[UI Issue] Incomplete map rendering and missing persona sprites on frontend (/simulator_home)

[lionaamoy2021-ctrl]

1. Problem Description
   I am reproducing the Generative Agents project on WSL2 (Ubuntu). While the backend server seems to be running and processing logic (time advances in the logs), the frontend UI at http://127.0.0.1:8000/simulator_home has rendering issues:

The map does not display completely (broken image icons or missing tiles).

Persona sprites (characters) are not appearing on the map at all, even though their status is listed in the sidebar.

2. Environment
   OS: Windows 11 with WSL2 (Ubuntu)

Python Version: 3.9

Django Version: 2.2

Browser: Microsoft Edge / Chrome

3. Error Logs & Screenshots
   Frontend Console Errors (F12): I see frequent 500 (Internal Server Error) for the /update_environment/ endpoint. Additionally, there were 404 Not Found errors for static assets like /static/img/atlas.png earlier.
   

Backend Traceback (Django Error Page):

Plaintext
JSONDecodeError at /update_environment/
Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)
Exception Location: /usr/lib/python3.9/json/decoder.py in raw_decode, line 355

4. What I have tried
   Verified that atlas.png exists in environment/frontend_server/static_dirs/img/.

Configured STATICFILES_DIRS in settings/base.py and ran python manage.py collectstatic.

The backend simulation advances time correctly in the terminal (e.g., from 00:00:00 to 00:31:40), but the UI remains static or errors out.

**5. Questions **
How can I properly fix the JSONDecodeError at /update_environment/? It seems the frontend is sending empty GET requests instead of the expected POST data.

Are there specific WSL2 network configurations required for the frontend to correctly fetch persona status from the backend?