Some players getting a black map with their token

[Gilafron]

Hello, in one session, one of the players only received a black map when I shared a battle map. All the other players could see the map fine. The first player could see tokens and move them, but could not see the map. Our next session this player also experienced it with any battle map I shared. A couple other players also started experiencing this issue. It happens on maps I created or came with a purchased product. Character senses (such as darkvision) have no effect. We are using the 5e ruleset.

[LordEntrails]

It sounds like the characters who can see the map have darkvision, and the one who can't has no darkvision. But it's possibly something else. Can you include some screen shots? specifically of the map with the tokens on it and the map control panel shown.

Some other things to try;
- does it change what is seen if Party Vision & Movement is turned On in the options?
- does it change if you give the PC who can not see a torch or light effect?
- Are all characters added to the map from the combat tracker?
- Has the player selected/activated their character?
- Are you using any extensions?

[Zacchaeus]

Another thing I've seen often is that the GM layer is hidden or set to be viewed by the GM only; so make sure that isn't the problem. But screenshots would be helpful.

[Gilafron]

I don't think it's a darkvision or party vision issue. Players with similar senses (e.g. darkvision) are experiencing different results. I also think that rules out party vision. I do use a bunch of extensions, primarily a score of the Rob2E ones. I do have seven player characters playing, in case that is an issue. Nonetheless, I'll arrange a time with one of the problem players to take screenshots. Thanks.

[Laerun]

This could also be a bandwidth issue and or Anti-virus or Firewall issue. Sometimes security apps will block data from Fantasy Grounds, preventing map data updates, etc.

https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/1981349889/Network+Troubleshooting#Step-2---Check-Security-Software

Wireless, public internet and such can be troublesome too.

[Gilafron]

We did some troubleshooting. Here are our findings:

1. This issue started for this one player about a month ago (two sessions ago).
2. The player can see older images (including maps) from older sessions (more than a month ago).
3. The player cannot see newer images (including maps) starting about a month ago.
4. The player can see the older tokens (from two months ago) on the new maps. It shows up as all black but with tokens on it.
5. The player sees question marks (?) for the newer tokens.
6. In the console, we see the player make requests and the DM receive and send. We see the DM send when sharing the map. The player does not receive.
7. We tried a new campaign with no extensions and modules. The maps showed up correctly. The player could see new maps.
8. We returned to the actual campaign, disabled all extensions, and all modules. The issue remained. No improvement on the original campaign.
9. We restarted both DM and player applications many times. Even after disabling all extensions and all modules.

I've a zip file with:
1. DM Images showing images with Lighting on/off and LOS on/off.
2. Player images of same setup.
3. Player logs. (logs from AppData\Raoming\SmiteWorks\FantasyGrounds)
4. DM logs. (logs from AppData\Raoming\SmiteWorks\FantasyGrounds)

But I did not see how to attach zip file to this post.

NOTE: DM is EDT, Player is MDT

[Laerun]

We did some troubleshooting. Here are our findings:

1. This issue started for this one player about a month ago (two sessions ago).
2. The player can see older images (including maps) from older sessions (more than a month ago).
3. The player cannot see newer images (including maps) starting about a month ago.
4. The player can see the older tokens (from two months ago) on the new maps. It shows up as all black but with tokens on it.
5. The player sees question marks (?) for the newer tokens.
6. In the console, we see the player make requests and the DM receive and send. We see the DM send when sharing the map. The player does not receive.
7. We tried a new campaign with no extensions and modules. The maps showed up correctly. The player could see new maps.
8. We returned to the actual campaign, disabled all extensions, and all modules. The issue remained. No improvement on the original campaign.
9. We restarted both DM and player applications many times. Even after disabling all extensions and all modules.

I've a zip file with:
1. DM Images showing images with Lighting on/off and LOS on/off.
2. Player images of same setup.
3. Player logs. (logs from AppData\Raoming\SmiteWorks\FantasyGrounds)
4. DM logs. (logs from AppData\Raoming\SmiteWorks\FantasyGrounds)

But I did not see how to attach zip file to this post.

NOTE: DM is EDT, Player is MDT

Sometimes, depending on the adventure or module, the images and directories changed. Have you tried to "revert changes" to any of the problematic maps? This might fix the problem, but any edits or changes you might have made will be gone. This counts towards any included official maps, not so much ones you've imported yourself. The question mark implies that the files can no longer be found and likely don't match the previous XML reference links, etc. Which module is it? A few modules have had these types of issues over the last few months.

[Gilafron]

I'm not aware how to "revert changes". Do you mean restore to the original? If so, I tried sharing the original map (from Solo Skirmish - The Cult of Molgoroz) and it also came up blank.

At this point, it's all new images. Any new image that I share with the player won't show. I tried images from multiple modules (e.g Curse of Strahd, Swordcoast Guide, etc.).

I want to emphasize that A) It appears to be this existing campaign and B) Not all players are experiencing this issue.

We also made sure the three .exe files where whitelisted.

Thanks for your help. I do appreciate the quick responses.

[Griogre]

If you right click on the module image, or image name in the image list in a module that has been changed at about 11 o'clock there is a "Revert Change" selection. You can only do this on something that has changed. You can see if something has changed if there is a pen on the book icon in the far right column.

I've attached an image with a square around the menu item and an arrow pointing at the change icon.

Please note you do not want to revert the whole module if you have made a lot of changes to it because it *will* wipe out all of them.

[Zacchaeus]

Ask your problem player to delete the cache file for the problem campaign. They'll find the cache in their data directory (%AppData%/Smiteworks/Fantasy Grounds/cache/name of the campaign). Just delete that folder. Once they've done that ask them to join your game again. Everything should then re-download. It is possible that your player may be running out of memory or something like that. So maybe have a look at how much you are sharing. Unshare un-needed modules and especially any very large images that aren't required before your player rejoins after deleting the cache file.

[Gilafron]

We troubleshot again. The player did free up 80gb of space plus deleted their cache folder. Long story short, we got it to work. He was able to see maps I shared.

However, it didn't work the first attempt. Our first attempt didn't show the image I shared. In fact, when I shared on my side, via the console I didn't see it share the image. We then loaded a vanilla no ext, no mod campaing and he could see it. So, we went back to original campaign and loaded half the extensions and kept adding until all extensions were there. It worked even after loading all extensions. Shrug. We play our regular game on Monday night with eight total people. We'll see how it goes then. Fingers crossed.

Thank you to each of you that provided suggestions. Your quick responses are greatly appreciated.