Foreground Map Layer

My understanding is that all "additional layer" type suggestions are on hold until the lighting change is done.  The weather layer may have been marked that way before they had to roll back last years revamp of the legacy lighting system, but I don't remember for sure when that was done.

Mike L. said: Curious as to why this is "Obstructed" if the "Weather layer" is on the development roadmap,  The developers had trouble with making new layers because of the way the entire VTT worked. Now the whole thing is re-written from the ground up and dynamic lighting is re-designed, they have the building blocks to go ahead with new layers, plus a lot of other things which were previously obstructed, apparently.

As mentioned in the post for A New Light - Updated Dynamic Lighting is nearing feature parity. Once we've reached that milestone, we'll begin the process of sunsetting the Legacy Dynamic Lighting feature set. That will remove the barrier preventing work on this feature, but I want to caution with five full pages of posts, achieving everything mentioned will not be a short process.

The weather layer has been in development for a while, will it come out later this year? And will you have it for free accounts?

Rafael R. said: The weather layer has been in development for a while, will it come out later this year? And will you have it for free accounts? Weather Layer won't be possible until sunsetting Legacy Dynamic Lighting is complete.  Probably not this year. D:  Maybe 2021. Of course it will be free.

Is this still "Obstructed" now that UDL is "Feature parity"?

Craig Steinhoff said: Is this still "Obstructed" now that UDL is "Feature parity"? Only for the simple fact that sunsetting Legacy Dynamic Lighting is not yet complete.

+1

+1 1. GM Layer - Invisible 2. Token Layer - Above the grid; where play happens, combat happens, where things are moved often. 3. Foreground Map - Beneath the grid; where floors move, doors open, terrain changes, where things are moves sometimes . 4. Background Map - Self-explanatory, the battlemap, where things almost never move.

A layer above the play layer could be useful, too. Dr. VB said: +1 1. GM Layer - Invisible 2. Token Layer - Above the grid; where play happens, combat happens, where things are moved often. 3. Foreground Map - Beneath the grid; where floors move, doors open, terrain changes, where things are moves sometimes . 4. Background Map - Self-explanatory, the battlemap, where things almost never move.

+1 So instead of the current 4 layers, we need: GM Layer - visible  only to GM and is "above" everything else Weather layer - above the upper layer, usually transparent, used for weather effects Upper Layer - below the weather but above the tokens. Used for things like a transparent treetop layer or false map, etc Token Layer - where most of the action happens Grid Layer - where the grid floats, not modifiable as such other than the usual (none, square, v hex, or h hex). Lower Layer - not sure how I would use it, but I'm sure you more creative sorts could think of something Map Layer - where the battle mat lives Dynamic Lighting Layer - for light, line of sight, etc

Lower layer could be used for burrowing monsters, or monsters submerged in water.

Or just for doors and tables and chairs and cups and treasure chests and whatnot.  Stuff that's part of the map, but that you might want to move or switch to a different side of a rollable token without accidentally grabbing the whole map and dragging it around in the middle of your game.

I'd like for the ability to LOCK assets so when I'm moving things around, I'm not moving the whole dang map

i have an even better idea for the Devs. FIX THE THINGS THAT ARE F*CKING BROKE BEFORE ADDING ANY NEW FEATURES. I Have been a PRO sub for almost 5 years and the video and voice chat features are still broke, the mobile app isnt as fully functionable as the actual platform Dynamic Lighting is broke because the refuse to kill the Legacy lighting, To the Powers that be. Sure you may be gaining users by adding niche games like Burn Bryte but you are loosing your loyal followers to other platforms because you refuse to fix what is broken in favor of adding new features. Those followers are going to other VTTs that do what roll29 claims to do but they do it better or they have better support for issues, Some charge more than what roll20 does for subscriptions, others don't. If you want to keep those players that are faithful to the service then be faithful to them and fix the things we have been saying are broke for the past 5 years.

Mark W. said: i have an even better idea for the Devs. FIX THE THINGS THAT ARE F*CKING BROKE BEFORE ADDING ANY NEW FEATURES. I Have been a PRO sub for almost 5 years and the video and voice chat features are still broke, I honestly wish they'd just abandon this and with a message telling people to use common sense alternatives (aka Discord, Skype, Zoom, literally anything built for the task). But I understand that it won't happen because.. the mobile app is in beta now, for pro users. Sure you may be gaining users by adding niche games like Burn Bryte but you are loosing your loyal followers to other platforms THIS. Stop bloating your game library, focus on fixing or designing things for what's popular. You know your statistics so you (and I both) know what game that is. I honestly wish you just had some dedicated developers who would solely work on that system -- so you could see what's not working and quickly address it.

Scanning through this and other threads about layers, I really just want one more layer, more than that would be gravy. I don't mind moving items between layers based on what I need, but having only one map layer is crazy stupid to me. It might be doable in a handicapped way if moving items to the front or back did so one step at a time instead of all the way to the front or all the way to the back so you have to reorder EVERYTHING . But that is another thread discussion. With that said, what is the status of getting just one more map layer to work with?

As many have said, but I will say as an aye to this idea: I think having custom layers would be highly beneficial and help a lot with gameplay. There are far too many ways this could be used, but the easiest example for me is a simpler implication of a day and night cycle for my maps. Personally, I would like to have that control and be able to do it in my specific way.

It's honestly hilarious that I'm still getting notifications for this thread... I personally have moved on to modern VTTs that are in active development, but I wish you all good luck.

Hey Andrew. I was pointed to your thread. I just want to support your idea.  I've been in Roll20 for a long time and this has been a needed feature from very early on.  The fact is that after 7 years, it's time they address it.  So, developers, we are waiting!! :)

Seconded. The developers have been talking about this since the Layer Up update was in the works in early 2019 until they realized animated tokens jammed up their whole world. The devs said as soon as UDL was out, they could start working on additional layers. Well, that was a year ago. So what’s up? Time to lay your cards on the table and count it up.

Hello all - In a blog post this earlier week , CTO Morgan Buck announced the Overhead Layer was one of the Virtual Tabletop features on the roadmap. I'm updating the status of this thread to Queued while we work on the feature.

I love getting my votes back. ;-)

+1

I had a go on Foundry the other day and they have a lovely Overly system that can even be toggled off when you walk below overlay tokens, so they can be used as rooftops. If roll20 could do that, it'd be amazing. 

Angry_Rope said: I had a go on Foundry the other day and they have a lovely Overly system that can even be toggled off when you walk below overlay tokens, so they can be used as rooftops. If roll20 could do that, it'd be amazing.  Supposedly, Roll20 is going to one-up that system you described by making the overlay assets partially transparent with the ability to adjust the level of transparency. It was supposed to be out last summer but apparently there were kerfuffles. We haven’t heard anything about it yet.

Gargamond said: Angry_Rope said: I had a go on Foundry the other day and they have a lovely Overly system that can even be toggled off when you walk below overlay tokens, so they can be used as rooftops. If roll20 could do that, it'd be amazing.  Supposedly, Roll20 is going to one-up that system you described by making the overlay assets partially transparent with the ability to adjust the level of transparency. It was supposed to be out last summer but apparently there were kerfuffles. We haven’t heard anything about it yet. Ooo that'd be so nice. I love building fancy maps and this is for sure the missing piece of the puzzle. 

Salutations! Just posting my excitement for this feature!! <3 The updates as of late has gotten me so  hype for everything that is roll 20, so I wanted to share some projects that I've used the energy for. I've got some experimental isometric map designs that feature things that would greatly benefit from several layers to make it easier to achieve an *aesthetic* atmosphere while making the world a little more bearable for the GM. Hope you guys enjoy, happy coding friends!

Unfortunately, some new head honcho back in first quarter (Ankit Lal) promised us in a video that this feature would roll out in summer 2022. Where you at head honcho?

Same thing was promised for doors. We just finally got those at least. Hopefully this comes around in less than another 9 months.

+1

+1

This feature is for real almost 4 years behind schedule (anybody remember Layer Up?).  This should be priority 1 IMHO.

+1

+1 Just was checking to see if this is a thing yet...... it's been literal years....

Layer Up

Andrew Searles said: Hey Folks, Thanks for all of this feedback about the foreground layer. I'd love to talk more about how this will make it easier to use Roll20 for you and why you need a foreground layer. If you're interested, here is a link to my calendar. Feel free to schedule a time to talk with me. <a href="https://calendly.com/acsearles/foreground-layer-user-feedback" rel="nofollow">https://calendly.com/acsearles/foreground-layer-user-feedback</a> I look forward to hearing from you! I don't mean to appear cheeky, but have you read the six pages in this forum and seen the 1000+ votes on it?&nbsp; It's not about making Roll20 easier to use. Let me say that again.&nbsp; It's not about making Roll20 easier to use.&nbsp; It's about making Roll20 more immersive.&nbsp; Overhead clouds, rafters, overpasses, forest canopies, bridges, aqueducts, flocks of birds, rain, snow, flights of butterflies, will o wisps, etc.&nbsp; It's about the scenes.&nbsp; Making scenes more magical is what this is about.&nbsp; It's not for ease of use.&nbsp; If I wanted ease of use, I'd play at my dinner table with dice and forget about Roll20 altogether. If you don't think immersion is important to me, enter my game as a GM.&nbsp; Try it.&nbsp; Enter my Solynod Hex game and take a look at my pages.&nbsp;&nbsp; People have been asking for this feature for years, it was scheduled for development YEARS ago when Nolan Jones was still talking about the Layer Up update, it has been promised to us by at least two Roll20 executives including Nolan and Ankit Lal, and it's about damn time this feature rolls out.&nbsp; I pay you people a lot of money.&nbsp; I don't actually need a Pro sub.&nbsp; I can get away with just Plus.&nbsp; I'm basically throwing free money at you people and I bet there are a lot of others like me. I've been advocating this feature for years now, and I think it's long overdue. So pretty please, with sugar on top, get it done for the love of god. Oh yeah.&nbsp; And bump. Because vote for this.

Ditto what&nbsp; Gargamond &nbsp;said. The ways in which a foreground layer - or better yet, the ability to create multiple user-defined layers- would benefit game play have been described in this and other forum threads. In this thread alone, 1153 people have indicated by their votes that they want this. What other discussion is needed? You have here in this thread six pages of forum posts. Get a beverage of your choice, sit back, and spend a half hour reading them. ... and bump.

1154 now. In my workplace, this sort of behavior is the result of even more ridiculous behavior by more senior management. When I was 30 years younger, I would just schedule 12 back to back meetings on his calendar tool. Now, if it looks like bs, sounds like bs, smells like bs, well, it's not a duck.

The layer management needs so many improvements. This would be a great start.

Good stuff but please be more transparent, the latest update video was brief and uninspired.

+1

8 years and still no foreground layer T_T

MrLiakun said: 8 years and still no foreground layer T_T Can it be that hard?

+1 Just sad to see that this platform was built on such spaghetti code that so many features and ideas have been held back for years, slowly approaching a decade in this one's case. Gargamond said: MrLiakun said: 8 years and still no foreground layer T_T Can it be that hard? Yes, yes it can be.&nbsp; Remember the team is so out of touch they posted this... Andrew Searles said: Hey Folks, Thanks for all of this feedback about the foreground layer. I'd love to talk more about how this will make it easier to use Roll20 for you and why you need a foreground layer. If you're interested, here is a link to my calendar. Feel free to schedule a time to talk with me. <a href="https://calendly.com/acsearles/foreground-layer-user-feedback" rel="nofollow">https://calendly.com/acsearles/foreground-layer-user-feedback</a> I look forward to hearing from you! Also your response, *chef's kiss* magnificent.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Neb said: +1 Just sad to see that this platform was built on such spaghetti code that so many features and ideas have been held back for years, slowly approaching a decade in this one's case. Gargamond said: MrLiakun said: 8 years and still no foreground layer T_T Can it be that hard? Yes, yes it can be.&nbsp; Remember the team is so out of touch they posted this... Andrew Searles said: Hey Folks, Thanks for all of this feedback about the foreground layer. I'd love to talk more about how this will make it easier to use Roll20 for you and why you need a foreground layer. If you're interested, here is a link to my calendar. Feel free to schedule a time to talk with me. <a href="https://calendly.com/acsearles/foreground-layer-user-feedback" rel="nofollow">https://calendly.com/acsearles/foreground-layer-user-feedback</a> I look forward to hearing from you! Also your response, *chef's kiss* magnificent.&nbsp;&nbsp; 1178 upvotes now.&nbsp; We aren't going to stop.&nbsp; This feature needs to roll out yesterday.

Yes, foreground layer please! Roofs, tree canopies, bridges... The uses are plentiful and provide excellent immersion. This is a major advantage that Foundry seems to have. Would be nice to close that gap!

Please and thank you. +1