Tried to preload a image, user got error on their screen

[Rilmarion]

So made a large battlemap. Size is 4320x2880. So thought while players were RPing, I'd try to 'preload' image, thinking it woudl save time. Upon doing so, one user got the following error:
https://i.imgur.com/qWY27BW.png
Then people were getting kicked and couldn't reconnect, similar connection isues as I was havign the week before.
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?37869-Certian-Users-can-t-Connect

Nuke thing seems to be not working, 4 out of 7 players can connect, 3 can't.

[LordEntrails]

The image is probably too large in pixel size. The recommendation is 2048x2048 though occasionally you can go larger than that.

The quick solution is to unshare the image and have the players nuke/clear their cache before re-joining.

The longer answer and if you want to test, just have one person connect and you share the image with them. While doing so, have them watch their task manager and see how large their fantasygrounds.exe gets.

[Rilmarion]

okay, went through and reduced any images to a lower size, nothign bigger then what you said. Had all player nuke. Still, the same 3 players can't connect.

[damned]

What message do the disconnected players get on failing to reconnect?
Ask all players to logout, restart FG and reboot your router. Then have players reconnect one by one.
You may also have some sort of firewall "flood protection" enabled on your router - turn it off.

[Rilmarion]

They were getting "Can't connect to host", but every player was connected at the start of the night. Here is what I got.

Looking at the screen1.png image, that's how I set up the port to be open. (I think, though going to https://canyouseeme.org/ and checkign port 1802 give the message in screen2.png, even testing port 80 gives the message in screen3.png)

The firewall is set up like screen4

Not sure where I've gone wrong.

[Rilmarion]

Funny, now talking to my ISP to see if I could get a new modem as googling I have come across people having similar issues with forwarding ports and it not taking effect. After that person failing to help me, the canyouseeme test now is coming back a success but I haven't changed any settings. but testing port 80 is still timing out.

[damned]

Testing Port 80 will not show you anything as you have nothing listening on 80.
You must have an FG campaign loaded when you run the TCP1802 test to see a success result.
The last screenshot is good - you will need to keep IP Flood Detection OFF.
Technically your Port Forward setup should just be TCP and not Both but it shouldnt really matter.
Next time it happens load a second session on your GM pc and Join Campaign and connect to localhost - if that gets on it does suggest that the issue is occurring on the router.
Reboot the router.

[Trenloe]

So made a large battlemap. Size is 4320x2880. So thought while players were RPing, I'd try to 'preload' image, thinking it woudl save time. Upon doing so, one user got the following error:
https://i.imgur.com/qWY27BW.png
If you're running the enhanced images extension, you'll need to update it.

And, if you are, that image is even more way too big, as the layers extension will effectively load up that number of pixels three times - one for each layer.

[Rilmarion]

Okay, so I am running the enhanced image extension. I did update it three days ago as I noticed tokens weren't scaling right. I'll check again. What size images should I use if I wished to run that extension? I might just give up on it, though I do like the extension as it stops players from accidentally moving tokens I use to show things.

[Rilmarion]

Do my players need to make sure port 1802 is forwarding as well or is that just a GM/Host issue?

Trying to figure out why only 3 out of 7 players seem to be having issues mostly. It is never all of them as some are always able to connect. But at the start of the session all of the players were able to connect no problems.

[damned]

Despite the setting appearing to be off I suspect its a TCP Flood issue on your router hence the request to reboot the router.

[Rilmarion]

The rebooting of router/modem was done during the session troubleshooting. I shut down my PC, unplugged power from modem and gave it 30 seconds before plugging it back in. Then waited for all status lights on modem to go normal and then turned my PC back on.

[damned]

Ok - if/when it happens again please do the localhost test as well.
Are you running any software firewall? Maybe one that is bundled with your AV?

[Trenloe]

What size images should I use if I wished to run that extension?
Same recommendations as FG without the extension: maximum of 2048x2048.

[SirGraystone]

I'm curious was the map file in .png? If yes you may try .jpg which should make the file size smaller and easier to upload.

[Trenloe]

File size (size on the hard drive) only affects share time with the players. We do recommend using JPG and trying to get the size below 1MB to keep sharing time low.
Image dimensions (Width x Height in pixels) affect how much runtime memory FG uses to store and display the image. The recommendation is to keep images below 2048x2048 pixels to reduce the amount of FG memory resources images use.

[Rilmarion]

Believe the only AV I have is Bitdefender, will check when I get home if it has any firewall ports being blocked but googling was telling me they don't block any ports by default. But will check.

Map was .jpg, but it was a larger then recommended size when the issues started last night. Going through the process of double checking no file is larger then the 2048x2048 and reducing the quality down to 70%.

[damned]

Regarding image formats and sizes - images that have no gradients will often be smaller when using PNG or GIF format (some old school style maps would definitely fall into this category as well as some line art graphics). Images with gradients (which is most images) will generally be smaller with JPG. With JPG you may find you can go even lower - try saving at 40 or 50% quality even if you have large maps. This doesnt work so well if there is small text written on the map.

[Rilmarion]

I attached the map I am using now, though this one is a smaller one then the one I was using.

This one is 2048x1365 and is 1.54MB

The original one was 4320x2880 and 4.48MB.

But going to have to redo the smaller one as the "grid/floor" tiles don't line up to the grid in FG right like it did with the original, which lined up perfectly as I created the grid in PS to be 70px squares, so was able to make the grid in FG at 70px and was good. The smaller version I just reduced the image size by width and had height keep same change ratio.

[damned]

Interesting... 4320x2880 does not divide by 70 as a whole number in either direction.
If 70px grid works then keep things simple and halve your map - 2160x1440 and use a 35px grid

[Rilmarion]

Sorry, it was 72px, my bad. Used that as my map resolution was 72px per inch. Just double checked my original .psd file.

[damned]

72px works :)
Stick with the same process though for ease of use - halve it and use 36px or do the math so that you have a nice whole number conversion at a size that suits you.

[Topdecker]

No one has asked about your connection type. If you have DSL, your uplink speed is 1/3 of your downlink speed. I have DSL and peak at around 80kbs up and 250kbs down. The really bad part is that DSL will allow you to flood the uplink and then you start having all kinds of communications problems.

I combat it by...

1. Making sure that 1mb is my max image size, but I am really trying to be much smaller if possible. Yeah, sometimes I have to have 25px grids to accomplish this.
2. Ask my players to connect at least 15 minutes early and suggest 30 minutes. This allows the preloading to take place calmly.
3. If you are making your own images, you can be smart about it. Solid chunks of color compress a lot better than something with a pattern.
4. Imgur. If you have map information (i.e. not a tactical map) or a picture you want to share, consider using imgur. You can stash the image and then just paste the link in chat. Now your bandwidth isn't getting soaked and they can see the handout, monster, NPC, whatever without causing problems.
5. Pre-planning. I always try to send a handful of generic tactical maps up to my players if I don't have anything else more pressing.
6. Be aware that you can also remove the pre-load flag. This is useful if you add a new player. There is no point in them pre-loading maps that are no longer needed.

All of this said, I would still pay a fee for Smite to host files for me and I bet others would too, especially those that are trying to play across oceans. I mean, they have every players manual and licensed product already on tap... They could make a bit more money from it and provide a nice service.

[Andraax]

No one has asked about your connection type. If you have DSL, your uplink speed is 1/3 of your downlink speed. I have DSL and peak at around 80kbs up and 250kbs down. The really bad part is that DSL will allow you to flood the uplink and then you start having all kinds of communications problems.

While that's common, there are no rules that say that. ADSL can have any ratio designated. My ADSL I had in Baltimore years ago had uplink speeds 1/2 of downlink speeds. You can also get SDSL, which has the same uplink and downlink speeds.


4. Imgur. If you have map information (i.e. not a tactical map) or a picture you want to share, consider using imgur. You can stash the image and then just paste the link in chat. Now your bandwidth isn't getting soaked and they can see the handout, monster, NPC, whatever without causing problems.

I recommend using Delux' OLE extension when using this option - makes the link in chat look just like any other link in FG... ;-)

[damned]

In AUS the most common ADSL standard has speed up to 22mbps dowload and up to 1mbps upload.
Average speeds are around 10mbps/0.8mbps.

[Rilmarion]

My speed according to speedtest.net is 59 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload.

[damned]

Rilmarion are you on Wifi?
If so can you also open two cmd prompts and run
ping 8.8.8.8 -n 200
and
ping <router ip address> -n 200

Do you get timeouts?
If its only one player affected - have them do the same thing.

[Nyghtmare]

Do my players need to make sure port 1802 is forwarding as well or is that just a GM/Host issue?
That is a GM only thing.

[Rilmarion]

Well, another session turns out it has been bugged.

Everyone was able to connect, no issues. Everyone stayed connected for at least 1 hour. I then shared a image. image size was 1500x1000 pixels, file size 488kb.

One player instantly lost connection and then couldn't reconnect. So I am thinking it has something to do with Enhanced Images extension, which I made sure was up to date before starting game. Only thing I could think of was that FG had a update itself right before by the Enhanced images addon didn't list any update.

So any idea what's causing this? Going to try next week disabling that extension. But other then that, not sure what to do. Luckily this week wasn't canceled due to this bug/issue, it was canceled due to missing players.


Rilmarion are you on Wifi?
If so can you also open two cmd prompts and run
ping 8.8.8.8 -n 200
and
ping <router ip address> -n 200

Do you get timeouts?
If its only one player affected - have them do the same thing.

Saw this after all the players left, will see if I can try having them do this. I myself am running off direct line from my modem.

[Trenloe]

Everyone was able to connect, no issues. Everyone stayed connected for at least 1 hour. I then shared a image. image size was 1500x1000 pixels, file size 488kb.

One player instantly lost connection and then couldn't reconnect. So I am thinking it has something to do with Enhanced Images extension, which I made sure was up to date before starting game. Only thing I could think of was that FG had a update itself right before by the Enhanced images addon didn't list any update.

So any idea what's causing this? Going to try next week disabling that extension. But other then that, not sure what to do. Luckily this week wasn't canceled due to this bug/issue, it was canceled due to missing players.
The enhanced images extension doesn't transfer images any differently. It takes up more memory, but it doesn't use the network connection differently. If one player is instantly losing connection when an image is shared then there is an issue in the network communications between that player and your computer.

Are they using WiFi? Are you? Do the ping tests damned suggests - both from your computer and the player computer.

[damned]

It would also be worth checking the specs on the users computer - eg what CPU and most importantly how much RAM they have.

[Rilmarion]

The enhanced images extension doesn't transfer images any differently. It takes up more memory, but it doesn't use the network connection differently. If one player is instantly losing connection when an image is shared then there is an issue in the network communications between that player and your computer.

Are they using WiFi? Are you? Do the ping tests damned suggests - both from your computer and the player computer.

Can I run that ping test if I'm not connected to wifi? My computer is connected to the internet by cable from the modem, not using wifi.

[LordEntrails]

Yes, you can still do the ping test.

[Rilmarion]

Yes, you can still do the ping test.

Okay, will try that tomorrow. Do I need to have FG running when I do this? Does the other players need to be connected to me? And the router IP, where would I get that from? Would the player need to use his own router IP? Sorry, never been much of a network guy.

[LordEntrails]

No, you do not need FG running when you run the ping test. But, you probably should. Also have any other applications up and running that you normally use when you use/play with FG. This will help put a similar network load on it.

Your router IP is probably 192.168.0.0 or 192.168.1.0 In part it depends if you have a modem and a router or just a single device (gateway).
You could do a traceroute, but I don't know the command off the top of my head, to get your network IP's

One of the guru's or someone will jump in and let us know.

[damned]

Click on the Windows button and type: cmd and press enter
In the black window that opens up type ipconfig and press enter
it should print out a bunch of stuff but you are looking for something like:

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : joi.local
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::c404:3eee:eab2:dab8%8
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.68.104
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.68.1

You want the adapter that has the IP address that FG reports as your Internal Address.
Then locate the Default Gateway value. That is your Router.

As LordEntrails says its fine to test without FG running but its best if you test without anything running and again at the time that FG craps itself for that user.

The output we would like to see is the last couple of lines from each command looking something like this:

Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=58
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=58

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 200, Received = 200, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 3ms, Average = 1ms

[Rilmarion]

Rilmarion are you on Wifi?
If so can you also open two cmd prompts and run
ping 8.8.8.8 -n 200
and
ping <router ip address> -n 200

Do you get timeouts?
If its only one player affected - have them do the same thing.

So ran the tests without FG and with FG running.


Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 200, Received = 200, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 19ms, Maximum = 164ms, Average = 22ms

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.1:
Packets: Sent = 200, Received = 200, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 3ms, Average = 1ms

That maximum of 164ms was only seen once, and I think it was when I started up FG and it went form the loading screen to game screen, I think. Tried to reproduce it and didn't get it again. WIll post the results of the the person who lost connection last night when I get a hold of him.

[damned]

The most important part of the test results is the 0% packet loss.
Lets see what they other player finds.