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Fog of (Not) War


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Anonymous

I just had a good idea, but I don't know how feasible it is: a "Fog of War" setting so you can share your screen in games and use the animated, 3D map as a kind of guide for non-combat situations. For instance, if you want to show off a house to the party, but want it to be kept a secret until the reveal. The way this worked in my head is, it blurs walled rooms, until doors are opened to that room. This could also work in conjunction with roofing, using that to mask the rooms if it's a top floor.

This came to me while I was showing off a building the party had made in Dungeon Alchemist and was trying to reveal it to them piece by piece. I basically zoomed in as much as possible to almost make it 1st Person, then opened doors and walked about the house, but a Fog setting could make reveals even more dramatic.

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I need the same ... this would be game changer, i do not use it at the moment because of that


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I would love to be able to cover room by room and uncover when exploring. Fog or solid colour would be ideal


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John Offenhartz

I want this more than just about any other feature.

I currently use Foundry VTT to Chromecast to a big flatscreen TV I use as a smart battlemap.

I do this for two reasons:

Foundry gives me Fog of War so I can select tokens, show their line of sight and do a map reveal as I move the token around
Foundry also gives me remote control so I can see the full map and move the tokens as the DM, but then players just see the chromecast player view on the big monitor.

So for this to work for my setup I'd need:
A Fog of war view of the map, with tokens representing viewers that I can show to my players.
A way to have a DM view that shows the full map and gives me control of the tokens etc.

And that means having a server, clients, and some way to screenshare everything to my TV.

Bluntly, a lot of work. But that would be killer.


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Bernard Kauffman

I, too, use Foundry VTT on a big flatscreen TV. This would be a GAME CHANGER! Would be SO SICK to have control of the fog of war in THREE DIMENSIONS, not just the two d battle maps.


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I don't know if this helps anyone... but to create fog of war for underground (dark) settings, I create a burning beacon, give it a color (say green) and jack up the brightness to equal what ever dark-vision radius my players have and turn the overall lighting value almost to black. With shadows on, the light doesn't bleed past walls/doors most of the time. For characters carrying torches or lanterns this works great out of the box. True, you always have a one square offset, but it works pretty well and If the party splits up, I duplicate the beacon. But would love to see a true customizable, interactive FOW in the package!


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Tianzefang

It's a good idea; I also tried to darken everything around as you suggested but using candles. The only problem is that in certain cases, it doesn't work so well because not all parts are visible without issues on the monitor I place in the center of the table. If you feel like sharing an image of your solution, I would appreciate it. In the meantime, the squares placed above the dungeon still seem like the best solution for me at the moment :)


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How about instead of fog of war just put removable ceiling that conceal rooms until entered


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Tianzefang

It could be a good idea for enclosed spaces. In fact, if you can tell me how you do it, I can try it myself, but it wouldn't work for open spaces (for example, a forest). In the end, the fog of war might be the best idea, but I also like the suggestion of adding roofs in enclosed spaces :) How do you manage to insert the roofs and make them match with the underlying tiles?


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Tianzefang


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Tianzefang

Currently, I am using this solution. It's not the most convenient, but it's the only way I've found to cover the areas that players haven't visited yet. I place square objects, color them uniformly, and disable collision between them. This way, adventurers entering the room can gradually uncover the map, tile by tile, as if there were a fog of war. While waiting for the update that brings fog of war, this is the best solution I've found. I hope the fog of war arrives on DA soon; it's software that I am loving.


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Justin Mattiuzzo

Would be great if fog of war could be turned on/off by room with just a click of the mouse.


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Edward Veins

FOW would be a game changer, I don't need all the extra tools of a VTT as we play in person, but the ability to have the program reveal rooms as they are opened or areas as they are approached would be spectacular for my group. It could really add to the exploration side of things.

It is just such a waste with the amount of visuals that are lost when you export to a VTT.


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Bernard Kauffman

Yes! It feels like such a waste when exporting to a VTT and only seeing them from the top down. I play in person, and I've been using Foundry for its Fog of War. Gonna be AMAZING to have a one program solution for revealing things on the map. Can even swirl around in 3D and then see everything


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I have been using black smoke as my fog of war. Whenever players get to that section I clear the effect depending on their sight.


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Dirtyolbones

Cheesy solution, grab an item like a towel, make it enormous and delete once they enter a room


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Steve

Definite upvote. I find there are some awesome (and complicated) VTT tools out there, but too many aren't trimmed down for what the other half of users are after which is just simple map management through an output to TV, projector, etc. I really only need FoW controls after building the map. I love the added features in DA like tree sway and all that, so I'll take it, but overall I have work around things in ArkenForge that I don't want to use to get to a simple function of FoW.


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Dirtyolbones

Yeah I need a couch mode VTT. I wouldn’t want all my friends sitting around the table with laptop or tablet. I control tokens and fog of war


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Being able to block out / blur different parts of a complex would be awesome. Currently, to show 1 room at a time to my players, I have to export each room and show the jpeg on a share screen for them. Gets hard when you don't know which way the players are going to go. Being able to create the whole complex, blur it out and reveal sections of it one at a time would be a god send.


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P Stein

Gimme fog of war


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I love how you can interact with various objects and have a token support system, so it would be awesome to have some kind of FOW function where you can hide temporarily a room. You could use DA as a VTT for in real life games.


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Sesu

Merged with: Fog of War

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Roll20 does this better.


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Tianzefang

I disagree, Roll20 is designed as a Virtual Tabletop, but it is counterintuitive regarding the user experience. Additionally, it cannot change perspectives and lacks the ability to display environmental lighting and material effects. :)


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HAH! "Roll20 is better at something than another program," that's a good one that I haven't heard in a long time.


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Felipe Albornoz

Having a feature to simply share a 'player version' screen of the map with fog of war would be amazing. otherwise the tokens and first person vision feature are not very useful. being able to use DA for playing would be a total game changer!


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Florestan Guiffan

Absolutly ! 😁


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Tianzefang

I agree!


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Sesu

Merged with: War Fog

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Add a War Fog in maps so you can use Dungeon Alchemist as a shown interactive map, showing parts while clear step by step the War Fog.


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Nowe Lupino Ishmant

Now I'm Registered. This is my Request.


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If you could set this up in such a way that you could display the map on a connected HD TV, while being able to control and manipulate what is displayed on your laptop view, that would be amazing.

- Have a splash screen associated with the map so you can display that when you're setting up a session.
- Have preset camera views that you can switch to rapidly (full view of the map, zoom ins from first person perspective) so you can control what is shown as a DM.
- Enable fog of war so you can hide portions of the map on the connected display, but you can still see the entire thing on your laptop. Have the ability to reveal / hide portions of the map in real time.
- Have the ability in this mode to layer in magical special effects onto the map and reveal them, or touch on doors and have them open, or start/stop animations. This would be epic. More animations would make the maps more dynamic and alive.

I'm loving Dungeon Alchemist. This, paired with Dynamic Dungeons, Chat GPT and Midjourney have been game changers for me in my DMing. Keep up the amazing work!


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I agree, this would be a helpful feature. I'd love for this app to be a DM catch-all for map making and having fog of war would be a step toward that.


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Calum Fitzwater

Commenting to support this. For me, DA does not have to be a VTT. But how awesome would it be for tokens, (party members), to move through an ENTIRE dungeon, room by room having those rooms revealed only when they open doors.


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Thomas

Cool Idea


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mrGribi

for people that uses a screen as a battlemap for in person games, the ability to toggle room visibility would make it possible to directly use the animated maps from DA as the battlemap instead of having to import them in other apps

EDIT: After posting i found an already established suggested feature requesting fog of war, i upvoted it and i would delete this post if i could


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Sesu

Merged with: Hide rooms

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I'm with I Guy on this one as I'm in the same boat. Honestly, the ability to extend the screen and show the map build out with ability to control lighting for fog of war is the deciding factor for purchase for me. If it has multitude of tokens, dynamic lighting on tokens, and token controls. That would be icing on the cake.


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Altar

Merged with: Fog of War

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I Guy

I run a tabletop group with an in table TV for the map and minis. I honestly do not need the features of many of the VTTs and I would love to be able to use Dungeon Alchemist itself for exploration. The map controls are great already, the only real missing feature for me is is the ability to selectively hide and reveal parts of the map.

Being able to view the beautiful animations you have so lovingly integrated, during gameplay would be incredible.


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I Guy

Yes please.
A DM mode would be amazing.
I run a tabletop game using a TV in table and minis on the protective covering. Dungeon Alchemist is much prettier than any of the VTTs out there and I don't really need any of the features of the VTTs out there other than selective reveal.

Being able to first person move through a room when I am describing the room and then snap to overhead would be pretty amazing.


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I Guy

I didn't see you already had DM mode and a For of (Not) War request when I first scanned the list of requests. Now I see them. I can't figure out how to delete this request but please consider this a duplicate.


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Jonny Brocken

One screen for the DM which let you see it all, on the Laptop for example. And one for the TV-Screen for the Players where the fog can be removed from the Laptop on it :) (Like in Dynamic Dungeon)


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Combine it with line of sight and touch screen support for tokens. Perfect setup for at the table play with additional mini's! Hey one can only wish ;)


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Zavra

A good idea. After creating the map and exporting it in your program, I use the "Dynamic Dungeon Editor" program to create my stories and play with friends. We use two monitors: one for GM, the second monitor as a regular card. Why not implement similar functionality in your program? After all, both programs are written in Unity. I would love to give up other programs and export to them.


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Wellingthon Oliveira

with fog of war + custom token import is basic a VTT
really great ideia


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Amir Farukshin

Make your own VTT with 3D support. So that everybody could upload their battelmaps and invite players and play in hilarious 3D world, with fogs, side effects. Maybe it might be other project but with full supporting of extention of all dungeon alchemist files


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I'd like fog of war for the outside of a map, so you don't see the parchment in video and photo exports. Make it gradually stronger on the edges so we can increase the map size and have a nice transistion, just like video games do.

Make it optional for people with low end pc's that they don't have to increase their map size for their buildings not being partly in fogged.


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+1


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Agree completely. I export to Arkenforge specifically to use fog of war. Dungeon Alchemist is great but wish it had FoW and maybe weather/fog. Fingers crossed.


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Benjamin Reynolds

Would be amazing - looking to for a world-building local-play solution, and if I don't have to export into Foundry(or similar) and loose all the fantastic 3d modeling just to get FoW that'd be incredible.


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Lloyd Stanley

Wouldn’t even mind if it was simply done by a paint tool, like a 3d cloud you just paint over or erase. Would be good enough for hiding things that need to stay out of the players mind for now.


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James Soller

would LOVE the Fog of War and DM/Player Split screen. With the importing of the Hero Forge tokens, maybe this is coming!!!!!


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Sesu

Merged with: Image casting and fog of war.

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King Jay

It would be amazing if you could cast the image of the map in full screen to another screen while having dungeon alchemist on the other. With this and fog of war it will be a huge help as a dungeon master.


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Janes Signal

Until then, I keep the candles in the rooms and all maps are as dark as I can get them. I can not WAIT for this fog of war feature. This will work great for the hybrid plastic figure on the in-person TV screen mapping!


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Many creators will use this programm for VTT (virtual table top) so it would be nice to have an option to hide rooms untill enabled by the DM.
This feature should put the room and its walls either black or to the default terrain of the map. This way players can see there is a closed door but can not know untill the DM allows it if there is a 3x3 room behind, a hallway, or a cliff.


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Remy Martyn

Merged with: Hide room

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I need this aswell. Too many spoilers for my players when i show full map. I dont use VTT but even then, its handy to change, adjust the map while players are there. Great to see this is planned.


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Aerynus - Lead Developer

Status changed to: Planned

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Jason Brandon

Adding the ability to apply fog of war, or line of sight functionality to make DA it's own VTT


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Janes Signal

Until this feature is in, I'm going to make my maps all dark, as I do in Dungeon Draft and turn on the lights that are in the room (or place new ones) when the "go in the room" etc.


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Sesu

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Patrick Galvin

Honestly this would be 100% perfect for our group setup and groups like ours. I know this is a map making program, but all we need for our in person VTT sessions is a map and manual fog of war, no automation necessary. Could also then keep all of the 3D perspectives and animations right in DA instead of waiting for and/or dealing with video file exports. If I could just build a map in DA and then add fog of war to it I would be soooo happy.


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Lloyd Stanley

Yeah, I would be happy with a manual hide tool, think the easiest would be by square/tile?

But could do this by room, by drag and drop, by selection of squares/tiles, by paint/erase tool, by dynamic opening of doors, line of sight, drawing cubes or whatever. Any would be extremely useful.


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Peggy De Meue

Well, as long as it doesn't become the top priority I don't mind that it would get added. Could be useful when making first-person-view exports. (as they're more illustrative than playable)


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Rm De jong

Don't think this is a great idea for a MAP MAKING program. Would be an idea for a virtual tabletop program. But most of them already have this.


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Janes Signal

Sure, also, though, consider there's a great deal of us that do this thing right here... a hybrid between full on VTT and actual table top.


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Phil Davidson

I call this a DTT as opposed to a VTT, and for a DTT we just need player view of the map + FoW


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Jonas Thibout

Same here, i even can't see the point if i can open / close a door, or see a windmill when i create it on DA if i can't interact with it when i use it.
I thought about a pencil or square tool to uncover the fog of war.


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B Krysik

This would be a great feature, we are playing with a map shared on a screen, we base a lot of ''perception'' rolls, based on which you can find additional objects, secret rooms, quest items and all sorts of hidden stuff. If I show a map where people can quickly figure out the content just based on shape and visible rooms in the distance, makes no sense - they shouldn't know what's in there until they reveal it.

It makes exploration a completely different experience!


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Archduke Vecna

Merged with: Hide a room or item - make it invisible until game master reveals it

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B Krysik

Exactly!

I have requested similar feature where you could also hide certain items or specific parts of the location and then reveal them with succesful ''perception'' or ''search'' rolls - or reward players for checking something thoroughly, so it could not be limitted just to hiding ''what's inside the room'' - but yeah! This would be a great feature in any form - it's really required here and I was shocked when I found out it's not in the game foundation already.


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Janes Signal

Hey great idea on hiding objects too... hidden doors, whatever!


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ETHO reaper

This would be very useful


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