I am trying to using Vex Code VR on my Windows 10 OS and in Google Chrome. When I start the playground, the loading progress is stuck at around 75% and remains stuck. I’m unable to view the playground at all. Attached screenshot for reference. Please provide a solution for this.
Whilst you wait for the US to wake up, it might be worth hitting the feedback button in the top right to send some diagnostic data to the VEXcode team.
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I am trying to start the playground that has the issue so that the necessary diagnositc data might get collected and during that, I am unable to give inputs in the feedback menu. I am not able to type anything in it. I tried copy pasting my feedback message and email and then clicked on submit. Still the button says “Sending Feedback” and remains the same. I think its a serious bug.
What version of Chrome is it and what is the hardware that it is running on? Any other information you can provide that will help diagnose might be useful too.
You can still click the feedback box before you try to open the playground as that will still probably send some useful diagnostic data,
Chrome Version: Version 83.0.4103.61 (Official Build) (64-bit). i have attached specs of my Dell Inspiron 7567 laptop. And yes, I have submitted the feedback before I open the playground. And by the way this time it’s a Windows 10 OS.
Has anyone addresses this issue? This happens a lot, make it difficult to use in a classroom.
I am having the same issue with some of my students (not all). They are working at home remotely and are saying that they can’t load the screen. I have had them clear the playground cache and reload their browser. They are running the most current version of Chrome on their chromebooks.
Version 87.0.4280.88 (Official Build)
I have reached an odd impasse with this. I have been using VEX-VR for 2 year no hiccups and now the playgrounds will not load. I have tried clearing the cache/cookies etc but nothing. I went to File/About/and tried to clear the playground cache but it says my browser does not support the playgrounds. WOW, every other computer in my classroom does. What the heck. Any clues on how to get this to work??? Can I unhook from VEX VR so that it does not recognize my system any longer? Then go back in. The issue started with the Coral Reef Clean up I was doing with my students last week.
I know that this is a simple solution and you probably may have tried it but… have you restarted your computer? It works wonders with pretty much any online application.
I restart my system daily. I have also reinstalled chrome on that system and it still does not show the playground. I have no other browse on my work computer. Where else can VEX be storing information. I do not want to reformat the entire system for something not even on the system.
This issue keeps happening to my students as well on their school issued chromebooks. One day it works, one day black screen. Very frustrating. Same issues listed above, stuck on a black screen when they try and load their playgrounds. I tried all the troubleshooting techniques listed, including restarting their devices, cache clear, performance accelerator box checked etc. The playground still doesn’t load. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not. Unless a fix is in place I feel that I can no longer use this in my STEM classroom. Too much class time wasted. The program does work on the school laptop and the desktop most of the time. Occasionally though, I have experienced this same black screen playground loading issue the last two years randomly, but it usually goes away after a restart or after a period of time. But it does come back, so it appears to be a known issue that has not been resolved. Please provide a fix or a new path to rectify or else I am forced to abandon the program.
Have you used the Feedback option to send the diagnostics to the dev team so that they can see what is happening and fix it? Load the playground and when it fails, submit feedback at that point.
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One additional troubleshooting technique would be to try loading VR “incognito” mode so no other browser extensions / plugins are running at the same time. A lot of the time, the issue is related to running out of the memory on the browser due to other tabs / extensions running at the same time as VR.
As @calvc01 mentioned, sending feedback after you experience the “black screen” issue will allow us to look at the logs and see what exactly is failing and be able to provide more guidance.
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@tfriez - This is happening on the school issued chromebooks which are highly secure with many school related extension/plugins and securities in place. They are not able to load the browser in “incognito” mode. This is also happening on the school desktops which have a high memory.
@calvc01 - This is happening to every student when they load the playground and it gets stuck at 80% of the loading screen. This appears to be a known issue. I can try today to use the feedback option I will report back.
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@calvco1 - Using the feedback feature requires the student to use their school email and follow through with the troubleshooting and logging the issues which I do not want my students to waste class time doing. They are unable to log off and run a incognito. In order to use their chromebooks they must be signed into their school account which has many security measures in place to protect them.
Please provide an alternate method to this fix besides having students use this feedback feature individually. As a teacher this sounds like a nightmare having 150 students logging feedback trouble tickets to their school email. There has to be a better way to allow the students to run the playground on their school issued chromebooks or else we will not be able to use this service. And to be honest, why would you develop such a program for students when they can’t even use it or provide solutions besides this feedback process.
I don’t understand this feedback - could you please clarify about “provide solutions”?
The feedback system can be submitted completely anonymously, an e-mail address is not needed. You can open the feedback issue, note that “Playground window is not displaying correctly” and ensure “Include Diagnostic and Usage Data?” is checked so we can investigate the development logs to see what might because the issue to better assist.
Without this data, the only assumption we can make is that some school-related plugin / extension is causing issues with VEXcode VR, but we have no way of investigating or troubleshooting this issue without being able to either replicate the issue ourselves (which we have not been able to do yet) or to be able to see this diagnostic data.
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Clarification - If the feedback is anonymous, how will you know who sent it and provide the solution necessary to get the VEX code VR to work on our school chromebooks in a timely manner?
" but we have no way of investigating or troubleshooting this issue without being able to either replicate the issue ourselves (which we have not been able to do yet) or to be able to see this diagnostic data."
That is assuming that this is a known issue, judging on the responses from this thread, there has been no fix. It does seem like this is related to a plugin / extension and I am not the first teacher to experience this issue. This appears to be an ongoing issue that has not been resolved. Our IT is hesitant to allow diagnostic data from all of the students in the school district chromebooks for security data reasons to get a VR Robot program to work. I sent one feedback from a senior. The better question is, do all students who have this issue send in their diagnostics, and is this common practice for you to ask students to do this. I see IT have major concerns with this process. Can you please send this up the chain to come up with a better solution.
In the meantime, I have to move on.
We got the feedback post. I’m able to associate this feedback to this specific issue as you’ve made reference to it in your post above. A simple reference to this conversation is all that is needed, no personally identifiable information is required.
There are an infinite number of computer configurations available, to which we are unable to test every possible set of computers / applications installed / security measures. We do extensive testing to ensure that our software works in as many use cases as we can, but it’s impossible to cover every permutation - hence we have a feedback mechanism to help us troubleshoot and resolve these issues. As new issues arise, we spend development resources to try to improve our software, but not every incident is within our development control.
There’s no one else to “send this up the chain to” as I’m the VP of Educational Technology for VEX - my team is responsible for the development of these applications. We’re happy to continue assisting and troubleshooting this issue with you to help make VEXcode better for your students and all users.
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I understand the possibilities and existential frustrations of software development, before being a teacher I was a project manager for a digital media company. From an educator perspective, it is a slap in the face after many many hours of learning the V5 and VR program, implementing the VEX instructional methods and lessons. Creating google docs, google sheets, screencastify videos for differentiation. Coming up with a 2 week block of engaging lessons devoted to the VEX VR for 8th and 9th grade students for a combo programming/robotics lessons. Having it be buggy last year, but I trudged through it, and this year a total fail. Speaking with our IT director, I can’t have IT change all of the school’s plug in extensions, security measures and software district wide to get VEX VR to work on every student’s chromebook. Just not going to happen After all the time invested on my end, you just want it to work. Thank you for your help on this. I am quickly writing these between classes so I apologize for the spelling mistakes and brevity. Any fix would be greatly appreciated going forward.