Big News: The Foreground Layer Beta is Here!

Foreground... I very much like that as the tokens move around (especially with the arrow keys on the keyboard), grouped items (like a pieced-together roof) fade at the same time, and individual trees fade as they walk along a path.  I don't like that when I drop an art item (say a tree I purchased in a marketplace pack) on the Foreground layer, that it is appearing as a 1 square item with token menus.  Foreground drops I think should default to token menus off, and be sized as they would just as if I was dropping them on the map layer.  I tried dropping on the map layer and then changing layer to the foreground layer, and the size stayed but the token menus still appeared (and had to be turned off, foreground item by foreground item).

You can hold down the ALT key while dragging an item onto the VTT to override the automatic resizing.

Agreed with InfraBlack: Foreground objects should not be considered as token by default.

First off, I want to say that I love the foreground layer! Thanks, Roll20 team, for giving us a constant stream of exciting new features to work with. In last night's game, a foreground problem came up that I hadn't seen before, and I don't recall seeing anyone reported it on this thread. I set up a typical forest map, with tree canopies in the foreground. For me and four out of five players, everything worked exactly as intended--when a token moved under the tree, the canopy went transparent and revealed what was under there. But for the fifth player, that didn't happen. For some reason, the foreground objects didn't become transparent for him when he moved his token under them. I know he's using a laptop that, well, isn't the best, and he often has graphics/sound issues, so perhaps the issue is with the graphics capability of his system and not with Roll20 itself. Still, I thought it would be a good idea to mention it here just in case there is some underlying issue with the code itself. Has anyone else encountered anything like that?

I have issues where things in the foreground appear and disappear for me as GM, but not when I'm moving tokens. I mean just looking at the screen and having a map load. Sometimes things in the foreground layer are there, sometimes they vanish. Sometimes the objects are bright, sometimes dim too - that is, the opacity seems to change randomly. Not sure how to describe it better than that. Jay W. said: First off, I want to say that I love the foreground layer! Thanks, Roll20 team, for giving us a constant stream of exciting new features to work with. In last night's game, a foreground problem came up that I hadn't seen before, and I don't recall seeing anyone reported it on this thread. I set up a typical forest map, with tree canopies in the foreground. For me and four out of five players, everything worked exactly as intended--when a token moved under the tree, the canopy went transparent and revealed what was under there. But for the fifth player, that didn't happen. For some reason, the foreground objects didn't become transparent for him when he moved his token under them. I know he's using a laptop that, well, isn't the best, and he often has graphics/sound issues, so perhaps the issue is with the graphics capability of his system and not with Roll20 itself. Still, I thought it would be a good idea to mention it here just in case there is some underlying issue with the code itself. Has anyone else encountered anything like that?

The foreground layer is pretty awesome, Roll20. 

And now "Updated doors and windows to render above Foreground Objects (where they were previously not viable/clickable when appearing below Foreground Objects)" has broken this neat little trick. Doh/ jeez louise/ minor irritation not end of world... I had just 'fixed' forthcoming maps to use a small foreground overlay to hide doors until player tokens were close enough that i wanted them to be able to interact with them (plus to use the icon changer trick mentioned below to switch the Icon to something that better matched what they were seeing. Time to fix these maps again.  R20 please try to make changes like this feature-switchable when you're making them. JD said: firstly, roll20 you're awesome thanks! secondly, omg Keith ! you have half-solved my issue(s) with that damn door icon: I can put a foreground icon/image of my chosing over the top of the stupid door icon, and have it only reveal the actual default roll20 door or window icon when in proximity (for clicking etc.). Ima try this right now. yay. keithcurtis said: It's definitely a conundrum. Perhaps if doors became visible regardless, depending on their proximity to a token? This would at least reveal nearby doors. Also, you could mark exterior doors with a foreground layer token that doesn't react to token overlap (i.e. doesn't adjust it's opacity). Here is a Roll20 style door icon for such use. This is probably the best solution for folks who need a quick fix.

Thank you, I was waiting for it.

I like this foreground idea especially for roofs but how do you stop interior doors displaying through the layer?

Hi Gez! Do you have the interior set to block Dynamic Lighting? It's on the config dialog box of the foreground object.

In my Jumpgate game, the view of the door icons looks different when viewed as GM or player: Gez C. said: I like this foreground idea especially for roofs but how do you stop interior doors displaying through the layer?

Amazing feature! The Foreground Layer adds a whole new level of creativity can’t wait to use it in game! 

Rick A. said: In my Jumpgate game, the view of the door icons looks different when viewed as GM or player: That's good to know, Rick. I haven't GM'd since Foreground happened. That's probably the best solution, since the GM can easily edit door and window statuses on the fly.

Rick. Ahhh. I've just gone onto player view and the number of doors visible changes, depending where I move the token too. So I guess they can see doors through the windows. Thanks.  Rick A. said: In my Jumpgate game, the view of the door icons looks different when viewed as GM or player: Gez C. said: I like this foreground idea especially for roofs but how do you stop interior doors displaying through the layer?

Lavi said: We just posted a quick update -   Foreground Layer Beta: Recent Updates and Upcoming Enhancements .  Later this week, we'll be introducing a new option for controlling how Foreground objects interact with Darkness, called “As Darkness”. This allows Foreground objects to be revealed by a token’s vision, and is great for situations where you want players to explore a building or area without seeing the entire layout up front. Additionally, the previous “Hidden by Darkness” Off/On toggle will be split and renamed to "Above Darkness" and "Below Darkness" in the right-click token menu and in Token Settings and will be offered as an option alongside As Darkness. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ I'm looking forward to trying this out! I think it'll be a nice workaround for replacing Fog of War with an image, as I described here . I think if I use transparent walls (so players can't just walk into the area of solid rock) with Foreground images 'as darkness', then it'll do what I'm looking for. Tangentially, is there any progress on the ability to replace Fog of War with an image?  Foreground objects 'as darkness' will be an incredible tool, and if that is combined with a Fog of War custom image it'll be even better!

Honestly, I'm not sure how to use these new features/settings. A video would be extremely  helpful! Lavi said: We just posted a quick update -   Foreground Layer Beta: Recent Updates and Upcoming Enhancements .  Later this week, we'll be introducing a new option for controlling how Foreground objects interact with Darkness, called “As Darkness”. This allows Foreground objects to be revealed by a token’s vision, and is great for situations where you want players to explore a building or area without seeing the entire layout up front. Additionally, the previous “Hidden by Darkness” Off/On toggle will be split and renamed to "Above Darkness" and "Below Darkness" in the right-click token menu and in Token Settings and will be offered as an option alongside As Darkness. The linked thread includes some additional information and visuals.

Jarren said: Lavi said: We just posted a quick update -&nbsp;&nbsp; Foreground Layer Beta: Recent Updates and Upcoming Enhancements .&nbsp; Later this week, we'll be introducing a new option for controlling how Foreground objects interact with Darkness, called “As Darkness”. This allows Foreground objects to be revealed by a token’s vision, and is great for situations where you want players to explore a building or area without seeing the entire layout up front. Additionally, the previous “Hidden by Darkness” Off/On toggle will be split and renamed to "Above Darkness" and "Below Darkness" in the right-click token menu and in Token Settings and will be offered as an option alongside As Darkness. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ I'm looking forward to trying this out! I think it'll be a nice workaround for replacing Fog of War with an image, as I described here . I think if I use transparent walls (so players can't just walk into the area of solid rock) with Foreground images 'as darkness', then it'll do what I'm looking for. Tangentially, is there any progress on the ability to replace Fog of War with an image?&nbsp; Foreground objects 'as darkness' will be an incredible tool, and if that is combined with a Fog of War custom image it'll be even better! And Here,&nbsp; the Suggestion thread with user-feedback, requests, ideas for&nbsp; <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1241902/replace-fog-of-war-with-an-image/" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1241902/replace-fog-of-war-with-an-image/</a> Replace Fog Of War with an image

I would like to somehow create the effect of a PF1 fog cloud . In its 20-ft radius area of effect it obscures a token's vision beyond 5 feet away. I'm new to the foreground layer. Can it somehow be used to create this effect? (Or can some other Roll20 feature do that?) Thanks, Allen

I was just about to suggest this very idea... I made a cut out of an edge of a map placed over the map on the FG Layer to use as a means to hide tokens "behind" a wall that iss low enough to see over but high enough to hide things tucked in behind it. The only issue was that if the light is low (my players like to do most of their house breaking under the cover of night) the mask stands out. This announcement should make this a null point. Thank you! Lavi said: We just posted a quick update -&nbsp;&nbsp; Foreground Layer Beta: Recent Updates and Upcoming Enhancements .&nbsp; Later this week, we'll be introducing a new option for controlling how Foreground objects interact with Darkness, called “As Darkness”. This allows Foreground objects to be revealed by a token’s vision, and is great for situations where you want players to explore a building or area without seeing the entire layout up front. Additionally, the previous “Hidden by Darkness” Off/On toggle will be split and renamed to "Above Darkness" and "Below Darkness" in the right-click token menu and in Token Settings and will be offered as an option alongside As Darkness. The linked thread includes some additional information and visuals.

I'm pleased that the new settings on Token for Foreground vs Dynamic Lighting have arrived, but I'm hitting a bit of an issue. I have a few situations where I have buildings in a dark area that have DL Walls, and I want to put roofs on them using the Foreground layer so that players can tell its a building. I want the roofs to look solid, but also be under darkness so that they don't stick out like a light-source. The buildings, obviously, have their own walls which pose a problem when "Under Darkness" is used... The image attached shows the three stages of the new settings in the situation I'm talking about: 1 is "Above Darkness" 2 is "As Darkness" 3 is "Below Darkness" Ideally, I want to have the solidity of the view in image 1, mixed with the roof being at the same level of darkness as in image 3. Anyone got any ideas?

Tommy said: I'm pleased that the new settings on Token for Foreground vs Dynamic Lighting have arrived, but I'm hitting a bit of an issue. I have a few situations where I have buildings in a dark area that have DL Walls, and I want to put roofs on them using the Foreground layer so that players can tell its a building. I want the roofs to look solid, but also be under darkness so that they don't stick out like a light-source. The buildings, obviously, have their own walls which pose a problem when "Under Darkness" is used... The image attached shows the three stages of the new settings in the situation I'm talking about: 1 is "Above Darkness" 2 is "As Darkness" 3 is "Below Darkness" Ideally, I want to have the solidity of the view in image 1, mixed with the roof being at the same level of darkness as in image 3. Anyone got any ideas? I've been playing around with the Foreground layer as well, and realized that I could get a fairly close facsimile of ' Replace Fog of War With an Image ' . (Hopefully this .gif displays correctly - if not I can post individual screenshots): I created a Foreground layer object that was just a mask of the 'rock' for the entire page and put it on the Foreground layer: And set the Foreground settings for the image to "Token Layer Interaction: None / Always on top" and "As Darkness": And I used two DL lines: an invisible line that is close to the walls to prevent players from moving into the rock areas, and a second regular linethat is set back to allow players to see the walls clearly: It would still be really nice to have a separate Fog of War image, as the Foreground layer image can make setup a little tricky when there are other images on the Foreground layer (such as the Bone Cage I referenced in the other post). For this specific page, I think this works for what I need, but there are some workflow issues when images set to "Conditional Fade" are combined with an image that is set to "None / Always on Top"

That's very promising. My next bit of "tinkering", (since the project I'm working on is for "Cthulhu by Gaslight") is to try that very idea with a Fog effect, and use low light on a Character Token. Jarren said: Tommy said: I'm pleased that the new settings on Token for Foreground vs Dynamic Lighting have arrived, but I'm hitting a bit of an issue. I have a few situations where I have buildings in a dark area that have DL Walls, and I want to put roofs on them using the Foreground layer so that players can tell its a building. I want the roofs to look solid, but also be under darkness so that they don't stick out like a light-source. The buildings, obviously, have their own walls which pose a problem when "Under Darkness" is used... The image attached shows the three stages of the new settings in the situation I'm talking about: 1 is "Above Darkness" 2 is "As Darkness" 3 is "Below Darkness" Ideally, I want to have the solidity of the view in image 1, mixed with the roof being at the same level of darkness as in image 3. Anyone got any ideas? I've been playing around with the Foreground layer as well, and realized that I could get a fairly close facsimile of ' Replace Fog of War With an Image ' . (Hopefully this .gif displays correctly - if not I can post individual screenshots): I created a Foreground layer object that was just a mask of the 'rock' for the entire page and put it on the Foreground layer: And set the Foreground settings for the image to "Token Layer Interaction: None / Always on top" and "As Darkness": And I used two DL lines: an invisible line that is close to the walls to prevent players from moving into the rock areas, and a second regular linethat is set back to allow players to see the walls clearly: It would still be really nice to have a separate Fog of War image, as the Foreground layer image can make setup a little tricky when there are other images on the Foreground layer (such as the Bone Cage I referenced in the other post). For this specific page, I think this works for what I need, but there are some workflow issues when images set to "Conditional Fade" are combined with an image that is set to "None / Always on Top"

So playing around with the updated settings for the Foreground layer regarding Above Darkness/Below Darkness. When I try to move a Foreground object to Under Darkness, the switch does not move. If I click Below Darkness, the object stays Above Darkness. Further research....I only see this with shapes made with the Draw tool. I use black/black to create darkened areas on the Foreground layer like deep crevasse's that the player can only see into when they approach and trigger the conditional fade.

My first use of the Foreground Layer was to provide players with context on a big map.&nbsp; I use it to show the outline of a structure and location of obvious features.&nbsp; For example, the outline of a starship the PCs are exploring.&nbsp; They see it from outside, and they even holographic HUD, but they can only see what they can see with dynamic lighting. I like this feature and am exploring new intriguing ways to use it.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Roll20 Team take a look at this question-issue-resolution, <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/12375823/foreground-rendering-above-hide-slash-reveal-mask/?pageforid=12375823#post-12375823" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/12375823/foreground-rendering-above-hide-slash-reveal-mask/?pageforid=12375823#post-12375823</a> Is it clear enough in the documentation and announcement that "Darkness" = INCLUDES the Hide/Reveal Mask ?&nbsp; Are we meant to automatically know that Hide/Reveal Mask is = "Darkness"?&nbsp; This is maybe a question about how Roll20 uses the terminology Darkness, or, it is a suggestion to mention "Hide/Reveal Mask" in the description of how "Above Darkness" and "Below Darkness" work.&nbsp;

For anyone who is experiencing the bug where foreground layer objects are visible through lighting layer objects (e.g. walls), I found a work around (feature?): Set the foreground object to "Below Darkness". This will allow lighting layer objects to block visibility of foreground layer objects. Roll20 Team, the foreground layer is really cool and i'm already excited to use it for tonight's game and the future - thank you! However, please could you point me at a how-to page? It took me the best part of an hour forum-scrolling and experimenting to figure out how to get this to work. The above was not (to me) intuitive, and i'm still not convinced this isn't a bug ;)

Lordmonkey said: However, please could you point me at a how-to page?&nbsp; Here is the Help documentation (which is still subject to being updated more, but it starts to cover what you're asking about),&nbsp; <a href="https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/30738192036887-Foreground-Layer#h_01JRBEVTN0DAQWDVBZFYMSXZRB" rel="nofollow">https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/30738192036887-Foreground-Layer#h_01JRBEVTN0DAQWDVBZFYMSXZRB</a>

Gold said: Lordmonkey said: However, please could you point me at a how-to page?&nbsp; Here is the Help documentation (which is still subject to being updated more, but it starts to cover what you're asking about),&nbsp; <a href="https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/30738192036887-Foreground-Layer#h_01JRBEVTN0DAQWDVBZFYMSXZRB" rel="nofollow">https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/30738192036887-Foreground-Layer#h_01JRBEVTN0DAQWDVBZFYMSXZRB</a> Bookmarked - Thank you! I think the terminology "Darkness" was confusing for me. You can have "darkness" (lack of light) without physically obstructing vision. I initially ignored these settings as a result. That is just me though, perhaps this is clearer for other users.

This is a foreground layer oddity that has been happening since yesterday. I set up a "roof" on the foreground layer over a section of the map, and set it to act "As Darkness". When I test it with a token using CNTL=L, everything looks the way I expect it to, but when I log in as a player using my dummy account, the player token cannot see the "roof"; the map appears as if the foreground layer doesn't exist. This is happening on all the maps where I have set up foreground objects, even ones where the foreground layer was working properly as of three days ago. View showing foreground options for "roof" sections: View of map using CNRL+L on token to rough-check visibility: View of map using "dummy" account logged in as a player (I tried this using both Chrome and Firefox):

I ran into this as well. Turn off the conditional fade opacity and it should work the way you are expecting.

I just tried that on two separate maps, but it didn't work. I tried both turning off the toggle and leaving the toggle on and moving the slider to either extreme. All those conditions resulted in the same results as I showed above. Jarren said: I ran into this as well. Turn off the conditional fade opacity and it should work the way you are expecting.

My DM experienced some issues with the foreground layer due to the size of their maps. It was bad enough with the lag when they tried to move between foreground and light layers that it crashed their browser. Is this going to be a feature that will be toggleable? Or, if not, keeping in mind some larger maps may not be compatible.

Gaze of Balance said: My DM experienced some issues with the foreground layer due to the size of their maps. It was bad enough with the lag when they tried to move between foreground and light layers that it crashed their browser. Is this going to be a feature that will be toggleable? Or, if not, keeping in mind some larger maps may not be compatible. Hi Gaze of Balance! Can you expand on what you mean by toggleable? What would be the difference with just not putting anything on the foreground layer if it causes an issue?

Either there are still problems with the Foreground Layer, or I'm not understanding things, or maybe both. Here's my view, logged in as GM: There are several doors and windows on this map, beside the one that is clearly there. The only reason you can see it, is because I put one of Keith's images there to make the window a bigger size and visible. Here are where there are other windows and doors on the bottom: The half-circles in red are where there are other doors and windows. There are a couple more not shown. I don't understand why drawing something on the token layer, should go underneath something that's on the foreground layer, creating those half-circles. That seems wrong to me. But, in any event, the effect that I'm trying to get is that as the player(s) move their tokens up to the window, they can see inside the building, but not when they move up to the door. I'm not sure that's possible but..., what I don't understand is why when the player moves up to one window, they can kind of see through other doors and windows: (This view is what is seen when logged into a dummy test account as a player) Here's what happens when they move to the door, even though the door is closed: The view is almost the same but not quite. I still think that there should be some kind of "distance" parameter on foreground objects where the DM can sett at what distance away they fade. That would allow players to look in a window (or open door) from further away than right on top of it. But, I also do not understand why they see through it this way. I mean, the foreground object should either disappear entirely or not disappear at all, it should not have partial disappearance like it has here. I think the Foreground Layer is a wonderful idea... I'm just not liking the execution, or the fact that it doesn't work in an intuitive way (at least to me). Maybe I'm missing something or not understanding something, or maybe it's broken... but it doesn't seem like it's going to work for what I want to accomplish as it currently is. To get what I want/need, I have to use a second token for each of the doors and windows because they are not visible otherwise, and I have to group all of them together with the roof. That creates another problem because if I want to move one of those doors/windows, or delete the second icon, I have to ungroup the whole thing, make my modifications, and then go through and group all of the things together again. There's no way to remove just one image from a group that I can see.