Keep seeing red crosses with "?" marks at least once per session.

[fallofenosis]

Hey everyone,

I seem to be having a very frustrating issue at least once every session. My group recently went to Unity full time. My DM owns an Ultimate license and I own a basic license. At least once per game session I will see NPC's/enemies as "?" with "X" through them.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MkTgyb9cyHz9kjE4K9M9WDXf9UjcSM8W/view?usp=sharing

I saw something in the past about clearing FG cache to help this, and I have done this in the past, but this unfortunately has stopped working. Also, any idea why it only happens to me and not the other three players?

My question: Is there something I can do to permanently fix this? If so can it possibly involve NOT clearing my cache? Because this clears all my shortcuts as well and it's kind of a pain in the rump to reset all of those.

Thanks for your time!

PS: Unity is super great so far outside of some small issues. :)

[Moon Wizard]

It's an indication that the image file is not where it's supposed to be located, or it is corrupted.

Are you the only person where this image is missing?
Do you have any Internet security software or router settings that might intercept files? (parental control, internet filtering, etc.)
What kind of network connection are you on? If wifi, can you try wired or moving closer to access point?

Regards,
JPG

[fallofenosis]

It's an indication that the image file is not where it's supposed to be located, or it is corrupted.

Are you the only person where this image is missing?
Do you have any Internet security software or router settings that might intercept files? (parental control, internet filtering, etc.)
What kind of network connection are you on? If wifi, can you try wired or moving closer to access point?

Regards,
JPG

Hi!

I Totally forgot I had posted this which shows you it's not hugely annoying, only slightly annoying haha.

Yes, I am the only player out of four who experiences this. No, I don't believe I have any security restrictions. And I have a 1 gig internet connection which usually gives me ~300 mb speeds.

Any other ideas on how I can fix this?

[Moon Wizard]

It's not about Internet speed. The fact that you are the only player to see the issue indicates that the file is getting sent correctly to other machines; so that leads me to believe that something specific to your setup is causing an issue.

Follow Ups:
* You didn't mention what type of Internet connection that you have (DSL, Cable, Mobile WiFi, Fiber, Satellite, etc.)
* Also, is your machine connected via a wire or using wireless? If wireless, how far is your access point from your computer? Moving access point closer, or making a wired connection might help.
* What kind of computer are you using (desktop machine or laptop machine)?
* Where are you located? Where is the GM located? (country/state)
* Can you open the console just before you click the Start button to join the game? When you see the Network Status message, what Client Type is reported?
* Do you have any security on your machine or Internet service router which filters stuff which gets downloaded to your computer? (Parental control, antivirus, etc.) Can you see if changing the settings has any impact?

Regards,
JPG

[fallofenosis]

Thanks for the reply!

Follow Ups:
* You didn't mention what type of Internet connection that you have (DSL, Cable, Mobile WiFi, Fiber, Satellite, etc.)

I have a 1 Gig Fiber connection

* Also, is your machine connected via a wire or using wireless? If wireless, how far is your access point from your computer? Moving access point closer, or making a wired connection might help.

I use a laptop and it's usually connected via Wireless and here is my current speedtest (taken from the exact position I play from in my home)

39408

I could hardwire it, which would give me around a gig connection speed for testing purposes, but I feel as though my wireless connection is way faster than most have at home, and more than necessary.

* What kind of computer are you using (desktop machine or laptop machine)?

I use a relatively newer laptop that well exceeds FG requirements.

* Where are you located? Where is the GM located? (country/state)

Myself (and all the other players also) are located in Oregon, USA, and the DM is located in New York, USA.

* Can you open the console just before you click the Start button to join the game? When you see the Network Status message, what Client Type is reported?

I can do this Saturday, which when our next game is scheduled and report back here

* Do you have any security on your machine or Internet service router which filters stuff which gets downloaded to your computer? (Parental control, antivirus, etc.) Can you see if changing the settings has any impact?

Nope the only security I run on my laptop is windows defender/firewall. Just the normal basic settings.

[Moon Wizard]

As I mentioned above, this does not appear to be a speed or machine hardware issue; but an issue of potential network noise (packet loss/lag) that could cause corruption, or something interfering with file download that would rewrite or block the file being transferred.

* The wired cable should help rule out the network noise, since wired connections are way less noisy than wired connections.
* Also, you can try deleting the cache folder for that campaign in the FGU data folder before you start the game, in order to clear any potential corrupted files and download fresh.

Regards,
JPG

[LordEntrails]

I always suggest folks on a wireless connection use a 'wifi analyzer' app. You can get them free for smart phones. They will let you know which channel your wifi is running on, and the nearby strength of other wifi routers and how much cross over or channel contention you may have. Then you will be able to configure to a channel with less contention and therefore less noise etc. But, since you can, try the wired connection just for testing.

[fallofenosis]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

With all due respect, I feel like I shouldn't have to be on a wired connection for a teeny file transfer, such as images. I'll try it anyways. Happy to oblige. And I will also open the console before connecting to the game, which is this Saturday.

But doesn't that seem a bit silly to anyone else but me? I have a heavy usage home (hence the 1 gig fiber connection) and I have little to no packet loss ever. And clearing the cache has helped but that also wipes out your shortcuts for your character. And I use about a full bar and a half when playing. That is not an ideal or good solution. Having to reset my bars every game would be really frustrating.

Is it not possible that this is an issue/bug with FG Unity? I'm perfectly ok if the answer is "yes". Cause it makes the most sense.

This didn't happen on the old FG. Literally the only thing that has changed is the move to Unity. Not the players, nor campaign, nor network. Nothing. Just the move to Unity.

I would just like to know that someone is working on fixing it, that's all.

But I'm gonna happily try those other two tips for troubleshooting purposes!

[Zacchaeus]

Anything is possible of course, but if it were a bug in Unity we'd be seeing a mass of posts on the same subject but there aren't such a mass of posts - just the odd one or two. And the solutions have always been down to network issues of some kind.

[LordEntrails]

Trying a wired connection is not intended as a fix, but rather as a test. Same with clearing the cache (note you can save your hotkeys.xml file in your campaign setting folder, though please don't replace it until after testing)

It's totally possible this is a bug, but the devs can't work on fixing it if;
- it's not reproducible outside of your environment
or
- if we can't find what/where/how the problem manifests
or
- if the logs don't show anything.

Hence why we are asking you to do all these silly things :) In short, it's all about trying to isolate where/why/how this issue occurs so we can narrow the root cause and then find a permanent solution, either on your end or in FGU.