RPTools.net

Thanks for the head's up P.

Is there any work on this?

The problem is likely the plug-ins available on the new server. I'm thinking, for example, that the libgd is not included (for creating thumbnails) or maybe the gallery uses ImageMagick and that toolset isn't installed?

Hostgator includes GD & ImageMagick in their Linux hosting plans so it is probably just a configuration issue.

Of that list, only GD s a PHP plug-in (the rest are external commands). But if HostGator includes them, then yeah, just a config issue. Thanks for checking, Phergie.

Just wondering if this would work:

1. GM creates a repository file of all images she has to use (literally just sticks everything onto one map, and then creates the repository)
2. Distribute a DVD with that file, to be placed on the same location on all of the Player computers, eg. "C://Program Files/RPTools/MapTool/..."
3. Campaign repository listed as "C://Program Files/RPTools/MapTool/..."

For people with very limited bandwidth, this would be very very very useful.

But is it currently possible?

Its currently not possible. But what you can do is run a webserver on each of the machines, and then put the resource files on that webserver. Then for the campaign site have http://127.0.0.1/CampaignRepos/index.tgz (or where ever you would like to place it). (127.0.0.1 being loop back to local host).

Just remember to get everyone to start up the webserver on their machines before they connect and it should all be fine and fetch the resources from the local machine.

As for webservers
Mac OS X has a web server you just need to turn it on
Windows XP you can download (I think they call it) personal server, but you cant run that on XP Home or Student.
Windows XP you could also try something like savant which I have heard is pretty easy to get running.

I think that might be a little to complicated for my players, but I'll keep it in mind. In the meanwhile, can I throw my idea into the feature-request pile?

Goo

I know it seems complex but don't discount it too quickly with something like Savant it should be as simple as a point and click install and a copy from the dvd to a directory. With a few simple instructions I think all the players in my extended group would be able to do it (and trust me that is saying something).


Hmm time to poke around in the code to see if local disk repository would be easy to add.

Okay, I'll give it a try!

Could you explain the process to me in detail - I'm not too clued up on this side of things, either...

Is this how you run yours?

Wouldn't it make more sense then to import the files directly into the user's assetcache directory? Let the users do some kind of Import Remote Repository file and then MT pulls the files out of the normally created remote repository archive and places them in the user's assetcache.

I have not looked at how the the asset cache is managed, if what ever is there stays there until deleted by the user this would work. If it is ever flushed then it would be an issue. Actually if it doesnt get flushed then they could just unzip the file and copy the assets right in...

Back to the code

Back in 2007 using MapTool 1.2 we were having problems because we were using really large maps - basically stitching together pictures from Google Earth for use in a modern supers game. The solution we came up with was for me to set up my maps first, then zip up my asset cache directory and distribute that in advance (either via FTP or web site). My players would download the asset cache directory and unzip it on to their computer, and they'd have all the core map assets. If I made a last minute change to something, just the changed assets would need to be transferred at play time. If you want the details, including directory paths, etc. it is talked about in this old thread:

http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2401 (look for my post on page 2)

Side Note: How do you get a link to a specific post instead of just the start of a thread?

Trevor at the time was considering writing an export command that would export the asset cache. I don't know if anything further was done about it.

I also don't know that this will still work under 1.3, I haven't tried.

If you look at where the "Posted: Mon Jul 23..." etc. is, just to the left is a small page icon. Click on that and it sends you to the URL of that post.

Thanks! I knew I was missing something...

The users could just dump the contents of the assets directory from the exported repository file but asking the typical user to do this is asking for trouble.

Being able to import a exported repository file or being able to specify additional local local repositories would probably be good.