ISSUES WITH VIEWER

mike0liver

I am preparing a campaign map for a friend's wargames project. I started producing the map in CC3+ but was told that the viewer (which my friend is using to see my maps) is not fully compatible with CC3+. I have therefore shifted to CC3 and have produced the first draft. My friend has downloaded the viewer from the PF site and installed it (Windows 10 didn't seem to like it much). However, when he loaded my map file, the Bright green land bitmap fill I used on the BACKGROUND sheet and layer to signify land does not appear in his viewer. However, the Water Normal fill (on SEA sheet and layer) shows up perfectly.

Can anyone tell me what might be wrong, please?

I just downloaded a copy of the VIewer to see if I could diagnose the problem and see that the download page announces: "Now displaying CC3+ maps!" I've tried to display a CC3 map but only part of it shows up...?

JimP

I don't remember much about this except CC3+ wont work with it. From your description it doesn't handle bitmap fills, just colors.

Loopysue

The best way to share battle maps is by saving them as jpg or png files.

The options are available in the 'Save as type' drop down box in the Save as... dialog, and the details (size and resolution etc) can be adjusted by clicking the Options button once you have selected jpg or png.

However, that only helps if your friend just wants to view the map.

Monsen

Is the missing fill a standard CC3 fill?
The viewer comes with all the fills and symbols of standard CC3(+), and some additional art sets are available for other products like DD3/SS1/SS2, but it won't have the bitmaps from custom fills or other addons than those, so if the map contains that, they won't be displayed.

If it is indeed a standard fill that is missing, PF would probably want to hear about it so they can fix the installer.

mike0liver

Thanks, guys. The reason we want to use the viewer rather than my sending graphics files, is that my friend will want to drill down into the map to see detail that won't show up in the map when viewed as a graphics file at full size. Resolution suffers when you zoom in to a graphics file.

I believe the problem may lie in the fact that CC3 & CC3+ could use different resolutions for the Bright green land bitmap fill. I think CC3 uses "HI" whilst CC3+ uses "VH" - although I could be wrong. I've changed the CC3 version I'm using and re-submitted the map file which loads OK. Strangely, I have no problem with my copy of the viewer showing everything although I must admit, I have played with copying the CC3+ bitmap fills to my viewer directory. Whilst this may be the answer, I imagine it would infringe copyright if I provided the VH bitmap file to my friend for inclusion in his viewer directory. Maybe he'll just have to buy CC3+. As I said, I'm now working in CC3 and sending him the map files for his viewer and this seems to be working.

It does seem strange that PF appear to indicate that the viewer will now work with CC3+ map files - anyone from PF lurking here to answer that one?

Monsen

The four resolutions (VL, LO, HI, VH) are used depending on the current zoom level, so CC3(+) uses all four of them, but which is in use at any given time varies by zoom (no need to display the highest version when you are zoomed all the way out; this improves performance). The viewer is shipped with only the three lower resolutions (The highest, VH, is only really used when zoomed in REALLY close, or during a high resolution export anyway), and it should pick from these three depending on the zoom level just like CC3(+), the absence of VH should not be a problem (unless there is a bug), as the viewer should just use the HI version.

And yes, sending some the VH file would be copyright infringement, but as I explained above, it shouldn't be required.

If you share the problematic map here (or whisper it to me), I can check if I can reproduce the missing fill in the viewer and see if I can figure out why it happens.