Problem with squad xml files

[SnowMan 0]

We here at ArmaInteractive are using unique squad xml files for our divisions. The problem that we are having is that our logos are being displayed incorrectly. As an example, a member of our 82 group will have the AVN logo displayed both as an arm patch and also as a vehicle logo. This happens even though the paa and png files are uniquely named. The squad xml files are stored on the same server but in a different directory.

If I run a MP mission with only a single player, it works correctly.

Any idea as to what might be our problem?

Any/all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

SnowMan

[3k.Baxter 0]

Hi snowman

Cant help you with your problem but mayby you can help me.

Ive followed the steps at http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/squad.xml but can get the picture to display ingame. Im using a jpg instead of ppa and the files are located here.

Any suggestions what im doing wrong?

[SnowMan 0]

Baxter--

After looking at your squad.xml file it looks like you might have your member id wrong.. This should match your player id.

SnowMan

[Bergmania 0]

Quote[/b] ]displayed both as an arm patch and also as a vehicle logo

Is there a way to make them separate? I was under the impression that the defined squad image was both arm patch and vehicle logo..

I have had trouble before that the server or client caches the image somewhere and showed the wrong one even after restarting, I had to rename the logo image and edit the xml file to get the right one showing..

[3k.Baxter 0]

Baxter--

After looking at your squad.xml file it looks like you might have your member id wrong.. This should match your player id.

SnowMan

Thx for answering, that is my player id found under profiles...

Could there be anything wrong with the jpg? Size etc?

[RN Escobar 0]

should be 256x256 or 128x128, i think it resizes 256's down to 128 but not 100% sure.

as for diferent divisions having wrong logos, all our members have individual XML images, we keep the pics in the same folders as the XML files and have no trouble with any members

maybe u could try that, should only be a few images, most of our members run multiple XML's for various reasons and have had no problems.

if u need some help u can PM me or email me @ john@squadserver.co.uk

i should be able to send u examples of our setup and u can tweak it to your uses

[PsYcH0_Ch!cKeN 0]

I'll pitch in here as well since this thread seems to be perfect for it.

I've been running a single squad.xml for a few weeks now and all has been fine. In the last couple of days though, I've decided to try and individualise players' logos. I have to say though, it's been a nightmare.

First problem - it appears that the game is ignoring multiple xmls and treating them as one. If all xmls have the same clan tag in them, it takes the sqd_logo.paa from the first person in the server and then assigns it to everyone else who joins with the same tag thereafter. I tested changing the tag for myself and suddenly my logo was working correctly. Obviously having different tags is counterproductive though, so I thought perhaps I'd try giving different names to everyone's paa files.

Second problem - or is it still the first? I was attempting to test with another squad member and we'd been in a server where another member's logo had been cached from earlier (as sqd_logo.paa) and we kept getting it as our own. The correct ones show in the player list, but arms/vehicles showed the wrong one. I renamed my .paa and changed the reference accordingly in the xml, then rejoined. Mine was now working. Sensing success, I changed my squadie's in the same way and we both jumped into another server. This server has MY logo cached on it (as sqd_logo.paa) already, but the new image names should have bypassed that. And they did, but not in the way I expected.

Mine worked on the other server. Maybe it was the cached one, but since I'd changed my xml file completely and the other details showed that it had been reloaded by the server, I had to assume it was loading the logo under the new name. So, +1 to me. Not so good though, was that my squadie's was NOT working. His showed up fine in the player list, as did mine, but while mine worked in game, his did not.

I just don't understand how the player list shows them just fine (most of the time) but the game world doesn't. It's the same damn file! I have tried EVERYTHING to try and get it working. Eventually after yet another change/rename/something mine stopped working as well and neither of our logos would appear, despite my best efforts. We changed back to the first server and the problem was still happening - no logos anywhere but the playerlist.

Now here's where it got weird. I dropped, renamed mine back to sqd_logo.paa and reconnected. My squaddie stayed in game the whole time. His logo had not been appearing at all up to this point. When I got back in, I was able to see his logo, WITHOUT him reconnecting. Problem was, his was the wrong one. It was the cached one from earlier, except that it was a completely different file name, so I don't know WHAT was going on. This is despite him still having the correct logo appearing in the player list. Now that can be easily explained so far, but now it gets REALLY weird.

He looked at my arm and it was my logo. I looked at my player list and the logo there was the cached one! Somehow I was seeing the cached logo as mine in the player list and as my squaddie's in game. Baffled, I disconnected again, changed my logo name back to something different, reconnected and my logo was my own once more. Yet my squaddie, who didn't disconnect once throughout the test, had no logo again. His was still showing correctly in the player list, but it had vanished on his arm/vehicle.

I honestly have no idea what the hell is going on or how the server interprets these xml files. Clearly it's attempting to associate different xml files as one and the same based on the <squad nick=""> value. It begs the question - what happens if two squads have the same tag? It completely breaks things for whoever's second into a server.

Obviously a lot of you have got this working with individual xml files and logos, so can anyone shed some light onto this strange behaviour? I've spent the last 5 hours on this and I'm more confused than when I started. What am I doing wrong here? Each person has their own set of files stored in their own subdirectory. The only thing that's causing them to be linked is the server seeing the same tag (<squad nick="">) under the Squad section and deciding that they all must be the same.

What am I doing wrong here? I've run out of things to try.

[jerryhopper 286]

are you sure the .paa files and xmls are on a server that is REACHABLE? i mean. a crappy server connection can serve a invalid image, thus not showing up.

[SnowMan 0]

I suspect, at least with my problem, that it's a server issue (server which contains the xml files and images). The reason is that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. we will be moving our xml files etc. over to our web server and will test again. I'll let everyone know how that goes.

SnowMan

[3k.Baxter 0]

I solved my problem...The nick attribute in the member node have to be the same as the profile name. I thought that member id (player id) was the unique key, apparently both are...

Now i just need to figure out why photoshop cant save to ppa, gets some sort of error that i don't remember. Are there any tutorials how to do this in photoshop?

[PsYcH0_Ch!cKeN 0]

are you sure the .paa files and xmls are on a server that is REACHABLE? i mean. a crappy server connection can serve a invalid image, thus not showing up.

If it weren't, then it wouldn't have worked perfectly up to this point. Nor would all the player details and logo appear in the playerlist correctly.

For the record, they're hosted on a webserver I use for my old WoW guild website. I have it running on a professional webhosting outfit with a 99.9% uptime and it's been steady as a rock for the last 2 years. The problem's not with that. It's that the game servers are doing something crazy with the squad files and images. I just don't know what. Nothing I try is making one iota of difference, and I'm nearing the end of my tether.

[Bergmania 0]

Now i just need to figure out why photoshop cant save to ppa, gets some sort of error that i don't remember. Are there any tutorials how to do this in photoshop?

I think the TexView2 tool is better for conversion than a PS plugin.. I saved my logo with transparency as a png, loaded it into the texview2 tool and saved it as a *.paa and it kept its transparency, TGA should have done that to but it didn't for me

[RN Escobar 0]

so are u trying to run different squad nicks psycho?

for a example an RN-INF and an RN-Airbourne and maybe an RN-Armoured, i used my clan as an example not knowing what your clan is?

to do this u would need to setup 3 squad systems, ie 3 squad.xml files with different squadnick= in those 3 files and then drop the right player info info into them

INF would look something like

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"><?xml version="1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE squad SYSTEM "squad.dtd">

<?xml-stylesheet href="squad.xsl?" type="text/xsl"?>

<squad nick="RN-INF">

followed by

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"><?xml version="1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE squad SYSTEM "squad.dtd">

<?xml-stylesheet href="squad.xsl?" type="text/xsl"?>

<squad nick="RN-Airbourne">

etc etc

i would suggest an easy naming system like infsquad.xml airbournesquad.xml

i would think that the squad.dtd and style sheet could be the same one if all files are kept in the same folder, otherwise u would need to setup 3 folder systems and extend the XML addy to contain the right folder for the sub squad

[PTV-Jobo 820]

hi guys, I thought I'd post this here instead of opening up another thread wasting space.

I just tried my hands at a squad.xml for the first time last night. I used the squad editor that you download to make them easily. I made a 256x256 .paa file and uploaded it to my clan's server with everything. when I press P to bring up that list, I see all the info plus the logo, but I don't see it in the game on the sleeve nor on any vehicles? I mean I tried this damn thing several times, following every tutorial I could find and STILL nothing! lol

I even opened the xml file and verified everything was exact as it showed in BIS' wiki page for squad.xml files and it was. I just don't get it...?

Is there anyone willing to lend a hand possibly, please?

[edit] I even download an already made .paa flag and tried using that, and still nothing showed up in game on anything.