MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

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Phergus
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MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by Phergus »

MapTool now uses Java 14 from AdoptOpenJDK.

The installers are now built using jpackage and are a little different. Please report back if you run into issues with installers on the various platforms.

Download MT 1.8.0-beta.2 here

Lots of enhancements, bug fixes and performance improvements to the code base. See the Change Log for more details.

Many thanks to community developers merudo, selquest, nmeier, euank, ebudai, grimreaper, and pk1010 for all their work on this release. Also big thanks to the translators building up the language support and the wiki editors for improving/growing the documentation.

Highlights
  • Significant improvements in macro run times giving a 4x to 10x (and sometimes more) reduction in run times.
  • Macro errors now produce a call stack showing the macro calls leading to the error.

    Code: Select all

    Function "setTokenDrawOrder" requires at least 1 parameters; 0 were provided.
        Error trace : m3@Campaign <<< m2@Campaign <<< m1@campaign
    
  • ISO-8859-1 character support. Can now use accented characters in Token Properties and macros.
  • Several Export Screenshot bugs fixed.
  • A number of Initiative improvements/enhancement: #987, #1458, #1845, #2097
    See wiki page Introduction to Initiative

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Full Bleed
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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by Full Bleed »

I understand that the installer is new (which is why it doesn't know where my previous version is installed.) If I don't want to use the default location will there be a problem installing it in the same location I'm using for 1.7? Should it cleanly overwrite it or will I be risking legacy files causing problems?

I used to give every new version its own install location, but got used to using the same location with all the most recent versions.
Maptool is the Millennium Falcon of VTT's -- "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by Phergus »

I wouldn't expect any issues with installing over a folder containing your 1.7 install. Myself, I still install each version in its own directory but that's because I am frequently running multiple versions.

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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by Full Bleed »

Phergus wrote:
Wed Sep 09, 2020 12:26 am
I wouldn't expect any issues with installing over a folder containing your 1.7 install. Myself, I still install each version in its own directory but that's because I am frequently running multiple versions.
So I went ahead and installed in a new location since this is a beta and I ran into my old friend:
Failed to launch JVM
I corrected this issue in 1.5+ by manually adding a path in my windows environment variables to the location of the JVM. Unfortunately, the same solution did not work this time around.

I noticed that the new 1.8 CFG file uses a different path variable ($ROOTDIR) than 1.7 ($APPDIR) and I tried swapping that out and got this series of errors:
Failed to find library.
C:\xxx\Maptool 1.8\app\runtime\bin\jli.dll
Failed to locate JLI_Launch
Failed to launch JVM
So, presumably, those first two bits are found when using the new (proper) root path variable... but it's still failing to launch the JVM.

Is there some other environment variable/path I need to add for 1.8? I have a feeling that my system stops programs from doing that.

In Windows: Control Panel>System>Advanced System Settings>Environment Variables>System Variables>Path
Maptool is the Millennium Falcon of VTT's -- "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by Phergus »

MT is self-contained. The JVM is part of the install process and is in the install directory.

If you're futzing around with the .jar file then you'll have to install a working Java 14 with JFX to launch it with.

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Full Bleed
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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by Full Bleed »

Phergus wrote:
Wed Sep 09, 2020 5:08 pm
MT is self-contained. The JVM is part of the install process and is in the install directory.

If you're futzing around with the .jar file then you'll have to install a working Java 14 with JFX to launch it with.
I'm not "futzing with the jar file" (whatever that means.) I did look at the .cfg file to see pathing since that was the problem I had with 1.5 and I was trying to see what the pathing was since "Failed to launch JVM" isn't particularly informative.

I know that MT is now supposed to be self-contained... but if I don't put the path in my windows environment variables to C:\xxx\MapTool\runtime\bin then 1.5-1.7 will not run. I will get a "Failed to launch JVM" error (same as what I'm getting with 1.8.) I have no other java installs (save the self-contained one in 1.7 that still runs fine.) So, at least in my case, it's "looking outside" for some pathing info to the JVM despite it being self-contained. And given that I'm getting the same error I got then, it seems like it's doing it for 1.8, too... but, unfortunately, adding a C:\xxx\MapTool 1.8\runtime\bin (which is where I have it installed) isn't fixing it this time. So it's a different problem with the same error or I've got the wrong path set.
Maptool is the Millennium Falcon of VTT's -- "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by krevett »

I didn't test for very long but the speed improvement with FoW is really impressive on my system (about 5 times faster on some maps with heavy FoW)!

Really looking for the stable 1.8, nice improvements as always thanks to the team!

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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by xavram »

the improvment in macro run times (x4-x10) has me drooling for the actual release of this...but i was wondering if someone could explain how these massive speed improvement where achieved and if its for ALL macros or just ones pertaining to particular functionality (VBL, movement, etc, etc).
Really looking forward to this...as my framework has a couple of pretty laggy macros!

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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by Azhrei »

xavram wrote:
Fri Oct 09, 2020 12:15 pm
i was wondering if someone could explain how these massive speed improvement where achieved and if its for ALL macros or just ones pertaining to particular functionality (VBL, movement, etc, etc).
Check out the discussion in the original issues filed against this:

https://github.com/RPTools/maptool/issues/2119

https://github.com/RPTools/maptool/issues/1898

The end result is that you shouldn't have to make any changes to your macros to see improvements, but there are still some things that are faster than others, so if you haven't reviewed the macro performance page on the wiki lately, it's probably still a good idea (although some of the things referred to on that page may be out of date with these latest optimizations, but the concepts are still applicable in general).

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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by xavram »

Thanks!

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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by Full Bleed »

xavram wrote:
Fri Oct 09, 2020 12:15 pm
the improvment in macro run times (x4-x10) has me drooling for the actual release of this...
No doubt!

I'm tempering expectations, but I certainly have some unoptimized code that I hope these changes mitigate.


Things were chugging along pretty well... but the 1.8 project hasn't been updated for 17 days now... :/

Maybe there are just too many professional sporting events going on right now. ;)
Maptool is the Millennium Falcon of VTT's -- "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by taustinoc »

Full Bleed wrote:
Sat Oct 10, 2020 3:07 am
Things were chugging along pretty well... but the 1.8 project hasn't been updated for 17 days now... :/

Maybe there are just too many professional sporting events going on right now. ;)
I suspect a great deal of attention is being spent getting the wiki working again.

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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by xavram »

Has this stalled? Just wondering if there have been any updates to 1.8.0....

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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by Agromania »

Full Bleed wrote:
Failed to find library.
C:\xxx\Maptool 1.8\app\runtime\bin\jli.dll
Failed to locate JLI_Launch
Failed to launch JVM
I get these three errors directly after installing the 1.8 beta 2b into a fresh directory, without changing anything. Any ideas?

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Re: MapTool 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released

Post by Full Bleed »

Agromania wrote:
Thu Jan 28, 2021 8:42 pm
Full Bleed wrote:
Failed to find library.
C:\xxx\Maptool 1.8\app\runtime\bin\jli.dll
Failed to locate JLI_Launch
Failed to launch JVM
I get these three errors directly after installing the 1.8 beta 2b into a fresh directory, without changing anything. Any ideas?
I gave up trying to get it to work and created a new profile in windows. I wish I knew exactly why that's necessary as I've never been unable to configure a piece of software properly in my life but that ended up being the path of least resistance.
Maptool is the Millennium Falcon of VTT's -- "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

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