Studio testing modes

Because of the underlying client-server model of the Roblox Engine, it's important that you test your experience in various modes before releasing it to the public. All of the testing options are accessible from the Test tab.

Playtest options

There are three common options for playtesting an experience. Clicking the small arrow below the main button lets you choose from each option, and sets that option as the default.

Once a playtest is running, the following options become available:

Toggle client/server

When testing in either Play or Play Here mode, Studio runs two separate simulations — one client simulation and one server simulation — which can provide a more accurate impression of how the experience will execute in production.

While playing solo, you can toggle between Client and Server modes by clicking the Client/Server toggle button. When you toggle, the button changes to reflect the current simulation mode.

Controls and camera

Depending on the mode, control of your character and the camera changes as follows:

Explorer window

Within the Explorer window hierarchy, certain objects only exist in their expected containers.

Output

In the Output window, messages are labeled blue (client) or green (server), indicating their origin from either the client or server. For messages output from ModuleScripts, the label color is determined by whether the module was called from a client-side LocalScript or from a server-side Script.

Pause and resume physics

While playtesting, the Pause Physics and Resume Physics buttons are useful for debugging ephemeral scenes and mechanisms, without disabling rendering.

By default, pausing and resuming physics acts upon both the client and server as indicated by the All notation. If you wish to pause or resume only the client or server physics, click the small arrow on either button and select Current. Then, depending on your chosen view through the Client/Server toggle, pausing or resuming will act only upon that side of the simulation.

When physics is paused, you can step forward 1/60th of a second (60 Hz) by clicking the Step Forward Physics button. Like the neighboring buttons to its left, clicking the small arrow lets you toggle client and/or server steps between All or Current.

Note the following technical details in relation to physics pause/resume:

• Although Animations are not based on physics, these toolbar buttons also pause/resume animations.
• Pausing or resuming physics has no effect on running scripts.
• Only the RunService callbacks PreAnimation, PreSimulation, PostSimulation, and Stepped pause or resume through these toolbar buttons. Other callbacks (PreRender, Heartbeat, and RenderStepped) continue to fire, maintaining normal functionality of camera scripts, rendered visualizations, and plugins.

Multi-client simulation

Using the clients and servers options, you can launch multiple sessions of Studio, one acting as the server and each other acting as a client. This testing mode is a valuable tool for comparing how a client "sees" other clients within the experience.

1. Make sure Local Server is selected in the upper box, then select the number of player sessions to test. Usually 1–2 players is sufficient, although you can simulate up to eight.

2. Press the Start button to begin the client-server simulation.

   

3. When you're finished testing, press the Cleanup button from any of the simulation sessions to close all simulated clients and the simulated server.

Collaborative testing

If you're working on an experience with others in Collaboration mode, you can test with other creators as follows:

1. Select Team Test in the upper box and press the Start button to publish the current state of the experience and create a new Studio session with your character inserted.

   

2. Other collaborators can then join by pressing Join from the Test tab.

   Only one team test session can run at any given time. To close a session and kick out all testers, click the Shutdown Server button.

Device emulation

The Device Emulator lets you emulate various devices directly in Studio, providing insight into how controls work on mobile devices, consoles, and VR headsets, as well as how on-screen UI elements display on different screen resolutions and aspect ratios.

In emulation mode, you can select devices from the device selector dropdown menu above the 3D viewport to emulate less powerful devices and test streaming-enabled experiences where 3D content dynamically loads and unloads based on available memory. You can also adjust the view size and change the orientation between landscape and portrait modes.

Controller emulation

The Controller Emulator lets you accurately emulate gamepad input directly in Studio. The default controller is a generic gamepad, but you can select alternatives for PlayStation, Xbox, and Quest devices from the upper‑left picker menu.

While playtesting, you can control the experience with the virtual controller using your mouse.

You can also click Edit mappings in the upper‑right corner to view and edit key mappings for the virtual controller, for example E to ButtonL2 or 9 to ButtonA. These mappings are saved like other Studio settings (per controller, per user, per computer) and are translated to gamepad events in both the emulator window and the 3D viewport.

VR emulation

VR emulation lets you test VR experiences in Studio without a physical headset. Just like emulating any other device, use the device selector menu to choose the Meta Quest 2 or Meta Quest 3. The controller emulator automatically selects the appropriate controller for the headset.

The combination of a headset and multiple controllers, each with motion tracking, make VR emulation more complex:

• For motion tracking emulation, press Alt1 (⌥1) to lock the mouse to and unlock the mouse from the viewport.

• Use Shift← or Shift→ to switch between common combinations of the headset, left controller, and right controller. For example, you might use the Headset option to look around as you walk forward with the left controller button, but then switch to the Right Controller when you need to use motion controls to aim at a target.

VR headsets

If you'd like to support virtual reality (VR) headsets for your experience, make sure to test or emulate VR in Studio. Studio supports testing for all VR headsets that are compatible with OpenXR, the open‑source industry standard providing access to VR.

Headset configuration

To enable Studio testing in VR, you must connect your headset to your PC and configure the OpenXR runtime before launching Studio. If you've already launched Studio, quit and complete the configuration steps first.

If you only have one VR headset, installing the corresponding VR app automatically configures the runtime for you. If you have multiple headsets, you must set up the runtime manually and make sure to only configure the one that you want to use for testing.

The following steps are for the two most common VR apps:

• SteamVR for headsets such as the HTC Vive and Valve Index.
• Oculus for headsets such as the Meta Quest and Oculus Rift.

1. Install and open the SteamVR app on your computer.
2. Under SteamVR Settings, select the Developer tab. Then select Show Advanced Settings.
3. Set SteamVR as OpenXR runtime.
4. Turn the controllers on by pressing the System button until you hear a beeping sound.

   • To turn the controller off, press and hold the System button until you hear the same beeping sound.

If you follow the steps correctly, the status icons on the SteamVR app and the status lights on the hardware should all be green, indicating that the configuration is completed.

Roblox Quest app

You can test your experience in the Roblox app on Quest without linking your headset to your computer. Use the following steps to access your experience on your headset in this mode:

1. In Studio, publish the experience and set the experience to private.
2. Using your Creator Dashboard or the link in Studio, open the experience page in your web browser.
3. On the experience page, add the experience to your favorites by clicking the Favorite icon.
4. Using your headset, open the standalone Roblox app.
5. Scroll down to the Favorites section in the home page and run your experience.

Studio VR mode

After configuring your headset, you can turn on the Studio VR testing mode through the following steps:

1. In the File menu, select Studio Settings.
2. Select Rendering.
3. Under General settings, turn on VR Mode.

You can now test your experience using your VR headset using any of the available playtest options. During a VR testing session, if your headset cable disconnects or you close the Roblox Studio Beta app on the headset, you'll need to restart Studio to re-run testing.

Player emulation

For detailed emulation of experience localization and content policies, you can test through the Player emulator.

With the emulator window open, toggle on Enable Test Profile. Emulation will remain as toggled (enabled or disabled) even if you close the window.

Lower down in the window, commonly used options include: