Exporting Modules for player load in low bandwidth situations

[lbealsjr]

Question:
Is there a way when you export a module (so you can send it to your players) so they can't open it up and look at the contents but their machine has all the maps etc so it loads much quicker? Or is the solution now to force load the module on connection and have it set as a GM module?

Background:
I looked through the userguides for exporting modules and some of them appear to be a out-of-date. Specifically, in Xorn's nicely done PDF it shows that you can set whether the data is hosted, on the client etc. https://www.fantasygrounds.com/filelibrary/module.tutorial.v1.pdf
This is coming up because of bandwidth issues and loading of maps etc so I want to export my adventure to a module and then email it to the players ahead of time and have them drop it into their modules folder using some of the guidelines that are referenced in this forum posting
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?7585-DM-Host-on-dialup-success-story&p=51689#post51689

the current export module window doesn't seem to allow you to set the permissions for host or client as per the forum posting to prevent the players from opening the module and looking at things.

thanks

Lawrence

[Trenloe]

Even with the "old" client settings, a player could open their modules and see their contents - modules aren't encrypted (they are essentially base text or image data in a ZIP file - anyone can unzip them and view the contents). So, there is not a standard way to sent a module to a player before the game and stop them seeing it's contents if they really want to.

However.... one way to pre-distribute data for a specific campaign is for the GM to connect as a player locally (Join Game using hostname localhost) and share all of the info you want to pre-distribute (images, story entries, etc.). This info will be written to the player cache and encrypted. Once you have shared the info, go back through and unshare it (clicking the (P) icon next to each entry in the campaign list) - this won't remove it from the cache, but will result in the player not going to be able to see the info until you share it during the game.

The player cache data is stored in <FG App Data>\cache\<campaign name> ZIP that directory up and send it to your players, they will need to unzip it and store it in exactly the same location. Then when they join your campaign (of the same name) they will use the locally stored data rather than downloading it.

[lbealsjr]

Thanks,
Not too concerned with the players reading it, if they want to short cut their fun that is their option, but you answer gives me what I am looking for and should be just the ticket for pre-loading the data.

thanks again

Lawrence

[Trenloe]

Not too concerned with the players reading it, if they want to short cut their fun that is their option, but you answer gives me what I am looking for and should be just the ticket for pre-loading the data.

If you're not concerned about the players opening the module then just export a module and send the players the module. That will be much less hassle all round.

[lbealsjr]

Okay,
I was just getting confused with the guides that were talking about "hosted" data and "client" data which seemed to imply that the data had to be in the correct area for the program to recognize that the data was on the client and to load if from there vice getting pushed out.

Your suggestion about the encrypted version will come in handy when using copywritten stuff so that was good to know.

thanks

Lawrence

[Nylanfs]

And what you could also do is start your campaign the day before and let the slower players connect as they can and all the player shared items are pushed to them upon connection to their campaign.

[damned]

Ultimately Nylanfs's solution is the easiest.
Even just having your server up for an hour before hand and telling the players with poor links that they need to connect an hour early or they'll slow it down for everyone will help.

For the sending of the cache file - I believe for this to work properly - particularly if its not an included ruleset - the GM will need to connect from a different computer - not the localhost thing - and share the cache from that computer.

[Nickademus]

However.... one way to pre-distribute data for a specific campaign is for the GM to connect as a player locally (Join Game using hostname localhost) and share all of the info you want to pre-distribute (images, story entries, etc.). This info will be written to the player cache and encrypted. Once you have shared the info, go back through and unshare it (clicking the (P) icon next to each entry in the campaign list) - this won't remove it from the cache, but will result in the player not going to be able to see the info until you share it during the game.

I'd +1 you for this if I could. That is some very helpful information for me (and GMs that run like me). Thanks a bunch.