# ReviewDeck FAQ > Common questions about ReviewDeck, the free offline review tool for video, images, audio and 3D. If yours isn't here, email adam@adambroder.com - it's one person; you'll get a real reply. ## The basics ### How is this different from Frame.io and the other cloud tools? Those are services: your media uploads to their servers, everyone needs an account, and you rent access monthly. ReviewDeck is a tool: your media stays in your folders on drives you already own, nobody needs an account, and the app is yours once installed. Reviews travel as ordinary files you send however you already talk to people. ### Is ReviewDeck for game studios? Yes - that's where it comes from. ReviewDeck is made by a game developer and shaped around the reviews game teams actually run: trailer cuts, gameplay captures, key art and 3D assets. The library lives on your own drives behind your own permissions, so an unannounced title never touches a third-party server, and there's no per-seat subscription to get signed off. It isn't game-only, though: film, motion design and archviz work exactly the same way. ### Is it really free? What's the catch? The full tool is free for solo use and for teams on a shared drive: reviewing, sending, collecting notes, all of it. The planned paid tiers add things studios want on top: their own branding on outgoing reviews, watermarks, admin activity tools. The catch, such as it is: files you send out carry a small "Made with ReviewDeck" note. ### Do my files get uploaded anywhere? No. There is no ReviewDeck server to upload to. Your media lives in your folders; reviews travel through whatever channel you choose (email, chat, a shared drive). Even the browser portal works entirely on the reviewer's device - after the page loads it is blocked from all network access, which you can verify in the browser's network tab. ### What platforms does it run on? The desktop app is Windows 10+ today. Reviewers don't need the app at all: the browser portal works on anything with a modern browser, including phones and Macs. A Mac version of the app depends on demand. ### What media can I review? Video, images, audio and 3D. Import handles the common formats (FFmpeg under the hood) and bakes video into quality tiers so playback is instant even off a network drive over WiFi. 3D meshes and Gaussian splat captures open in the same viewer, with notes that remember the exact camera view. ## 3D review ### What 3D formats can I import? Meshes: glTF/GLB, FBX, OBJ, COLLADA, PLY, STL and 3MF. Everything converts to one clean format at import, with rigs, animation and materials preserved where the source carries them, and units and axes normalised. Gaussian splat captures open natively too: PLY, SPZ, SPLAT, KSPLAT and SOG. ### What can I actually do in the 3D viewer? Fly or orbit the asset, then mark it up with a grease pencil that draws in real 3D space: on a placement plane, directly on the surface, or flat on the lens like a 2D note. Drop motion trails on a rigged character, isolate or hide named parts, and switch shading (clay, wireframe, an AO form pass and more) and lighting. Animated assets get the same frame-accurate transport as video. ### How do notes work on a 3D asset? Every note bakes the exact camera view you were looking from when you added it, along with the view state that mattered (shading mode, active trails). Selecting a note flies the viewport straight back there. Text-only notes carry the view too. ### Can reviewers do 3D in the browser? Yes. The portal ships the full viewer: orbit and fly, the 3D grease pencil, trails, parts, all of it, and phones orbit with a finger. Their 3D notes come back in the same feedback file with camera views intact. Very large splat captures are happiest on a computer. ## Sending and reviewing ### What does my reviewer actually receive? A single `.rdeck` file containing the media and everything needed to leave frame-accurate notes and drawings. They open it at [portal.reviewdeck.app](https://portal.reviewdeck.app) in any browser (phone or computer, nothing installs) or with the free desktop app. Step-by-step for reviewers: [reviewdeck.app/open](https://reviewdeck.app/open). ### How do their notes get back to me? When they finish, they click Send feedback and return the saved file on the same channel the review arrived on. You click Import feedback in your library and ReviewDeck files every note, including their drawings, to the right review automatically. Their notes live only on their device until they send that file back; nothing syncs behind the scenes. ### Can I password-protect what I send? Yes: real encryption (AES-256-GCM), not a hidden-field gate. Share the password through a separate channel from the file. A lost password is genuinely unrecoverable, by you or by anyone. ### My reviewer says the file won't open. What's the usual fix? Nine times out of ten: they're previewing it inside email or a cloud drive instead of opening the downloaded file. Have them save it first, then open it, or just use the portal. If a `.rdeck` was re-zipped by another tool along the way, re-export and re-send it. ## Teams and drives ### How does a team use this together? Point everyone's app at the same library folder on a shared drive or NAS. Everyone's notes merge into one timeline, colour-coded per person, with @mentions, presence, and a "Needs you" view. No server to set up: the folder is the server. ### Does it work on Dropbox / Google Drive / OneDrive? Yes. Mark the library as cloud-synced when you create it and ReviewDeck adapts (it also detects and flags sync-conflict copies so they never show up as phantom feedback). A proper shared drive or NAS is still the smoothest home for a busy team library. ### How do I control who can change what? The same way you already control the drive: folder permissions. A library is ordinary files, so whatever your file server or NAS enforces, ReviewDeck respects. Read-only users can look but not touch. ### What about backups? A library is plain files and folders. Back it up exactly like the rest of your project data. No export step, no proprietary database to rescue. ## The practical stuff ### Windows warned me about the installer. Is it safe? The installer is code-signed, but Windows SmartScreen also scores software by download reputation, which new releases earn over time. If you see the warning: keep the file, click More info, then Run anyway. ### Can I get my notes into my editing software? Yes. Export notes as timeline markers: EDL for DaVinci Resolve, FCPXML for Final Cut Pro, XML for Premiere Pro sequence markers, CSV for spreadsheets, plus a PDF report with each note's frame and drawings. ### What data does the app collect? Anonymous feature-usage counts only: event names and numbers, never file names, note text, media or any identifier. There's a notice on first launch and an off switch in Settings. People you send reviews to are never counted at all. ### What exactly is a .rdeck file? A standard zip archive with a readable manifest inside. Rename one to `.zip` and any unzip tool shows exactly what's in it: your media, thumbnails, and a JSON file describing the review. No proprietary lock-in. If you set a password, the media, notes and thumbnails are each individually encrypted (AES-256-GCM); only basic metadata like the title and file sizes stays visible. ### When are Team and Studio coming, and what will they cost? Team is planned at £100 once (not per seat, not per year) for up to 10 people, adding branding on sends, watermarks and admin activity tools. Studio, for bigger teams, adds white-label options including a self-hosted review portal on your own domain. No dates promised. --- [Home](https://reviewdeck.app/) · [Open a review file](https://reviewdeck.app/open) · [Privacy](https://reviewdeck.app/privacy) · [Terms](https://reviewdeck.app/terms)