First launch¶
Sign in, pick a project, and read the status bar so you know the connection is healthy before you touch anything.
The connecting screen¶
Every cold start passes through here. Moonshine shows the wordmark, a spinner, and a line telling you where the connection stands:
| Line | What is happening |
|---|---|
| Connecting to server… | Normal start-up. It usually lasts a second or two |
| Reconnecting to server… | The connection existed and dropped; Moonshine is re-establishing it |
| Cannot reach server | No answer after about three seconds. The screen turns red, shows a ⚠ and offers a Retry button |
If the wait drags on, a second line appears underneath naming the address Moonshine is dialing. That address is the show computer's own connection point, and seeing it is a useful confirmation you launched the right thing.
Retry simply reloads. Before pressing it more than once, check that the Moonshine application is actually running on the show computer — a browser window on another device cannot connect to a machine where Moonshine has been closed.
Signing in¶
Once connected, you get the sign-in card: the Moonshine mark, the wordmark, and the line Projection Mapping System.
- Enter your Username.
- Enter your Password.
- Click Login.
The button tells you whether it can do anything:
| Button reads | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Login | The connection is good. It stays greyed out and unclickable until both fields have content |
| Logging in... | Your credentials are being checked |
| Offline | There is no connection to sign in over — the connection notice above the fields says more |
Above the fields, a yellow strip appears whenever the connection is not healthy: Connecting to server…, Server connection is stale. Waiting for response…, or Cannot reach server. Check that the backend is running. A red strip in the same place carries sign-in errors — a rejected password, or Lost connection to server during login. Please try again. if the link dropped mid-attempt.
At the bottom of the card, Need help? Moonshine documentation opens Moonshine's help on the web, in your normal browser. It is there for exactly the case where you cannot get past this screen.
Accounts come from the show computer
There is no sign-up here. Accounts are created by an administrator in the Admin tab — see Users and sessions.
Moonshine remembers the session on the device you signed in from, so the next launch goes straight past this card and into the project. Logout in the account menu is what ends it.
Choosing a project¶
If no project is loaded, the Projects window opens over the interface as soon as you are signed in. You cannot dismiss it — a Moonshine session always has a project open.
- Each row shows the project name, the number of projectors it contains, and when it was last updated.
- Click a row to load that project.
- Hovering a row reveals three icons on the right: load, rename, delete.
- New Project creates one from scratch — see Your first mapping for the fields.
- With no projects yet, the window reads No projects yet. Create one to get started.
While a project loads, a full-screen overlay covers the interface with a spinner and Loading project.... It clears by itself once the show computer has sent the whole project across.
Knowing you are connected¶
The strip along the bottom of the window is the honest answer. Left to right:
Connection. A colored dot and a label:
| Label | Dot | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
WS: Connected |
Green | Healthy. This is the state you want before you start work |
WS: Connecting… |
Yellow, pulsing | Establishing the connection |
WS: Reconnecting… |
Amber, pulsing | Lost and retrying — edits made now may not reach the show computer |
WS: Unresponsive |
Red | Connected but nothing has come back for a while. Treat this as offline |
WS: Disconnected |
Gray | No connection |
Next to the label, a small timestamp shows how long it has been since anything last arrived — it only appears once the gap exceeds a few seconds, so a quiet slot there means traffic is flowing normally.
Users counts the people currently signed in to this show computer, including you. Locks counts how many things are currently held for editing across all of those people — see Locks.
Further right sits a frame-rate readout for the render engine, then the dock icons for the floating cards, the Scene Graph toggle, and the version number.
Check the dot before you start aligning
An amber or red dot means your changes may not be reaching the show computer. Wait for green before doing precision work.
Signing out¶
Your username sits at the top-right of the window. Click it and choose Logout. Anything you had locked is released for the next person.
Next: Join from another device, or go straight to Your first mapping.