Map r problem when building setup

ireland94

Starter Kit Teacher/Mento
Joined
Dec 28, 2007
Messages
219
Reaction score
43
Location
Texas
Country
llUnited States
I have an odd problem, first the particulars
- Windows-7 64bit
- VASSAL 3.1.15
- VASL 5.9.2
- Most recent board r (downloaded today)
- Trying to build Starter Kit setup for S44 (You do not need to be doing SK, just trying to use board r

Steps followed:
- Start new game (no board designated
- Select board r, crop to rows A-P, and flip per scenario card (but card not needed)
- Save the game
- Get out of VASSAL
- Restart VASSAL/VASL and load existing game
- Load the above saved game
- By magic of computing the correctly adjusted board r appears
- Add a single draggable overlay (hex perimeter) and place above I10 marking an entry hex per scenario card (again card is not needed)
- Save the game
- Get out of VASSAL
- Restart VASSAL/VASL and load existing game
- Load the above saved game
- Map board fails to load (hex perimeter overlay is only thing on screen)

- Map load error is as follows:
- VASSAL 3.1.15
- VASL 5.9.2
- Most recent board r (downloaded today)


- Bad Data in Module: Image not found bdrr.gif
- LOS engine disabled... Could not read bdr.map
- LOS engine disabled... Could not read bdr.map

Any saving of the game and reloading (with anything on setup besides board fails).
Just the board saves and restores fine.

Has anybody else seen this problem?
Can any one else duplicate my problem?
Can anybody have it work correct?
If it works for you, what O/S, VASL, and VASSAL are you using?

Before jumping on Windows-7, I ran the exact same scenario on my notebook with the same ugly results. My notebook configuration is

- Windows XP Pro 32
- VASSAL 3.1.15
- VASL 5.9.2
- Most recent board r (downloaded today)

Editing of this post by author.

Additional testing reveals the following:
- If board r is cropped and saved (not flipped) game reloads (no perimeter hex added)
- If board r is cropped, flipped and save game fails to reload (no perimeter hex added)

With this info, it appears to be an issue when board r is cropped and saved)

Even more testing by author:

There is no need to crop the board, error occurs by
- start new game
- select board r (and flip it)
- save game
- game fails to reload (no error on screen but no board either - screen is blank)
 
Last edited:

Fred Ingram

Average Player
Joined
Jan 30, 2003
Messages
2,944
Reaction score
198
Location
Winnebago, IL USA
Country
llUnited States
I had no trouble

Check your e-mail

I sent my board r file and saved game using your crop scenario


- Windows Vista - 32 bit
- VASSAL 3.1.15
- VASL 5.9.2
 

apbills

Elder Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
3,406
Reaction score
931
Location
Pewaukee, WI
Country
llUnited States
I had no trouble either.

- Windows Vista - 64 bit
- VASSAL 3.1.15
- VASL 5.9.2

I did notice that when it loads it states the following:

- LOS engine disabled... Could not read bd.map
- LOS engine disabled... Could not read bd.map
Which is different than the text readout you get. (this output is normal, the first line you have is not).

I have no idea when I last downloaded the boards, but my board r is version 5.0 and the map file inside is bdr.gif.
 

Fred Ingram

Average Player
Joined
Jan 30, 2003
Messages
2,944
Reaction score
198
Location
Winnebago, IL USA
Country
llUnited States
take the bdr file and add a zip extension to it

then open it up

rename the bdr.gif file to soemthing really odd

then save

try it all again

see what the message is for the *.gif file at load time
 

ireland94

Starter Kit Teacher/Mento
Joined
Dec 28, 2007
Messages
219
Reaction score
43
Location
Texas
Country
llUnited States
The mystery is partially solved but also deepens:

- Bad Data in Module: Image not found bdrr.gif
- LOS engine disabled... Could not read bdr.map
- LOS engine disabled... Could not read bdr.map

The board id is confused about is bdrr.

There is a board bdRR - a nontraditional desert board for another third party scenario.

It is not for Rileys Ridge, as there is a board bdRiley and Rileys Ridge is not a desert scenario.

So why is VASL trying to use bdrr?

My guess is that in the Java code, the file name matcining uses a Regular Express that is case insensitive and has a pattern "bdr". This would match bdRR. However, the correct match should be "^bdr$" and possibly using the "i" option for case insensitivity.

Just for grins, I did the following additional test:

1) Build game using bdRR (this is how I found out it was a desert board), save the game, then reload the game
This worked.

Now you may think that I should see the same problem if I renamed bdRR to bdXX and tried to build a game using bdx.

Unfortunately, the internal characteristics of the board files prevents this test.

I would be interesting if one of the board gurus would make this test, creating a board XX then trying to build a game with bd x by flipping and saving the reloading.

If anyone needs a copy of bdRR to run additional tests, drop me and email "ireland94@embarqmail.com"

Any additional thoughts you may have on this problem, please post them here so we can all ponder
 

General Mayhem

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2007
Messages
1,719
Reaction score
309
Location
Taunton
Country
llUnited Kingdom
The RR board is actually Critical Hit's Ruweisat Ridge. There appear to be two versions of the board. One version is a straight bdRR.GIF and the other is a bdRR file with no extension.

If you create a game using the bdr file, reverse the board and then save it you will get a problem if either of the bdRR files are in your boards directory. If you have the bdRR file then you will get the error message and no board will load, if you have the bdRR.GIF file then it will load the Ruweisat Ridge map.

There is a board naming conflict here and it is surprising it does not happen more often given the number of third party maps that are out there.

There are two solutions to this problem. The first and easiest is to keep your third party boards in a separate folder and only copy them to your boards directory when you want to use them. For example if you move the offending bdRR file to another folder your problem will go away.

The second is to rename the board RR that you have. If it is the GIF file this is easy, just change the name to bdRuwRidge.GIF. If it is the extensionless bdRR file you will need to do the following:

Move the file to a new folder so you can mess about with it. Add a .zip extension to the file name i.e. change it to bdRR.zip. This will allow you to open the zip file and you will that it contains two files, a data file and a bdRR.GIF file. Extract the GIF file and rename it to bdRuwRid.GIF. Then put it back in the ZIP file. Now change the name of the ZIP file to bdRuwRid.zip. If you still have the original bdRR.GIF file in the zipped folder, delete it. Now get rid of the ZIP extension and put the file back into your boards directory. All should now work OK.
 

ireland94

Starter Kit Teacher/Mento
Joined
Dec 28, 2007
Messages
219
Reaction score
43
Location
Texas
Country
llUnited States
General Mayhem,
Thank you for the advice on how to accomplish the name change.
As you point out, it is surprising that they have not been other problems, bdd and bdDD for instance.
I go back to my comment about a Regular Expression recognizer.
Hopefully, Tom and the gang of gurus while find the reason that bdr is confused with bdRR and avoid any future problem of incorrect name matching.
I know on my directory, when searched by position of entry (not alphabeticallY) bdRR occurs before bdr.
This is a simple case of which file was loaded first.
VASL should not be tricked by similar but not identical names.
I will make you fix then await the gurus with a permanent correction.
Thanks again,
Pat
 
Top