Hi everyone, this is Val and Frances, Roll20’s Senior Product Manager and Senior Product Designer. Since our last update, our team – the folks behind Roll20’s improved tabletop experience – has been hard at work improving usability, squashing bugs, and crafting delightful new features. Today, we’re excited to share details about an upcoming enhancement to our Fog of War and Dynamic Lighting tools, set to debut this December and designed to make GMing smoother and more intuitive, letting you focus on gameplay and vibes, not troubleshooting!

Feedback-Driven Development

Before diving into the details, we want to thank you, our amazing community, for your invaluable input which has helped guide and inform this project since the start. From surveys and bug reports to forum discussions and live interviews, your feedback helps us address your needs and deliver the best possible tabletop experience. Y’all rock.

What We Learned

By reviewing user feedback and suggestions across our Product, Design, and Support teams, and incorporating the valuable opinions of Roll20’s Forum Champions, we narrowed in on the following common challenges encountered by users related to Fog of War and Dynamic Lighting:

1. Deciphering Which Tools to Use
   Many GMs weren’t sure when to use Fog of War versus Dynamic Lighting, leading to accidental overlaps or confusion. For instance, some users called all forms of darkness “Fog of War,” even when using Dynamic Lighting without any light sources.
   
2. Setting Up Tools Correctly
   Black screens disrupted games far too often, requiring GMs to pause and troubleshoot token or page settings, pulling them out of the flow of the game and into various menus. Surveys and screen shares revealed that GMs frequently had to revisit token vision or lighting settings multiple times mid-game.
   
3. Using Tools on the Fly
   Real-time updates and quick adjustments are essential for many GMs, especially during time-sensitive gameplay moments. Older research also highlighted a desire for layer-specific lighting tools and streamlined hotbars.

The Updates You Can Expect

With this feedback in mind, we’ve focused on separating, simplifying, and enhancing our tools to reduce confusion and make your games run more smoothly in the moment.

1. Two Distinct Features in the Left Toolbar

We’ve split the existing Fog of War and Dynamic Lighting features into two clearly defined tools:

• Hide/Reveal Mask
  Previously called “Permanent Darkness” within Fog of War, this tool allows for quick hide-and-reveal actions to manage map visibility on the fly. Like its previous iteration, the hidden or revealed area will persist until the GM removes the mask. 
  
  We simplified the language and instructions to make things clear and more accessible, removing ambiguity around terms like “add” and “subtract.” We’re also retiring references to Fog of War, Permanent Darkness and Explorable Darkness to remove perceived overlap with Dynamic Lighting – just hide or reveal some stuff!

• Dynamic Lighting
  Subscribers now have access to a fully revamped Dynamic Lighting tool accessible in Left Toolbar, which consolidates all relevant settings in one place. You’ll see real-time updates to your map as you adjust things, with updated tooltips providing additional clarity. This eliminates the need to navigate to and switch between tabs in page settings.
  
  Dynamic Lighting will continue to hide tokens, objects, and areas that are not in a player’s line of sight. You will notice that Dynamic Lighting will also include Explorer Mode (formerly “Explorable Darkness”), enabling a map area to become and stay revealed to a player – in a neat sepia color – once their token has seen it. Explorer mode is still editable, but in a new context, so that users don’t get confused between explorer mode and hide/reveal!

2. Built-In Diagnostics

To help troubleshoot lighting issues quickly, we’ve added a diagnostics section to the footer of the Dynamic Lighting tool:

• Tokens with Vision: Displays the count of tokens with vision or night vision. If the count is none, or a number not equal to your player tokens, it’s a quick indicator that some tokens might need vision toggled on! 
  
• Light Source: Shows the number of active light sources on your map. If none are present, it’s a cue to add a light source or enable daylight mode!

Soon after the initial release, we have a feature in the works that, when hovering over these sections, will also highlight the tokens with vision or light sources on the map so that you don’t need to go hunting.

3. New Immersive Effects

We’re adding a phase one implementation of animated darkness effects, such as Dark Fog or Pale Mist to create a more immersive experience. These effects can be toggled via the Dynamic Lighting tool or accessed through our API, giving script authors new ways to integrate them into mods. We anticipate refining and enhancing the effects post-release to allow them to display full-screen, etc. 

Why These Updates Matter

As one GM told us, “When configured correctly, lighting tools should fade into the background.” These changes aim to achieve exactly that. Whether it’s a quick hide-and-reveal adjustment or an immersive lighting effect, we hope these updates make your games run better, feel more exciting, and keep your players in the story with fewer interruptions.

Thank you for continuing this journey with us!