Pathfinder Ultimate Equipment Guide not loading

[Hex08]

I recently purchased the Pathfinder Ultimate Equipment Guide. I have set it to load for my players but it will not load for any of them. When the players go into their Library and try and activate it under Data Module Activation they show a green check but clicking on load does nothing. The cover thumbnail always shows the spiderweb in the lower left corner.

[Hex08]

No ideas?

[JohnD]

Are you/they waiting for the module to download? Depending on your upload speed and how many people are trying to load it at the same time, there could be a delay of a few minutes.

[Kelrugem]

EDIT: Ignore this message I am wrong (see also Trenloe's answer)

The spiderweb implies that this module comes from a player and not from the GM such that this module can not be shared with the other players (this is how I understood this spiderweb) does one of your players have purchased this module, too? Do you maybe accidentally try to share the module of your player with the other players (which is not possible)? Make sure that you share the module which you have purchased (the one without a spiderweb)

[Trenloe]

The spiderweb means that the player will download the module from the GM over the "web".

This issue sounds like there are problems downloading the module .dat from the GM. @Hex08 - get one of the players to look at their <Fg app data>\cache\<campaign name> directory and ask them to check for a .dat file for the Ultimate Equipment guide - make a note of the file size. Then ask them to open the module in the FG module activation screen and wait a minute or so - does the file size increase? If not, what is the file size?

[Kelrugem]

The spiderweb means that the player will download the module from the GM over the "web".

Ah, okay, thanks I only was actively seeing/observing that once and this was about some custom module of one of my players, therefore I interpreted this then like this Thanks for the clarification, I'll edit my answer above

[Trenloe]

Ah, okay, thanks I only was actively seeing/observing that once and this was about some custom module of one of my players, therefore I interpreted this then like this Thanks for the clarification, I'll edit my answer above

If it's the GM that sees the web icon then that is related to the player having the module but not the GM and the GM can then allow just the players that have the module installed to access it.

For a player it has a similar meaning - that they don't have it installed locally, but it also means that they can access it and "load" it from the GM.

[Kelrugem]

If it's the GM that sees the web icon then that is related to the player having the module but not the GM and the GM can then allow just the players that have the module installed to access it.

For a player it has a similar meaning - that they don't have it installed locally, but it also means that they can access it and "load" it from the GM.

ahhh, okay, I misinterpreted it again. So only the person who has to load that module over the internet from someone sees that icon which makes completely sense. This explains my experience then, too.

Thanks a lot

[Trenloe]

@Hex08 - I've seen something similar on my test setup for a large module (Pathfinder Core Rules). The Pathfinder Core Rules.dat file in the player cache stays at a small file size and never increases. In the player Data Module Activation window the "Load" button changes to "Unload" but the little book icon stays closed and doesn't open.

This appears to be a case of some files taking a long time to download, especially when other downloads are going on. It seems to be much worse on lower specced or overloaded computers.

I've sat with FG on my computer in the background essentially doing nothing (as far as I can see) and then after quite a while (15-20 minutes), the file size begins to increase and the book icon goes from closed to open and I can see the library module data. This is on a pretty low specced test VM that doesn't run very quickly.

I don't know the exact process that FG follows, but it seems that it only really downloads one module at a time, and it starts to download the module and process the data in memory. For modules that have a lot of data to initially process, this can take quite a long time to download and process for lower specced computers. Once all of that data is downloaded and processed, FG will show the module as open and the player can access the data. Around this time, FG encrypts the module data and starts to save it to the player local cache in the form of a .dat file - so that FG doesn't need to download the data again in the future. All of this downloading, processing, encrypting, etc. can take a long time for a complex FG module. I'm wondering if there are any time outs that may be kicking in within this process somewhere and making the process inefficient (very). Like I say, I don't know the technical details of the process.

I've just done a timing test for loading up only the Pathfinder Core Rules module and it took 10 minutes before the module size started to increase, then it stopped at about 15% (2.4MB of about 12MB - I know the total size from previous tests) and never went any further, the module didn't show as open. I exited the player side, deleted the partially downloaded .dat file and re-joined the campaign. Opened the module again and after about 10 minutes the file size increased (past what it did before) and the module opened and the player could access the data.

As the ultimate equipment guide has a lot of FG XML records, these all have to be downloaded, processed, stored in FG, encrypted and saved to the player cache; I'd imagine that there could be similar delays for low spec computers.

So, my recommendation would be to have only one player join. Have them open the Ultimate Equipment module. Check their cache folder for the .dat file. And go away for 10 minutes or more. Then do the file size checks I mentioned earlier in this thread.

[Trenloe]

I've done quite a bit of testing on this. And I can dramatically (and I mean *dramatically) improve load time of modules on the player side if I disable "Cross-platform compatibility mode for Linux and Mac" in the FG settings menu. Of course, the downside to this might be that your FG screen won't update correctly as FG won't be forcing screen updates all the time. If this is an issue, maybe disable it to load some modules, then re-enabled it once you've got the modules cached. Assuming you see the same increase in module loading performance that I saw.