Custom Darkness Effect: Use an Image Overlay for Exploration Reveals

Suggestion: Currently, Roll20 Jumpgate offers three darkness effect styles,  Overlay , Dark Fog , and Pale Mist . While useful, these are limited to abstract visual filters. I’d love to see the ability to upload a custom image to serve as the darkness effect. The idea: Place the fully detailed, colored map on the Map Layer. Upload a low-detail, parchment version of the same map as the “darkness effect.” As players explore, their vision and dynamic lighting would cut away the black & white overlay, gradually revealing the detailed color map beneath. Why this would be awesome: Creates a strong sense of discovery, like the players are “unlocking” detail as they explore. Provides a much more immersive alternative to blank fog. Saves GMs from complex workarounds (like cutting a map into dozens of tiles and hiding them manually). Acknowledged Challenges: I realize this requires the overlay image to line up perfectly with the map layer. Even so, it feels like the simplest path compared to building an entirely new tool to dynamically clip tokens or tiles. This feature would open up creative possibilities far beyond just “fog”, like the example of ancient parchment maps fading into modern detail, and also things like cursed terrain slowly revealing its true form, or campaign-specific custom darkness effects.

I've done something like this already using the current system.  It was for a tactical wargame where line of sight was important and it was in the open, not in a dungeon or similar.  I used dynamic lighting and night vision (night vision was necessary to ensure you couldn't see something way off across the map). 1. Loaded the detailed map onto the map layer. 2. Added dynamic light barriers (which don't block movement) on the map around hills, buildings, woods etc. 3. Loaded the detailed map onto the foreground layer and used it as darkness. 4. For a unit I gave it night vision with a range of something like 2km (was using 100m hexes) Here's a couple pictures to sort of explain it, the squad can't see things behind the hill

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