Special Announcement - Kickstarter

The masks that we support will need to be solid with a transparent background. The solid portion gets turned into polygons which block all LOS past the edge. If your mask is drawn right at the edge (like it appears to do with the CC3 trace tool), then the player won't get to see any part of the actual wall. Their vision will stop immediately at the wall edge. That typically does not look good, which is why I would collapse this in a bit within Photoshop whenever I created a mask. If you have a sample image and mask that you'd like to try, you can attach them here and I can show you what that looks like in FGU when using just the mask. We are traveling this week (tomorrow), so I may not get around to it until I get back next week -- Tuesday or beyond.

Of note, the sort of clicking around he did on the further inset portion is pretty similar to what I do within FGU.

Thanks Doug. I get the clicking around is not much different, but to have to do it twice would be a bummer :) So, when I do the mask, I actually use the alignment tools (snap to grid or snap to entity) so my mask entity falls exactly on the wall node, but since the wall has a thickness, the mask only covers half the width of the wall. So in that case, then the LOS would reveal part of the wall, as desired.

Thanks, and no rush on the demo video, won't matter to me until the beta is available :) And if it helps, I can provide you a map and a mask to go with it if you want.

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Originally Posted by LordEntrails

And if it helps, I can provide you a map and a mask to go with it if you want.

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I think this would be useful so that others can see how this would work.

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Originally Posted by Trenloe

I think this would be useful so that others can see how this would work.

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I can do that, and put together instructions on how to make it.

Doug, would a full blackout mask or just a "region" of darkness be preferred? I usually do full blackout, but as you can see in those videos, many others just do a region or variable thickness type of block out.

Doug and I were still debating whether we would leave this auto-LOS generation via mask in, because it didn't perform as good as we wanted. You ended up having to spend a good chunk of time "cleaning" up the things that didn't work as you expected (thin walls, jagged portions, etc.); and an alpha mask only lets you create full blockers (not doors nor terrain), so you had to define and add those in as well.

As Doug mentioned, he can run a sample map you define through the process to give an idea of where it is. You should pick a map with some complexity. Thin/thick walls, doors, secret doors, debris, etc. While we could potentially spend time refining the algorithm, there's only so much you can do that will work in general on every map type.

Regards,
JPG

Understood Moon. Would this map (first post) be adequate? https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...Entrail-s-Maps

Maybe if I put some terrain and a secret door ont his one? https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...l=1#post343485

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Originally Posted by Moon Wizard

Doug and I were still debating whether we would leave this auto-LOS generation via mask in, because it didn't perform as good as we wanted. You ended up having to spend a good chunk of time "cleaning" up the things that didn't work as you expected (thin walls, jagged portions, etc.); and an alpha mask only lets you create full blockers (not doors nor terrain), so you had to define and add those in as well.

As Doug mentioned, he can run a sample map you define through the process to give an idea of where it is. You should pick a map with some complexity. Thin/thick walls, doors, secret doors, debris, etc. While we could potentially spend time refining the algorithm, there's only so much you can do that will work in general on every map type.

Regards,
JPG

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super thankful this conversation is being had and anxious to see these demos. so thank you for taking the time.

Most of the team will be attending the D&D Live stream event this weekend and swamped answering support in the evening, so you might want to ping us again after the event on this one.

The map you posted should be interesting to try, since it has thin walls in the buildings outside, and thick walls inside. There are no doors (secret or otherwise) inside the mined area, but it should be an interesting test. I will say that your map is pretty "clean" relative to how noisy and complex some of the maps can get. (see the Wizards adventures)

Regards,
JPG

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Originally Posted by ddavison

The masks that we support will need to be solid with a transparent background. The solid portion gets turned into polygons which block all LOS past the edge. If your mask is drawn right at the edge (like it appears to do with the CC3 trace tool), then the player won't get to see any part of the actual wall. Their vision will stop immediately at the wall edge. That typically does not look good, which is why I would collapse this in a bit within Photoshop whenever I created a mask. If you have a sample image and mask that you'd like to try, you can attach them here and I can show you what that looks like in FGU when using just the mask. We are traveling this week (tomorrow), so I may not get around to it until I get back next week -- Tuesday or beyond.

Of note, the sort of clicking around he did on the further inset portion is pretty similar to what I do within FGU.

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I am glad that this is still being included. I entirely disagree with your statement that it doesn't look as good being at the edge. When I used dynamic lighting in Roll20 I used to always black out the walls for D&D maps anyway and loved the appearance.

It is really quite easy to black out textured wall sections in photoshop. And when I am making my own maps I can just turn off layers and have a fully functional mask and mostly complete LoS map ready to go. (exceptions being terrain and door elements, but that is easy enough to touch up in fantasygrounds)

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Originally Posted by LordEntrails

Thanks Doug.
So the method I make dungeon maps in CC3+ includes what is called a wall/floor mask. It covers half the thickness of the walls and duplicates the background. By doing so it makes the dungeon look sunken into the background.

But, from a FGU perspective, it provides a layer/sheet that would work perfect as a mask. It will allow half the wall to be shown and then block out behind that.

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So are you saying that when you export your file from CC3+ as a jpg that the mask information is still somewhere in that file?