I’m using Vassl 3.7.7 and the delete option for Image Capture Tool, Zoom capability and some others are greyed in Map Windows and don’t allowed me to delete them. I remember in old versions of Vassal I could do that but not now. Is not possible to delete these tolls in the new versions on Vassal or I’m doing something wrong?
The Zoomer has been a mandatory component since 3.7.7. I believe the Image Capture tool has been a mandatory component since 3.7.1.
If you want to hide these buttons from the user view, you could do that by removing any Button name or image from the component.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, even if it was possible to delete Zoom, I highly highly would discourage you from doing so.
Zoom is a critical feature for those with visual impairments to be able to play. As a guy with really bad / aging vision, the zoom ability has been a godsend that has allowed me to keep playing games, that I otherwise would give up on.
I just recently noticed that I could not delete “image capture tool” as well anymore. Recently added some QOL things to Pacific Tide and wanted to remove that useless feature from the menu bar. If you have to take a screen shot, there are several options these days. Snip & Sketch I keep handy in my taskbar for just such a reason. I wish this recent change to image capture tool wasn’t done. There isn’t a need for it anymore. Or at least include a way to hide it if the module designer doesn’t want it in the top bar.
Did you try deleting the button text and selecting no image for the icon, as suggested by Mark above?
If you think the problem is new, please try to determine what the last version of Vassal was where you don’t see the problem and let us know what it is.
Respectfully, I will disagree w/ Lebatron. This is exactly the kind of thing module designers should NOT be able to delete. Players should expect some basic functionality to work consistently across modules and not be deleted at the whim of the designer.
While he may not find the functionality useful, players may and (again) should expect the basics to work consistently across modules.
I find it best to only put what’s needed in the menu bar. Some module menu bars end up taking two lines. For best play experience I find maximizing the map area very important. Ex. I always crop the map to get rid of wasted space.
Anyway, as I said Korval that image capture tool isn’t needed since Windows has one now. I’m guessing at the time that feature was added into Vassal people still had to download an image capture tool because Windows didn’t have one yet. So, Vassal did it for convenience. When you weigh the pros and cons now of leaving it in the menu bar taking up space it falls short. I bet it is hardly ever used in other modules. And if a player really needed to capture the game state, he could easily use Snip & Sketch or something better. I suspect only Youtubers and Boggers are regularly taking Vassal screen shots.
Jrwatts, I trust that works. I just did that experiment but didn’t want to save the module. There is no real option to select no image though. I clicked the select button then closed it again which resulted in blanking it out. I suspect that may have cleared it from the menu bar, but like I said I didn’t save the module to confirm.
Its not a “problem” or bug I was pointing out. I just noticed that you could no longer delete it. Somewhere around 5 years ago you could edit a module to delete it. Seeing the other posts on this subject I see that it was mentioned that it was decided to disable the delete option for image capture tool. Was it causing errors to do so? In my Black Swan and Orange Swan modules it doesn’t. I wish for just this one out of date feature that you do enable delete again.
Module developers have the option to use a Toolbar Menu to group buttons together in a menu.
Personally, I’m not a big fan because a Toolbar Menu requires that the buttons put in it has a full text label on them, and it seems like the button icons are not rendered. I personally prefer button icons rather than text labels, as I find it easier to find the button you need.
The Image Capture Tool does not work like a regular screenshot tool provided by the desktop environment. The tool actually renders the full map with all visible pieces into an image. Thus, for example, if you have zoom in so that only part of the map is visible, and you use the Image Capture Tool you will still get an image that shows the entire map and all visible pieces. If you use the screenshot tool of the desktop, it will only capture what is actually visible on the screen.
It can be quite useful to document a game session. Either as a way to communicate moves, decisions, etc. It can also be used to make After-Action-Reports (AAR). In fact, if you remember to use the tool after every move, set of moves, turn, or the like, it is very easy to make an animation of your session.
When you reply to specific points, it makes sense if you quote what you reply to. Select the part of the message you want to reply to, and select Quote from the context menu.
You can always make a back-up of the original module, edit the copy, and then try it out.
Another option, which may or may not work, is to unpack the module (presumably from Pacific Tide: The United States Versus Japan, 1941-45)
$ mkdir tmp
$ cd tmp
$ unzip ../Pacific Tide v1.1.0.vmod
and edit the buildFile.xml in some editor, and remove the VASSAL.build.module.map.ImageSaver element. Then save your changes, and pack the module up again
$ zip -r ../Pacific Tide v1.1.0+NoImageCapture.vmod *
Then open the newly created module and test it out
$ VASSAL.sh -l Pacific Tide v1.1.0+NoImageCapture.vmod
Please give references to module when you mention them (e.g., Black Swan) so that people can more easily find them and see for themselves what it is you are talking about.
Yours,
Christian
The Image Capture Tool is certainly not out of date, as explained above. It does something very different from the desktop provided screenshot tool, such as Snipping Tool - previously known as Snip and Sketch. just try it out on your favorite module
- Open the module in Vassal
- Zoom in on the map so that cannot see all of it
- Then fire up your screenshot tool (e.g., Snipping Tool) and take a screenshot of the entire window.
- Now press the Image Capture Tool
- Compare the two images that you made with the above.
Also note, that the Image Capture Tool uses the native resolution of your graphics to generate the image, while a screenshot tool will use the resolution of the display relative to the current zoom level. Let me explain it a bit
- Suppose you have a map that is 3000×2000 pixels.
- When you use the Image Capture Tool to capture the map, then the output file will be 3000×2000 pixels big.
- Suppose your display has a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels.
- To see the entire map, you will have to zoom out by around a factor of 2.
- That means that you see a rendering of the map that is around 1500×1000 pixels big.
- You now take a screenshot using the desktop provided tool. It can be you select a rectangle, capture the entire window, or the entire display.
- In the captured image, the map will take up around 1500×1000 pixels, a degradation in resolution of a factor of 2.
Now, in principle, a screenshot tool working on a Wayland display, could do the same thing as the Image Capture Tool by asking the application to render a specific component in full into an image buffer. However, Java does not speak native Wayland, but relies on a X compatibility layer (No, it has nothing to do with the social media platform previously know as Twitter - though the icons are suprisingly similar - i guess Elon Musk is paying tribute to his Un*x days).
Yours,
Christian
Button icons are rendered (have been since some time in Vassal 3.6.x from my recollection). Yes, they require a button names to configure the Toolbar Menu. I guess a workaround would be to use html tags for the button names with no actual text in them.