Replace Fog Of War with an image

Be able to use an image, instead of the black fog of war. This would allow in-character maps to be slowly replaced with actual explored areas, as the PCs move about.

It would be nice to have this as a 'fog layer' just like the map layer that images can be placed on.

or even drawings

what exactly do you mean by "in character maps"? just the area you can currently see and blackness around it?

Think of the players receiving someone's old hand sketched treasure map of a castle, from the first time an NPC attempted to do some dungeon delving. This NPC sketched map could be placed down on the fog layer, while the 'real' details get revealed as the players move around the castle.

Ok, that would be pretty cool. I don't think I would use it much, but it would definitely be cool.

Or blueprints for a modern game. Having a blueprint sketch that is revealed would be cool I think.

I've thought of this before. Imagine a village with houses that have roofs that automatically disappear when you step in the door (i.e. can see the inside)

I think a image for the fog of war would be really kool. So the image fades like fog of war as you go through dungeon and slowly creeps back as you pass through that section. It would add a little flavor.

Cool idea, I think it could be used for wilderness maps too, not just indoor settings.

I think of this as a "Cartography Layer" which could be: 1. a map of a village which is permanently displayed but disappears in those areas where tokens enter buildings or boats or even a dungeon entrance (the roof of the building would be replaced by the dynamic lighting view for the tokens as suggested above) 2. a blank slate or parchment that the players can use to draw on so that when they move to another area / room, they can still see an outline and notes they've written on the 'map' their characters are scribing. These drawings of walls and notations disappear however when tokens enter the room, being replaced by the actual map/token/dynamic lighting layer view 3. a board area or wilderness (or even world) map, which becomes replaced by a more detailed map (or maps) from the map layer when tokens enter its visibility, allowing a specific cave or clearing or building map to be ponked onto a larger scale map permitting an encounter which retains and shows its context within the larger area. Even if no image is provided, just the ability to draw on a layer which is remains visible even when the tokens don't have LOS there would be a big improvement, and give players/characters a way to map.

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I'd be happy with just a color customizable Fog of War - I'm going to be running Reign of Winter soon, and was looking for vision obscured not only by darkness, but also by swirling snow, fog, rain, whatever. But an image would be even better!  I love the idea of blueprints superimposed over the actual map.

<a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1242343/dynamic-" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1242343/dynamic-</a>...

Roland Z. said: I'd be happy with just a color customizable Fog of War - I'm going to be running Reign of Winter soon, and was looking for vision obscured not only by darkness, but also by swirling snow, fog, rain, whatever. But an image would be even better! &nbsp;I love the idea of blueprints superimposed over the actual map. You might want to look into the API script "Page FX". It can be used to simulate swirling snow, fog, and rain in a given area around a token on the GM layer. As the script description says; " This script allows GMs to set up environmental special effects for their maps by producing customizable, randomly distributed fx over some area. This can be used to produce various sorts of atmospheric effects like rain, geysers, steam, bubbling magma, sparks, etc ."

+1, especially to the suggestion to replace the Fog of War with an image. I'm sure this sort of thing has been requested, but for the sake of completeness I might as well mention; It would be especially helpful if you could somehow layer this, so that an area is entirely blank until revealed initially, and then displays a map image of some sort when it's been seen, but isn't viewed currently.

+1 really cool idea.

yes i like this idea +1

Joseph I. said: Roland Z. said: I'd be happy with just a color customizable Fog of War - I'm going to be running Reign of Winter soon, and was looking for vision obscured not only by darkness, but also by swirling snow, fog, rain, whatever. But an image would be even better! &nbsp;I love the idea of blueprints superimposed over the actual map. You might want to look into the API script "Page FX". It can be used to simulate swirling snow, fog, and rain in a given area around a token on the GM layer. As the script description says; " This script allows GMs to set up environmental special effects for their maps by producing customizable, randomly distributed fx over some area. This can be used to produce various sorts of atmospheric effects like rain, geysers, steam, bubbling magma, sparks, etc ." That script is really just meant for atmospheric effects rather than for obscuring areas.

Ghost said: +1, especially to the suggestion to replace the Fog of War with an image. I'm sure this sort of thing has been requested, but for the sake of completeness I might as well mention; It would be especially helpful if you could somehow layer this, so that an area is entirely blank until revealed initially, and then displays a map image of some sort when it's been seen, but isn't viewed currently. Have you looked into the Advance Fog of War used with Dynamic Lighting? This will leave the map area black until the players move though it, and then leave a slightly grayed version of the map areas they have been to. It's not 100% for everything, but it does work well This is from one of the games I have been running. It quite clearlly shows where the party have been.

Joseph I. said: Ghost said: +1, especially to the suggestion to replace the Fog of War with an image. I'm sure this sort of thing has been requested, but for the sake of completeness I might as well mention; It would be especially helpful if you could somehow layer this, so that an area is entirely blank until revealed initially, and then displays a map image of some sort when it's been seen, but isn't viewed currently. Have you looked into the Advance Fog of War used with Dynamic Lighting? This will leave the map area black until the players move though it, and then leave a slightly grayed version of the map areas they have been to. It's not 100% for everything, but it does work well This is from one of the games I have been running. It quite clearlly shows where the party have been. It's really close, and probably what I'll go with in the mean time, but I was hoping to be able to take it one step further. I actually was hoping to be able to require players to make their own maps with the drawing tools on a 'blank' page (ideally with a paper texture replacing the black space), and then have the ability to drop them into a dungeon or battle map on the same page by just moving their tokens onto the map--that way they risk the oldschool D&D danger of making a mistake on their map and getting lost without having to constantly switch pages to see the map (which is cumbersome for the whole group) or constantly update a hand-out to give them a map they can see in handouts (which is cumbersome for me, and makes it complicated to crowdsource a drawn map.) Really, just being able to put drawing tools over the fog layer would make it workable, but being able to texture the fog would be even better.

i recently was show this bit of API that can sort of do this but requires a bit of work for a highly detailed dungeon&nbsp;<a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/5620795/roof-removal-script/?pagenum=2" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/5620795/roof-removal-script/?pagenum=2</a>&nbsp;

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Just want to say, one of my players requested this idea today too. It's a wonderful way of implementing a RPG map :)

I have to admit, this would be really cool in dungeons. You could use a picture of bricks to represent your fog of war so that walls really look like walls to the player.

Gargamond said: I have to admit, this would be really cool in dungeons. You could use a picture of bricks to represent your fog of war so that walls really look like walls to the player. Imagine snow, too, gargamond. Yes we can already use animated Snow for the weather overlay. But what if there was the Animated snow on the revealed part, but solid white-out conditions beyond the "seen" area.&nbsp; If we can make Fog of War a picture of snow-drifts.

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An image can also be blank...&nbsp; I want to use fog of war to replicate a very low visibility foggy swamp or steamy jungle.&nbsp; I need the "fog" to be white. Right now I am giving everybody 30 ft nightvision for the effect but since the "fog" is black it always looks to be night.&nbsp;&nbsp; One very cool possibility with an image would be to duplicate a map.&nbsp; As players get eyes actually on the map they could find important changes that didn't appear on "paper".&nbsp; New passages, bodies etc.&nbsp;&nbsp;

+1 It would be really great. I often use 2-layer forest maps, one with treetops, one with only tree stumps. I could also solve the problem with turntable tokens, but either I have to uncover the whole forest directly or each tree individually. If you could replace the FoW with your own graphics, that would be a great solution. So far it looks like this, just one layer. or And this is how it could look if I could replace the FoW with the Treetop-layer and use the Treestump-layer as the normal Map-layer:

+1 Has this been accepted by development?&nbsp; This is a wonderful idea!&nbsp; A step closer to a map with blind areas that's not just black or some color. Transparent areas could be seen through so open areas the party can see further.&nbsp; I've used dynamic lighting but the party just pops through and that's not quite realistic.

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+1 This would also be really cool if you are also a mapmaker and you make two versions of the same map. One with interior views and one with a birdseye view so all the players can see is a top-down view as the FoW image. As the players explore, they see more of the interior as the birdseye view of the building goes away with the FoW. Like with a crypt or a set of cabins or a camp, where you can go into these places and see the interior, while having the rest of the map visible

There are plenty of maps out there that show the rooftop view, then each level below.&nbsp; Using GIMP I can easily cut the rooftops out making everything else transparent or the rooftops just float over the building.&nbsp;&nbsp; I have a character teleport API that can be used on the stairs to switch the players to a different area on the map that is a different level providing smooth transitions for the players moving from level to level by themselves as they explore.&nbsp; The API script could be better though.&nbsp;&nbsp; The rooftops could be used instead of the back so as the players move about, the roof dissolves showing the players the place that they are in.&nbsp;

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I really like Martin Y's use case for this: a sparse, imperfect world/kingdom/regional map being slowly replaced by a detailed, accurate one as the characters explore.

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+1 - would be great just to have it in white at least...would work wonders for snowstorms / blizzards in IWD

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