Effects (FX) Tool: Now Free for All Users

Looks really good.. 2 questions though, 1. is there a reason why there isn't a lightning effect?  2. can you vary the sizes at all?  E.g. for different size of a fireball?

Hi Jonathan K., 

I haven't tried it myself but Pro users have had the ability to create their own FX for a long time. You can find the wiki for that here and here is the help article for the new tool. Between those two may be what you are looking for. 

Looks sick!

Pretty neat! The effects look pretty nice.  I wonder if the custom version can make a persistent version, though would need a way to then cancel a running effect.

This is fantastic! 10/10 improvement,

I orginally posted this on the Suggestion forum. @Gauss had this thread unlocked so I'm reposting here.

When I draw a shape on the VTT, I can select "persistence" and have it remain until it click the trash can (or draw something new).  I've actually been using this for things like spell areas of effect, since the player can draw exactly what they want, and we can all see which tokens will be affected.

With the Effects, the effect draws a shape (for me as DM) while I'm drawing it, and then the animation plays out (very quickly) and leaves nothing behind.

I think it would be useful if, after the effect is applied, it left something behind in the shape originally drawns (at least for breath and beam efffects, and they really need a circular "explosion" effect you can size, for things like fireball).  That way I can have a dragon breathe on the party, and they'll all know (as will I) who was affected. As with drawn shapes, there should be a way to dismiss this (trash can, select and delete, etc).

I don't think players can invoke effects (I couldn't see a way to do this when I tried in a friends game, but I didn't test extensively), but if they could, this is even more important, since the DM needs to see specifically what the player was affecting.

Allowing players to invoke the tool (which I can't see a way to do) would also be useful.

Is there a new API/MOD function to create an effect or ping a token? 

Will M. said:

Is there a new API/MOD function to create an effect or ping a token? 

I ran a quick test today with PageFX. Existing FX mods and macros appear to be operating with the new system just fine.

Coldin said:

Pretty neat! The effects look pretty nice.  I wonder if the custom version can make a persistent version, though would need a way to then cancel a running effect.

I am not sure if Custom FX feature can do that, but Mods (API) can do that. Look into the Mods in the One-Click for Page FX, it does that, You set a Token that has a certain Status Marker and whenever that status marker is ON, the FX keeps firing in your designated area. 

I will not opt in to the beta ever, honestly IDC about shiny animations and FX, I like my boring bare bones vanilla Roll20 as is.  It looks pretty but I really have no interest in it, so until they force this on us as standard I won't consider this beta ever.

I was able to test the spanFx API function and it works well, actually seams more responsive than the old FX.

hola! se ve genial y me gustaria implementarlo en mi mesa pero no lo encuentro, ¿es necesario crear si o si una partida nueva? no quiero tener que pasar TODO lo que tengo en la otra mesa...

Daniel C. said:

hola! se ve genial y me gustaria implementarlo en mi mesa pero no lo encuentro, ¿es necesario crear si o si una partida nueva? no quiero tener que pasar TODO lo que tengo en la otra mesa...

Hello Daniel!

Yes, the new features are available only in Jumpgate, the new environment that Roll20 is developing. In order to use it, you will need to create a game in Jumpgate, or copy your game into Jumpgate (your original game will be untouched).

¡Hola Daniel!

Sí, las nuevas funciones están disponibles únicamente en Jumpgate, el nuevo entorno que Roll20 está desarrollando. Para poder utilizarlas, tendrás que crear un juego en Jumpgate o copiar tu juego en Jumpgate (tu juego original no se modificará).

Ken S. said:

I orginally posted this on the Suggestion forum. @Gauss had this thread unlocked so I'm reposting here.

When I draw a shape on the VTT, I can select "persistence" and have it remain until it click the trash can (or draw something new).  I've actually been using this for things like spell areas of effect, since the player can draw exactly what they want, and we can all see which tokens will be affected.

With the Effects, the effect draws a shape (for me as DM) while I'm drawing it, and then the animation plays out (very quickly) and leaves nothing behind.

I think it would be useful if, after the effect is applied, it left something behind in the shape originally drawns (at least for breath and beam efffects, and they really need a circular "explosion" effect you can size, for things like fireball).  That way I can have a dragon breathe on the party, and they'll all know (as will I) who was affected. As with drawn shapes, there should be a way to dismiss this (trash can, select and delete, etc).

I don't think players can invoke effects (I couldn't see a way to do this when I tried in a friends game, but I didn't test extensively), but if they could, this is even more important, since the DM needs to see specifically what the player was affecting.

So: my suggestion is: add a "persist" slider on the effects pane, and if activated have it leave an area marker behind (customizing this as to color of outline and fill would be nice, although both could just derive from the effect color)

Allowing players to invoke the tool (which I can't see a way to do) would also be useful.

Players can invoke effects with the /fx command, though that has some limits, such as not being able to specify locations without a token.

cool..um new to dnd can i join

healix h. said:

cool..um new to dnd can i join

Hi there! Welcome aboard c: To find a group to play with, you'll want to head to the Looking For Group forum. Roll20 offers both free and paid games; I've linked you to the forum for free ones. Alternatively, there's the LFG search - I prefer this myself. Good luck!

This looks kinda interesting

How do you consider the free release of the fx tool to coincide with the release of a very prominent Beacon-based sheet that disables the inherent token_id attribute needed for fx tool commands?

I cannot seem to successfully create, edit, save, or use a custom special effect. Am I missing something?

If I create a new FX based on an existing one, it does nothing. If I make changes, nothing happens. If I paste in one of the samples from the Help Center (making enough simple changes so it is not a duplicate), it won't save.

Same here. My old customFx no longer work in Jumpgate, and making new ones does not work.

Thanks Jayme!

Hello, I'm having issues with the new Custom FX tool on Roll20.

I am a Pro subscriber, and I use the FX Tools on Jumpgate. However, when I try to use the new Custom FX properties (like isPointToPoint), I encounter a problem where the effect won’t save. It seems like Roll20 doesn’t recognize this property. For example, I’m trying to create a custom effect for a missile, as the default missile in the effects list has an angle of 0 instead of -1, which causes issues with the aimed animation (since it doesn’t align correctly with angle 0).

Additionally, when I attempt to create a custom FX using one of the Built-in Effects listed here Roll20 FX Tool, I can’t get them to work. According to the documentation, we should be able to use these built-in effects as a base since they are in JSON format. However, this doesn’t seem to function as expected.

For instance, I liked the new splatter animation but found it too large for my purposes. If I could copy the built-in animation and adjust certain values, I’d be able to create a smaller, customized version and call it with the /fx command.

One of the trials I did with CustomFX to create something similar to the missile effect on the Effects (FX) Tool 

{
	"angle": -1,
	"emissionRate": 50,
	"lifeSpan": 7,
	"lifeSpanRandom": 5,
	"maxParticles": 350,
	"size": 7,
	"sizeRandom": 3,
	"speed": 7,
	"speedRandom": 5,
	"angle": -1,
	"rulerType": "line",
	"duration": 25,
	"isPointToPoint": true
}

I don't think I'm doing anything wrong here; I'm using everything explained in the guide, but some properties don't seem to work or aren't recognized. and the button test FX just dont working

{
	"angle": -1,
	"duration": 25,
	"emissionRate": 100,
	"isPointToPoint": true,
	"lifeSpan": 7,
	"lifeSpanRandom": 5,
	"maxParticles": 400,
	"rulerType": "line",
	"size": 10,
	"sizeRandom": 5,
	"speed": 7,
	"speedRandom": 5
}

Hello, this is working at last! I’m not sure why it didn’t work yesterday, but at least I now have a solution for my missile.

However, I’m having an issue with the Missile Basics FX. It seems that the Missile Basics FX has an incorrect angle property for aiming the FX. and i can't use it with my script (Is the only issue i have with aiming FX, i can use everything else), i think it's because the base angle was 0 instead of -1

Missile From the Effect FX tools page
missile: {
name: 'tool_fx_missile',
maxParticles: 350,
size: 7,
sizeRandom: 3,
lifeSpan: 7,
lifeSpanRandom: 5,
emissionRate: 50,
speed: 7,
speedRandom: 5,
angle: 0,
rulerType: 'line',
duration: 25,
isPointToPoint: true,
},

Did u turn off the fx tool for all users?

Strange. Now the fx are working as ever...