video, Models, Animations	Images Only

Recommendation

• Choose Tungsten for your primary workflow. It is the all-in-one solution for modern asset management, offering superior packing, SVG conversion, and an developer-first experience.
• Choose Asphalt if your project specifically requires Video asset uploads or external asset mapping, as these features are currently not supported in Tungsten.
• Avoid Tarmac. It relies on deprecated Web APIs and fails to sync, making it unsuitable for modern Roblox development.

Footnotes

1. Tarmac requires images to be in strict RGBA color format; other color formats will cause the tool to panic and fail. ↩