FG sharing maps and tokens

[Mixylplyx]

I have ultimate FG. I was trying to run my first session as GM (FG+TS) with six others in different time zones; I go to share a map and no one sees it, even after 30+ minutes. They also do not see any of the tokens I had created for the mission. The best we could figure out, is that I had so many maps and tokens that FG was still trying to upload everyone's computers with ALL of the maps and tokens I have made, not just the maps I shared or tokens in use for the monsters. I don't know if it's an issue with my upload speed or the others' computers and connections.

What's going on? Does FG automatically sync all the maps and tokens in the GM's folders like we suspect? If so, anyway to disable that and just send the ones in 'use' at the moment? Any other way to organize all my maps and tokens so only the bare minimum I need for that session is synced?

I hope this is the correct forum for this post. As I'm relatively new to FG, forgive my newness. Any help is appreciated.

[Trenloe]

Since v3.1.3, the only stuff that is automatically downloaded to the players (other than the initial ruleset and extensions) are tokens in the \tokens\shared directory - GMs tokens will be in the module or \tokens\host. Non-shared tokens will be downloaded when they are needed.

Library/reference modules that you have allowed the players access to will be downloaded (if they don't already have then) when the players open the module in the library.

When you say no one sees a shared map, did they see a blank image window open on their side, or nothing at all?

If these are maps you've added to the campaign yourself, how large are they? Maps should be kept below 1MB wherever possible (smaller if you can). The speed to display a newly shared image is based off the image size, the GM upload speed, the number of players connected and their download speeds. The uploading of data in FG is using old network libraries in the current form and isn't very efficient with large data transfer (the move to Unity should improve this drastically), so keep the size of images and tokens you're sharing to the lowest you can.

[Mixylplyx]

When you say no one sees a shared map, did they see a blank image window open on their side, or nothing at all?

They had nothing at all.

I have my maps and tokens in a GM only module, then pull that module into a new campaign or whatever I'm running that night. When I go to share the map via the right-click menu, is that when it sends it to those connected? Also, what does pre-loading the image do? I presume it goes ahead and sends the image to the clients but doesn't show it yet?

[Moon Wizard]

Did they see a window pop up with just gray in the middle, or a window pop up with gray plus a loading icon?
How big are your map files?

When sharing a map using the radial menu (right click), then the image record is made public, and is immediately shared with anyone who is connected.

Regards,
JPG

[Mixylplyx]

Window pop-up with gray from what I recall. When I shared it, on my screen the map had the little profile pics in the bottom left of the window, I guess to indicate who received the map, but they reported they never got anything.

[Trenloe]

How big are the maps you're sharing? i.e. the file size.

[Mixylplyx]

40+ maps 300-800 KB in size generally, tokens were 300+ 50-90 KB size

[JohnD]

That's a lot unless you have a great upload.

[Trenloe]

Are the tokens in \tokens\shared or \tokens\host?

What size was the map that you shared and just showed the grey screen?

Are you only sharing one map at a time?

Is the GM computer on a Wi-Fi or wired connection?

What is your upload speed?

[Moon Wizard]

Do you have a mask set up on the map already? If so, all they would see would be gray until you revealed from the map.

You can start a second instance of FG on the same machine and connect to "localhost" as a player to see what they should see.

Regards,
JPG