does the "dat file trick" still work in 3.5 FG ?

[Andrepartthree]

Hi guys.. apologies I tried looking for this on the forums without any luck so I guess my search-the-forum skills suck :(

This was the method an incredible helpful FG'er named Leo .. wish I could remember his handle/name here on FG... gave me years ago re: the large maps and pic's I like to toss at my players (lots of them ! ) during my FG game sessions... basically without using the method described below it would take the players a long time to download my (admittedly large) maps and pic's of monsters and NPC's and so forth...

I notice that that the FG developers have made many several beautiful upgrades to the FG program since I last used it as a GM several years ago (huge round of applause on my part for what my humble opinion is worth :) ) .. I am wondering, however, if anyone knows if the method described below still works far as being able to "preemptively zap" maps and pic's to players prior to FG game play? Not sure if the changes to the FG program have rendered this method "invalid" basically..

Also, not sure if this makes a difference but I'd be using the D&D 3.5 ruleset on FG...

Much thanks and appreciation to anyone reading this who replies :)

(Leo said)

Okay, let’s see if I can describe it in detail.
1. Start Fantasy Grounds and open your campaign as the GM.
2. Start FG again, but this time click join as if you were to join a game and connect to yourself by the alias used for the GM. (you can also type ‘localhost’ in the address field).
3. Open up all the maps/images you want to use in the next session on the GM session of FG.
4. Then, share each image until they’re all loaded on your other FG session. (I believe you can mask them in advance too when sharing and they will still be transferred)
5. When all the images are shared, disconnect/close the client session of FG.
6. Go to the FG Application Data folder (typically through the short cut in FG program group in the start menu)
7. Open the cache folder and then the folder which has the same name as your campaign.
8. Send the campaign.dat file located there to your players and have them save it in the same location. (If they have already connected to this campaign earlier, this folder will be made for them.) You'll have to overwrite the old campaign.dat file, but note that this will delete any hotbar short-cuts created by the players locally. The solution to this is if you create a module containing your images first, as that will generate a cache file named after the module instead of using the campaign.dat.
9. Happy gaming!

You can put custom tokens on the map prior to sharing them - you can type text into the chat window then drag it to the token to name the token

I typically use 50pixels/5ft square for my home made maps, but depending on the size of the map it can be a bit big. 32px/5ft helps a lot on the file size, but you will lose some of the detail.
If I use original ones from bought pdfs or acquired online, I use those images unmodified in terms of resolution, but may increase compression to reduce file size.

Hope this helps and if you have any other questions, I'll try to help as best I can.

-Leo

[damned]

This can still be done but to do it most effectively I would not do the player connection from the same computer using localhost because this doesnt download those other resources you have installed locally - eg the ruleset (if its a non standard ruleset) or the library modules the GM has shared.

[Andrepartthree]

This can still be done but to do it most effectively I would not do the player connection from the same computer using localhost because this doesnt download those other resources you have installed locally - eg the ruleset (if its a non standard ruleset) or the library modules the GM has shared.

Thanks man I appreciate you taking the time to read this and reassure me :)

[Larhalt]

Thank you so much for this trick, it save me a bunch of problem.
Now I have to find a way to speed the connection of my player, too much time between connecting and selecting their character.
Do you have another ace in the sleeves? :D

[damned]

Keep your images small (in kb). JPG at 40% quality and 50px per square will be perfectly acceptable for most people. Dont let your campaign get too big. Have players login/connect 30mins prior. Preshare images (pre mask them too!).

[leozelig]

Also... if you have modules open, make sure they are not set to force load.

Tokens can increase load times if they are large images or if you have a lot of them. I mostly use the ones that come with FG these days, but I used to make mine 50 x 50 pixels to match my preferred grid size.

I try to keep maps below 500 kb each, much less for a handout, and definitely preload (spiderweb icon).