Animated maps question

if i found an animated map..how would in incorporate it into roll20?

Hey do you know what file-format / graphic type, that the animated map is? If it's a PNG, webpm, GIF, it might work in roll20. If it is a YouTube, MOV, AVI, mp4, video type of file then there is not any way to use it in Roll20 yet.

Gold said: If it is a YouTube, MOV, AVI, mp4, video type of file then there is not any way to use it in Roll20 yet. I'm not 100% positive, but I think mp4 works in Roll20. At least I remember seeing that in the original list of supported file types. I have only tried GIF and webm files. They do take a considerably long time to upload however, but you do so the same way you would upload any PNG or JPEG image. I've seen them take anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour plus to upload, and sometimes they fail all together to upload, and can have some bugs and stutters.

Someone on reddit said their animated map took overnight to upload successfully. I believe it was somewhere between 4 and 7 MB.

Munky said: Gold said: I'm not 100% positive, but I think mp4 works in Roll20. At least I remember seeing that in the original list of supported file types. I'd love to be wrong on that, but nah. We'd know (a lot of power users of this site would know) if there was any kind of Video support whatsoever on the tabletop outside the face cams. Trust me on those barred file-types, I pay close attention to usability & features of Roll20, and I have not seen mp4 even as a rumored file-type on here. mp3 can be uploaded, to the audio section, since about a year ago or so. That might be what caught your eye.

Gold said: Munky said: Gold said: I'm not 100% positive, but I think mp4 works in Roll20. At least I remember seeing that in the original list of supported file types. I'd love to be wrong on that, but nah. We'd know (a lot of power users of this site would know) if there was any kind of Video support whatsoever on the tabletop outside the face cams. Trust me on those barred file-types, I pay close attention to usability & features of Roll20, and I have not seen mp4 even as a rumored file-type on here. mp3 can be uploaded, to the audio section, since about a year ago or so. That might be what caught your eye. For what it's worth, I just tried uploading an MP4 onto the tabletop and it works perfectly fine. As far as I am aware, when they first started showing off Animated content, the three options were GIF, WebM, and MP4. Worth noting is that MP4 doesn't support alpha, so you can't run anything transparent with MP4, but it totally works. As for the original question, the answer... depends. If it's just a video you've found online, you need to download it and make sure it's either Webm or MP4. GIF is horribly lossy and inefficient with it's file size, and is color limited so don't bother with that. Also, know that Roll20 doesn't play nice with very large animated files, so you may want to compress the video to a smaller resolution if it lags. Other than that, it's the same as any other map you'd use. Drag and drop it in, wait for an upload (Animations take a VERY long time to upload, be patient,) and then drag and resize it on your map as you would an image map.

Gold said: I'd love to be wrong on that, but nah. We'd know (a lot of power users of this site would know) if there was any kind of Video support whatsoever on the tabletop outside the face cams. Trust me on those barred file-types, I pay close attention to usability &amp; features of Roll20, and I have not seen mp4 even as a rumored file-type on here. mp3 can be uploaded, to the audio section, since about a year ago or so. That might be what caught your eye. Out of curiosity, I looked into the wiki to see if there was anything on this subject there and I found this: <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Best_Practices_for_Files_on_Roll20" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Best_Practices_for_Files_on_Roll20</a> Looks like mp4 is supported! Still - the larger file sizes can take forever to upload and most likely will result in a stutter/lag. I was making Webm VP8 animations a while back when they first came out, but I had issues with weather overlays lagging the games so I have been holding off on creating any more animations for the time being. Eventually one day, I am going to get back into making them.

I will research and test the mp4 info, after all. Feeling pretty skeptical about this, thinking maybe only a small mp4 of a limited number of frames (seconds) might work. I'm going to be really surprised if mp4 movies (such as from a digital camera) start playing in Roll20 canvas tabletop.

I don't remember where I heard this, but I think all animated files get converted to WebM when uploaded. Not to mention that larger file sizes already don't play nice with the tabletop. I always reduce the resolution of any of my animated content personally, so unedited footage from a digital camera is almost certainly a no-go. You'd probably have to downscale the footage and reduce the framerate to get a reasonable file size and performance.

Rainy said: I don't remember where I heard this, but I think all animated files get converted to WebM when uploaded. Not to mention that larger file sizes already don't play nice with the tabletop. It's not just the file size either, but the dimensions of the image. For example, I made some animations that were 25x25 in WebM format and they were very low in file size (between 1.5-3MB - which is relatively small compared to most of my full sized still maps I create). They took a long time to upload and some of them have a massive stutter/lag in between the frames. They also cause the Jukebox to lag when the animations are playing at the same time. Keep that in mind when and if you upload animations. I've noticed full sized maps and weather overlays are a nightmare to utilize, where something smaller (like a torch light or smaller animated token) seem to do just fine.

Probably late to this party, but I'll just add to what's already been said since I've been using animated maps for a while now -&nbsp; Anecdotally, WebM is the way to go. Even if you don't need an alpha channel, I've found WebM is somewhat better optimized for web playback, though it does have some color loss. As far as how long it takes to get to the VTT, I have no idea, but it isn't exclusive to vid files. One of my gripes.

interesting, fascinating, thanks for the infos everyone. Let's keep going and get to the bottom of this. As expected, so far the mp4 that i had available on my computer, whether digital camera or also screen-captured mp4 of 360p resolution... Did Not Work.

My main issue with said map...its it is HUGE like 150 mb if memory serves. I was wondering if there was a way i could convert it to a smaller size and import it.

I'm thinking NO, but would love to hear ways that people suggest / try to do that, Kefrem. I hope you/we get it to work.

Kefrem said: My main issue with said map...its it is HUGE like 150 mb if memory serves. I was wondering if there was a way i could convert it to a smaller size and import it. You can try converting it to WebM if it is not already in that format. Those file sizes are typically MUCH smaller.

Unfortunately, Roll20's implementation of animation is just not well suited for big battle maps. As mentioned earlier, resolution of the animation is a limiting factor. Even if some miracle encoding was invented that prevented compression artifacts, jpg maps will always look better than animated webm ones due to the fact that the resolution needs to be kept in check. Most maps have a recommended resolution of 280x280 per square, and on a video file, that's simply not reasonable. Even a small room at 16 by 12 squares would have a resolution of 4480 Pixels x 3360 Pixels following this rule. For reference, 4K video is&nbsp;4096 x 2560. Even if web browsers could use an entire pc's power, even if Roll20's coding was perfectly optimized, even high end computers are going to struggle running nearly 2 simultaneous 4k Videos at a playable framerate. The correct way to do animated maps is to have a static picture of a map in a reasonable resolution, then to add multiple, smaller animations on top of it, like clusters of trees that move in the wind, rivers that move, and have those smaller animations have less resolution to them since they're moving and are already compressed anyway. Granted, that requires access to either the ability to animate from scratch, or the ability to use compositing programs to cut out pieces of the animated map to overlay on a static image of the map. Both of which are pretty big barriers to entry for average users. The best practical way to run animated content on a tabletop would be to buy a campaign off the marketplace that has the technical aspects already set up. However, I'm not entirely sure anybody has made maps like I've described. Most people seem to be really good at maps, or really good at animation, and I don't know of anybody who really overlaps both of those. Maybe Munky? They have both maps and animations for sale on the marketplace, though I don't actually see anything that contains both. Sadly, this answer doesn't seem to be helpful to the main question at hand, and I'm not sure how best to get your animated map onto the tabletop unfortunately.

That is an excellent answer and analysis Rainy. Thanks for clarifying the resolution math on that, the pixels. I think there is a new Roll20 Marketplace, Add-On Product that may be exactly what Rainy described. It is already set up for roll20, if you install the add-on. Looks like they've used the method Rainy described: smaller animated sections overlaying a static map-background-jpg on the Map Layer --- such as swaying trees, and a flying dragon flapping its wings. When that product comes out, or turns up, I'll come back and link to it here for playtesting and review, relevant to the original question. FOUND IT, look: <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/9224997/new-release-dwarven-mountain" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/9224997/new-release-dwarven-mountain</a> Watch the trailer Find the pack Dwarven Mountain’ brings’ animated Battle Maps to Roll20; bringing your adventure scene to life before your players' eyes. Construct your own ‘Action Maps’ with atmospheric audio alongside animated and static art, a journey through the dangerous mountains of the old world.&nbsp;