If you're looking to add a roblox studio overhead gui to your project, you've probably noticed how much they help with player identity and game polish. Whether it's showing off a player's rank in a group or just displaying their username in a stylish font, these floating labels are a staple of the platform. The best part is that they aren't actually that hard to set up once you understand how BillboardGuis work.
I remember the first time I tried to make one. I thought I had to script some complex 3D math to keep a label floating above a player's head. Turns out, Roblox has a built-in system that handles most of the heavy lifting for us. You just need a little bit of organization and a few lines of code to get everything running smoothly.
What Makes an Overhead GUI Work?
Before we dive into the "how-to," let's talk about the "what." In Roblox, any UI that exists in the 3D world is usually a BillboardGui. Unlike the ScreenGui, which stays flat on your monitor, a BillboardGui is attached to a part—in this case, the player's head—and always faces the camera.
It's a pretty clever system. You can set it to stay the same size regardless of how far away you are, or you can make it shrink as you walk away. Most developers prefer the latter because it keeps the screen from getting cluttered when fifty players are standing in the same lobby.
Setting Up the Visuals
The first thing you'll want to do is actually design the label. I usually do this right inside a folder in ServerStorage or ReplicatedStorage.
- Create a BillboardGui and name it something like "OverheadUI".
- Inside that, add a TextLabel.
- Set the BillboardGui's
Adorneeproperty (though we'll do this via script later) and adjust theSize. A good starting point is{0, 200}, {0, 50}. - Set the
StudsOffsetto something like0, 2, 0. This is huge! If you don't do this, the GUI will literally be inside the player's face. Setting the Y-offset to 2 or 3 studs keeps it hovering nicely above their scalp.
Don't forget to check the AlwaysOnTop property if you want the text to be visible through walls, though most people leave that off for a more "realistic" feel. If you want it to look modern, try using the "Fredoka One" or "Gotham" fonts and adding a UIStroke element to give the text a clean outline. It makes a massive difference in readability against bright skyboxes.
The Scripting Side of Things
Now, we need a way to give this GUI to every player when they join. You don't want to manually copy-paste this into every character; that's what ServerScriptService is for.
You'll want to create a Script (not a LocalScript!) that listens for the PlayerAdded event. Inside that, you listen for the CharacterAdded event. This is crucial because a player might die and respawn, and you need the roblox studio overhead gui to reappear every single time they get a new body.
Here's the basic logic: when the character spawns, you clone the GUI from storage, parent it to the player's head, and set the text to the player's name. It sounds simple, and it really is. You'll just need to make sure you wait for the head to actually exist—sometimes the script runs faster than the character loads, which can lead to those annoying "Head is not a valid member of Model" errors. Using WaitForChild("Head") is your best friend here.
Adding Group Ranks and Custom Titles
This is where things get fun. A lot of Roleplay (RP) games use the roblox studio overhead gui to show if someone is a "Moderator," a "VIP," or the "King of the Hill."
To do this, you just add a conditional check in your script. For group ranks, you'd use Player:GetRoleInGroup(GroupId). You can then change the text of a second label (maybe a smaller one above the name) to reflect their rank.
I've seen some creators go all out with this. You can change the color of the name based on team color or even add a little image icon next to the name for premium members. If you're feeling fancy, you can even use UIGradients to make the text rainbow-colored. Just keep it subtle—too many rainbow names can make a game look a bit chaotic.
Dealing with Scaling and Distance
One common issue people run into is the GUI looking massive when you're close and tiny when you're far away. Or worse, it stays the same pixel size and covers the whole screen when you walk back.
To fix this, look at the Size property of your BillboardGui. It uses Scale and Offset. If you use Scale (the first number in the brackets), the GUI will stay proportional to the world. If you use Offset (the second number), it stays a fixed number of pixels.
Usually, a mix of both works best, but for overhead names, I tend to lean heavily on Scale. Also, check out the MaxDistance property. You probably don't need to see the name of a player who is 500 studs away on the other side of the map. Setting a limit helps keep the game clean and improves performance slightly.
Optimizing for the Best Experience
While a roblox studio overhead gui isn't exactly a resource hog, you still want to be smart about it. If you have a game with 100 players, that's 100 extra UI elements the engine has to render in 3D space.
One trick is to handle the visual updates (like a level-up animation or a changing title) on the client side using a LocalScript, while the initial creation happens on the server. However, for 90% of games, a simple server-side script is perfectly fine and much easier to manage.
Another tip: make sure you set the ResetOnSpawn property of the BillboardGui to false if you're putting it inside the character manually, but since we're cloning it from a script, it usually doesn't matter as much. Just make sure you aren't accidentally cloning five copies onto the same player every time they blink.
Why Details Matter
It's easy to just throw a white label with black text over someone's head and call it a day. But if you want your game to stand out, spend an extra ten minutes on the design.
Try adding a semi-transparent background frame with rounded corners (using UICorner). Maybe make the owner's name a soft gold color. These tiny aesthetic choices are what make players feel like they're playing a "real" game rather than a quick prototype.
Also, consider the height. If your game has hats or large accessories (like wings or giant hair), a standard 2-stud offset might cause the GUI to clip through the player's avatar. You might want to bump it up to 3 or 4 studs to ensure it's always clear.
Wrapping Things Up
Creating a roblox studio overhead gui is one of those essential skills that every Roblox dev should have in their toolkit. It's the primary way players interact with each other's presence in the game world.
Whether you're building a massive military simulator with complex ranks or just a chill hangout spot where people want to see who's who, the BillboardGui is your go-to tool. Just remember to offset it correctly, handle the respawns in your script, and maybe add a little bit of visual flair to make it your own.
Once you get the hang of the basic name tag, you can start experimenting with health bars, chat bubbles, or even "typing" indicators. The possibilities are pretty much endless once you realize that the space above a player's head is basically free real estate for information. Happy building!