It should be possible to use Roblox Studio offline

[Tomarty]

Starting yesterday Roblox Studio has been unable to start during long periods of the day because Roblox’s servers were having trouble. I work using Roblox Studio full-time and this is extremely frustrating.

This prompt sometimes shows up, but you can’t do anything unless logged in:

I also get this error because it requires logging in to use Play-Solo:

(My internet is fine)

Roblox Studio should be able to run offline, or at least be able to run Play-Solo without needing to login. Private team-create servers wouldn’t be a bad idea either. This really needs to be addressed if Roblox is going to scale up and support 100-dev teams. Imagine if Visual Studio had this problem and millions of developers simply couldn’t work

[Fm_Trick (Trick)]

I talked to David Baszucki directly as well as the studio engineers during RDC about an offline mode. The short answer is “no”, regardless of any various use cases, it won’t happen.

David did say that perhaps an offline “brick building mode” version of studio could be possible in the future, but apart from that… no.

[Lightlimn]

I don’t really see why. If I’m going on holiday and I have barely any wifi then I’d love to still be able to use studio offline. It’s just restricting if anything. I guess it’s technical issues though.

[BanTech]

Unions, meshes, textures, sounds, animations, forced updates

[Fm_Trick (Trick)]

I agree, offline mode would be fantastic. I could live with the bare-bones of Roblox studio - no HTTP API access, no unions, meshes, textures, sounds, animations, etc…

Just give me access to write and test LUA code in studio while I’m offline, is all I ask!

[nurgenius]

As much as this would be absolutely lovely, it can’t really happen. Most of studio depends on things is accesses from servers. I can’t exactly list off which ones do, but Studio’s functions in general are heavily based off of the web. It has to communicate with documentation for your code, has to “acess” its own hidden http services, and a ton of other stuff. As @Fm_Trick says:

@Fm_Trick

Perhaps an offline “brick building mode” version of studio could be possible in the future.

This is basically an offline building-centric version of Roblox.

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I don’t believe that nothing can be done to simulate effectively working without internet. For one, Roblox should work more to make its services more stable. It could also help by giving out libraries so we can use our own coding applications to work on stuff – for instance, having a Sublime Text library would help. The “brick building” would help a ton too, so builders can work offline.

[codes4breakfast (Lucas)]

@nurgenius

The “brick building” would help a ton too, so builders can work offline.

I mean, the outdated rbxlx format is technically open-sourced, so it also would be possible for some dedicated programmer to create an offline editor which can export to the format. It is going to be painstakingly difficult, though.

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Other than that, no, Studio will not ever run offline. It is hard to make it do that without rewriting it entirely, given that 70% of Studio only works when connected to Roblox servers.

(Studio also shares a similar codebase to the Player, so not only would it require rewriting Studio, but the Player too.)

[Brinker7]

Fun fact of the day: Roblox (both studio and player) already cache every http request they make.

[nenen]

I’ve been able to use Roblox Studio offline for years actually, but recently that all changed.

some developers didn't know how you'd do it, but. . .

it was by simply clicking on the RobloxStudioBeta exe within Roblox’s installation Folder…

So a little after the RDC, I updated my Roblox Studio by walking to the Library with my computer, and after coming back. I find this message.

Used to be I’d get the ‘Unable to Connect’ message And I would still get to use Studio in an Offline mode. Now, no matter what I do, I can’t do a thing…

So with the recent update, Roblox has changed my ability to develop. Effectively killing any ability for me to develop games on Roblox.

The solution is simple.
Allow Roblox Studio to operate without needing to Login. (again)

If this isn’t done, this might be the end of any future on Roblox for me or my brother.
We can’t afford Internet, and we were frankly hoping to be able to start paying for it as soon as we succesfully launch our first real project, and start getting at least the bare minimum payout fairly soon after.

But now?
It takes us approx. an hour to walk to the nearest library lugging around our computer equipment so that we could connect to the Internet for updates and such. (weather permitting) This isn’t a good long-term solution for us.

I really hope Roblox will at least consider the few developers like us we are stuck Offline most-of-the-time, and allow us to AT The Very Least use Roblox Studio as we’ve been doing for years.

I’ve contacted Support, got the standard response, and am unsure if they’ll actually do anything about it. (recommend any other like-minded or kind Devs to do the same though)

Thank you for reading.

[DMND_T (T_LOL)]

As a Roblox developer with bad internet access it’s frustrating having to be connected when starting and using Studio, I’m fine with the limitations of not being able to use datastores, get what your avatar currently looks like, use the toolbox, save to Roblox, etc. etc. but I don’t see why we shouldn’t be able to script and build without an internet connection.

If Roblox is able to address this issue, it would improve my development experience because I’ll be able to work on my games regardless whether I have a stable connection at the time I open Studio.

[loueque (paperbagger)]

As a developer who works at home and outside when traveling hours and hours away from a main source of wifi, I think it would be helpful to make Roblox Studio run and function well offline with standards and limits to it, which would be fair enough.

When going out somewhere on a holiday or vacation I always bring my laptop in case I need to work on some updates for a game of mine or do some daily coding as usual as I have nothing to do when I don’t have wifi available anywhere or possibly at a hotel(?). During these times I’m mostly at home a lot and nowhere to go but sometimes the wifi gets cut off or has issues when I’m in the middle of working on something that all could be lost due to that or an Engine issue.

Anyway, having to work offline would be nice but I guess it won’t be too feasible as it is with wifi.

[ChipioIndustries (chipio)]

Today is a perfect example of why always online tech is a detriment to its users. There a ton of work I could be doing that doesn’t rely on online functionality (pretty much everything except datastores) yet a site outage prevents me from even launching Studio.

This is a major reason why people swear by third-party programs like VSCode that aren’t tied to external servers. I can technically still write code, even if I can’t test it - I feel bad for those who can’t.

Roblox Studio needs to be usable 100% of the time if it wants to be used and viewed as a professional tool - I can’t think of a single other “pro” program with this issue. Please give us back our offline functionality, even if some things don’t work. It used to give a warning that things might not work properly, and give you the option to continue forward anyway - that was perfect, go back to that! A crippled version of Studio would still be more functional than it is right now.

[sanjay2003 (Sanjay)]

Sorry to revive but, I need this.

Even though, it’s pretty much a set in stone “no” from everyone, I think that a compromise would be better. Lets say you have a place file and you want to open said place file. Now, lets take that a step further. You want to develop on said place file.

If you could be able to open normal place files on your disk without an internet connection, in theory, it could work because any of the changes you make would be local. You wouldn’t need to push stuff to a server simply because, you don’t need to.

Granted, you’d be running a very slimmed down version of Roblox Studio. Toolbox wouldn’t work. Meshes probably wouldn’t load (or give us the option to download it locally). Any APIs that require a connection to external services wouldn’t work. But, I don’t see a reason why hashing out some non-internet-based code or building wouldn’t hurt. Having to login to Roblox studio just to use the app even when opening a local file seems absolutely pointless. I get that updates want to be forced or whatever but, the fact that a developer can’t open up a place offline and hash some simple code is a bit annoying. Local place files shouldn’t require an internet connection just to develop with.

I find myself without internet wanting to pull out my laptop and get some code written. Sure I can write code on vs code or any text editor and test it later but, why? Why is it so important for studio to remain online at all times? How is it that ever other professional service out there can operate offline but, a physics-based workshop can’t? How does a local dev server need access to an internet connection?

If someone wants to develop on your product offline so that they can access your product wherever and build content for your site or to become better at what they do because they see it as a passion, why must you take every turn to prevent it? Stuff like this makes no sense. An application naturally shouldn’t be tied to needing an internet connection 24/7. It really feels like they’re tracking some sort of internal metrics where a persistent internet connection would make sense. Login, etc can be rectified by storing auth details locally in a safe place. Updates shouldn’t be forced for the sake of being forced.

I find myself in situations where I lack time but, the places where I have no internet and I really just want to work on a game or something to pass the time by. The lack of this being a literal thing has been an inconvenience.

Edit: This would also be beneficial for a lot of people who can’t connect to Roblox consistently in different countries. I remember when I went overseas somewhere, had a spotty connection and couldn’t open up studio. It was pretty frustrating. I can’t imagine what’s that like for someone who lives there permanently and wants to build a skillset or passion.

[railworks2]

It might be 9 months since the last reply but I really want to bring this thread back up.

Roblox has been down for 12+ hours, time which could be spent developing while Roblox is down. It’s annoying that you’ve lost 12+ hours of income (for a Friday), even worse when you can’t then make up for that because studio refuses to open.

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I strongly and deeply support some form of offline studio, I have found repeated times where I did not have internet but wanted to do some basic development. Here are some further use cases where I require this feature:

• Working from the back of the car to do light changes and verifying all works well.
• Working during times where Roblox is not stable/down

I wish the Roblox team the best in dealing with this live problem but I think being able to use this down time for better use would be deeply appreciated by developers around the world.

[Hexcede]

I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said here, and definitely relate to this. I mentioned in a reply to a studio update that I want to be able to access old place files from when the format changes or breaks, because, that does happen. Depending on the content, many of my older place files do not load, or load incorrectly (e.g. having missing part colors, broken UI, etc)

Not only do I want to be able to work while on long trips where I’ll have no internet, I want to work with these rare cases too, and the income developers lose over this is very real. Time might stop in relation to Roblox here but everybody still has rent to pay and not everybody can be comfortable with losing a full day of work.

Cloud is not robust unless you design it robustly. Backups, and server redundancy are one part of it, but if all of that redundancy and fail-safe design has only one door I can open to get to it, it doesn’t matter how thick the hinges are that door is my only option, and that’s far from redundant, or robust.

All of my work rests on the back of Roblox’s web services functioning correctly for the next ten years. Roblox’s web servers might not exist that long in the future. I might not ever be able to view the content I have made, and, that is scary and frustrating, and completely not future-proof.

This outage genuinely makes me realize that my work is basically being held hostage from me at all times. If Roblox goes down, I go with them.

It should be possible to use Roblox Studio while offline, even with limited feature access. If it means my client is going to crash, and spit errors at me, and break, that is still infinitely better than being completely incapable of making income because I can’t work the hours I’m supposed to be getting paid for.

I want my workflow to not be impacted by cloud outages for software which almost entirely doesn’t run on the cloud. Roblox integrates a ton of cloud features: For asset downloads, for determining feature availability, for saving your places, downloading your avatar, connecting with other people. But, I can save offline too. And, I can load offline. And some assets are cached. None do I care about needing to be able to load off the cloud, because all I care about is the potential to do my job.

I want my work to be preservable, who cares if it really is preserved, but I want my work to be accessible to me long in the future in the same way that I can access any old game I last played when I was 8 or 9 and play it.

I also want a free burrito, if Roblox isn’t back by 6:30pm ET I will be SO angry that I can’t get my free burrito today /j

[metatablecatmaid (metatablecat)]

The main issue is that Roblox doesn’t have support for an animation file type, though I can image that’d be super easy to add through RBXMs or some new format.

Regardless, please add this. i sometimes go to places that dont have internet and it would be so nice to work on projects when I cant authenticate of get to Roblox’s servers.

I cant imagine it’d be too hard to do this, the only issue being server assets and character animations (as mentioned above).

[Hexcede]

Roblox animations are stored as rbxm files already, and, they’ve gotta have a file format to be downloadable as well. Assets aren’t the real block for why Roblox doesn’t want to support Studio offline.

The main issue is really that Studio is being forcefully integrated with the cloud in a bunch of ways, so, if a web service is down it won’t behave as intended and many features will break. For example, beta features, plugins, fast flags, etc make lots of web requests and many features built in to studio break when offline.

Because Roblox Studio makes web requests when you boot it up to check feature availability, updates, etc they would need fallbacks for when these web APIs go down.

Personally, I just say cache requests, and ignore the cache for those requests when connectivity is available. If connectivity isn’t available, pop up a message that Roblox Studio will be running in offline mode, exactly what was done before. I mean, this could even be integrated as a global switch, and Roblox could toggle a switch to start using cached requests during big outages. If that switch request fails the default should be to enable it.

The functionality for this is already built in to studio (its part of curl), and is far better than most things. It even exists already for certain assets such as CSG parts, which are stored in full in an http cache folder. It’s easy, cheap, low effort, and still provides Roblox with control, allowing them to tell people’s studio clients to stop trying to make connections.

This could be used to reduce strain during outages, while also keeping developers able to connect at least.

This would obviously still result in things breaking, you obviously can’t publish, and you aren’t simply able to just boot up any old version of studio for the first time and get it to work, but, it is an easy solution which preserves the state of studio since the last time you had used it. It preserves assets and things as well.

Roblox could disable certain features if they wanted to, such as publishing, and any sort of things where there are concerns.

And for people worried about storage usage, for one Roblox already caches a TON of assets, but also clearing it out or just disabling this feature is always an option.

Honestly, if I can decide on a way to do this I would write my own tool for this, and maybe release it publicly, but, I’ve tried in the past without much luck due to Roblox Studio intentionally bypassing things like proxies for certain requests, so there’s not a good way for me to sandwhich myself in there and start handling requests.

[JedDevs (Theo)]

Agreed, I travel a lot with my MacBook and do dev work when I can but am restricted to either VSCode or relying on some dodgy public WiFi. This a common sense addition and the idea Devs (people) should always be online is fantismal and unrealistic.

[Plutonem (emile)]

My whole team can’t work because studio doesn’t work offline.

We’re stuck wasting hours (now days) doing almost nothing while our expenses continue. Roblox needs to start considering the cost impact it has on everyone, especially right before Halloween. We can’t even prepare and fix the small things for the next two days.

I don’t think asking for Roblox Studio offline is such a big demand when it worked like that for years. How about just a warning that some features won’t be available? I can still open Unity or UE4 even if I yeet my modem, but not Roblox Studio because it’s not their vision? Bruh.

oh noes, u have been pwned by the GUAC policies monster

[bigcrazycarboy]

People have been advocating for this for quite some time now, but I think Roblox has become stubborn enough about their decision that at this point it’s beyond them. Despite this, I wanted to post on this thread nonetheless to voice my support for offline studio behavior. There’s no reason why just simply not loading assets should prevent devs from actually working on their games. That’s like holding up a flight because the paint chipped on the livery. I’ve got midterms this week but it’s also Halloween weekend and my game’s Halloween update still isn’t finished. I purchased a Hearse 3D model asset to use in my game as a limited time obtainable item and I can’t even work on the event in the one day I have off before midterms start up because Roblox Studio doesn’t work offline anymore and Roblox has been down.

Even if Roblox wasn’t down though, I think something Roblox has overlooked in this decision is:

internet doesn’t exist everywhere

if someone lives in non densely-populated areas, they cannot develop on Roblox. That is a fact. Especially with Roblox expanding to China, they will feel the effects of this very severely as most places in China that are not along the coast typically do not have very good internet - not to mention, they are going through a bit of a power crisis even for people who are on the grid right now. That’s not to say it’s anybody’s fault - nobody can control whether or not their farmhouse in the middle of nowhere has internet or not without spending loads of money - but if you can drive 15 minutes to an internet cafe to publish, that’s one thing. Driving 15 minutes to an internet cafe every time you want to work on the game? That’s just too much and will drive devs away from the platform very quickly.

This is something Roblox should act on very quickly imo.