Classroom

One host, many observers: a teacher builds in TouchDesigner and the class watches it happen in their own TouchDesigner, live, in their own network editor.

What the class gets

• They see everything you change in the Collab Zone as you change it: operators, wires, parameters, DAT text, the timeline (as their own Sync FPS / Timeline settings allow).
• Your pointer and view, if they keep Show Partner Cursor and Show Partner View on.
• They can look around on their own: any network of the zone, at their own zoom.
• Summon Everyone Here brings every student's network editor to the network you are in, at your position and zoom, with a ring on the spot your mouse was on. Ping marks a spot without moving anyone. A student who switched off Allow Summons or Allow Pings (their own choice, on the Navigate page) stays where they are and gets only a line in their status bar.
• They can try things. An observer's own edits stay on their side: nothing they do reaches you or the others, and a note in the corner of their network editor says so. Their copy then differs from yours; Resolve Drift (or the menu bar chip's "Take the host's copy, here only...") puts yours back in their zone. This drift is expected: it is never sent as a problem report.

What it costs and who sees whom

An observer in a classroom sends only to you, and only what you need to show them: their name and colour, whether they want your pointer and view, and a request for your view as they enter a network. Not their pointer, view, selection or network. So 30 students cost the room little, they do not see each other, and you are not drawn over with 30 cursors. A student's Ping reaches you alone.

Setting one up

1. Set up a session as usual (Set Up on the menu bar chip): a room on the TDXCollab relay for a class spread over the internet, or TCP/IP on one network.
2. On the TDXCollab COMP's Custom page, turn on Classroom. It is not in Set Up or the TDXCollab window yet.
3. Send the invite (or your address and port) to the class.

Room size: a relay room whose opener has Classroom on takes up to 32 people instead of 8. Turn Classroom on before you open the room, or at any time while you are in it; the room keeps its size while you are away. TCP/IP sets no limit of its own.

Letting people in: Ask Before Letting In (on by default) shows a window listing everyone waiting; Let Everyone In answers them all at once, each as an observer. With it off, anyone with the invite gets in, as an observer.

Roles during class

• Everyone who joins while Classroom is on observes, whatever New Partners May says.
• To let a student drive for a while, give them Adjust Parameters (values, pulses, timeline) or Full Edit from the menu bar chip's right-click ("Name may: ..."). Give them Observe again the same way. Remember that Full Edit can put Python in the shared network, and it runs on every computer in the session.
• Everyone at once: "Everyone else may: ..." at the top of the People list in the TDXCollab window (a left click on the chip) and in the chip's right-click gives the whole class one role: everyone Observe again after an exercise, or everyone Adjust Parameters for one. Tick some students in the People list first and the same button ("Selected (n)") gives the role to them alone; Clear unticks them. The People list scrolls, so the whole class is in it.
• Switching Classroom on mid-session demotes nobody: people already in keep their role.
• Switching Classroom off promotes nobody: the students already in stay observers. Only people who join afterwards get New Partners May.
• Partners May Summon (off by default) lets students summon too; you always may.
• These are the host's settings: everyone else sees them greyed out.

Limits

• Tried with two and three instances only. A full class of 30 has not been tested yet; tell us how it goes (Report a Problem on the menu bar chip).
• Students need TDXCollab installed and a TouchDesigner that opens your project's operators (the same build or newer is safest).
• A relay room of more than 8 needs the current TDXCollab relay; an older self-hosted relay stays at 8.