FAQ

The Library's Add game shows what Tessellate knows how to split: games with a built-in pattern, games that already play together on one screen (native co-op), emulators, and patterns converted from the Nucleus hub. Anything else can still be added as an .exe; whether it splits well depends on the game.

Patterns (previously called handlers). A pattern is a small file that tells Tessellate how to start one game for several players: which exe, how many players, and how to keep their saves and settings apart. Some are built in, new ones come from the pattern feed, and Settings > Games > Patterns lists them all.

Press a button on it. Tessellate remembers whose pad it is and hands it back to the same player when it wakes, without restarting anything.

Press the panic key (Ctrl+Shift+Q unless you changed it in Settings > Playing). It ends the whole session like Stop, from inside any game.

On the game's page, open Advanced and pick High performance so every copy uses the fast graphics card. The Health page warns when a laptop is in a power-saving graphics mode.

Each player gets their own saves where the game allows (Settings > Playing > Separate saves), and Player 1 can keep the real ones. Settings > Data & backups makes zip backups of everyone's saves, by hand or after every session.

Tessellate starts games with controller hooks, which antivirus tools sometimes dislike, and the installer isn't signed with a paid certificate. The Health page and Settings > Games > Steam explain the exclusions to add when a game or Tessellate itself gets blocked.

Tessellate looks for a new version when it starts and twice a day, shows what's new, and installs only when you say so, never while a game is running. You can turn the check off or look right away in Settings > About.

Settings > Data & backups > Export makes one .tessellate file with your profiles, settings, lineups, art and patterns (play history if you want). Install Tessellate on the other PC, then Import it there.

The Health page checks controllers, graphics, display and games. If you said yes to keeping logs, Settings > About > Save a problem report (or "Save a report" on any error message) puts one zip on your Desktop: the logs, the controller report, your Windows version and graphics card, and your settings with keys, links, your Windows name and folders taken out. You can read every file before saving, and you decide whether to send it and to whom. In builds with Tessellate's problem inbox the button is Report a problem (and "Report this" on an error): it shows exactly what it would send, a smaller set with player names hidden too and no settings, and nothing goes until you press Send. Reports are grouped by error, and deleted after 90 days.

Not unless you ask. There's no account, no telemetry and nothing is sent in the background unless you turn on crash reports (below). At first start Tessellate asks whether it may keep logs on your PC (errors, crashes, updates, controllers, what each session did). If you say no, nothing is written. Change it any time in Settings > Data & backups; turning the app log off deletes it. A problem report only leaves your PC if you send the zip yourself or press Send on one.

Send crash reports (Settings > About) is off unless you turn it on. Then a crash or an unexpected error sends a short report to Tessellate's own crash server: the start of the error (its details are cut off), where in Tessellate's code it happened, and the Tessellate and Windows versions. Your Windows name, folders, keys, games and logs are never in it, and turning it off deletes any report not yet sent.