Extension[CoreRPG]: display NPC tokens as portraits in chat

[Ulric]

Thanks for the suggestion on the attack/damage rolls, I did a quick implementation of that and updated the latest version available above. I tested in 5e, SavageWorlds and my own Star Trek Adventures ruleset, and it seemed to work OK, that is available here:

https://github.com/bakermd86/NPCPort...ses/tag/latest

Your link goes 404. I downloaded version 1.6 and tried it withte Starfinder ruleset. The Player images are displayed in Chat but NPC's only display as GM.

[kevininrussia]

Thanks for the suggestion on the attack/damage rolls, I did a quick implementation of that and updated the latest version available above. I tested in 5e, SavageWorlds and my own Star Trek Adventures ruleset, and it seemed to work OK, that is available here:

https://github.com/bakermd86/NPCPort...ses/tag/latest

Works great in 4E

Thank you!

[sirnoobsauce]

Your link goes 404. I downloaded version 1.6 and tried it withte Starfinder ruleset. The Player images are displayed in Chat but NPC's only display as GM.

I fixed the link. I tested with Starfinder though, and it seems to work fine (at least in FGU, I haven't tested it at all in FGC):

sf-example.png

[Ludd_G]

Hi,

Unfortunately I can confirm that in 5e, FG Unity, with no other extensions loaded, "Fen's NPC Portrait Workaround v1.6" isn't showing the NPC token. It does show the PC token though.

Cheers,

Simon

[sirnoobsauce]

Hi,

Unfortunately I can confirm that in 5e, FG Unity, with no other extensions loaded, "Fen's NPC Portrait Workaround v1.6" isn't showing the NPC token. It does show the PC token though.

Cheers,

Simon

It works in 5e for me (5e-example.png). What OS are you running FGU on? The fact it is working for PCs but not NPCs indicates that the issue is probably with the dummy portraits being created. Basically: the chat window in FG cannot display a regular image, it can only display "portraits" which are created only for user identities. So in order to display NPC tokens in chat, the extension is actually creating a dummy charsheet entry (with a special node name to avoid conflicts with real charsheets) and then deleting it. In my testing, deleting the charsheet does not clean up the portrait right away (the portrait is cleaned up when loading a campaign though, so the dummies are created each time in an onDesktopInit function).

If you load a campaign with the extension active and then go to the campaign portraits folder (%appdata%/SmiteWorks/Fantasy Grounds/campaigns/<campaign name>/portraits) you should see entries with names like "dummy_portrait_npc_id-#####" for each NPC with a token in your campaign. Like this: dummy_portraits.png.

Given what you and Ulric are reporting, this implies that the code to insert the portraits is working fine (since PCs and NPCs use mostly the same code) but that something in your environment is causing the portraits to be cleaned up when the dummy identities are deleted. If that is the case, then the portraits folder here would not contain the dummy_portrait_npc... entries. If you can confirm that, and let me know what OS/platform you are using, I can see if I can reproduce in my environment and see if maybe there is another workaround to keep the portraits from being deleted.

The entire mechanism is a big kludge to workaround the limitation of the chat not being able to display arbitrary images. It would also be a lot easier if the User package provided a direct call to create an arbitrary portrait from an image, rather than it being tied to an identity. If some platforms are deleting the portraits right away when deleting an identity, then I would have to leave the identities in place and filter them out of the character select window somehow...

[Ludd_G]

Hi,

I'm on Window 10, and I do see a 'dummy_portrait_npc_id-00001' file in the campaign's portrait folder. I only have 1 NPC on the CT for testing.

Thanks for all your work on this, it's much appreciated!

Cheers,

Simon

[Ulric]

I fixed the link. I tested with Starfinder though, and it seems to work fine (at least in FGU, I haven't tested it at all in FGC):

sf-example.png

Thanks for taking a look at the problem. I really like your extension. I looked at your screenshot and noticed the NPCs you used in your test were GM created. I did another test with "Venture Captain Vickr" which is a player and it displays correctly. I then added my GM created NPC "Absalom Station Male citizen" to the CT and I could get thisNPC's image to display correctly in the chat. However, NPCs from purchased content like the "Aeon Guard" will not display correctly. I have attached a screenshot demonstrating the problem. I tested with FGU fully updated and only your extension running.

[YAKO SOMEDAKY]

Thanks! I'm going to test it with my extension in Rolemaster, I think I'll have to make some adjustments to my extension! But your extension + mine + player controlling NPC will be PERFECT!

[sirnoobsauce]

Many thanks to Ludd_g and Ulric for their feedback. I made a number of changes to improve performance, improve handling for rolls, support modules, and support entries in the combat tracker. I also uploaded it to the Forge:

https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/509/view

[Ulric]

Many thanks to Ludd_g and Ulric for their feedback. I made a number of changes to improve performance, improve handling for rolls, support modules, and support entries in the combat tracker. I also uploaded it to the Forge:

https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/509/view

Thanks for all your efforts. I sent you a PM concerning a v2.0 bug.