Issues with players seeing Map

[B3hodlr]

Hi, I hope someone can point me in the right direction to fix this issue.

Our group has been running Dragon Heist and then Dungeon of the Mad Mage for almost a year now. We're all very familiar with Fantasy grounds, so I don't think we've run into any rookie mistakes. Yesterday, we ran into an issue where half of the players couldn't see the map at all. The map was partially masked, but of course not fully masked.

Today, I created a test campaign to try and narrow down the issue. I loaded up only Dungeon of the Mad Mage module and shared a few artwork images, one map of skullport unmasked and one map of level 1 with 50% mask. The issue still persisted for about half of the players. The one's who couldn't see the partially masked map could see the skullport map and artwork without issue.

Based on all this and the fact that the issue is recent, I'm guessing it has something to do with the newest version of Fantasy Grounds. I looked through the threads on 3.3.8 but couldn't find any similar reports.

We appreciate any help in troubleshooting this issue,
Chris

[damned]

Hey Chris

How much RAM is FG using when you have the game running as GM?
How much RAM does the player instance use?

You might need to reduce the number of:
a) tokens on the GM instance
b) shared images (unshare them)
c) too many open/shared modules

Try reducing some or all of these and then have the player Nuke their Cache and retest. The first connection will take some time as everything will be redownloaded.

[B3hodlr]

On the GM side, Fantasy Grounds is using about 1GB of ram. My system total is only running at 22% capacity which is 64Gb total.
On the player side, it's using about 300 mb.

As for the other suggestions, that's why I started a new campaign to test. It is just the ruleset with DOTMM loaded and nothing else. No extensions, decals, tokens, or anything else loaded and the issue is still persisting. They can't see the partially masked image at all.

I know at least one player tried nuking the cache and it didn't work. I cleared it on the GM side as well with no change.


Hey Chris

How much RAM is FG using when you have the game running as GM?
How much RAM does the player instance use?

You might need to reduce the number of:
a) tokens on the GM instance
b) shared images (unshare them)
c) too many open/shared modules

Try reducing some or all of these and then have the player Nuke their Cache and retest. The first connection will take some time as everything will be redownloaded.

[damned]

Do you have another computer at your location? Can you connect the other computer at your GM computer by the Local/Internal IP Address and see if the issue persists?

[B3hodlr]

Do you have another computer at your location? Can you connect the other computer at your GM computer by the Local/Internal IP Address and see if the issue persists?

I just tried this and I wasn't able to recreate the issue with my laptop connected to my home network. It was working normally. However, when I connected the laptop to a different network I had the same issue that the players have been reporting.

This is really confusing since I haven't changed anything about my internet configuration in quite some time. Also, not all of the other players had the same issue. Some were able to see the masked map as intended while others only saw a gray window.

[B3hodlr]

I just tried this and I wasn't able to recreate the issue with my laptop connected to my home network. It was working normally. However, when I connected the laptop to a different network I had the same issue that the players have been reporting.

This is really confusing since I haven't changed anything about my internet configuration in quite some time. Also, not all of the other players had the same issue. Some were able to see the masked map as intended while others only saw a gray window.

I went back and tried this again with the laptop connected to the home network and this time I was able to recreate the issue while connected to the home network. So one out of two times, it worked correctly when connected to the home network.

[damned]

Is the GM computer on Wifi? If so please try improving its signal/reception and/or try with a LAN cable.
Have a look at what AV or Security products might be running on the GM computer and try disabling them for 15mins while you test?

[wndrngdru]

I ran a session on Friday and one of my players also complained about her map not updating (3.3.8). At the time it was minor (fixed with a sync) so I hadn't dug into it any more. I probably won't have time to until this weekend. I have a session as a player this Friday so I'll keep an eye out for it.

[Draco Oricalcinus]

I'm a player in B3hodler's game. I've noticed that the masks are stored as png files and assigned filenames based upon what appears to be a unix timestamp.

From the client side, I've been able to view some maps and not others, apparently because my system loaded an erroneous mask. The player icons are present but the map is totally masked or is mostly masked.

I noticed that on the test server he set up, I was able to view a map with the correct mask and that this mask's filename matched with the creation metadata for the file. (other players were unable to view this map)

One of the maps that displayed an incorrect mask has a filename that does not match the metadata for the file. The filename indicates a June creation date and the metadata indicates a July creation date and an August modification date.

[Zacchaeus]

How big are these maps (resolution and size) and are they .jpg files?

[Draco Oricalcinus]

How big are these maps (resolution and size) and are they .jpg files?

The maps are



LEVEL
DIMENSIONS
FILE SIZE


DOTMM Lvl 1
2265x3045
1.5 MB


DOTMM Lvl 2
2265x3030
1.6 MB




They are both JPGs.

The masks are PNGs 20k-30k.

[B3hodlr]

Is the GM computer on Wifi? If so please try improving its signal/reception and/or try with a LAN cable.
Have a look at what AV or Security products might be running on the GM computer and try disabling them for 15mins while you test?

My computer is physically connected via ethernet to the network. Also, my connection is 155mbps at the computer according to a speed test. I turned off the antivirus program and firewall temporarily to check and unfortunately, the issue persisted.

[B3hodlr]

Okay, Draco and I narrowed down the problem a little more. We tested the problem several times and it has these properties.

- Snyc view doesn't affect the issue
- The mask works appropriately when the player is logged in and viewing the map while the GM unmasks sections.
- If the player logs out and then logs back in, the mask fails to show the previously unlocked sections and will only show newly unmasked sections by the GM. On the GM side, there is continuity between previously unmasked areas and subsequent unmasked areas.
- The correct mask is in the masked images folder for the player but is not being loaded into the player's side.

[Trenloe]

This is great troubleshooting and analysis of the issue!

Thanks so much for spending the time to work this out.

I've messaged the main dev about this.

[LordEntrails]

- If the player logs out and then logs back in, the mask fails to show the previously unlocked sections and will only show newly unmasked sections by the GM. On the GM side, there is continuity between previously unmasked areas and subsequent unmasked areas.
I've seen this as well. Thought it was intended/known functionality. I have not tested it, but thought that is a Sync view was done or another portion of the mask was updated (added/removed) that then all players were updated.

Will be good to have the devs take a closer look.

[wndrngdru]

Okay, Draco and I narrowed down the problem a little more. We tested the problem several times and it has these properties.
- If the player logs out and then logs back in, the mask fails to show the previously unlocked sections and will only show newly unmasked sections by the GM. On the GM side, there is continuity between previously unmasked areas and subsequent unmasked areas.


This is consistent with what we saw on Friday. The player who had the issue had previously lost connection due to a system crash.

[Draco Oricalcinus]

Just an update to this issue in case others seem to be struggling with something similar. We seem to have fixed it.

I noted in the console log that some files were failing to be received from the GM server.

Network Warning: Download error for file 'thumbnail.png@The Tortle Package - Player'; connecting to host; Retrying.
Network Warning: Download error for file 'campaign/temp/mask_snapshot_Draco_1566778806'; connecting to host; Retrying.
Network Warning: Download error for file 'campaign/temp/drawing_snapshot_Draco_1566778807'; connecting to host; Retrying.
Network Warning: Download error for file 'campaign/temp/drawing_snapshot_Draco_1566779024'; connecting to host; Retrying.

We suspected one of two issues. 1. Permissions had been corrupted and these files were not being read or 2. The number of images in DOTMM was triggering the router's flood protection and the router was automatically denying requests from certain client ports. If the client requested the mask from the same port each time, then all requests for the mask would have been blocked.

The GM and Players reset permissions for the FG directory and sub-directories and the GM also reset port forwarding. We aren't sure which change fixed the issue. But it appears to be fixed.

[Wintermute]

Our group experienced this issue last night. Nuking the player's cache worked for us.

[PsychPhantom]

Just an update to this issue in case others seem to be struggling with something similar. We seem to have fixed it.

I noted in the console log that some files were failing to be received from the GM server.

Network Warning: Download error for file 'thumbnail.png@The Tortle Package - Player'; connecting to host; Retrying.
Network Warning: Download error for file 'campaign/temp/mask_snapshot_Draco_1566778806'; connecting to host; Retrying.
Network Warning: Download error for file 'campaign/temp/drawing_snapshot_Draco_1566778807'; connecting to host; Retrying.
Network Warning: Download error for file 'campaign/temp/drawing_snapshot_Draco_1566779024'; connecting to host; Retrying.

We suspected one of two issues. 1. Permissions had been corrupted and these files were not being read or 2. The number of images in DOTMM was triggering the router's flood protection and the router was automatically denying requests from certain client ports. If the client requested the mask from the same port each time, then all requests for the mask would have been blocked.

The GM and Players reset permissions for the FG directory and sub-directories and the GM also reset port forwarding. We aren't sure which change fixed the issue. But it appears to be fixed.

That's Great! We've been struggling with this issue the last two sessions. The first session, only one player was affected; last session it was two. Can you please explain to me how to do the two fixes you mentioned? I'm not a very tech-savvy guy.

Psych

[Zacchaeus]

That's Great! We've been struggling with this issue the last two sessions. The first session, only one player was affected; last session it was two. Can you please explain to me how to do the two fixes you mentioned? I'm not a very tech-savvy guy.

Psych

There could be a number of reasons for this happening and the first thing to check would be how much memory your players are using whilst in your campaign. If it is close to or exceeding 3Gb then the issue is too much shared material. To fix that close all unnecessary shared modules, unshare any un-needed maps and images and make sure that there are no tokens ion the tokens/shared folder. Once you have done that and before they rejoin your campaign get your players to nuke their cache by clicking on the nuke button at the top right of the join screen.