Thumbnail generator script for gnome for Universal VTT file format

Overview

The Universal Virtual Tabletop file format is used to package a map and additional details such as lighting, walls, etc for use by Virtual Tabletop (VTT) programs such as Fantasy Grounds, FoundryVTT, RPTools Maptool, Roll20, etc. These files are typically generated with map/scene authoring tools such as DungeonDraft, Dungeon Fog, Master's Toolkit, etc.

How to use this

NOTE: Due to the way that nautilus uses bwrap to call thumbnailers, I struggled to install this for only one user. So this is machine-wide configuration/install.

To setup/install this tool in your system settings (/share):

1. Install jq and ImageMagick on your system using the package manager of choice for your install. Or download them from the providers. Or get the source and build them yourself, if appropriate and possible. The jq and convert commands from these tools must be on your PATH.
2. Register the mime type text/x-universal-vtt-file for your system like:

   xdg-mime install --novendor register-uvtt-mime-type-xdg-mime.xml
   

3. Put the included shell script uvtt-thumbnailer.sh in /usr/local/bin and ensure the ownership/permissions are correct like:

   sudo cp uvtt-thumbnailer.sh /usr/local/bin
   sudo chown root:root /usr/local/bin/uvtt-thumbnailer.sh
   sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/uvtt-thumbnailer.sh
   

4. Install the universal-vtt-file.thumbnailer on your system in /usr/share/thumbnailers` like:

   sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/thumbnailers
   sudo cp ./universal-vtt-file.thumbnailer /usr/share/thumbnailers
   

5. Clear your failed thumbnail cache like:

   rm -rf $HOME/.cache/thumbnails/fail/*
   

6. Shutdown and restart nautilus to pickup these changes:

   nautilus -q && nautilus &