Hello, I was doing a performance last night and had a lot of issues with TT crashing when connected to an external display (projector). I was using 4 iPads, and the crashing issue was with three of them that are 9th generation entry level iPads.
One thing it might be, is that I did have some wifi issues when I recently updated the iPad OS to 16.3.1. The software update seemed to finish, but when I restarted the iPads a few days later for my performance, there was a pop-up prompt that said something like, “firmware needs to be installed before you can use accessories”. After I connected to wifi at the venue, TT was working, but about an hour into my performance, TT was crashing on one iPad whenever I added an animation from Decks, or when I went from Paint Mode to Animate Mode, or when I tried to Import Pic.
At first this only happened on one iPad, but then it also happened on the others, but less frequently.
If the crashing isn’t a TT problem, would you have a suggestion for me?
I am wondering…
should I back up the iPads, then erase and restore them?
should I just delete the Tagtool App and then download it again from the App Store?
The firmware update of the Apple external display adapter happened on our 9th Gen. devices as well and didn´t crash so far. Looks like this ain´t an issue.
Driving an external display is a big performance hit for iPads. When there is a lot of content in the scene as well, memory might run low very quickly. What can help:
Lower output quality (Main Menu > Graphics Settings)
Lower deck item size and complexity. If there are any PNG or JPG images used - lower their size and resolution as much as you can. Avoid stacking many transparent layers on top of each other. Layers with very long painting strokes are big hitters.
In our experience iPads are not a very reliable Tagtool Server - especially at bigger public/corporate events. We only use it for outputting to the projector during workshops when crashes are not really an issue.
The new Pro iPads are getting better and better though - the M1 processor can handle a lot. Not tried the M2 yet. In my opinion you get the best performance and reliability when using a PC or Mac and the Tagtool Player.
Hi Matt - thank you so much for this, super helpful hints.
Regarding TagTool Player, I often have a set up where I have several projectors set up in different areas, and/or have different content outputting to each projector. So I’ve been setting up an iPad for each projector, then roam around the space activating the imagery. It is not always possible to run long cables to each projector from a single laptop. Could you offer any thoughts about how to work with Tagtool Player in that scenario? Would I need several laptops each running Tagtool Player?
I haven’t had the crashing issue for a long time, so I was surprised it was happening. It might very well be that I’ve gotten lazy in importing too many large png files! That’s mostly how I use TT, as I’m sure you’ve seen from my clips I share on the Community Forum. Thanks again for your replies. Paul
I can see your point in your way of working. If you want to stay on the iPad side - i would run a load testing with your content to see what your iPads are capable of. Did your iPads crash with the same amount of content at the same time ? Does it crash when you run the same amount of content without an external display connected?
I had different content on all 3 iPads, but the content was quite similar in number of pngs and amount of animation, but one iPad in particular was crashing, while a second only crashed once, and the third didn’t crash at all.
Additionally, during the time it was crashing, TT also crashed when I moved back and forth between “animate” and “paint”, and crashed when I tried to import a pic.
I’m not sure at all this is rooted in TT! But it is an interesting dilemma.
I will definitely run some tests with all three iPads to see if there is a pattern to the crashing.
I used to do texts of content regularly for my events, but admit that I have been lazy in not doing it recently, so I will definitely double check in the future.
I dearly love this app, so I appreciate your attention very much!