Text not appearing on Targeting Arrows, Movement and Notifications

[humby]

I was DMing a 5E campaign last night and a couple of my players reported issues where they couldn't see the text on things like the movement and targeting arrows, nor could they see the text on the new Notifications.

I'm using the Linux client on Bazzite 43, one player is also on Linux using but using the Xubuntu distro and I'm not sure what OS the other player was on. Both players tried closing and re-opening FG and that didn't help. Everything seemed OK for me as the DM.

Some screenshots from the Xubuntu player:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=66328&stc=1&d=1769154062https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=66329&stc=1&d=1769154160

[Moon Wizard]

Not sure what the issue might be. We only technically support Ubuntu 22+.

We do have a Linux developer running Debian internally as well, and he doesn't see any issues.

I'll ask around to see if any other Linux people are having issues.

Also, might be related to compositor for graphics; you can try enabling X11 instead of Wayland if you haven't already.
https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/1997012993/Linux+Starting+FGU+with+Wayland+Instead+of+x11+Com positor

Regards,
JPG

[Moon Wizard]

Just heard back from one of our other Linux users running Manjaro; and he's seeing all the text fine.

Regards,
JPG

[DDM]

I'm also on linux and steam and having the same issue :(

[Moon Wizard]

@DDM,

Can you provide info on the Linux OS you are using, and whether it is using Wayland or X11 compositor?

Regards,
JPG

[DDM]

@DDM,

Can you provide info on the Linux OS you are using, and whether it is using Wayland or X11 compositor?

Regards,
JPG

I'm running Garuda and it's using Wayland.

[Moon Wizard]

We don't have a way to ensure that it works on all the various flavors of Linux; only the officially supported one for Unity game engine (i.e. Ubuntu).

You can try changing to the X11 compositor using these directions to see if it helps.
https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/1997012993/Linux+Starting+FGU+with+Wayland+Instead+of+x11+Com positor

Other than that, it's an unknown whether we'll be able to address at this point, given it's on several flavors of Linux we don't have the resources to manage. (Less than a dozen people in company; and no Linux experts). If any Linux experts can figure out what might be causing the issue, that would be great to hear.

Regards,
JPG

[commenterry]

I am also having this problem on CachyOS and Wayland. As I'm using Steam, I've discovered that if I force FG to use Proton 9.04, so that it runs the windows version of FG instead, it fixes the issue. So, I guess it's some issue with the Linux client and Wayland? This is unfortunate as X11 is being phased out. If there's anything you all can do to track down the cause of this bug and fix it, that would be awesome. Thank you!

EDIT: (Neither of the CachyOS Proton versions fix it, nor does Proton Hotfix or Experimental. This is why I had to go with 9.04.)

[nephranka]

Running Fedora 43 here. Under Wayland only I am not seeing this issue but I have the file dialog issue reported before. I have found that X11 has only been needed to solve the file dialog. If I were to guess I would say it is something with the fonts loaded for the distro.

[pindercarl]

I was DMing a 5E campaign last night and a couple of my players reported issues where they couldn't see the text on things like the movement and targeting arrows, nor could they see the text on the new Notifications.

I'm using the Linux client on Bazzite 43, one player is also on Linux using but using the Xubuntu distro and I'm not sure what OS the other player was on. Both players tried closing and re-opening FG and that didn't help. Everything seemed OK for me as the DM.

Some screenshots from the Xubuntu player:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=66328&stc=1&d=1769154062https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=66329&stc=1&d=1769154160

FGVTT uses the freetype2 library to render fonts. The text that your players are unable to see are rendered using SDFs while the rest of the UI uses standard font rendering. SDF support was added to the library in v2.13 and the .so that is distributed with FGVTT was updated for v5.1. It is possible that either the .so was not updated, or FGVTT is somehow pointing to an older version of freetype on their computer (freetype is usually part of Linux distros). I would suggest the users delete their FGVTT install directory (NOT the data directory) and reinstall. If this doesn't work, have them check the FGVTT install for the version of freetype2 that was installed: \fantasygrounds_Data\Plugins\libfreetype.so.

[commenterry]

Deleting the install directory and reinstalling did not fix it for me. I don't see any version numbering for libfreetype.so in the properties of the file, but if I run readelf and grep soname this is the result:

0x000000000000000e (SONAME) Library soname: [libfreetype.so.6]

[pindercarl]

Deleting the install directory and reinstalling did not fix it for me. I don't see any version numbering for libfreetype.so in the properties of the file, but if I run readelf and grep soname this is the result:

0x000000000000000e (SONAME) Library soname: [libfreetype.so.6]

I'm not a Linux user or expert. This might help to determine the version of freetype with your Linux distro. If it is earlier than 2.13 than maybe the theory that Unity is using the wrong libfreetype.so is correct. https://www.systutorials.com/docs/linux/man/1-freetype-config/

[commenterry]

I thought they were asking what version was installed with FGVTT. The command on my system to find the version installed with the distro is pkg-config --modversion freetype2. My install of CachyOS has 26.4.20, which correlates to the most recent release version 2.14.1 and SO 6.20.4 per this github document: https://github.com/freetype/freetype/blob/master/docs/VERSIONS.TXT.

[pindercarl]

I thought they were asking what version was installed with FGVTT. The command on my system to find the version installed with the distro is pkg-config --modversion freetype2. My install of CachyOS has 26.4.20, which correlates to the most recent release version 2.14.1 and SO 6.20.4 per this github document: https://github.com/freetype/freetype/blob/master/docs/VERSIONS.TXT.

I was asking about the version that was installed with FGVTT. It was updated with v5.1 and I thought maybe the updater didn't update the .so for "reasons." Deleting and re-installing should have fixe that if it was the issue anyway. Even if FGVTT was using the system freetype installation, 2.14.1 shouldn't be a problem. I'm back to scratching my head about why it isn't working on some Linux distros. You could try replacing the .so in the FGVTT install with the v2.14.1 from your system and see if that makes a difference.

[commenterry]

I was asking about the version that was installed with FGVTT. It was updated with v5.1 and I thought maybe the updater didn't update the .so for "reasons." Deleting and re-installing should have fixe that if it was the issue anyway. Even if FGVTT was using the system freetype installation, 2.14.1 shouldn't be a problem. I'm back to scratching my head about why it isn't working on some Linux distros. You could try replacing the .so in the FGVTT install with the v2.14.1 from your system and see if that makes a difference.

If I do that, no fonts are displayed at all.

[pindercarl]

If I do that, no fonts are displayed at all.

Do the names match? Editing to add: the name should be libfreetype.so

Also adding, I was digging through the API loader and if the .so provided fails to load, it does try to load the native libraries. So, I think there is something to this idea. Still no idea why the provided .so wouldn't load and why the native library isn't rendering. I'll check to see if there were any changes from 2.13 to 2.14 that might be problematic.

[commenterry]

Do the names match?

I have libfreetype.so that is pointing to libfreetype.so.6 which is pointing to libfreetype.so.6.20.4. It looks like the first two are symlinks that ultimately point to the third one, which seems to be the real file. I tried using it without renaming it, and then I tried to rename it to just libfreetype.so. Regardless, it renders no fonts. If I put the original back in the folder, it renders the regular fonts again but still has the original issue, of course.

[commenterry]

I have libfreetype.so that is pointing to libfreetype.so.6 which is pointing to libfreetype.so.6.20.4. It looks like the first two are symlinks that ultimately point to the third one, which seems to be the real file. I tried using it without renaming it, and then I tried to rename it to just libfreetype.so. Regardless, it renders no fonts. If I put the original back in the folder, it renders the regular fonts again but still has the original issue, of course.

I just noticed the the files sizes are different. The one that comes with CachyOS is 1.1 MiB (1,128,392) while the FGVTT one is 1.1 MiB (1,178,480).

[pindercarl]

I just noticed the the files sizes are different. The one that comes with CachyOS is 1.1 MiB (1,128,392) while the FGVTT one is 1.1 MiB (1,178,480).

I would expect that the files size might be different since they are different versions of the library. We could test if the native library fallback is working by deleting the libfreetype.so that installs with FGVTT.

[commenterry]

I would expect that the files size might be different since they are different versions of the library. We could test if the native library fallback is working by deleting the libfreetype.so that installs with FGVTT.

If I delete that file, again no fonts are rendered at all. Just to be clear, what I mean is that I can see everything on the main menu normally, where the "Load Campaign" button is. It's when I load into a campaign, just the 5E Test is what I'm loading, is where no fonts are rendered at all.

[pindercarl]

If I delete that file, again no fonts are rendered at all. Just to be clear, what I mean is that I can see everything on the main menu normally, where the "Load Campaign" button is. It's when I load into a campaign, just the 5E Test is what I'm loading, is where no fonts are rendered at all.

That suggests the fallback to the native plug-in isn't working. I'm stumped. Especially since it works on other Linux distros.

Can you try: ldd fantasygrounds.x86_64 | grep freetype

[humby]

Just tried this on my machine out of curiosity (my machine is displaying everything correctly, it's my players that are having issues) and I get the following:

$ ldd FantasyGrounds.x86_64
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007f939f8c9000)
UnityPlayer.so => /var/home/<USERNAME_REDACTED>/.smiteworks/fantasygrounds/UnityPlayer.so (0x00007f939d200000)
libm.so.6 => /lib64/libm.so.6 (0x00007f939d10b000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib64/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f939f878000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib64/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f939d107000)
libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00007f939cf14000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib64/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f939cf10000)
libanl.so.1 => /lib64/libanl.so.1 (0x00007f939cf0c000)
librt.so.1 => /lib64/librt.so.1 (0x00007f939cf08000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f939f8cb000)


As I mentioned in the OP, I'm using Bazzite - and one of my players who is having issues is also using Bazzite. :confused:

I also tried removing the libfreetype.so from the Plugins folder and got the same result as commenterry - FG displays no text once the campaign is loaded - so it looks like it's definitely loading that file despite what ldd claims!

[commenterry]

That suggests the fallback to the native plug-in isn't working. I'm stumped. Especially since it works on other Linux distros.

Can you try: ldd fantasygrounds.x86_64 | grep freetype

My output is similar to humby's when not attempting to grep freetype as ldd isn't reporting it as a dependency for me either:

linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007f3f5d20f000)
UnityPlayer.so => /home/[this space intentionally left blank]/.smiteworks/fantasygrounds/UnityPlayer.so (0x00007f3f5aa00000)
libm.so.6 => /usr/lib/libm.so.6 (0x00007f3f5d0fc000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /usr/lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f3f5d0c7000)
libpthread.so.0 => /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f3f5d0c2000)
libc.so.6 => /usr/lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007f3f5a600000)
libdl.so.2 => /usr/lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f3f5d0bb000)
libanl.so.1 => /usr/lib/libanl.so.1 (0x00007f3f5d0b6000)
librt.so.1 => /usr/lib/librt.so.1 (0x00007f3f5d0b1000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 => /usr/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f3f5d211000)

Just in case this is relevant, my video card is NVIDIA. I only mention it in case humby isn't using NVIDIA while their players who are having trouble are.

[humby]

Just in case this is relevant, my video card is NVIDIA. I only mention it in case humby isn't using NVIDIA while his players who are having trouble are.

Also NVIDIA here, driver version 590.48.01

[commenterry]

Also NVIDIA here, driver version 590.48.01

That is my driver version as well, just for the record.

[pindercarl]

That is my driver version as well, just for the record.

Yeah. I'm starting to think that freetype may not be the culprit and the it may be a shader issue. Which also doesn't make much sense. Especially given that you are using the same graphics drivers. I will continue to ponder.

[Doswelk]

Just spun up my first Linux gaming PC and testing Fantasy grounds on Linux Mint 22 LTS usingx11 Nvidia GPU driver version 590.48.01 has the same white text issue

[humby]

It appears to be Steam causing the issue - both of my players are running their FG through Steam so I downloaded on Steam and when I ran it that way I was able to reproduce the issue.

[commenterry]

It appears to be Steam causing the issue - both of my players are running their FG through Steam so I downloaded on Steam and when I ran it that way I was able to reproduce the issue.

Confirmed - I just installed the stand-alone version and I do not have the issue with it. Something you might want to pass along to your players - I had to uninstall the steam version first as the updater was just in a loop of updating otherwise. I wonder what about the steam client could be causing this....

[Nylanfs]

Does turning the steam overlay off fix it? does running FG directly instead of through Steam work correctly?

[humby]

Steam overlay doesn't seem to do anything, but running it directly solves the problem.

[pindercarl]

Steam overlay doesn't seem to do anything, but running it directly solves the problem.

Thanks for all the leg work. I would never have suspect Steam.

[Doswelk]

Turning off Steam Overlay did not work for me.

Running direct worked though.

Edit: And for some reason Humbly and Pindercarl's posts only showed up AFTER I posted :S

But at least we have a solution...

[Nylanfs]

Then Steam must be doing something else in addition to being a simple wrapper. :(