Known issues

What to do when something is off, what TDXCollab does not sync, and what has not been tested yet.

If something is off

• A client cannot connect over TCP/IP: the server listens on its Local Address only. A server on 192.168.x.x does not answer a client pointed at localhost: give both the same address.
• You wait at the door: the host has Ask Before Letting In on and has to let you in.
• Changes do not sync: check that the network you edit is inside the Collab Zone and open in your network editor, and that both sides show each other in the TDXCollab window. Edits made while disconnected are not sent later: use Resync on Connect or Sync Zone.
• A partner's pane does not follow you: Synced Panes has to be on on the side that should follow.
• "Copies differ": see When copies differ. Right after joining, taking the host's whole copy is quickest.
• A network feels slow only while TDXCollab is on: TDXCollab watches every operator of the networks your panes show, so its cost grows with those networks, not with the project. Inside a palette particle system (185 operators) its checks took about 1.6 ms a frame.
• Something odd happened in a session: switch Log Session on on every side before you start; afterwards, Open Log Folder and send us the newest TDXCollab_...log of each side, or use Report a Problem (see Diagnostics and reports).

Only what is shown is watched

TDXCollab watches the networks your network editors show (and the zone COMP's own parameters, and Animation COMPs). A change a script, an Execute DAT, an expression or a tool makes to an operator in a network nobody shows is not sent. The copies then differ unnoticed until both of you open that network, and the drift check reports it. Outside the zone, nothing is sent at all. Always Sync sends what you mark wherever your editors are.

Same operator, same moment

Operators are matched by their path, so two people renaming, deleting or creating the same operator within the time a change takes to arrive (a few frames on one machine, roughly 0.1 to 0.3 s over the internet) can end up with different networks. After that moment the second person works on the already-changed operator and nothing diverges. The drift check reports it; Sync Zone or Resolve Drift sets it straight.

Not synced

• Key presses. A tool that acts on a hotkey runs only on the side where the key was pressed. What it then changes in the network you view is sent like any edit; nothing else it does (its own state, its UI, other networks) reaches your partners.
• Undo is not shared. Ctrl+Z undoes your side's last change, which may be one a partner made, and the result is sent on.
• References outside the Collab Zone. An expression, bind or export that points outside the zone (parent() above it, a sibling of the zone, an absolute path, a shortcut to something elsewhere) is synced as written, and on each side means that side's own operator there, or nothing. Keep references inside the zone when you work together.
• Operator references after a rename. A parameter that refers to a renamed operator by name is not updated on your partner's side.
• Greyed-out parameters. A parameter that is disabled when changed is not sent. On the zone COMP's Extensions page, set Extension Object first, then Extension Name.
• A copy of the zone pasted by hand takes the zone's Global OP Shortcut, which only one COMP can hold at a time.
• CHOP exports made by dragging a channel onto a parameter have not been tried from the UI. A CHOP's Export flag and export settings do sync.
• Edits made while disconnected are not sent later; use Resync on Connect or Sync Zone.
• Creates and deletes inside an always-synced COMP are sent only while a network editor shows that COMP.
• Keep Local in a relay room whose host is away: a partner stands in, and its table goes on as everyone's, but when the room's opener comes back its own table is everyone's again.

Tools that edit the network

Tools that add operators or change parameters in the network you view are synced like your own edits. FNSTools' CookBar, for example, sends its hidden helper operators to your partners when it runs inside the Collab Zone. To keep a tool to yourself, tag it as a local tool.

Split panes

The first four networks your network editors show at once are watched completely. A fifth and further ones are watched for edits, but an operator made or deleted there is not sent. Presence (cursors, outlines, the view box) is drawn in the focused pane only.

Not tested yet

Real sessions so far ran through the hosted relay, Berlin to New York and Windows with macOS; the automated test bench runs on Windows, over TCP/IP and through both relays. More people, longer sessions and slower networks are what the beta is for. A classroom of 30 has not been tried. Tell us how it goes: Report a Problem on the chip, or mail us.