Dynamic Lighting, Light and vision conditions that can differ between characters

Perhaps we can do this already and I'm missing it, but while I can create a light source cast by a token, it can be seen by all or not - this is fine for normal 'light', but I would like to have the ability to have characters have abilities such as 'low-light vision' or 'dark vision' - if we could extend the ability to see for players (x2 light sources), or to be able to see X feet in complete darkness. Right now, there's no good way (AFAIK) to show the affects for those with low-light or darkvision.

That's a great idea!

Workarounds to accomplish Low-Light vision and Darkvision:  For Darkvision do the following: Set the light radius for the token that has darkvision and leave the 'All players see light' box uncheckmarked. Only the controlling player will see the 'light'. There are no major drawbacks here. Low-Light vision is a bit trickier. It requires doubling up on light sources. Group a light source with a second lightsource. On the second lightsource set the light distance to double the first light source. Then leave 'All players see light' unchecked and changed the 'controlled by' box to those people with low-light vision.  Example:  PC 'Bob' has low-light vision. PC 'Matt' does not.  Torch 1 has an Emits light radius of 20feet. 'All players see light' is checkmarked. Torch 2 has an Emits light radius of 40feet. 'All players see light' is NOT checkmarked. PC 'Bob' is given control of the torch. Group Torch 1 and Torch 2 together. PC 'Bob' now sees a light radius around the torch of 40feet while PC 'Matt' sees only the 20foot radius. Drawbacks: 1) 'Bob' can move the torch. This requires 'Bob' to be an adult and not move the torch if he shouldn't. Failure to comply should result in threats such as 'I will take away all such low-light tokens and you will effectively lose your low-light vision'. However, that is up to you and your players. :) 2) In order to edit the grouped tokens individually you have to hold down Alt while clicking on the grouped token. This allows you to access the topmost token.  3) While normal light sources work when they are on the map layer a light source that does not have 'All players see light' will not work. The light source is not checked to see if a controlling player can see it.  With all of that said, I would love to see improvements to the light system so that each token has two different light source options.  - Gauss

Copy the maptool vision/lighting system for tokens. It works wonderfully.

Also, a related question/suggestion having to do with Dim lighting vs. normal lighting - perhaps in future editions we might be able to give a gradation to light that stages down every increment, and visually looks different. Normal lighting would work how it does now, but dim would perhaps be 50% opaque, and dark would be 100% opaque? Just an idea.

Currently I'm setting the Bright light radius and then sending the token to the Map layer for fixed lamps/fires.  maybe just two radius options?

I just logged into to post this very suggestion. I think Gauss's suggestion is functional but there needs to be an easier solution.

We had a rather big discussion about this when dynamic lighting was introduced. Short version: To do it correctly, some big changes are needed. Small changes would hurt more than being helpful. So expect no changes until the team has the time to do it right. Somewhat longer version: The system needs more kinds of light (e.g. normal, infrared) and more falloffs (normal vision, low-light vision) on the lighting side. Then character-tokens need to be tagged which types of light they can see with which falloffs. Then the system has to calculate---for each token a player controls---the lighting filter and combine (AND) it with the token's LOS, then combine (OR) all those for the player. And while we're at it, a lighting tint for each light can be added easily. --- Just imagine a vast and dark cavern, filled with skeletons and goblins. A human archer with a torch, a human mage, an elf and a dwarf enter it. The mage casts "detect arcane auras". The human archer will see 15m around the torch. The human mage will see 15m around the torch and the skeletons (arcane aura light radius=0.5). The elf will see 30m around the torch. The dwarf will see 15m around the torch normally, 25m around the torch dimly, the goblins, and a small bit around the goblins dimly (infrared light radius=1.5). Now a skeleton mage casts a spell on the human archer, turning him into a bat. The human archer in bat form will only see 45m around himself in grays (settings on the token: see lights: ambient=yes, normal=no, low_light=no, infrared=no, magical_aura=no; LOS range: 45m; LOS effect: grayscale).

I'd like to be able to simulate the cone of light from a bullseye lantern.

I like joshuas idea of gradient light.  It would be nice to see of into the darkness from easily (near a light source) to dimly and then not at all the furthernyou go away.

Ron A. said: I'd like to be able to simulate the cone of light from a bullseye lantern. Yes, I liked that feature in Maptools. I also used the cone view for PCs with Infravision, since they would only be able to see what was more or less in front of them.

+1.

Henry L. said: Short version: To do it correctly, some big changes are needed. Small changes would hurt more than being helpful. So expect no changes until the team has the time to do it right. Hm... overlooked this one when posting in the other thread. While of course modifiers on the token and different type of lights etc. would be a great and a really big change, a simple secondary or third light source on a token would "patch" the range / type issue for the time being (assuming two LS's wouldn't cause any conflicts). While it might be best to do it right and take the time, I do think that multiple sources might help a lot compared to working with addtional token(s) and groups of those. And even with an improved version in the future, similar to the one used as an example, I'd vote for multiple sources with an additional on/off checkbox (thinking of a car with all kinds of lights that can be hindered by i.e. snow/mud/fog or disabled, but where often not all are disabled or hindered at the same time). Multiple sources could be a first step to improve usability, while work on modifiers and types is being done right.

Thinking on this while driving today, I just may have "light source" tokens that a Player can control and then set a minimum range for each character.  using D&D, give the Dwarf 40' range, a human 5' (Not 100% accurate but a hero should be able to sense anything next to him) and so on.  I'll play with this some more using the tool at thand