Environment

The Environment namespace contains a set of functions for determining where a script is running. Some of these functions are paired together. For example, a script will return true for one of Environment.IsServer() or Environment.IsClient(), but never for both. Similarly, either Environment.IsLocalGame() or Environment.IsHostedGame() will return true, but not both.

Class Functions

Class Function Name	Return Type	Description	Tags
`Environment.IsServer()`	`boolean`	Returns `true` if the script is running in a server environment. Note that this can include scripts running in the editor in preview mode (where the editor acts as server for the game) or for the "Play Locally" option in the Main Menu. This will always return `false` for scripts in a Client Context.	None
`Environment.IsClient()`	`boolean`	Returns `true` if the script is running in a client environment. This includes scripts that are in a Client Context, as well as scripts in a Static Context on a multiplayer preview client or a client playing a hosted game. Note that single-player preview and the "Play Locally" option only execute Static Context scripts once, and that is in a server environment.	None
`Environment.IsHostedGame()`	`boolean`	Returns `true` if running in a published online game, for both clients and servers.	None
`Environment.IsLocalGame()`	`boolean`	Returns `true` if running in a local game on the player's computer. This includes preview mode, as well as the "Play Locally" option in the Main Menu.	None
`Environment.IsPreview()`	`boolean`	Returns `true` if running in preview mode.	None
`Environment.IsMultiplayerPreview()`	`boolean`	Returns `true` if running in multiplayer preview mode.	None
`Environment.IsSinglePlayerPreview()`	`boolean`	Returns `true` if running in single-player preview mode.	None

Examples

Example using:

`IsServer`

`IsClient`

Sometimes a script can be written for use on either server or client contexts. In this example, we access the player's user data tables in an abstract way, by creating a function that checks the environment and returns the correct table.

function GetUserData(player)
    if Environment.IsServer() then
        return player.serverUserData

    elseif Environment.IsClient() then
        return player.clientUserData
    end
end

GetUserData(player)["example"] = true

`IsSinglePlayerPreview`

We may want to press a key to display some UI. However, in single-player preview mode, The [Tab] key pauses the simulation. In this example, we assign [Tab] to display the scoreboard. On each action the Environment is checked, to see if it is singler-player preview, in which case [Caps Lock] is used instead of [Tab].

function IsTabAction(actionBinding)
    if Environment.IsSinglePlayerPreview() then
        return actionBinding == "ability_extra_18" -- Caps Lock key
    else
        return actionBinding == "ability_extra_19" -- Tab key
    end
end

function OnBindingPressed(player, action)
    if IsTabAction(action) then
        Events.Broadcast("ShowScoreboard")
    end
end

Game.playerJoinedEvent:Connect(function(player)
    player.bindingPressedEvent:Connect(OnBindingPressed)
end)

Last update: December 7, 2021