Dynamic Lighting for Free?

In a Dev post there was a line implying that Dynamic Lighting would eventually be rolled out to everyone: "If you choose to become a paid Supporter, there are some perks that you’ll receive; such as additional insider access to the Dev Team, email-based support, expanded storage space, and the ability to help us test new features (like dynamic lighting) before they’re available to everyone ." It has been some time since this post and I would like to know if Dynamic Lighting will ever be rolled out as a free feature. If the company/group has fallen back on their word then I find it incredibly disappointing.

There is no intention for this to be a free feature at this time. Sorry for your disappointment.

If I as the DM am a subscriber, would my players (who aren't subscribers) get dynamic lighting? Or would everyone involved need to be a paid subscriber?

Mark, the DM's level of subscription sets the privileges for the campaign, so yep! Your players would get to see the dynamic lighting, even if they are not subscribers. You can scope out the Subscription Page to see what other perks there are on offer.

Just the creator of the campaign needs to be a mentor or supporter.

Since the creators have been toiling to add this stuff in their spare time and have only recently been able to make the engine a full time paying job, I think it's early days yet to expect them to give this away for free (or rather, at a cost to themselves since there is hosting, bandwidth, etc.). Perhaps in a year or two it would be a more reasonable demand. if you want to experience dynamic lighting meanwhile you could always join a group with a Supporter or Mentor GM and they'll no doubt be pleased to show you it. I hope you'll find yourself sufficiently impressed and fortunate enough financially to be able to subscribe to this perk.

I understand financial constraints a person may have... so I get that. And while Dynamic Lighting is a great feature, it does take time to set up a map.... However if you have Mentor level support things can get really powerful and really easy. Consider this map.... Its 72 by 72 (fairly massive) and it only took one click of a macro with API (Mentor level support) to generate it. A second click..... And my map has all my Dynamic Lighting walls complete... Just add doors and such... or run it again and get a new random map. Once happy I can just use the Transmogrifier (Mentor level support) to move it into a live player campaign. This is when you can really get a lot out of Roll20 and a group can always "gift" support. You can read more here (still finishing up the API a bit) and you can get the tiles here (the fist link has source images for making your own and general information on geomorphic tiles.) Still everyone has to make their own spending chooses based any number of factors. But for me, its money well spent. Point is... I would encourage one person is each group at least to have full Mentor level support... split a few ways among friends, I feel its worth it (that is just me.)

Wow that looks like a really powerful and easy system to create the dynamic lighting! Could you do the one-click method for pre-made maps? For example: I just ran my players through Shadowfell Keep and it would've been great to have dynamic lighting in the keep. Is it just as easy for pre-mades or is it a different tool?

Unfortunately someone has to hard code the dynamic lighting paths...... one time. HOWEVER... we could make an API to capture the paths so content creators or those sharing free maps could save and share the points without actually having to know how to code. For example: There is a tile from the pack I modified to a wine cellar..... if someone wanted to add it to their library of map tiles they could also add this to their library of dynamic lighting paths: {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[525,805],[735,805]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[35,525],[35,735]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[455,525],[455,805]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[383,525],[457,525]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[385,315],[385,525]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[315,315],[525,315]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[805,525],[805,735]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[105,805],[315,805]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[35,315],[105,315]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[735,315],[805,315]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[315,0],[315,35],[525,35],[525,0]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[840,105],[805,105],[805,35],[735,35],[735,0]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[0,105],[35,105],[35,35],[105,35],[105,0]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[0,315],[35,315],[35,525],[0,525]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[840,315],[805,315],[805,525],[840,525]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[0,735],[35,735],[35,805],[105,805],[105,840]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[840,735],[805,735],[805,805],[735,805],[735,840]]}, {tileName: "Geo_Type_A_0021", path: [[315,840],[315,805],[525,805],[525,840]]}, We would likely have to sketch out some specifications to make some standard API tools for non-coders... But it could be possible that every time you get a map... you get the dynamic lighting path information that comes with it. Don't want to stray off point too much... I would suggest for anyone interested wander into the API section even if you don't code because all that code and post there will assist you and it helps in the co-creation of ideas to hear from as many people as possible.