Dim light radius

When I set the optional radius for Emits Light I don't get the expected wider circle of dim light, but instead I get a square with sides equal to the main light diameter. For example, I set this token to 10 ft / 30 ft: This is using Windows 7 64 bit with Chrome v26.0.1410.43. I searched for other postings in the forums but couldn't see anything related. Am I doing something wrong?

same here.

i guess i was doing it wrong, i though the first number was for the max light radius, and the second number was for how much of that light you want to be dimmed.

Reb S. said: i guess i was doing it wrong, i though the first number was for the max light radius, and the second number was for how much of that light you want to be dimmed. Aha! You've found the issue Reb. S. If I swap the figures round it works. But surely the labelling on those boxes is the wrong way round? It reads "Full light radius / (optional) dim light radius": With the figures entered as above (30 / 5) you get a dim light circle of 30 foot radius with an inner bright light circle of 5 foot radius. Surely, as written, that label suggests that the first figure should be the inner 'full brightness' area and the second optional figure would be the wider 'dim brightness' area? If 'full' refers to the fullest extent, why would the word 'dim' be in the second part? Note in the test above you don't get a 25 ft radius bright area with another 5 ft of dim area around it.

admittedly, i didnt even look at the box labels very closely, i just infered their use from the patch notes.  i think it would probably make more sense if the second box was labeled like a percentage of current light to be dimmed, like how the patch notes described it.

Reb S. said: i didnt even look at the box labels very closely, i just infered their use from the patch notes. It's likely to be one of those things that old hands never think about, as once you've got it the right way round it ceases to be an issue, but as a newbie it really confused me, as I was going by the label on the fields (there's no comment about those two fields under Dynamic Lighting or Token Features in the help.) I think it would be good if the label could be updated. The fields can remain the way round that they are to avoid changing anybody's campaigns or learned behaviour.

Reb S. said: admittedly, i didnt even look at the box labels very closely, i just infered their use from the patch notes.  i think it would probably make more sense if the second box was labeled like a percentage of current light to be dimmed, like how the patch notes described it. I'm not sure where the 'patch notes' are, but the current radii given in distance units makes sense to me - it's one step more complex to have to mentally convert to a percentage.

the new updates thread in the general on topic board has all the notes.

Reb S. said: the new updates thread in the general on topic board has all the notes. Thanks, but I still can't find it. (Don't worry about it.) The General On Topic Board only seems to display two pages for me. There are only the last two New Update threads on those pages. I've tried various search combinations, e.g "new update dynamic lighting" and I still can't find the specific update where it was launched - partly because the search results only have partial titles.

lol, it is all wrapped up into the most recent update.  technically part of the "and more" clause.

lol. OK, I see it now, thanks. "There is an additional field for Dim Light in the token settings for Dynamic Lighting, next to the "Emits Light" box. The box on the left is now the "Light Radius" box (works the same as before). In addition you can now put an additional value in the right-hand box, and we'll use that as the radius at which the "Dim" part of the light should start. If you leave it blank it will just keep doing what it was doing before (which is for the Dim light to start at 75% of the total radius)." That explains the wording. Where the label says 'optional dim light radius' it means  'optional starting radius of the dim light'. However, I hope this thread shows why that choice of words coupled with the word 'full' in the first part of the label is confusing. If one part of the light is 'dim' then we expect the word 'full' to refer to brightness, not extent.

i can +1 the starting radius clause, should be an easy fix.

I have filed a bug report. - Gauss

Works fine for me when I select the larger radius in the left hand box and in the right hand box I select at what range the light becomes dim. Eg.  60 in the first box and 30 in the second box gives me 30 feet of bright light and then 30 feet of dim light extending out from that.

Gauss said: I have filed a bug report. - Gauss Thanks. Callum M. said: Works fine for me when I select the larger radius in the left hand box and in the right hand box I select at what range the light becomes dim. Eg.  60 in the first box and 30 in the second box gives me 30 feet of bright light and then 30 feet of dim light extending out from that. Yes, it works fine. It's just that the labelling was misleading, and it's only the labelling that I think needs changing. Both myself and Atomic Knight read it as needing the larger figure in the second box. It's just the confusion as it stands between using 'full light radius' to mean 'full extent of the light' and 'dim light radius' to mean 'radius from the centre at which the light changes from full brightness to dim'. Given the reference to dim light immediately after, I assumed that 'full light radius' meant 'the radius from the centre out to which you have light of full brightness' and 'dim light radius' meant 'radius from the centre out to which you have dim light'. (i.e. the opposite way round to the way they actually work.) Maybe change to: Dim radius / Bright radius or Outer (Dim) radius / Inner (Bright) radius

I'm glad it wasn't just me who noticed this issue. I was quite lost at first. I believe the wording could be read as "Bright Light Radius + Dim Light Radius = Total Light Radius" and have the boxes above each listed radius for the corresponding numbers. I was also hoping that the dim light could be turned on by itself without the tokens needing to emit light since certain races have the ability to see in low-light and etc. For instance a PC is in a mostly dark room with only a lamp in the corner. The lamp emits maybe 5 or 10 feet of light and the PC should be able to see his/her low-light distance with the help of the lamp, Correct?

Eric, to do dim light only set the boxes to: desired radius/1.  Example: if you want a creature to see 60 but dim then set it to 60 / 1 Im using that setup to drop torches where players have been so that they can still see that section of the map but dimmed. - Gauss

My question isn't about the range of the dim light but the functionality of it. What does it do? I can see that the area is lit but dimmer than the "full" part. Does it have any actual mechanical meaning other than showing the particular range of the bright light and dim light (I think in D&D they are called light and shadowy illumination)? Eg what I (for some reason) thought would happen (at least with certain options) was that tokens in the dim light wouldn't be seen by the players.

Targets of ranged attacks in dim light have concealment I believe, in D&D 4th edition. If you have low light vision however, dim light is treated as bright light for purposes of determining concealed based on lighting. Don't have my books with me at the moment, so I'm just going off my memory here.

JonathanTheBlack said: Targets of ranged attacks in dim light have concealment I believe, in D&D 4th edition. If you have low light vision however, dim light is treated as bright light for purposes of determining concealed based on lighting. Don't have my books with me at the moment, so I'm just going off my memory here. Oh sorry, my post was unclear (they usually are). I meant that is the dim light radius of Roll20 connected to any mechanical/technical features. I'm not talking about what dim light does in RPG mechanics but what dim light does in Roll20? Does it only show the "line" between proper and dim light and then the GM/the rules of the game decide what that actually means or are there some features in Roll20 that are connected to the dim light feature?

No, it is just a visual demarcation of where bright light ends and dim light starts. It can also be used to light an entire dungeon in dim lighting and make it more atmospheric.

Ok, thanks!

Thank you, Gauss, for the tip on Dim light only.

The text under the light settings have been changed on Dev to: "Light Radius / (optional) Start of Dim Light" - Gauss

Thanks Gauss, that's better.