Lighting problem

I think the lighting situation on Roll20 is bad... and has only gotten worse since Dynamic Lighting was updated.... But, now I have a problem doing something that used to work. I have a map. On the map is a light source. The settings for the token representing the light source is: No matter what layer I put the light source on - token layer, map layer, dynamic lighting layer, gm layer... and no matter what color I set the light color to be, it always shows as white light as in the following pic: i don't think the settings are wrong: low light, and light color are all I need. But I need it to be eerie light (I'm using purple) and not white light.

I think I used the same settings. And I certainly get the colored light. Do you have any other colored light on the map, or maybe tinted vision that may not be interacting with it correctly?

Does every one of those surrounding tokens have sight? You are likely looking at a multiplying of vision, causing any color to wash out.

I deleted the light source, and put a new copy on. This time, I get the white light within the area that's "bright light" but the purple in the area that's "dim light". And it doesn't matter what the settings are for "bright light" radius or "dim light" radius, the results are the same. I tried setting the "bright light" radius to 0 and that did not help any - there was still a "bright light" radius of 10 ft which seems to be some kind of an internal default. None of the other tokens on that page have vision, except for the one character token (the one that looks like a wizard). The pictures were taken while logged in to that character (I use it for test purposes like this).  That character has "Night Vision" set to "Nocturnal" with one of the gray tints. So, everything he sees should be dark gray. Theoretically, what he should be seeing is gray mixed with purple, or at worst just gray, but no, he sees only white.

I personally have had bad luck with tinted vision and light sources, so I tend to avoid them. It sounds like just having the two overlapping sources of color (night vision tint and light source tint) is enough to cause unwanted results. In case this is helpful to someone: one workaround I use for spooky colored lights is to put an image of mist on the map layer over a regular light source, and tint the mist token.

Thanks for the extra info on the settings, Saul! Yes, what Sarah says is correct. Tints do not play well together. It's best to only utilize one tinted light or tint them where they will not overlap and avoid tinted vision. As a personal recommendation, I would just avoid tinting vision. Less potential for surprising results, since they tend to move around and interact with the environment more.

keithcurtis: the problem is that for D&D 5E I want the players to actually have dim light instead of darkness and the only way to accomplish that (that I know of) is to use the nocturnal setting with tinted vision. Anyway, I can accomplish what I want putting the light source on the token layer, and using an aura visible to the players. At least in this instance. 

Instead of Nocturnal, have you tried the "Dimming" setting?  Nocturnal with a tint turns the purple light white in my test.  Dimming with a gray tint leaves the light purple.  This might be a Nocturnal specific bug.

Saul J. said: keithcurtis: the problem is that for D&D 5E I want the players to actually have dim light instead of darkness and the only way to accomplish that (that I know of) is to use the nocturnal setting with tinted vision. Can you show what you expect to happen, vs what you want to happen? I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to accomplish. Nocturnal mode automatically dims sight without the need for tinting: With a light source, this follows the 5e rules (I have reduced the gnolls Night vision to 20 feet to make the screenshots more legible):

Well, I can't show anything in Roll20 because I can't get it to work, and I can't do it in another program because, well, I suck at graphics other than taking screenshots. :-) But, essentially, what I would like is that any character with normal site sees normal purple light, and any character with 5E's "darkvision" sees a dark/dim purplish light. This is a light source in the room that the party is entering that emanates an eerie light. The description says: "A dim light that flickers wildly can be seen coming from the chamber." I've never managed to get "flickering light" to work, either.  At the moment, I'm using the free add-on: " Dynamic Lights & Spells". BTW, that add-on has an "instructions" page that says: "Player tokens with vision will be able to see any tokens put on the Map or Token & Objects layer. They will be able to see the light but not the token if placed on the Dynamic Lighting layer." That hasn't worked for me, either. My players don't see the light unless the object emanating the light is on the Token&Objects layer. Yes, the page (and the whole module/campaign) is using the Updated Dynamic Lighting. As for "night vision" and "nocturnal" - a token with night vision turned on, and the "nocturnal" setting see bright white light, not dim light in a dark room. I've tested this over and over and my players have reported that they just see normal white light. 

Some observations: 1) Ignore tinted light and vision. Unless you use it very sparingly and with testing, you are likely to get frustrated. 2) Can't answer to that unless I can see what the settings are, and where you have pulled the icon from. Light sources on the DL layer provide light unless something is set up incorrectly. I place light sources on the DL layer all the time, and this is the norm for modules. There is likely a missing step here. 3) You cannot replicate the screen shot I displayed above? 4) if you would like to test for yourself (far quicker and less subject to communication problems than waiting for a player to be available and respond) you can use a  Dummy Account . 5) "Flickering" is not a setting provided by Dyanmic lighting. There is an API script that can do this, but I am not sure it has been updated to UDL. If you would like me to investigate and see if I can find out what is going awry in your game, feel free to drop me an invite via PM (not open forum, never post a game invite openly).

keithcurtis said: Some observations: 1) Ignore tinted light and vision. Unless you use it very sparingly and with testing, you are likely to get frustrated. 2) Can't answer to that unless I can see what the settings are, and where you have pulled the icon from. Light sources on the DL layer provide light unless something is set up incorrectly. I place light sources on the DL layer all the time, and this is the norm for modules. There is likely a missing step here. 3) You cannot replicate the screen shot I displayed above? 4) if you would like to test for yourself (far quicker and less subject to communication problems than waiting for a player to be available and respond) you can use a  Dummy Account . 5) "Flickering" is not a setting provided by Dyanmic lighting. There is an API script that can do this, but I am not sure it has been updated to UDL. If you would like me to investigate and see if I can find out what is going awry in your game, feel free to drop me an invite via PM (not open forum, never post a game invite openly). 1. We've been using tinted light and vision for about two years. Things sort of worked with Legacy lighting but not UDL. UDL does provide some things that LDL did not. Removing it now... well, I'm not sure about that. I don't want my players to see things before they should, and "fog" is just too cumbersome for me with everything else I need to be doing. 2. There may be a missing step, but I don't know what it is. Sometimes it works. Most of the time it doesn't. The add-on says that simply dropping the light source onto the dynamic lighting layer is sufficient but it doesn't work. 3. No. See photos: 4. I do use a dummy account for testing. Very often, I see different things than my players do the next day when I run the game. 5. I know that flickering is a separate API. I've never gotten it to work either under LDL or UDL. This is somewhat moot at this point since my game is tomorrow evening and I'll be out all day. I think I have something that will work for tomorrow night's game when I need this and, until something else arises, I can muddle along. But, lighting (both LDL and UDL) have been a constant problem. There have been days when some characters can "see" and others can't even though the settings are identical. There are days when they see bright light, and days when they see dim light and settings weren't changed. Often on the same page... two different weeks. And other problems too numerous to mention.

The token is emitting no light? There is no other light source? Check to make sure that the map tile has not been accidentally set to emit light or have vision. (Believe it or not, this happens). Good luck with your game. My offer still stands if you would like me to explore at some point in the future.

No, the token is not emitting light, and there is no other light source. No, the map tile is not emitting light nor does it have vision. This is on the test page that I took the photos on. The actual page, that I plan to use tonight, is similar - other tokens currently on the map do not emit light and the map does not emit light or have vision. I think what I set up for tonight will work to some extent along with description.  Thanks for the offer. I may take you up on it at a future time if I hit something where I cannot find a work-around. I'll note that other VTTs do not have this problem so it's entirely in the way Roll20 implements light/lighting.