Foreground Map Layer

+1 This is a really good idea. At the moment, having any large elements on the token layer that the players are meant to be under (trees, fog and mist, etc) is a really cumbersome process, due to the difficulty of of actually selecting the individual tokens when they are occupying the same space. Being able to adjust the transparency of this layer would be amazing too.

I am reminded of this post every single time I have to click through and move several tokens to reach the one I want. This feature remains borderline necessary for this software to be user friendly. Having every single item on two layers is so enormously limiting. The amount of times I've tried to visualise something even slightly ambitious and it's been cumbersome are too numerous to count. 

I guess multible layers in the maplayer are also needet. if you work with only 2 types of things water/terrain it works because you can put things in the front and in the back. but with more than 2 types ... its a nightmare. i worked for 4 hours on a map. looked pretty decent. wanted to implement everything in a group. roll20 crash incomming and now my map looks like this. as soon as i  click on it roll20 crashes again. could have been preventend if i didnt need to pack everything in a group.

Please, take a look at this: <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4845733/generali" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4845733/generali</a>... It's a generalization of this idea, maybe you could link it in the description? Thank you.

+1

Love this, would also like to see a checkbox for each player next to said layer that allows me to selectively reveal it to certain players.

<a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/5403332/fog-of-war-flip-mat-mask-api-script" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/5403332/fog-of-war-flip-mat-mask-api-script</a> I was wanting this just today when it popped into my head because I was dealing with isometric map creation, and the gears started turning regarding the possibilities of using the fog-of-war as a mask given another layer. The extra GM layer is a great idea, and would be ideal if there were also the option of putting the hidden layer below the main map layer. If players are travelling over land zoomed out a bit, and you have a thick forested cover as the layer above the forest floor layer, the foliage disappears around the players circle of reveal, and as a DM, you could seed the map layer the players can't see, with random encounters, ruins, or other locale, that only become revealed when they choose to go one way or another when exploring a densely forested area. You could populate the underbrush with all kinds of unknowns to the players, until they approach it or come across it.&nbsp; Just some ideas, there are a lot of other good ones here, so many possibilities.

Something we've talked about as a team a lot is adding one more layer that would be usable in any slot (map, token, etc). That said, we've got some brushing up on our Canvas coding skills to properly accomplish this, and we have other development goals ahead of someone being able to do that investigating.

Hurrah!! We finally got a Dev Response!! &nbsp;Great Job everyone!! ;) All joking aside, thanks for the update Nolan!

Even one more layer would make a huge difference.&nbsp;

I read the dev response as:&nbsp; The guy who did all the canvas stuff left and/or we hard-coded a bunch of stuff and/or in a single threaded environment we're already pushing the canvas tag to the limit with the way we've designed things.&nbsp; Don't hold your breath.

Benevolent Tyrant said: I read the dev response as:&nbsp; The guy who did all the canvas stuff left and/or we hard-coded a bunch of stuff and/or in a single threaded environment we're already pushing the canvas tag to the limit with the way we've designed things.&nbsp; Don't hold your breath. Or maybe: "We're looking to hire a canvas guy."

I'd love more options for layers. Also maybe a layer much like GM layer but is completely invisible (even to GM) till you click to this layer.&nbsp; Be useful for hiding inside to Shacks, buildings etc. So you can pop them up when the group gets to them but have it out of the way most of the rest of the time.&nbsp;&nbsp;

I think this is going to be in the near future. The devs have talked about an update to the interface and tabeltop itself.

Ed S. said: I think this is going to be in the near future. The devs have talked about an update to the interface and tabeltop itself. Fingers are crossed...

This has been suggest over 3 years ago. If they really wanted it done it would have been done already.&nbsp; Seems to me Roll20 is moving at a snails pace when it comes to adding features that matter most, the actual virtual tabletop.

Nick said: This has been suggest over 3 years ago. If they really wanted it done it would have been done already.&nbsp; Seems to me Roll20 is moving at a snails pace when it comes to adding features that matter most, the actual virtual tabletop. i think this boils down to a lack of a qualified coder or coder's who can take the code to the next level. most of these QOL improvements are hanging off the "canvas updates nail" that needs the New coder's "Hammer " or some really long term coding improvments before they reach the we have to do this peg.&nbsp;

I must say after seeing Nolans post i am excited for its possibility. BUT if its something that is going to take 3 years before we can get to it. lets just go ahead and make at least 4 new layers. like Map Foreground, Map background, token player access,Token locked layer (essentially for torches and candles so i am not accidentally moving them when moving Tokens), token GM only, and then GM layer and Tertiary layer* that holds things Between the map layers but often wont be used. Just saying if its something hard to do. Knock it all out at once so you dont have to come back to this code for a long time.

As a stakeholder in what I get from roll 20, I will never settle for simple solutions. The community should not be "settling" for anything. Put your request out there and make them piece it out and build it. Never assume complexity = longer. I for one love this idea and will be voting on this.&nbsp;

+1 A new "foreground" layer would be awesome, I think most DMs could get real value out of this. Any chance for a Dev update?

++ on good

Adding vote to this because I wanted a foreground and didn't see anything immediately on the list so I made a thread and someone said for me to vote here. VOTE FOR FOREGROUNDS WOOO.

Foreground layer would open up so much more possibilities. Character tokens on trees look so weird, it'd be a great solution to that &lt; 3 + + +

Hmmm, just watched the video in the first post. It sounds like creating an advanced layering system is a lot of work. It wasnt clear though if adding a single Foreground layer with zero customisation options was simple or not. If the choice is wait another 2.5 years for the "ideal" advanced layering system to be built VS adding a foreground layer with no customisation but getting that a lot sooner, the simple foreground layer option is the way to go IMO. Adding the Foreground layer would be a huge boost. Adding an advanced layering system would also be huge too, but IMO getting that one Foreground layer will deliver the most bang for buck. Roll20 isnt Photoshop. All the heavy lifting for serious mappers should be done in external programs.

A dev just closed a duplicate thread with this comment: Drespar quoted: One of the largest roadblocks in the space has historically been developer bandwidth. As it stands, we have hired on a canvas specialist earlier this year so that we will be able to implement feature sets such as this in the future (many thanks to them for their help in the Measured Update! ). As this is a very large request and requires a refactoring of the layering system in canvas this feature is still likely a fair ways out.

Hey, just popping in to let you all know that, as mentioned in the Roadmap post , the weather layer is in the development roadmap.&nbsp;

Stephanie B. said: Hey, just popping in to let you all know that, as mentioned in the Roadmap post , the weather layer is in the development roadmap.&nbsp; Maybe I'm just dumb, but I can't find anything about the matter in that post. Ctrl+F with "weather" or "layer" doesnt bring up anything either, aside from the word player. The "technical details post also says that this thread has been addressed but I didn't see anything about this thread in there. Can you clarify?

Squirrel said: Stephanie B. said: Hey, just popping in to let you all know that, as mentioned in the Roadmap post , the weather layer is in the development roadmap.&nbsp; Maybe I'm just dumb, but I can't find anything about the matter in that post. Ctrl+F with "weather" or "layer" doesnt bring up anything either, aside from the word player. The "technical details post also says that this thread has been addressed but I didn't see anything about this thread in there. Can you clarify? They linked they wrong post. I think they were speaking about this tease: " Those are the two main features of Get a New Look, and you can read about them in more (technical) detail here ! Together, these LAYER the foundation for MORE graphic updates in the future."

Boy, oh boy. I can’t wait for this one. Rafters and chandeliers in buildings, Aquaducts, power lines and overpasses in cities, birds and bees flying around in forests.... Just imagine.....

Just a heads up; we still have the weather layer on the near-future roadmap. We're currently working out the bugs with animations and the advanced fog of war/dynamic lighting update that went out at the end of January. Watch for an announcement later this Spring about that feature. Also, sorry for linking to the roadmap when it didn't have the weather layer in it earlier. That was my mistake-- I thought the layer update was mentioned in there!

I'm confused. I was looking for updates on this post today and it appears to now be missing from the list. I can only seem to find it through a key-word search.

Not sure if this has been thought about in this suggestion (sorry, not read all 5 pages of posts!): Is this additional layer going to have an option that when a token is moved under any object in this layer, that the object goes transparent (semi-or totally) to not obstruct the view of the token? If so... OOOO, MMMM, GGGGGG! The possibilities this opens is HUUUUGE!&nbsp; Can I get a confirmation this is in the idea before I vote for it?

Mark said: Not sure if this has been thought about in this suggestion (sorry, not read all 5 pages of posts!): Is this additional layer going to have an option that when a token is moved under any object in this layer, that the object goes transparent (semi-or totally) to not obstruct the view of the token? If so... OOOO, MMMM, GGGGGG! The possibilities this opens is HUUUUGE!&nbsp; Can I get a confirmation this is in the idea before I vote for it? I think one of the devs said this layer was going to essentially be a GM layer viewable by players I.e. it will have an opacity slider like the GM layer currently has. I haven’t the foggiest idea just where I read that though... I’ll try to get back to you on that one.

Following on from a suggestion made by PigMourne ( here ), as well as some other suggestions that never got much support because this one kept being pushed as the one to support, it would extend the versatility of this additional layer hugely if there was a control that set which players exactly get to see this new Weather layer.&nbsp; By default, it would be [All players] of course... But imagine the possibilities if you can (just like the Token Controlled by... setting) remove [All Players] and set it to a specific individual or group of players! 1. A player casts Invisibility... You move them to the "Weather" layer and set it so only they can see that layer. Boom! They disappear from sight of the other players but the caster and the GM know exactly where they are. 2. An NPC casts an Illusion and initially ALL players see the illusion in place... But one at a time, as they make their saves, you remove that player from being able to see the "Weather" layer and Boom, the illusion disappears! (I'm hoping this layer will be called "Effects" rather than Weather, now) 3. An NPC casts Invisibility and they are moved to the "Effects" layer... In a flash, one of the players whip out their "True Sight Gem" that allows them to pinpoint exactly where the nasty NPC has gone. Add that player only to the "Visible to" setting of the Effects layer and Boom, watch as they have to verbally describe where the NPC is and the other players have to Ping the empty map to guess where they are firing! 4. A player is a Gloom Stalker Ranger that can see in total darkness but also is invisible in total darkness, and is scouting ahead... Oh no, too late he saw the monster come out from behind him and is now waiting in the dark for the players to come up to it,,, Does he call out to the group and give away his own position that the monster is unaware of? The possibilities are endless... All for one control of this great new Effects layer being developed. Fingers crossed. :)

Hello All- Thanks for the suggestion, we can't wait to start development on this feature. It is behind our major revamp of Dynamic Lighting system.&nbsp;

Kenton said: Hello All- Thanks for the suggestion, we can't wait to start development on this feature. It is behind our major revamp of Dynamic Lighting system.&nbsp; Now that the new dynamic lighting system is on the Dev server, is this idea coming out of “obstructed” status any time soon?

+1

As mentioned by Gargamond, A New Light is currently on the Dev Server for Beta Testing , and we are working on the issues found and preparing for full release. Once that feature is available to all subscribers, and in a stable place, we will be able to better gauge a feature to meet the needs outlined in this Suggestion.

+1

+1 Here too!!!!

Updated Dynamic Lighting is now available for testing to all Plus and Pro subscribers. As we finish development on this feature, we'll be in a position to schedule work to deliver the features requested in this Suggestion.

+1 As so many have outlined, this feature would add endless possibilities.&nbsp; Looking forward to it!

+1!!!!! Personally, the weather layer aka foreground map layer is super important to my campaign, as I make extensive use of animated weather tokens. Being that my players are currently in a tropical desert setting during the winter months, sand storms, brown outs, and dust devils appear nearly every day and quite frankly, I NEED an extra map layer.

5 years and still no foreground layer... must be very hard to implant..I wish we could just have a lil + button add layer with a opacity meter thats it !

Yeah.&nbsp; &nbsp;Apparently, it was so difficult to do, they had to rework dynamic lighting to open up the dead end on that.&nbsp; But now, thanks to UDL, all this old stuff is possible!

+1 Seems really weird that this is such a difficult feature to implement.

+1 on this feature.

Kenton said: Updated Dynamic Lighting is now available for testing to all Plus and Pro subscribers. As we finish development on this feature, we'll be in a position to schedule work to deliver the features requested in this Suggestion. This makes me very happy :) I'm presuming from this that the alpha of at least one layer will be able to be tied into the fog of war. If so, that would be amazing :D

Curious as to why this is "Obstructed" if the "Weather layer" is on the development roadmap,&nbsp;