New program to help set up VASL scenarios

Joe Moro

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The program launches VASSAL+VASL to insert the labels into a scenario. This error is most likely because VASSAL crashed.

Try it again. Try to reduce memory usage on your computer by closing programs and/or rebooting. In the worst case, you can create the labels manually in the scenario (check the help, tedious, but it will work).
Hi Pacman..fixed by deleting the whole scenario file and redo the whole thing..that helped..

Thank you
 

von Marwitz

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Hi Pacman..fixed by deleting the whole scenario file and redo the whole thing..that helped..

Thank you
There used to be a common problem with older versions of VASL (or simply older computers with less memory) that after opening a couple of different scenarios/visiting a number of different rooms on the VASL server that VASL hung/crashed.

This was related to the JVM maximum heap size which you can define in the VASL Preferences:

After opening numerous games, the heap was 'full'/overloaded so VASL hung. Restarting VASL meant emptying the heap. By raising the JVM maximum heap, you could pretty much eliminate the issue. I can't remember the default setting, but I have set my maximum heap size to 768MB and never had any troubles by this cause ever since.

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von Marwitz
 

Pacman Ghost

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It looks like the just-released VASL 6.5.0 contains a breaking change for me :(, so don't configure it into your vasl-templates just yet. It's late here, so I'll take a closer look at things tomorrow, but it looks like it will need a code change to fix.

You can still use 6.5.0 to play your games, just continue to use 6.4.4 to set the scenarios up.
 

von Marwitz

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It looks like the just-released VASL 6.5.0 contains a breaking change for me :(, so don't configure it into your vasl-templates just yet. It's late here, so I'll take a closer look at things tomorrow, but it looks like it will need a code change to fix.

You can still use 6.5.0 to play your games, just continue to use 6.4.4 to set the scenarios up.
That's probably related to this:

von Marwitz
 

Pacman Ghost

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That's probably related to this:
Actually, no. I had been worried this new feature would cause problems for me, but earlier betas were fine.

However, it seems that there has been a minor change to how boards are stored in a save file, and it's causing problems with how the code is analyzing them. There also seem to have been a bunch of changes to quite a few counters which, while I don't think they're important, are causing the test suite to fail.
 

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Actually, no. I had been worried this new feature would cause problems for me, but earlier betas were fine.

However, it seems that there has been a minor change to how boards are stored in a save file, and it's causing problems with how the code is analyzing them. There also seem to have been a bunch of changes to quite a few counters which, while I don't think they're important, are causing the test suite to fail.
In another post DougRim stated that he changed ALL the counters to work with the new casualty bin.
 

Pacman Ghost

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In another post DougRim stated that he changed ALL the counters to work with the new casualty bin.
Yes, but not in a way that affects me. The only thing I care about is extracting the images associated with each counter, and that, more or less, hasn't changed. vasl-templates has a very large test suite, and I've been running it with the betas that have been pushed out, and it's been OK. It's just this last final release that some things broke, and I'm right this minute trying to figure out what's going on.
 

Pacman Ghost

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I've got a beta version of vasl-templates that supports VASL 6.5.0. Shoot me a PM if you'd like to take it for a spin. The main changes:
  • the "analyze scenario" feature now works for scenarios created using VASL 6.5.0
  • there are around 15 vehicle/ordnance counters in VASL 6.5.0 that the old vasl-templates wouldn't detect properly, but the new version does
Even if you're still using VASL 6.4.4 (or older), you can still try out this new version, since I had to make a bunch of changes to maintain back-compatibility.
 
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TonyF

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I am working on getting vasl-templates installed (Windows pre-built version from Github running in Windows 10) and I am running into a problem configuring the VASSAL installation path into the server settings. I am able to successfully configure all of the other VASSAL/VASL and Support Program server settings without any issues, however, whenever I add in the VASSAL installation path and hit okay, I am getting a "Couldn't install server settings:" error. Any help in getting figuring out what I am doing wrong would be greatly appreciated.

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Pacman Ghost

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That's very weird. There should be a description of what the problem is in that dialog box, so something's flagged an error, but it doesn't want to tell me what it is :-/

Is the path to java.exe correct? What version of Java is it? I see jre7 in the path, do you have Java 8 installed?

Where you've installed vasl-templates, you'll find a sub-directory called config. In that directory, create a file called logging.yaml that looks like this:
Code:
version: 1

formatters:
    standard:
        format: "%(asctime)s.%(msecs)03d | %(message)s"
        datefmt: "%H:%M:%S"

handlers:
    file:
        class: "logging.FileHandler"
        formatter: "standard"
        filename: "c:/temp/vasl-templates.log"
        mode: "w"

root:
    level: "ERROR"
    handlers: [ "file" ]
Adjust the filename setting to a directory that already exists.

Try setting the VASSAL directory again. In the log file, there should be some more information about the error.
 

TonyF

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Thank you for the help. I am running Java version 7 build 45. I do not believe that I have Java 8 installed. I could upgrade if you think that would help.

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I believe that the java path correct?

13235

Here is what I get in the log file.

19:55:19.918 | Traceback (most recent call last):
File "vasl_templates\server_settings.py", line 148, in on_ok
File "vasl_templates\server_settings.py", line 254, in install_server_settings
File "vasl_templates\webapp\vassal.py", line 431, in check_vassal_version
File "vasl_templates\webapp\vassal.py", line 275, in get_version
File "vasl_templates\webapp\vassal.py", line 381, in _run_vassal_shim
vasl_templates.webapp.vassal.VassalShimError
 

TonyF

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I upgraded to Java 8 and that fixed the issue. Thank you for your help! I am enjoying working with the vasl-templates app. It is really well done.
 

Pacman Ghost

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I upgraded to Java 8 and that fixed the issue.
Ah, beat me to it :) Yes, the log confirmed my suspicions. vasl-templates checks the version of VASSAL you've configured (to make sure it's a supported version), and it needs to run Java to do that. VASSAL claims to work with Java 5+, but I'd take that with a very large grain of salt. I only test using Java 8 (since it's the last version of Java that VASSAL 3.2.17 works with), and it looks like Java 7 doesn't work.

Thank you for your help! I am enjoying working with the vasl-templates app. It is really well done.
Cool, thanks.
 

ramzon

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As a follow up I have set up 10 scenarios including the scenario playtests for Dispatches from the Bunker #50 and I have not encountered any errors at this time using VASL 6.5 with beta version of the vasl templates. I really enjoy this program.
 

Pacman Ghost

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As a follow up I have set up 10 scenarios including the scenario playtests for Dispatches from the Bunker #50 and I have not encountered any errors at this time using VASL 6.5 with beta version of the vasl templates. I really enjoy this program.
Cool, great to hear. No-one's reported their computer spontaneously self-combusting, so I'll probably push this release out next week. I'm currently working on adding support for K:FW, so there'll be a beta for that soon.

BTW, if you guys are interested in including these setups when the PDF gets sent out, have a chat with me on PM and we can talk about ways to make them look really good.
 

Pacman Ghost

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Version v1.1 of vasl-templates has been released here.

The main change is support for VASL 6.5.0. Don't forget to update the VASL module in the Server Settings, although things will continue to work with anything going back to 6.4.0 (!).

There is also a new "extras" template for Kakazu Ridge cave complexes, since I've been getting into that recently.

Thanks to everyone who helped testing this release; you don't need to install this version since it's identical to the beta you already have.
 

CaptCaveman

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I'm finally getting around to using this tool. Love it so far. I'm running it on a Mac as a web server, and things appear to be working fine for me. On the latest version, and using VASL 6.5.0.

In the console I see a series of "Fatal Error" messages, as well as a NullPointerException. This is when I analyze one of my recent VASL scenario files.

Code:
[Fatal Error] :10:10: The element type "Option" must be terminated by the matching end-tag "</Option>".
java.lang.NullPointerException
        at VASL.build.module.map.ASLDiceOverlay.CreateToolbar(ASLDiceOverlay.java:1254)
Still... everything seems to work OK. Should I be concerned?
 

Pacman Ghost

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Should I be concerned?
TL;DR: you should be OK :)

Long answer: I'm using VASSAL in a way it was not designed to be used, and it doesn't always like it. Its front-end and back-end code are interwined, so for an "update scenario", while I only want to load a scenario, make a few changes, then save the scenario back out, VASSAL is busy in the background trying to bring up its UI :rolleyes:, and there's a race between when the scenario gets saved out, and the UI starts (or fails to initialize). This is why you will sometimes see the VASSAL window appear when doing an "update scenario" or "analyze scenario".

So, these errors you will sometimes see in the console is the UI failing to startup (this one is complaining about the dice overlay), but as long as I get a successful status after saving the scenario out, I consider it to have worked.

For an "analyze scenario", it's even easier. It's a read-only function, so at worst, it won't identify some counters correctly, so they won't be imported into vasl-templates, or perhaps the wrong ones might be imported. Either way, it's not a serious problem.

Most people are running the Windows desktop app, so they won't see these messages :)
 
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eldouco

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Hi, all ! Hope you're safe.
I need a little help, if you please.

I have some troubles with the Chapter H features. The snippets generated for individual vehicles and ordnance only display the line "chapter-h-placeholders-1/german/vehicles/1.png"(example for the PzIB, but it does it for each vehicle/ordnance) under the head line instead of the picture i've scanned, as shown in the help section. I think there is a problem with the calling of the image file url, but i can't figure how to fix it.

I join here a capture of the result, and the code of the snippet generated :
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<html> <!-- vasl-templates:id ob_vehicle_note_1.1 --> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <style> body { } p { margin-top: 5px ; margin-bottom: 0 ; } ul { margin: 0 ; padding: 0 0 0 10px ; } td { margin: 0 ; padding: 0 ; } td.c { text-align: center ; } td.l { text-align: left ; } td.r { text-align: right ; } sup { font-size: 75% ; } /* NOTE: This CSS is split out into a separate file so we can apply it when generating Chapter H notes as images. */ img.piece { float: left ; margin-right: 0.5em ; } .header { margin-bottom: 0.25em ; } .header .note-number { font-weight: bold ; } .header .name { font-weight: bold ; font-style: italic ; } .content { text-align: justify ; } .content li { margin-bottom: 2px ; } .content .example { font-size: 90% ; font-style: italic ; } .content .rf { font-style: italic ; color: #444 ; } .content .lfloat { float: left ; margin-right: 0.5em ; } .content .rfloat { float: right ; margin-left: 0.5em ; } .content table { margin: 0 10px 0 10px ; margin-top: -0.5em ; } .content table th { padding: 2px 10px 2px 5px ; text-align: left ; background: #f0f0f0 ; } .content table td { padding: 0 10px 0 5px ; } table.layout td { padding: 0 5px ; } .content .rf { display: none ; } </style> </head> <table> <tr> <td colspan="2" style=" background: #d3edfc ; border-bottom: 1px solid #91cdf5 ; padding: 2px 5px ; font-size: 105% ; font-weight: bold ; "> <img src="http://vasl-templates.org/services/static-images/flags/german.png" width='11' height='11'>&nbsp;PzKpfw IB <tr> <td style="padding-top:2px;"> chapter-h-placeholders-1/german/vehicles/1.png </table> </html>

I use Win 10, VASSAL 3.2.17, VASL 6.4.4
My settings for user data : Chapter H notes point to C:/Users/Public/Documents/JdR/ASL/vasl-templates-v1.0a.windows/ (where the folder "chapter-h-placeholders-1" is). Same for user files.

In the settings, does the option "Show Chapter H vehicle/ordnance notes as images" have to be on ? That's not what i understand the explanations of this option in the help section.

Thanks for your help !
 
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