Big News: The Foreground Layer Beta is Here!

This would be a lot easier for me to test, if Roll20 had provided items that could be used with this layer, such as building roofs. I'm at a loss to find anything relevant for the campaign I'm building at the moment. 65 maps and nothing I can use on any of them for/with this feature. Disappointing. Feels to me like a waste of resources. Or maybe I'm not understanding how to use this feature?

I cannot express how amazing this is!  THANK YOU!

I was lucky enough to be able to try this out while it was still in pre-beta(?). Anyway, I really didn't think I needed a foreground layer until I started playing around with it. Here's a "demo reel" video I put together that shows some cool possibilities. Also, visit and  upvote  the  elevation/multi-level play suggestion thread ! I posted an idea there for handling mutilevel, but I'm sure there are other ways to handle it.

Excited to try this out! I have a few maps that had built in roofs already, and will be fun to use some weather effects on scenes as a start :)

Found a bug (or two) and sent them off to the Help Center. The short version is that items in the foreground layer are visible behind dynamic lighting walls that should be blocking the vision:

I didn't see that Lavi, and good to know it's there but... although I clicked on it, added it to my collection, it is not appearing in my jumpgate games. Edit: Actually, although I click on the button to add it to my games, it doesn't seem to be adding it at all! Clicking the "Free Token Set" button, just takes me to the "Create a Game" page. Lavi said: Hi Saul - we do have a sampler pack available on our marketplace for this that we linked to in our Blog and marketing material! Great callout thought, and I've explicitly added that link to this announcement thread now too. Saul J. said: This would be a lot easier for me to test, if Roll20 had provided items that could be used with this layer, such as building roofs. I'm at a loss to find anything relevant for the campaign I'm building at the moment. 65 maps and nothing I can use on any of them for/with this feature. Disappointing. Feels to me like a waste of resources. Or maybe I'm not understanding how to use this feature?

Is that not what the Hidden by darkness toggle is meant to be for? If its one it shows though darkness, and if its on it does not?

Can you please add an option to "expand" the layer selection in a column on the toolbar like before? It's a little inconvenient for me to have to open a side menu each time to choose which layer I want.

It's not that it's hidden by darkness. It's hidden by WALLS. Or should be. Nils Gunnar said: Is that not what the Hidden by darkness toggle is meant to be for? If its one it shows though darkness, and if its on it does not?

Saul J. said: I didn't see that Lavi, and good to know it's there but... although I clicked on it, added it to my collection, it is not appearing in my jumpgate games. Try putting "36564" into the search field. The in-game Art Library search often has problems with the marketplace, but if you put the set ID number (visible in the URL), you can often circumvent that and see exactly and only the set you are looking for.

Saul J. said: It's not that it's hidden by darkness. It's hidden by WALLS. Or should be. Nils Gunnar said: Is that not what the Hidden by darkness toggle is meant to be for? If its one it shows though darkness, and if its on it does not? Is that a true player view or a GM Ctrl-L view?

This looks neat. Perhaps items on the foreground layer should go transparent when you have selected the Lighting layer. Also items on the foreground layer hide the Door markers. Not sure what could be done about that.

Jim R. said: This looks neat. Perhaps items on the foreground layer should go transparent when you have selected the Lighting layer. Also items on the foreground layer hide the Door markers. Not sure what could be done about that. In general, I think that foreground items should hide door markers. Consider the application of using the layer for roofs. If the roof is covering the floorplan, it would be distracting (or spoiler-y) to reveal the location of interior doors. Also, if you need to control the visibility of the foreground layer, the hamburger menu on the toolbar has a slider for that. Not automatic, but it sounds like it does what you need.

True player view from a separate browser.  keithcurtis said: Saul J. said: It's not that it's hidden by darkness. It's hidden by WALLS. Or should be. Nils Gunnar said: Is that not what the Hidden by darkness toggle is meant to be for? If its one it shows though darkness, and if its on it does not? Is that a true player view or a GM Ctrl-L view?

keithcurtis said: In general, I think that foreground items should hide door markers. Consider the application of using the layer for roofs. If the roof is covering the floorplan, it would be distracting (or spoiler-y) to reveal the location of interior doors. Also, if you need to control the visibility of the foreground layer, the hamburger menu on the toolbar has a slider for that. Not automatic, but it sounds like it does what you need. But, outside door markers (i.e. doors into the building) shouldn't be hidden... unless the roof has an overhang. 

The link that came in the email announcement (which I just got) apparently took me to a different place than the one in this thread above. The link from the email did the right thing, and claimed that I had claimed the set, which clicking the button on the first page did not. However, it still doesn't appear in the game, even searching for the number. keithcurtis said: Saul J. said: I didn't see that Lavi, and good to know it's there but... although I clicked on it, added it to my collection, it is not appearing in my jumpgate games. Try putting "36564" into the search field. The in-game Art Library search often has problems with the marketplace, but if you put the set ID number (visible in the URL), you can often circumvent that and see exactly and only the set you are looking for.

Meh. I'd rather have core functionality than new features. A working sheet would be nice.

In the blog page discussing it, it says: Setting a foreground object’s Base Opacity to 0% and Conditional Fade to 100% will make objects appear out of nowhere when players walk into them. How do you set the Base Opacity of an object?  I think you could do it for the entire page on the hamburger menu, but you might not want it for the whole page, just the trap.  It would be most helpful if it was controllable for each object, and one more option on the right click menu's Foreground Object Options sub-menu.   Actually, now that I think about it, I'd love to have a Base Opacity on all objects regardless of layer.  Maybe put the Base Opacity on the main right-click menu or under the Advanced Transform sub-menu, and let it work everywhere, then have conditional opacity on the foreground layer only.  

I'm having trouble looking at the GM layer with foreground objects.  They don't seem to follow the GM opacity setting unless I have a token from the token layer beneath them.  Without the token they are 100% opaque.

Wow, that's a super easy way to handle invisibility! For a character who regularly becomes invisible, assign their default token an aura with a radius of -1. Make sure the visibility is set for "Edit" and not "see". This will ensure that only the GM and the owner of the token will be able to see the aura. Most of the time, the aura will be invisible, having a negative radius. But if you set the Opacity to 0, the token disappears, and only the aura shows. The GM and the player know where it is, but no other players can see it. And of course, if the GM is the only controller, the token is effectively invisible to all players. (You will also need to control the nameplate visibility, of course.)

Lavi said: Hi Jim! Love the question, especially because we had the same thought! Base Opacity is a new setting available per token regardless of Layer :). You can find it in Details Tab of the Token Settings. Perfect, thanks!  I hadn't noticed it on that screen.  Any chance you're planning to add it to the right-click menu too? Thanks again!

keithcurtis said: Hey Keith, I am watching your Youtube video of the foreground and I am baffle on 2 things: The Eldritch Horror and the Pirates w/ the Boat scenario. I am able to replicate them appearing, however my token has to basically sit on top of them. However in yours, the token gets within a radius before they appear. How did you manage that? Transparent token stretched out and group with is?

That video was made while the feature was still in development. At that point in time, the trigger for determining overlap was based on the visual bounding box of the token and the image. If they touched, the behavior was triggered. I felt it was too easy to accidentally trigger. Based on this and feedback from others, the devs reworked it so that the trigger distance was based on the Dynamic Lighting square of the token intersecting the foreground image. (That's the little square you can see when viewing a sighted token from the DL layer.) For anyone trying to figure out how it is done, the "make it appear" trick is done by using a coverup of the natural background, which obscures map elements and tokens with the illusion of empty space until the player token intersects. I'm hoping that the feature might be expanded to add "reverse" behavior. I.e. making a foreground object appear when intersected, instead of disappear.

First of all Thanks for the Foreground Layer, it will be such a nice improvement :D looking forward to test it out!

Plural said: Meh. I'd rather have core functionality than new features. A working sheet would be nice. Roll20 has hundreds of working sheets. Not everything is about D&D.

Sadly it seems like FPS goes down for nearly every map, especially the big maps with lots of token. Even with empty foreground layer, Jumpgate seems to worsen the performance, this could be problematic for weaker computers.

I just entered one of my jumpgate test games... You may want to fix this.

It wasn't showing up yesterday. It showed up today. All good. Lavi said: Thanks for pointing out that you were having trouble accessing the free assets - we know that our in-VTT search is difficult to use sometimes, so we've made it a little easier. If you visit the Marketplace item on the marketplace and use the "Claim" button, you can then find the pack in the "Marketplace Purchases" section of the Art Library tab in-VTT. The results should load better in search in a day or so. Since the title was activated today, there's some back-end updating that has to process. Alternatively, you may download the assets in the pack, but that shouldn't be necessary, and would impact your storage, so we recommend that as a last resort. Saul J. said: I didn't see that Lavi, and good to know it's there but... although I clicked on it, added it to my collection, it is not appearing in my jumpgate games. Edit: Actually, although I click on the button to add it to my games, it doesn't seem to be adding it at all! Clicking the "Free Token Set" button, just takes me to the "Create a Game" page. Lavi said: Hi Saul - we do have a sampler pack available on our marketplace for this that we linked to in our Blog and marketing material! Great callout thought, and I've explicitly added that link to this announcement thread now too. Saul J. said: This would be a lot easier for me to test, if Roll20 had provided items that could be used with this layer, such as building roofs. I'm at a loss to find anything relevant for the campaign I'm building at the moment. 65 maps and nothing I can use on any of them for/with this feature. Disappointing. Feels to me like a waste of resources. Or maybe I'm not understanding how to use this feature?

Plural said: Meh. I'd rather have core functionality than new features. A working sheet would be nice. That's not a jumpgate issue. That's a 2024 D&D issue. Different development teams.

keithcurtis said: That video was made... That's a bummer. Cause in your video, the person getting closer to the edge to peer into the cove, made perfect sense and visual sense. He couldn't see until he got closer and they finally pop up.  So the work around however is a transparent.png and create your own boundary by stretching the size of it. Group it with the actual tokens you're looking to hide and it still works.  Gotta set the transparent.png token to the back or set the tokens to the front. 

However there seems to be an issue: Grab a npc token set it to the foreground double click token to open token setting Set Base Opacity to 0 Turn on Nameplate go to Foreground tab Set conditional fade to 100% Save token setting Now DM move back to token layer - even the DM can't see the token. That should be expected, but I was hoping the DM can see the NAME. There will be times we forgot we set a monster up and then in-game, someone walks into it and things just got ackward.......... There should be some form for the DM to see tokens hidden in the foreground. 

Since Grouped graphics on the foreground layer respond together, for the cliff face example you can use a subsection of the map on the foreground layer to hide what is on the token layer, then group it with graphic "edges" in the places that would let you see into it.  When a player token is on that edge, it will reveal for them what is below the cliff.  That avoids needing to group things across layers and possibly lose the "invisible" tokens. Novercalis said: keithcurtis said: That video was made... That's a bummer. Cause in your video, the person getting closer to the edge to peer into the cove, made perfect sense and visual sense. He couldn't see until he got closer and they finally pop up.  So the work around however is a transparent.png and create your own boundary by stretching the size of it. Group it with the actual tokens you're looking to hide and it still works.  Gotta set the transparent.png token to the back or set the tokens to the front. 

Nice ! Can this setting be changed through the API? Lavi said: Hi Jim! Love the question, especially because we had the same thought! Base Opacity is a new setting available per token regardless of Layer :). You can find it in Details Tab of the Token Settings. Jim said: In the blog page discussing it, it says: Setting a foreground object’s Base Opacity to 0% and Conditional Fade to 100% will make objects appear out of nowhere when players walk into them. How do you set the Base Opacity of an object?  I think you could do it for the entire page on the hamburger menu, but you might not want it for the whole page, just the trap.  It would be most helpful if it was controllable for each object, and one more option on the right click menu's Foreground Object Options sub-menu.   Actually, now that I think about it, I'd love to have a Base Opacity on all objects regardless of layer.  Maybe put the Base Opacity on the main right-click menu or under the Advanced Transform sub-menu, and let it work everywhere, then have conditional opacity on the foreground layer only.  

Ulti said: Nice ! Can this setting be changed through the API? Yes! Token Mod can do it, and here is the documentation for making your own scripts. Thanks to The Aaron.

I didn't even notice the "Show Foreground to Players" toggle. Now I need to find a problem for it to solve. :D

Lavi said: Hi Gabe - in the left Toolbar's hamburger menu, we added GM Opacity settings across layers for easier access an control during game development. Here, you can also find "GM Foreground Layer Opacity," and adjusting that down will make the map layer more visible. Gabe K. said: I'm having trouble looking at the GM layer with foreground objects.  They don't seem to follow the GM opacity setting unless I have a token from the token layer beneath them.  Without the token they are 100% opaque. Perfect!  Fixed it in seconds. Thanks!

Issues:- 1) Hamburger Menu???  Took me 15 minutes to find what this is... Nothing in help - only clue I found was in this thread!  When I see three parrallel lines I do not immediately think of a hamburger, though I can see why some might! 2) Why are GM Notes not visible?  Logically, I would think, GMs will want them visible to players just as if on the Token later, if the players can see the token...  (OK I know they are not visible unless you are on that layer... which players never will be (or will they?))

Jim W. said: Issues:- 1) Hamburger Menu???&nbsp; Took me 15 minutes to find what this is... Nothing in help - only clue I found was in this thread!&nbsp; When I see three parrallel lines I do not immediately think of a hamburger, though I can see why some might! It is what it is called: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_button" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_button</a> But, I do agree that any "proper name" of an item should also come with a description of that so that everyone knows what it is called.&nbsp;

A nice function would be the ability to "draw" transparently over something on the map so that parts of the map itself appear to be in the foreground layer. If I draw something with a color that shape will go over the tokens, but if I make it transparent then it can be seen through (which makes sense). If it could somehow still block view of tokens under it though without a visible shape being drawn then it would be a simple way to make parts of a premade map on the foreground layer. I've done similar things on different RPG Maker programs, and I hope it can be implemented here!&nbsp;

Something I ran into, which I think could be a good feature to add, would be a slider for the Hidden by Darkness so you could change how much it shows, or at least let it blend in the dynamic lighting like the map layer does . Because I made a mushroom forest map where the giant mushroom could not be seen into but could be crawled into in order to get inside or hide (this was great for ambushes and this foreground feature works wonders for it) however I have the map set on explorer mode so that my players can see previous map details such as where mushroom were when their line of sight it blocked however, because you can either set the foreground objects to be either hidden by the darkness or not hidden by the darkness, you only have two options when you have an explorer map option on with dynamic lighting, which neither look that great but one is worse.&nbsp; This is what it looks like with Hidden by Darkness on This is what it looks like with Hidden by Darkness off Having it off clearly doesn't work as its way to obvious where an enemy may be hiding, but the other one hides the objects completely when not in line of sight of the player, which makes it obvious where things are once you notice the giant mushroom or sudden bush.

I am so excited that this feature is finally on it's way, as I've been wanting overhead tiles for a long long time. Finally got to play around a bit with a map that I made a year or two ago with rooftops and awnings as a setup in a test Jumpgate game, as I have yet to swap over with my main campaign. I want to say I really appreciate the per-asset 'Foreground Layer Options', I like that we can have individual controls over different situations and use cases. I also like that you can click on tokens through the Foreground layer. Some of my main asks/bugs/issues ( video clip of my test map scene for context ): The 'bounding box' test used for obsuring assets can be very clunky if the asset is not generally rectangular. I ran into this problem with overhead assets authored on the diagonal, and assets that have odd protrusions or cut outs, and thus a lot of space where you can walk into the bounding box and not the asset. As someone that works in 3D art, I might suggest the possibility of looking into an alpha-test based solution (ie. checking the transparency values (alpha chanel) of the pixels) for a more accurate bounding box. In my personal opinion, visible door and window icons should render above the foreground level. I ran into this in my test map that had overhangs and roofs, which made the icons very difficult to find and click on unless you knew where they already were. This happens as standard in the current Roll20 lighting set up with doors/windows showing up over completely obscured black parts of the map. I would love to be able to set Game-wide defaults for all the values in the 'Foreground Layer Options'. I found myself always toggling on 'Hidden by Darkness' for example. (Before I watched your blogpost intro video and realized adjusting that setting was even an option, I assumed that the default state of assets were bugged as they showed up even when obscured by walls, which doesn't seem like an ideal assumed default state. I also encountered troubleshooting that assumption with a friend and DM of mine who was trying to set up FGs in their own game. Maybe a user experience thing to think about). I really hope that elevations are integrated at some point soon (and I have voted for those various and related suggestions in the forums many times) or at the very least some way of swapping assets from foreground &gt; map and vice versa can be controlled with API scripts (created by people smarter than me) as the use case of getting players on top of roofs/walkable overhead spaces is extremely clunky with the base version of the FG layer at the moment. The order of icons for the various selectable layers in the bottom left bar seems very... unintuitive. Personally I'd at least want 'Foreground' above 'Map' on the list, and the following would be my ideal order. Foreground &gt; GM &gt; Tokens &gt; Lighting &gt; Map Thank you very much though for this first iteration of Foregrounds though, it's already exceeding my expectations, and I look forward to seeing what you all do with it next!

This is fantastic!! One thing I noticed is that if a token is delete while it's "under" a foreground layer item the foreground layer item remains revealed, it doesn't reappear. It will reappear if you close the map and open it again, but it seems that the transparent to opaque toggle requires token interaction both ways. Deleting tokens while they're under a foreground object is a pretty minor fringe case to be an actual problem, but just thought I would mention it.

KatValkyrie said: The order of icons for the various selectable layers in the bottom left bar seems very... not what you'd assume it should be. Personally I'd at least want 'Foreground' above 'Map' on the list, and the following would be my ideal order. Foreground &gt; GM &gt; Tokens &gt; Lighting &gt; Map Thank you very much though for this first iteration of Foregrounds though, it's already exceeding my expectations, and I look forward to seeing what you all do with it next! Shows how different people use things differently, and different tastes and all. I'd actually prefer the list in the order in which I'm likely to access them during game play: Tokens-&gt;GM-&gt;Lighting-&gt;Foreground-&gt;Map.