Dice Tower Visibility Logic...

[HoloGnome]

I was just trying to figure out why the Dice Tower wasn't showing up for me and came across this thread:
Invisible Dice Tower (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?20106-invisible-dice-tower-and-something-completly-different)

...where I learned that the Dice Tower would only be visible for the GM if Dice Tower was enabled and show GM rolls was true.

I was initially a little confused by this feature until I logged in with a loopback client and could see that enabling the Dice Tower with show GM rolls set to false on the hosting side still caused it to show up for clients. And, now I understand that if I want to use the Dice Tower as a GM, that the software expects show GM rolls to be true (which makes sense in terms of the current implementation).

It might be worth considering making the Dice Tower operate in a double context for GMs. If GMs have show rolls set to false, the Dice Tower could still be visible and show the rolls instead of hide them in addition to working as intended and hiding rolls if show rolls is true. It would just be a convenience/preference thing for GMs who either mostly hide or mostly show rolls.

Context help for the GM options would also be helpful.

Just some suggestions and usability observations, since I haven't messed around with the dice tower until now.

[Andraax]

If GM has "Hide Rolls" turned on, it, in effect, rolls all of his rolls in the tower. If he wants to show a roll to players while in this mode, he just has to drag the result and drop it again on the chat box. I could see having it do the "opposite" thing as you're suggesting causing confusion (GM assuming that "Hide Rolls" is off, and dropping a roll into the tower in order to hide it and instead showing the roll).

[HoloGnome]

Possibly, but that would presume that there would be no corresponding UI/Human Factors change or improvement in conjunction with the functional change. If the Dice Tower had 2 modes for GMs, I would expect to see a corresponding human factors change, such as text underneath the Dice Tower that said "Hide Rolls" or "Show Rolls" or maybe some mode-related visual change to the Dice Tower image. In the event a dual-mode dice tower were ever implemented, there probably wouldn't be any confusion (especially considering related changes/improvements to the tool tip functionality).

As a newer FG user, I find the current implementation somewhat confusing, as follows:

1. GM enables Dice Tower, has no confirmation that it is visible for players or able to see the screen as players do without logging in as a loopback client (and needs to know how to log in as a loopback on localhost to avoid licensing conflicts)
2. GM enables Dice Tower, but does not see it appear in GM mode because there is no indication that it only shows up when "show rolls" is true
3. Players and GMs are supposed to understand that the function of the Dice Tower within FG is to hide rolls, even though there is no useful information in the tool tip (it just says "Dice Tower")
4. GMs are supposed to know that dragging rolls to the chat window makes them visible to players vs. rolls which also show in the chat window and are invisible to players (there is no indication which items are visible or invisible to players in the chat window)
5. Dragging rolls to the input area (bottom line) of the chat window does nothing, strangely.
6. Dragging rolls to the content area of chat just shows the total and not the actual rolls/bonuses/dice types to the players (not functionally equivalent to what they would see if "show rolls" were visible)

Also, from a usability standpoint, the Dice Tower is too far away from the dice and if the chat window is the focus of where the rolls go, maybe the chat window should have a simple show/hide toggle as an alternate strategy. (However, I am also aware that there is a Move Dice Tower extension to address the former usability issue.)

[Note: The above is not a complaint or intended as negative. It's just an abstract feature/implementation discussion.]

[Trenloe]

(there is no indication which items are visible or invisible to players in the chat window)
Yes there is: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Chat_Window#Hidden_Chat_Messages


A secret GM message is identified by a shuttered eye icon (or question mark), and only visible to the GM.

[HoloGnome]

OK. Thanks, Trenloe. I had no idea that the "?" meant that the roll was hidden. I have be playing with "show rolls" set to false and just thought the "?" was an indication of randomness. It didn't really stand out as a visibility indicator to me.

I would suggest a change to the icon to something more clear/intuitive, such as an eye and eye with a line through it if it is intended to imply privacy. (When is the "shuttered eye" used/displayed?) The simpler and more elegant, the better. For Example: Privacy Icon (https://cdn1.iconfinder.com/data/icons/lightly-pro/60/visibility-off-selected.png) (could even be simpler than this, and maybe a red slash)

Also, a tool tip saying "This roll is private/hidden" would be helpful. In addition, since the chat window is the primary rolling interface, there could even be a status field/message at the bottom saying something like: "GM rolls are hidden" or "GM rolls are visible" as a visual/usability cue to the GM.

The UI could maybe even go 1 step further with visibility ease-of-use and include a toggle near the dice or chat window (or use the Dice Tower as a dual mode control, as above).

[damned]

@Holo - you manage to work tool tips into most posts :)
This stuff is in the doco but most of us dont read the doco...

[HoloGnome]

I was just disassembling the front end of a car tonight, and I was really wishing all the parts had tool tips for reassembly. ^_^

Docs or no docs, I think there might be some room for interesting/helpful feature expansion and ways to make things more intuitive for first-time users.