Online player update is confusing

Support
#1

When I load up the online player, it tells me " Both Web Player and Online Player (app) clients are connected, but these currently do not play together in sync. We recommend that all players use one or the other."

This is the horribly confusing part as a users: I don’t know how to specify one or the other.

Now all my players use the Windows App Online Player.
I usually just go to the webs online player website and run my stuff there, while running the windows app to get sound.

But now, it doesn’t matter if I run the windows client or not, I still get that error. I want everyone to be using the Windows app right now, but it says use one or the other, but I cannot figure out how to specify using the app instead of all players running through the web only.

This is a terrible, unclear situation I am in right now, and game has started, so I guess everyoen will be out of sync tonight… :frowning:

#2

Hi there. Sorry about the confusion and thanks for your feedback. We will try to improve this situation. In the meantime, I can try to explain.

All web players will be in sync with each other, and all online player apps will be in sync with each other. Web players and online player apps might be slightly out of sync (with the other).

You see the warning because the master interface you are using to control the session now includes the web player. You can:

  • Use the new master interface with embedded web player and send the Share Audio link (from the top right hamburger menu) to your players so they can also use the web player instead of the online player app.
  • Use the old master interface without embedded web player at https://syrinscape.com/online/master/
  • Use the new master interface at https://app.syrinscape.com plus the online player app, and mute the master interface browser tab.

When we say the web player and online player app may be slightly out of sync, this is what it means:

  • Elements will still start and stop at the same time.
  • Volume changes will still be applied for all players.
  • Moving elements might choose different location, direction and speed in web players vs online player apps.
  • Elements with a shuffled sample playlist might trigger individual samples in a different order, and with a different delay between samples, in web players vs online player apps.
  • Web players that join the session late will hear active elements start at their current position (e.g. will skip ahead to half way through a music track) in the web players. Online app players will hear active elements from the beginning.

Hope this helps!

#3

Thanks man!

More feedback:

  • The first place I looked in hopes to be able to choose my preferred method, was in the menu within the online player. I checked in settings since that seemed like a settings thing.
    image

I also looked to see if I could change my preferred method in the actual popup message - like a link or something to click to pick either / or:
image

And then the 3rd place I looked was in the client app itself, thinking there was a button I could push where I could specify the preferred method:
image

And then the 4th place I looked for specifying my preferred method was here:

image
image900×551 44.4 KB

I stopped there, because I was getting very frustrated by my inability to do what the popup message was telling me to do and posted this message.

Thanks!

1 Like
#4

I edited my above message. Being on the Maptool team since v1, sometimes as devs or UI designers, we forget what it is like to see the product we are making with fresh eyes. I sometimes wish new users would express their fresh eye perspectives, so that we can experience their pains and work to making their experience better. That is what I am hoping to do here - provide you fine devs that fresh perspective, because it was frustrating and painful last night, not knowing how to satisfy that warning message.

1 Like
#5

i was having this problem and just solved it by watching a video on an unrelated topic. When you go to the home page and click “play now”, you get the web player. Launching the online player software does not connect the two. Instead, beside “play now” click the dropdown beside your user name and then select “online control panel”. This distinction was causing me havoc with discord (i’ll note that I was able to control the online player with the web player…which is confusing if they are indeed separate).

1 Like
#6

Thank you! I was looking desperately for an answer to this. The whole UI is so confusing.

#7

Heya,

Wanna give us a little more info about what you were trying to achieve and what you tried and maybe we can explain our thinking a little… and possibly come up with a better way of making that clearer! :smiley:

#8

OK. Here goes:

When you click “play now” you get thrown into the web player and get an immediate error message that both web player and online player are connected. But … neither me nor my group want the web player and there is no visible way of telling the app to just disable one or the other.

I now learned that I can circumvent that by going with several clicks more through the control center. So that’s what I will do from now on. I would never have found out about that on my own (well, by accident, maybe, but still, that’s not ideal).

A settings button in the profile that just lets you switch between web player and online player app would be nice.

As of now, visually, there is no difference between the two setups, which is confusing. Also that there is no hint whatsoever that I can skip the whole web player business by going through the control center.

#9

Ah, cool. That makes sense.

So you are trying to get back to the older Online Player setup rather than use the Web Player (and found it hard to get through to the old Master UI).

What particular reason is making you want/need to use the Online Player app rather than the sound coming straight out of the Web Player browser window?

(All for our infos)