MapTool 1.3 Development Build 21 (that's really build 22)

[trevor]

The "Insanely overdue critical bug fix for b20" build:

Build 21 (1/15/08)
* Improve map panning algorithm when fog is enabled
* Make the token layout panel have a consistent background and grid color
* Added more rolling types

* Fix bug: vision not working when in a closed topology created with the polyline tool
* Fix bug: light sources on stamps are casting from top left corner

* UPnP switch on Start Server dialog (Contributed by Phergus)
* Update Spanish translation (Contributed by Patricio Acevedo)


A special thanks to all the contributors this round, especially Phergus for the UPnP patch that should make working with routers a ton easier. (NOTE: I can't recall who submitted the rolling update or what it was, if you are that person please ellaborate)

Please test out the UPnP option found on the Start Server dialog.

NOTE: All the other bugs that were mentioned for b20 have had trackers created for them so that I can crank them out for b22. Thanks for your patience all, we're gonna get moving again !

EDIT: the first build I attempted crashed during the build cycle, but apparently bumped up the build number anyway, so you all get treated to version b22 instead of b21

[morval]

I seem to have hit a snag with this build. Its probably just something I'm missing?

With FoW turned on, the GM's view is right. A dark layer the GM can see through. But when I switch to players view I get a lighter version of the GM'f fog instead of the all black. I can unfog an area and it becomes bright in both views.

Any ideas?

morval

[torstan]

Nope, I get this too. The solid black for FOW isn't working for players or on the GM show-as-player view.

Here's a screenshot:


Another bug is that players can only see tokens if they have ownership of them. This includes NPC tokens. This is a game killer.

I've also found a wierd one. When I am bulding a campaign, the fog reveal doesn't work properly. But as soon as I host a server, it starts behaving itself. Here's the screenshot before I host the server:



... and here's the screenshot after I host the server:



The only action between the two shots is hosting the server - maybe it is the requirement that it calculate individual views that causes the change. Anyway, after the behaviour changes I have been unable to get it to revert, even after taking the server down.

The two light sources are a d20 candle (the candelabra) and a generic-40 (the chandelier). The topology is as shown. The token is a basic PC token that was dropped first, and then the other elements added. Once everything was in place I did expose visible area (ctrl-I) and got a surprise when he could see into the darkness behind the wall.

[shammond42]

Hi,

I submitted the rolling patch. It adds support for two new types of dice.

1) Ubiquity dice -- Use by Hollow Earth Expedition, www.exilegames.com, a ubiquity die produces a 0 or a 1, success or failure. You roll some number of dice and see if you got enough successes to succeed. These are referenced as dU. So you can roll 10dU.

2) Fudge dice, used by Fudge and Spirit of the Century among other games. A dF produces a -1, 0 or 1. In most cases you roll four of them by rolling 4dF to produce a number between -4 and 4.

Thanks,
Steve

[trevor]

Torstan can you send me that campaign ?

[torstan]

Will do.

Edit: Sent

[Phergus]

Meant to post this earlier and got sidetracked.

The UPnP support in MapTool is only going to work when you access the internet through a broadband router that supports UPnP and has it enabled.

Those of you on company or school networks won't be able to use it in all likelihood.

If you are on cable or dsl broadband then there is a good chance that you can use it. One known exception is the 2wire series of routers that some DSL providers install.

Please be aware that this is a first pass implementation. It currently has a 5 second timeout for discovery of your router (Internet Gateway Device in UPnP speak). The first time you Test Connection with UPnP enabled it will take like what seems forever.

If you get a message that a IGD can't be found, then either you don't have a router that supports UPnP or, if it does, it isn't enabled.

Subsequent connection tests or starting of a server will proceed at the normal pace.

If UPnP is enabled it will open the port while the server is running and close it again when you stop the server.

Note that if you already have the port forwarded on your router then the UPnP port mapping will fail. If you want to control the port forwarding via UPnP then you will need to login to your router and remove the existing port forward mappings.

Great thing about using UPnP is that you can run MT from any computer and open any port without having to assign fixed IPs, muck with MAC address mappings for DHCP or remember which port was mapped to which computer. You can have multiple servers running on one PC (using different ports) if you like.

[torstan]

Okay, as I have opened up the campaign file I sent to trevor and found it to be behaving itself, here is a short list of steps to recreate the bug I posted screenshots of above. Let's see if anyone else's computers are doing this.

1. Place a player token on the map.
2. Place an object on the map and make it a light source
3. Draw a topology line so that it should cast a shadow from the light source, but not block the tokens' line of sight to that shadow (like the internal wall I put in the room above).
4. Switch to the token pointer and mouse over the token. Maptool believes the token can see through the shadow.

If I save and reload this campaign, the bug disappears. If I start a server, the bug disappears.

[trevor]

what if you zoom the map ? I'm wondering if it is a cache issue

[torstan]

I did more hunting around about the disappearing token issue. Something seriously odd is going on. I started up a GM campaign (a similar set-up to the one above) and started a Player instance above. Here is the GM view, with the topology showing:



Now when I connect as a player I see nothing. The token on the left is an NPC, the token on the right is a PC. I gave the player instance ownership of Balen, and this time nothing happened. The ownership thing seems to be a red herring. Now I tried the option 'Force players on current view'. This worked! The player could see both tokens. However when I started zooming in and out the disappearing tokens started again. At close zooms I lost the player token - and parts of the NPC token:



Zooming out the NPC token starts coming back - the angle of the area removed suggests this is due to some scale dependent calculation of token vision - it looks like maptool believes something is blocking line of sight to the top of the token in the shot above, but not when you zoom out. Here we are at mid zoom:



Finally, here we are as far out as we need to go before the player token reappears:



I can always get the token to reappear by double clicking it in the map explorer window.

Nevermind, I've figured it out. The revealed area shape is not zooming or panning. It's sitting in the middle of the screen. If I zoom out, the tokens are all small and so fit inside the shape and I can see them all. If I zoom in, they become large and leave the shape. Here's a couple of screenshots that bear out the theory. Firstly, with everything visible - note the shape of the exposed region:



... and when we zoom in. Note the shape clipped out of the top of the token. It's the same as the exposed region in the earlier image.



So it's not about token visibility and ownership. It's just a weird FOW bug. Oh well.

[torstan]

@trevor: Nope, zooming doesn't fix the issue for the LOS bug. So far only save/load or starting a server forces it to change.

[Artok]

Object resizing is still a problem. When you set a stamp to Free Size you can set it to any size you want, but the image never changes its proportions. I need to be able to stretch an object outside its normal scale. For example, if I have a table image that is sized for 5'x10' I may want to stretch it to 5'x15'.

[trevor]

Found the problem. Bad developer. Bad. No twinkie for you.

Now to fix it.

[carpens]

Found the problem. Bad developer. Bad. No twinkie for you.

Now to fix it.

Too late. I'm fed up with the crappy support for this expensive software that has never worked right. I'm calling my friends, forcing them to move back to town, and going back to face to face play. I hope you're satisfied.

[trevor]

Found the problem. Bad developer. Bad. No twinkie for you.

Now to fix it.

Too late. I'm fed up with the crappy support for this expensive software that has never worked right. I'm calling my friends, forcing them to move back to town, and going back to face to face play. I hope you're satisfied.

Dangit ! and I just finished checking in the fix. Poop. If I had only been a little faster heh