FG won't show any images, nothing will download, but connecting seems to work fine

[radgh]

We've been playing a campaign for a long time 1-2 times a month. It's been pretty smooth since I bought the software a few years ago.

Today all but one person had trouble with the campaign not showing tokens or in my case, tokens worked but maps did not. Following the internet's advice we cleared the cache and ever since we've been unable to load anything new. The DM has also cleared cache and we've all restarted. After restarting the client several times two of the players are able to see tokens but some modules won't load. We've tried everything and finding responses from 2012 hasn't been very helpful, unfortunately.

Looking at the console.log it looks like it's a connection issue, but we're clueless what to do about this. It's especially frustrating that files are trying to download AFTER finishing downloading for the first time.

Here is what the console looks like, minus ~200 more lines of random images:

(removed because the forum won't let me post it)

Sometimes after clearing cache and trying to connect the download gets stuck at about 60%, right under the "g" in "downloading". But the console.log file is actively producing errors.

Two of the players managed to load in and are able to see player tokens, but are still getting these errors in their console.log. I suspect SOME files are downloading okay but aren't showing up. I do not see any in the cache or campaign folder myself, but I don't know if they just get saved in the .dat file.

We have tried:

1. Clearing cache, restarting the client
2. Updating, we're all on the most recent version (3.3.8)
3. DM deactivated some old maps, then restarted FG

After #3 we were able to see the map and tokens, but still receive a ton of errors in the console. There is one player token I still can't see in the bottom right here:

(removed because the forum won't let me post it)

And when trying to load the player's handbook module (5e) I received some new errors. These are thumbnails that failed to download earlier in the same log:

(removed because the forum won't let me post it)

There's about 15 more lines like that.. The PHB button now says "Unload" implying that it loaded, but the book icon is still closed and I can't access it under Library. I'm sure these problems are because of the other files failing to download.

Any ideas?

[radgh]

I couldn't post the console messages or link the image because of the forum "Post denied. New posts are limited by number of URLs it may contain and checked if it doesn't contain forbidden words."...

Code snippets and image uploaded via text here: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/e...2_09-25-01.txt

[radgh]

So far we've got it playable by:

1. Sharing the old cached modules (because we all deleted our cache). This fixed monster tokens not working because the MM module would not load
2. Restarting the game if a map or any icons don't load
3. Re-mask the map, it seems the DM has to add masks every time a map is opened even if we just closed it

It literally is just failing to download files at random. It retries the same file repeatedly but never loads some of them. Restarting the game seems to load a few more each time. Just keep restarting over and over... Not a great solution but it's enough to play our session today!

[LordEntrails]

Give how long the campaign has run, there is probably tons (or gigs!) of stuff shared. Have the GM create a completely new campaign with only one image or token in it. Can one or more players connect to that campaign and see the image?

If so, then there are two options;
1) Launch the old/original campaign and have 1 and only 1 player clear their cache and then connect. Give it an hour to see if stuff shows up. If not, let us know (could be flood protection on the GMs router or other security settings).
2) Have the GM unshare and remove all of the old stuff (images, tokens, etc) that are no longer immediately required. Then have 1 and only 1 player clear their cache and then connect. Give it an hour to see if stuff shows up.

The other thing to watch is have a connecting player watch their process size (i.e. Task Manager). Depending if the player is running 32 bit or 64 bit Windows, they will have problems either around 1.3GB or 3GB.

Personally, I suspect it's too much stuff shared compounded by flood protection. i.e. that you finally reached having too much stuff shared and players started having problems. Then when you cleared your cache and reconnected, flood protection activated because now the GM had all these connections trying to download a bunch of data and the security protocols jumped in and said "No!"

[radgh]

Flood protection sounds like it would be the cause. As a client I am running at 519.9mb right now. The DM is using 888mb. The cache folder previously was 186mb. After clearing the cache and the DM deactivated a bunch of maps, the same folder is now 42.3mb. But that is with some files that are failing to download and no modules loaded.

Interestingly the files being downloaded keep retrying. Before it was a long list, now it's a pretty short list of the same files trying repeatedly:

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/e...2_09-55-23.png

[LordEntrails]

Are all the erroring images from Volo's? It's possible the DM's version is corrupt. He can delete the file from the vault folder and run and update to get it re-downloaded to him. Then players can try again.

[LordEntrails]

Actually, do players have Volos loaded? They shouldn't. It's a DM only module and too large for player clients to load. Have the DM go into his modules and make sure that only player products have green checks on them. Volos should have a red X.

(Edit: I see the MM in there as well, don't share that either!)

[radgh]

No it's not just Volo's. It is also failing to download masks and player drawings on the map. I highlighted Volo's in my screenshot just so it was obvious that same filename was failing multiple times and retrying. I just thought it was strange those same files repeatedly fail to download while other files seem to have downloaded OK (after waiting long enough).

And the DM does have Volos active but it is not loaded. None of the players have loaded any modules. I loaded the calendar and the PHB just to test, but the PHB never loaded and I restarted later and did not try loading it a second time. Here is my modules window: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/e...2_10-02-47.png

Thanks for the assistance, by the way!

[LordEntrails]

Ok, was worried there for a moment. Try the new campaign thing. And have the GM check his router for flood protection. Sometimes it called something different, but if he lists his make and model of router and/or modem we can Google it and find out specifics.

I'll be offline for awhile, but someone else might jump in. Also, if you use Discord, check out the FG Discord channel (or FG College Discord) as someone might be online to walk you through things.

[Trenloe]

Also the GM shouldn’t enable access to token modules for players.