Notepat for Roblox #

A local, native Luau prototype of the Aesthetic Computer instrument and prompt. It starts on twelve colored pads. Click ac> notepat (or press backtick) to open the prompt, then type notepat and press Enter to return.

The pitch mapping, sharp-key shortcuts, and RGB palette come from notepat.mjs. This is a small playable adaptation, not the browser runtime embedded in Roblox.

Tap/click pads or use these keyboard keys. [ / ] and the onscreen − / + buttons select octaves 2–6. Multiple notes can play together. Releasing a key does not cut off a finger holding the same pad. Leaving the window, changing octave, or opening the prompt clears held voices. Avatar controls are disabled while this standalone instrument owns the screen.

Sound #

The prototype plays the client's bundled rbxasset://sounds/volume_slider.ogg through native Sound objects, changing PlaybackSpeed for each note. The installed Mac client contains this file; its dominant pitch measured about 392 Hz (G4). A4 is computed as 440 Hz using equal temperament. No audio upload, external media request, or paid asset is involved.

This is a short sample with its own timbre and decay. Holding a pad does not sustain an oscillator. It is not yet AC's sine/composite/triangle synthesis, and the bundled sample is not a guaranteed cross-version musical asset API. The UI reports a preload failure. Before shipping, replace it with an approved, owned, accurately tuned sample and verify audio permissions on the target experience. Native Roblox playback changes pitch and duration together: Sound.PlaybackSpeed. Roblox's audio overview explains its asset-based audio pipeline.

Build and verify #

From the monorepo root, with Rojo and Luau installed:

mkdir -p roblox/notepat/build
rojo build roblox/notepat/default.project.json -o roblox/notepat/build/notepat.rbxlx
luau roblox/notepat/tests/logic.luau

On this session's host the downloaded tools are /tmp/ac-rojo/rojo (7.7.0) and /tmp/ac-luau/luau (0.738). The build and 19 logic checks passed. All scripts also passed luau-compile; the generated XML contains the expected server, client, and two shared modules. See evidence.json.

Open build/notepat.rbxlx in Studio and Play to inspect the actual UI and sound. After assigning a separate Notepat development target, the existing Robloxplorer place-publishing command can upload the artifact. Do not upload this project to the arena target: a place upload replaces that place's contents. tests/headless.luau contains ten server-side assertions for Open Cloud execution after an upload; it has been compiled but not run on Roblox. No target was created and no version was published in this trial.

Client playtest still required: keyboard chords; two fingers on separate pads; keyboard + touch on one pad; release outside a pad; focus loss; octaves; portrait layout; prompt navigation; preload failures; audible pitch and latency. A headless server cannot verify these perceptual/input behaviors.

Toward an AC OS game #

The prompt currently recognizes only notepat and prompt. A next step is to extract a native piece interface (mount, leave) and command registry, with one shell owning keyboard focus, navigation, and lifecycle cleanup. Notepat's Notes and Holds modules can remain independent of that shell. An arena destination can later teleport to its own place rather than mixing avatar movement and instrument keybindings.

The visual prototype uses Roblox's built-in Enum.Font.Code. YWFT Processing and KidLisp lettering are not implemented here. Integrate the shared AC UI and glyph renderer once the parent project establishes them. This isolated trial deliberately does not modify roblox/shared or arena files.

Not included: multiplayer note relays, recording/playback, MIDI, waveform selection, AC accounts, network data collection, or custom asset uploads.