Automatic Dynamic Lighting
DunGen Patrons at the Dungeon Architect level or higher can automate dynamic lighting on custom maps for Roll20, Foundry VTT and Fantasy Grounds Unity. Help is available below and in the Frequently Asked Questions.
- Requirements: The only requirement to use the tool is to mask either the floor or the walls with a solid color. A quick example you can even generate on DunGen are dungeons using the Mask for Image Editors theme.
- Files supported: JPG, PNG (preferred).
- Tile Size: Used to determine wall distance and automatically sets the tile size on Foundry after importing the .json file.
- Mask Color: Any solid color will do. Avoid shadows or any other blurring effects; it'll still work but might hamper the algorithm slightly.
- Masking the floor works great for indoor maps like Dungeons, Caves or Buildings as it expands to create the path for the walls. Masking the walls works much better for outdoor maps as it will shrink the positions where the solid colors are to create the path, so you'll see more of the rocks or trees or any other obstacle that needs dynamic lighting. Improvements will be made to support different types of walls in the platforms that have access to them.
- Foundry will generate a JSON file, Fantasy Grounds an XML file and Roll20 both a TXT file and allow you to copy the text directly on this page for easier access. You can find out how to use each file in the Frequently Asked Questions page.
- Advanced - Wall Width (optional): By having the exact width of the walls on the map, it will attempt to position the dynamic lighting path near the center.
- Advanced - Dynamic Lighting Mode: Precise will have a lot of nodes, but it could be beneficial for extremely complex environments. Balanced is a good middle-ground between nodes and performance; there might be a few extra nodes than if done manually but nobody should have any problems at all using the maps. Performance will try to cut down the number of nodes even further, but it may present some problems in curved areas. I'd recommend sticking to Balanced. Improvements will continue to be made in the algorithm to increase performance and precision even further by default.
- Advanced - Angle: Many nodes are eliminated by checking the angles between them. Lowering the number will make the dynamic lighting paths even more accurate, but also increase the amount of nodes.
- Advanced - Padding: Foundry VTT adds a border region around the background image that is a percentage of the total scene dimensions (25% by default). This padding space treats everything as unlit and hidden unless lights and an actor with vision is in that padding area. The padding is intended to be used for staging tokens and tiles waiting to be used in a scene, or as extra side-rooms or hidden spaces.