GM Controlled Tabletop Backgrounds

I'm curious about how difficult it would be to give control to the GM to change the default grey background of the area that surrounds the game map to a pattern more in theme with the setting of the game.  For example, a GM could choose from a few preset themes such that for a Science Fiction game they could choose a background that looks more like the metallic plating of a starship, or for a Fantasy game they could choose a wood-tavern texture.  Perhaps even with a very lightened version of the same texture for the side bar.

Currently, the GM can change the color of the canvas (map area). However those are just basic color codes. To change the color edit the Background section in the Map Settings. DOH! I just realized you meant the border outside of the canvas. - Gauss

On a related note, if you set the map canvas colour to be transparent, you still see a grey border. I'd prefer that to disappear if set to 100% transparency. The default background is quite nice for popping up quick images, etc., but the grey border's a bit distracting.

Gauss:  Correct, I'm referring to the border outside the canvas (map area).  The default one isn't bad at all, but I think that an extra level of immersion could be provided if GM's could change it to a different pattern in theme with whichever genre the game is set in (fantasy, sci-fi, horror).  Either from a pre-selected set of themes provided by Roll20, or with an image that the GM themself uploaded.

This is relevant to my interests. As a starting point, I like to generally start players off in their favorite tavern or hangout and treat it a bit like a 'game lobby' of sorts. These taverns are usually small enough that they see the grey border a lot. I think this idea could be pretty cool, though I wouldn't want it to become a hassle for the main map's field of view.  Also, even just editing the border color would be a nice touch. Red for those epic bouts in the bottom of a volcano... green for those tricky forest fights... gold for those moments your players think they found a room full of treasure, but it's really just bright light that they see from an angry wizard casting a spell in their general direction.... That kind of stuff... It would be really neat to someday see something like, for a sci fi setting to have borders that look like computer terminals with screens displaying static and some buttons occasionally blinking.. Though perhaps not so much blinking for our epileptic gamers.

wouldn't that be something based on the page/browser settings?  I suppose it wouldn't be too hard for roll20 to implement that - though it might require a refresh each time you changed it.

Shortland said: wouldn't that be something based on the page/browser settings?  I suppose it wouldn't be too hard for roll20 to implement that - though it might require a refresh each time you changed it. I think it's controlled by the site's CSS.  I honestly don't know how difficult it'd be to give control of that over to a GM for their specific campaign.

Phillip W. said: Shortland said: wouldn't that be something based on the page/browser settings?  I suppose it wouldn't be too hard for roll20 to implement that - though it might require a refresh each time you changed it. I think it's controlled by the site's CSS.  I honestly don't know how difficult it'd be to give control of that over to a GM for their specific campaign. Depending on how it's implemented, it could be either very easy, or impossible. Personally, I'd let it be set as an image, with the current background image being called "Background.jpg" or something similar in the folder for that campaign. If you change the background, it simply places it in the folder as "Background.jpg" and overwrites the previous one. Then, all the CSS is doing is accessing an image named Background.jpg, and it doesn't care what exactly that image is. However, I think that might need a refresh after every change, and there might be a better way to do it. I'm not very good at HTML and CSS, so I'm running on VERY basic knowledge of how they work right now.