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.

Action Shortcut Description
Play F5 Starts simulating the experience, inserting your avatar at either a SpawnLocation or coordinates of around (0, 100, 0).
Play HereStarts simulating the experience, inserting your avatar in front of the camera's current position.
Run F8 Starts simulating the experience but does not insert your avatar. The simulation begins at the current camera position and you can navigate around using the Studio camera controls.

Client/Server Toggle

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:

In Client mode, the simulation uses your character controls and camera setup. This testing mode is a close simulation of the experience running on the Roblox application, without multiple players.
In Server mode, your character is inserted but is not under your control. You can move about the place with a free-floating camera, select objects, and inspect their properties.

Explorer Window

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

In Client mode, the expected client-side objects are present in the hierarchy, including those copied over from StarterPack to the player's Backpack and from StarterPlayer into the player's PlayerScripts.
In Server mode, the expected server-side objects are present in the hierarchy, including scripts in ServerScriptService and objects you placed in ServerStorage.

Output Window

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 a server-side Script.

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 Player is sufficient, although you can simulate up to eight.

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

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

Device Emulation

The Device emulator lets you emulate various devices directly in Studio, providing insight on how controls operate on a mobile device or how on-screen UI displays on different screens and aspect ratios.

In emulation mode, you can select devices from the dropdown menu above the 3D view. You can also adjust the view size and change the device orientation between landscape and portrait modes.

Player Emulation

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

  1. Click the Player button to open the emulator window.

  2. Toggle on Enable Test Profile in the window. Emulation will remain as toggled (enabled or disabled) even if you close the window.

  3. Lower down in the window, the following options are available:

    • Locale - Lets you emulate a localized language while playtesting.
    • Region - Lets you emulate a player's country/region while playtesting; this selection may impact other toggles and checkboxes in the window as outlined in GetPolicyInfoForPlayerAsync().

  4. Start playtesting in either Play or Play Here mode to test the chosen settings.

Collaborative Testing

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

  1. In the Clients and Servers section, select Team Test in the upper box.

  2. Press the Start button to publish the current state of the experience and create a new Studio session with your character inserted. Other collaborators can then join by pressing Join from the Test tab.