Library, 3D Dice and drwaing: three poblems i have

I was quite intrigued by roll20 but after giving a try a couple o months ago i experienced several problem with the video chat, so i decided to move on. After the new updates the interested raised again and apparently the video chat system is now responding properly. I still have few issue that are preventing me to switch from my current software (namely MapToll): -Library: at the moment the free account provide 100MB of space. After adding pictures up to this limit i cannot add any other image? is there a way to create an actual library rather then just dragging the pictures on the browser? Is it possible o organize the picture imported in a meaningful way? -3D Dice: they are veeeery cool but..... they are slooooooow. The animation is laggy and i would know i it is my problem or everyone is experiencing it. -Drawing: sometime i need to improvise map and the drawing tool is the only thing i can rely on. Problem with roll20 is that i cannot draw using texture (sand, water, rubbles etc.) using brown blue or other color is not really appealing visually. Is there a solution for this. Thanks for the support and congratulation for the amazing job so far

It's not just you, Gabriele r., I too find the 3D dice slow and laggy, at least when we are actually playing. We have turned that feature off for now.

It's not just you, Gabriele r., I too find the 3D dice slow and laggy (. . .) Um. I'm not experiencing that, and I haven't a super computer. What I find is that the smooth dice roll animation takes some seconds to complete, but I'm not seeing any lag in it. I wonder if these seconds that it takes convey to some users the feeling of having some sort of lag, without actually having it. And we don't support 'painting' via textures like MapTools does at the current time. I can understand that, since Roll20 isn't actually a map creation tool. It's possible to arrange tiles, to draw, etc, but the main focus isn't in the map as it happens in MapTool. On the other hand, painting via textures is very useful. There have been threads here discussing what software people is using for making images and maps for games (like this one <a href="http://community.roll20.net/discussion/606/what-programs-do-you-use-to-make-texturesobjectsmaps-for-roll20-games/p1" rel="nofollow">http://community.roll20.net/discussion/606/what-programs-do-you-use-to-make-texturesobjectsmaps-for-roll20-games/p1</a>). One of the mentioned apps, between Photoshop, GiMP and many others, was also MapTool with its useful Export Screenshot feature -making maps easy to drop into Roll20 if one wants. [Speaking of that, I'd like to know if there is any software different of MapTool that allows painting via textures as well. Photoshop, for instance, doesn't allow it (to my knowledge!), between other things because fragments of images turned into brushes doesn't preserve any color.]

Gabriele r. said, -3D Dice: they are veeeery cool but..... they are slooooooow. The animation is laggy and i would know i it is my problem or everyone is experiencing it. Axel Castilla said, It's not just you, Gabriele r., I too find the 3D dice slow and laggy (. . .) Um. I'm not experiencing that, and I haven't a super computer. What I find is that the smooth dice roll animation takes some seconds to complete, but I'm not seeing any lag in it. (. . .) This said, I have something to add: Actually, even if I don't find the 3d dice animation particularly slow or laggy in itself, there is a very meaningful delay in using them, to the point of it being game hampering: When I make a dice roll with 3d dice enabled, the whole thing "waits" for 2-3 seconds before actually displaying the rolling dice, before starting their GPU dependent animation. Similarly, when the dice are landed, it takes about 1-2 seconds to display these results to the Text Chat box --I play via text, not webcam/voice. This makes things extremely slow during actual gameplay and I'd like to enable 3d dice . . . so I wonder if their behaviour could be optimized in some way.

[Speaking of that, I'd like to know if there is any software different of MapTool that allows painting via textures as well. Photoshop, for instance, doesn't allow it (to my knowledge!), between other things because fragments of images turned into brushes doesn't preserve any color.] Well, it does... if you "cheat". Just fill a layer with your texture and then you can "paint" with the texture by using a layer mask. You can even use shades of grey on your layer mask to have your texture more or less visible. I have been using it and it works very well.

If your 3D dice are slow and laggy... try going to chrome://gpu and see if all your stuff is hardware accelerated. If not, go to chrome://flags and ctrl+f for 'Override software rendering list' and enable that. This should enable your hardware graphics card for chrome. It's an experimental feature so it should be used with caution.

Patrick C. said, (. . .) Well, it does... if you "cheat". Just fill a layer with your texture and then you can "paint" with the texture by using a layer mask. You can even use shades of grey on your layer mask to have your texture more or less visible. I have been using it and it works very well. Yes Patrick, thanks again for this tip. You told me about it some time ago in another thread, and I still need to try it with more time. Part of the point of asking for software allowing to paint with textures, however, is because I think that such feature is enough basic and useful for it being included by default in some image software.

I would like to see the option to paint with textures as well.

If your 3D dice are slow and laggy... try going to chrome://gpu and see if all your stuff is hardware accelerated. If not, go to chrome://flags and ctrl+f for 'Override software rendering list' and enable that. This should enable your hardware graphics card for chrome. It's an experimental feature so it should be used with caution. These days I'm using a small notebook with a nvidia 8400M G graphics card and I'm stuck to 280.26 year 2011 drivers (if I update beyond that, I get black screens all the time, or the system just hangs with the last 310.70 geforce driver). So, when I checked chrome://gpu/ I hadn't Canvas GPU acceleration enabled . Then I went to chrome://flags for enabling 'Override software rendering list' . . . And man, that worked! Thanks a lot Jonathan the Black. Now the Roll20 canvas moves fast again, which is great! (for some reason, some time ago I did lost performance in this system regarding certain tasks.) I'd think about putting some of these troubleshooting tips in the Help & Docs section. Maybe @Gauss can hear this. After this experiment, 3D dice CPU load seems to be similar or the same than before, along with the performance of their animations. But right now they take about 1/2 to 1 second to launch, and I think it could be good if they could land (or stop rolling) a bit faster --often they remain slightly rolling for more time than intended before displaying the result, involved in a sort of lingering animation . I think this happens more often when rolling 3d6 than d20s, and I'm rolling 3d6 almost all the time (GURPS system). Again, thanks. I was having general performance issues with Roll20 in this machine.

No problem. :)

Yes Patrick, thanks again for this tip. You told me about it some time ago in another thread, and I still need to try it with more time. Oooppps! Sorry, I didn't remembered.

Thank you Axel for bringing it to our attention. Although, strictly speaking, I don't hear it, I see it. :D - Gauss

Patrick C. said, Sorry, I didn't remembered. Oh, It's fine! :) strictly speaking, I don't hear it, I see it. :D Good. I was going to PM you about including Jonathan's tips in some section of Help & Docs . I guess it's not needed ^^

I forwarded it to Kristin, she is in charge of the Help Docs right now. - Gauss