Players can't see maps

[LurkerintheVoid]

I've been running into a problem were some of my players can't see custom maps I upload into FG. It seems to be only custom maps, images I find online or ones I make using programs. They appear fine for me and 2 or 3 of my players. But 1 or 2 only see a black screen when I share the map and the window pops up for them. They can see tokens and move them around the map. It's always the same players who have this issue. Restarting FG or their computers doesn't seem to help.

I wasn't able to find any information that seems to match this online. Has anyone else had a similar experience and if so do you know what caused it or how to fix it? Is is something on my end that need to be fixed or something on their end? Any help would be appreciated as it is frustrating.

For reference, I'm the DM and I have an Ultimate License. I do load the game through Steam. My players are all free and also use the Steam FGU Demo to connect.

[Sentient_Toaster]

For what it's worth, this is very consistent with a scenario in which

(1) lighting is enabled,
(2) the affected players don't have darkvision, and
(3) nobody brought a light source and there aren't any on the map

[nylanfs]

How large is the map? pixel size & mb?

[Aussie Hope]

Lighting is usually the challenge, get the player to drop a light source on their token from "effects" and see it that works. If it does, you just need to change the map so it's daylight. If it's always the same players, and it's D&D5e, it's likely their characters don't have night vision while the others do and are seeing black and white maps.

By default anything you get off the web has no light source in the file.

File size could be a problem, but if they see and can move their tokens, it's unlikely.

[LurkerintheVoid]

I'll have to check if lighting is the issue though it shouldn't be. I don't care the for the lighting function so don't use it often. Also all my players are playing characters with darkvision and some can see the map fine while others pretty consistently can not. Even on the one map I set up lighting effect and used it for consistently 2 of the the 3 players could see the map, at least the parts allowed through the dynamic lighting. The 3rd was never able to see the map and had to settle for checking a screenshare of another player.

I'm honestly not sure on map size most of the time. Most often I search for a map online that will work and save a copy to upload onto FGU. The most recent map I used that 2 of my 4 players couldn't see was 3375 x 2550 pixels and 2.46 MB. Does the map size somehow impact players being able to view it?

[Kronovan]

Originally posted by LurkerintheVoid:

I'm honestly not sure on map size most of the time. Most often I search for a map online that will work and save a copy to upload onto FGU. The most recent map I used that 2 of my 4 players couldn't see was 3375 x 2550 pixels and 2.46 MB. Does the map size somehow impact players being able to view it?

Not usually and I'm of the opinion that map image size is a bit of a red herring. I've seen that argued here and there in forum and Discord channel posts, but none of the comments or arguments have been convincing. At times I share out custom made maps (built with CC3+) that are 300 dpi and around 10 MBs and my players don't have problems viewing them. If you have a connecting player with very poor bandwidth, or using an older PC/laptop with a weak GPU - watch out ! Though that often causes image viewing problems for other connected players too. Something else I've experienced, is that map images in JPG format seem to display more efficiently than PNGs.

I did experience a recent bug with the Old School Essentials ruleset, where if a map was maximized with the arrow button in the upper right of the image frame, it took the map out of play mode and it appeared black. That effected all players though. My advice is to ensure you disable Lighting and Line of Sight before you share the image.

If you're familiar with the older masking technique, once you've confirmed players can reliably view you maps, you can apply global masks. Then just slowly erase it them appropriate viewing distances/extents as the players advance around the map. Just in case your unfamiliar with it...there's a Masked and Unmasked mode. You can toggle modes by choosing "Layers" > "Enter Mask Mode" / "Exit Mask Mode" on the pop-up radial menu, or by clicking the [Mask Mode] button on the image toolbar. The tool to erase smooth areas while in Masked mode, is toggled on by holding down [ALT] + (LeftButton).

[LurkerintheVoid]

Thank you for the info. I do typically have them as JPEGs, sometimes they save as PNGs, so I'll try making sure to switch to PNG and see if that's the reason. I'll also try to make sure the players doesn't have the map maximized, I honestly don't know if they do.

I am sure it isn't a lighting issue. I never use lighting and do use the old mask mode. I even checked the most recent map to be sure. I think dynamic lighting is a nice gimmick that can work in certain scenarios but having been a player with it I've found that it can lead to confusion of things described you can't see or even watching a black screen while other players do things.

[nylanfs]

Once you start FG, right click on the icon and select it again and it will popup another session. You can then login to your game using localhost as the IP to see what your players "should" be seeing. That may help with troubleshooting.
Note, you only want to do this once. Having multiple instances trying to connect to the same GM session on the same computer makes things go bad.

[Smiteworks]

Depending on when you updated, there was a bug in the lighting and LOS that was causing a similar issue. We patched it pretty quickly, but you might have that interim build. Please run an Update along with all your players and see if the issue persists.