What is Safety Mode?

*This article is applicable to both operators of VR Arcades and operators of VR labs & maker spaces at educational institutions.*

What is Safety Mode?

Safety Mode is a feature that allows your location to continue running in the event of server downtime. Safety Mode will automatically kick in and take over until the issues are resolved.

 

What happens in the Station Monitor when Safety Mode kicks in?

When Safety Mode activates in the Station Monitor you will see the following popup that will give you information about the functionality of the page.

 

Connection Lost, Safety Mode Activated

Temporary changes to the Launcher:

• Filtering, searching for content and calling for help are disabled.

• The timer is hidden in the Launcher but will be shown as soon as Safety Mode is turned off.

• If a new session is started while the station is disconnected, you will need to track time yourself.

Temporary changes to the Station Monitor:

• Editing reservations and station settings are disabled.

• You will be notified when the connection is restored. 

You will not be able to edit, start, or create new reservations but you will be able to see the calendar overview of your stations in your Station Monitor like below.

It is important that you DO NOT refresh the Station Monitor page while Safety Mode is activated. Refreshing the page will cause you to completely lose access to the Station Monitor until the servers are back up.

 

What happens in the Launcher when Safety Mode kicks in?

When your customers are in the Launcher and Safety Mode activates, you will see the following messages above the content list, under the station name, and in the overlay. Their game play will not be interrupted at any point. Your customers will still be able to play content, launch different content, and switch back to the Launcher while in Safety Mode.

 

What the customer sees when Safety Mode kicks in:

Top notification text in Launcher:
Connection unstable. You can keep playing but some functionalities might be unavailable.

Left & right notification text in Launcher:
Attempting to reconnect. You can keep playing.

Overlay notification text in Launcher:
Attempting to reconnect. You can keep playing.

What functionalities will be unavailable for the customer in Safety Mode?

Within the Launcher some functionality will be disabled. Your customers will not be able to:

• Switch languages
• Use the call for help button
• Use the filters and search for content
  
• See their time ticking down

 

Because the time will not be counting down in the Launcher, you will need to manually track your customers’ time. They will not get “kicked out” at the end of a session because no time will appear in the Launcher.

 

What do I do when the outage has been fixed? 

Once the servers are restored, the following popup will appear in your Station Monitor notifying you that the system is back online. There will be a 60 second countdown while the Station Monitor reconnects to your stations. 

Once the countdown is complete and the Station Monitor has reconnected with your Stations, you can select Got It! to return to your Station Monitor.

You will have to click “Restore Station” for each station that was disconnected from the service during the outage in order to regain full functionality for the Launcher.

Once you click “Restore Station” for a station the following popup will appear:

 

Are you sure you want to restore this station?

If a customer is currently playing on this station, make sure there is a running session for it in the Station Monitor or the player will have their session: ended unintentionally. If you do not have a running session in the Station Monitor:

• Create a new walk-in, adjust the time, check in, and start.
• Then restore your station. 

It is important you complete this step to ensure your customer does not get kicked out of their session if they are playing without a reservation for that station in the Station Monitor.

Also, stations cannot be reserved online until they have been restored in the Station Monitor.

 

If after clicking "Restore Station" you still see the "Attempting to Reconnect" message in the launcher, find the SpringboardVR Icon in the system tray, right click it and select Restart.