What to do with the game notes?

Azimuth

Apologies if the answer has already been given and I couldn't find it.

I understood that with the 2.6 games notes changed their location and the notes tab has disappeared in game.

What are the good practices for compatibility between 2.5 and 2.6? Should we keep the notes in both locations (in the xml and as a separate html file)? Should it be simply a duplicate?

I hope you understand my question. Thanks.

Cernel

@azimuth I also do believe that map-makers should be well informed about this. I don't even know if this is documented at all!

Personally, I would drop support for the Game Notes (the property for it) within the game file (XML) completely so to avoid duplication and confusion.

TheDog

@Azimuth
In 2.6 the game notes are only in one place
Game> Game Notes

In 2.5 they are also as a tab in right hand pane.

Delete XXX.notes.html in the games folder and it will be recreated if it does not exist. So when you change the game notes you need to manually delete this file.

The actual creation of the game notes is the same between the versions.

What has changed is the how to display the game notes in 2.5 it was common to use text and embedded images to display the games notes.

My and other map makers preference is to create png images and use them as game notes.

Go here
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/3326/1941-global-command-decision-official-thread?page=1
My Game notes are images as well as a pdf.

The images are still called from the xml file, just like the old text way.

Game Note images are a bit useless, they are too big, in the right hand pane and was one of the reasons why it was removed.

Cernel

@thedog I'm not sure about this. Maybe we are supposed now to do it directly in the notes file and this thing that the program creates it from the notes property within the game (xml) file is just for backward compatibility or something like that.

TheDog

I agree, the notes.html is probably the way to go and to stop duplication by putting the game notes in the xml.

Azimuth

@thedog thank you for these clarifications.

Yes, I saw how you handle this question in Global command (and how it works on other maps). I personnaly feel more comfortable writing an html file (easier for me to ammend, as the rules are quite unstable for now). In any cases, I can also simply copy and paste it in the xml for compatibility, not a big deal.

Because I guess most players will still be on 2.5 for quite long, won't they?

TheDog

@azimuth

Because I guess most players will still be on 2.5 for quite long, won't they?

Maybe not, the silent majority, play against the AI and they want a faster turn sequence and if they are playing say 1941 GCD then they have to be on 2.6.

I am astounded at the number of views for GCD, my 1st WW2 map compared to my other maps.

The PvP players will probably be on 2.5 for some time as 2.6 does not appear to work properly in the lobby, yet.

Azimuth

@thedog don't think that, I am looking at your other maps as well

But silently, as a map maker (because I am not playing any maps on TripleA for now).

beelee

@thedog said in What to do with the game notes?:

Game Note images are a bit useless, they are too big, in the right hand pane and was one of the reasons why it was removed.

I disagree. Notes were just fine where they were.

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, here is an example of my Game note images and they work just fine

Screenshot from 2024-06-18 10-37-06.png

beelee

@cernel said in What to do with the game notes?:

@azimuth I also do believe that map-makers should be well informed about this. I don't even know if this is documented at all!
Personally, I would drop support for the Game Notes (the property for it) within the game file (XML) completely so to avoid duplication and confusion.

This is why communication is important. I spent days trying to figure this out.

If something is being Changed

let people know about it

ubernaut

@beelee TIL there are game notes

beelee

@ubernaut
What does TIL mean ?

ubernaut

@beelee today i learned

Black_Elk

Only issue I can see with using an image over HTML (text) for the game notes is that the former will upscale with pretty janky interpolation if the display resolution for tripleA is increased beyond 1080p.

Font will upscale normally within tripleA using the point system, so12px font will become 24px font, if your resolution defaults to 150% (Windows at 1440p will suggest this). But if you create a png of an image with the 12pt and upscale that instead, you will see some pretty heavy pixelation and jpeggery there. Even starting with a larger pt font, you'd have the same issue when it's upscaled, since it's raster.

Same deal for small graphics like flags and roundels or units when they're shown within the UI as opposed to the main map (which can be scaled manually). The stuff within the UI like for game Notes, that just goes off whatever the display resolution you have set for Font scale in the Windows display settings.

cameron

so i've started making the game notes .html file for my mod and while it displayed fine in firefox & chrome it just causes errors in tripleA. (to the point where i'm gonna have to hide the file when i want to change maps b/c it makes the choose map thingie fail to load.)
i'm guessing the problem is the images so my question is how do people get images to display in tripleA?


An unexpected error occurred!  InvalidPathException: Illegal char :> at index 4: data:image/png;base64,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

LaFayette

@cameron Use valid HTML. A lot of programs will interpret the "image/png;base64" prefix as the start of an image, and will read it as such. That is not a default specification for parsing HTML. The engine is seeing those characters as simply more HTML. There is then eventually an illegal sequence with a >, as it thinks that is part of a tag.

So, use an <img src=...> HTML tag. An easy way to host an image, is open up a new github issue, paste in an image, and it will convert to a permanent link. You can then use that link. No need to actually create the issue, the link will stay good.

beelee

@cameron

you can also look at The Dogs Command Decision and see how he does it but as Dan says, <img scr= is the key

LaFayette

I recall as well - you can add the game note images to the map itself.

Regarding my previous suggestion to use a remote URL... I realize now I don't know if a remote URL is cached... so that might be bad for performance.

@Myrd Do you know if images fetched via URL in the game notes, by the tripleA engines, if those images are cached? Or are images found in the games notes HTML fetched every time the game notes are rendered?

To bundle Images

To bundle images with the map, you put them in 'docs/images':

For example:

Be careful of file name casing. For example, that it is "French.png" and not "french.png" in the XML (this breaks on Linux & Mac if the file casing is wrong, but works if on windows).

LaFayette

Game notes 2.5 vs 2.6 - how to handle?

@Cernel you raised a few questions on this topic.

If the 'min-version' on a map is 2.5, then the game notes need to be in both the XML file and an external HTMl file. If the 'min-version' is 2.6, then the XML location is not read.

I agree a hard cut-off of the XML would be a good thing. The support for either is primarily intended to be "transition-aid", to help remove problems as we transition to 2.6; Once things are solid, and we have considered a backward compatibility approach, then the cut-over would be well timed.

cameron

so... just oldschool html and no css. and it doesn't like file paths either.

sorted it by using <img src="Flag.png"> and making a "doc" folder with an "images" subfolder containing the images and not <img src="../flags/Flag.png"> as i'd foolishly assumed...

i like keeping it local so that it works when offline.

thanks for putting me in the right direction.