A faster, more performant virtual tabletop has been at the heart of our recent modernization efforts, and our latest Jumpgate update tackles one of the biggest hurdles: animated graphics. In this blog, we are excited to introduce major improvements to animation uploads which solve long-standing pain points and make animated maps and assets more accessible in your games. Plus, we’ve increased the allowed file size for animated uploads!
What’s New?
Some of the most exciting upgrades in this release include:
- Faster upload speeds for animated graphics
- Increased maximum file upload size
- Multi-file selection for batch uploads
- The ability to multitask, allowing you to keep working while your uploads process
The Problem: Slow, Disruptive Uploads
When we first launched Project Jumpgate, one of the standout benefits of the rebuild was smoother animation playback. The process for uploading those animations, however, still had room for improvement. Users reported that uploading large animated maps (example: 25×25 cells) could take upwards of 30 minutes, locking them out of game prep while processing took place. This barrier made game prep an arduous and frustrating task.
Since your feedback also indicated that you wanted bigger, higher-quality animations to bring your games to life, it was a priority for us to follow up.
What’s Changed?
A Faster, More Efficient Upload Process for Animated Graphics
Previously, your browser was relied upon to handle transcoding using JavaScript (an inefficient and CPU-heavy process), which slowed down the process and your machine considerably. Now, we’ve moved this work to dedicated servers that process more quickly without burdening your machine.
Transcoding is the process of converting video files into standardized formats optimized for display on the virtual tabletop. We use industry-standard ffmpeg to ensure that your animations retain their quality while improving playback performance, maintain visual consistency (like keeping transparency settings intact), and minimize load time variability.
A Better Upload Experience
We revamped the Upload Art interface, making it easier to manage your process:
- Upload multiple files at once, saving you time
- Manage progress at a glance
- Multitasking, allowing you to work in the VTT while your files are processing
- Improved feedback, completion updates, and error handling
We’ve also improved the upload experience when dragging graphics directly from your computer to the tabletop; new notifications now keep you informed of progress and completion status (see video above).
What This Means for You
With these updates, animation uploads are faster, smoother, and easier than ever before. You can expect:
- Drastically faster animation uploads: large files that previously took hours to finish now complete in minutes. Our tests indicated an average decrease in upload time of 76% across a variety of animated files, with some performing up to 98% faster, and many files that did not finish previously now succeeding in an average of four minutes
- Higher animation quality: reduced pixelation and smoother playback on animation uploads
- Reduced slowdown: particularly noticeable on machines that lacked the power to transcode previously, moving this process to our servers frees your machine for other tasks
- More efficient game prep: work on your maps, characters, and tokens while animations upload in the background
- Simpler upload management: thanks to improved progress indicators and a clearer UI
- Bigger file limits: last year, we increased storage for Roll20 users as part of Jumpgate improvements. Now, we’re also increasing the allowable file size for animated uploads. We’re increasing 10MB for Free users to 20MB, 20MB for Plus Subscribers to 50MB, and 20MB for Pro Subscribers to a whopping 100MB!
Frequently Asked Questions
No. To take advantage of upgrades, assets will need to be re-uploaded.
No. These upgrades apply to animated assets that you upload directly to your campaigns.
While the upload process is now faster and more efficient, internet speed and bandwidth can still impact individual experiences. Larger animations may take extra time to fully load for players depending on their hardware and connection. In our internal tests, files close to 100MB could take 10-20 minutes to fully load on 3G connections, leading to potential choppiness or static images to display during that time.
For more information and FAQ, please see our Best Practices and Troubleshooting articles in the Help Center.
We’re really excited about these changes and are looking forward to seeing the creative ways you bring your games to life with animated assets!