Alpha 0.1.3 Update Notes

Hello friends, I'm excited to share Foundry Virtual Tabletop Alpha version 0.1.3. This release is a content-packed one and is a big step towards beta testing phases. The most noteworthy features included in this release include a User Friendly File Browser, a brand new Ambient Audio system, a fully redesigned "placeables" system for the game canvas that will extend to power upcoming features, Playlist Track Editing, and extensions of the Folders System to allow for folder renaming and folder support for Scenes.

[Above - Placing a new Ambient Audio source within this small tavern]

The next release version will focus on making strides towards beta by addressing some of the remaining key missing features before a more wide-spread beta test is feasible.

Thank you all for your continued help, enthusiasm, feedback, and support. Please keep an eye on the development progress board here for visibility into what features are in progress and coming up next!

https://gitlab.com/foundrynet/foundryvtt/boards

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Download Instructions

If you are a Patreon supporter at the $10 or greater level, please download the new build here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/24056461.

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New Features

Added a new File Picker interface for selecting image and audio files from the available contents of the public directory. This allows users to browse directory contents in a more user-friendly way and even upload new files to this directory to be hosted! All core framework configurations which previously accepted a plain file path as a way of specifying an image or audio file now have a File Picker button attached including Scenes, Tokens, Playlists, Actor sheets, and Item sheets.

Added Ambient Audio as a brand new placeable type that can be added to Scenes on the virtual tabletop canvas. Ambient Audio sources provide local sound effects which will automatically play when tokens move into their audible aura. To configure a new Ambient Audio source, use the audio tool on the right side of the screen (below lighting). The user interface for placing an audio source is very similar to that for placing lights: click and drag to set the origin for the sound and it's radius of influence. Once you are done dragging a configuration UI will pop up with additional options that can be customized.

New configuration options for token nameplate and resource bar visibility have been added. Two new modes are now present: (1) Owner Hover - the UI will be visible on hover, but only to users who have ownership over the token's actor. (2) Owner - the UI will always be visible, but only to users who have ownership over the token's actor.

Sound tracks within Audio Playlists can now be edited with a small configuration sheet. The edit icon is to the left of the volume slider on the playlists panel of the sidebar.

Updated the behavior to automatically show an Entity's configuration sheet when it is first created to the user who initiates the creation request. This is designed to expedite the typical entity setup workflow and reduce common points of confusion encountered by new users.

Added the ability to rename Folders.

Added the ability to use Folders to organize Scenes up to 3 levels of depth.

Added a context navigation option for Scenes to conveniently toggle whether or not they appear in the top navigation bar.

Changed the default values of a newly created Scene such that it is always added to the navigation bar automatically but kept private for GM Users only. My hope is that making this the default behavior will eliminate a common source of confusion for brand new users.

Added a yes/no confirmation dialog when attempting to flush the chat log to help protect against accidental misclicks.

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Bug Fixes

Ambient light sources were inadvertently revealing fog of war for some distance beyond their outer radius, this has been corrected!

Chat log timestamps now correctly update their time-since value every 15 seconds. In the previous version a bug prevent these messages from updating correctly.

Fixed a bug which caused compendium imports straight to an active token to break due to an unresolved Promise.

Corrected a typo in the game settings description of whether or not Secret Messages are allowed.

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Core Software, APIs, and Module Development

Implemented new abstractions for the PlaceableObject, an object which can be added to the scene directly on the VTT canvas, and a PlaceableLayer - a canvas layer designed to contain PlaceableObjects. The Wall (and WallsLayer), AmbientLight (and LightingLayer), and AmbientSound (and SoundsLayer) have been refactored for consistency to all use this same pattern.

Added new Hooks for Placeable object creation, update, and delete operations. These hooks apply to all PlaceableObject subclasses which include: Wall, AmbientLight, and AmbientSound. The Token class will be refactored in the next update to also adopt this pattern. Please see the description in the following ticket for more API details: https://gitlab.com/foundrynet/foundryvtt/issues/324

Added support for an "update" socket listener on the ChatMessage object which allows chat messages to be edited and those changes to propagate to all users after being saved to the server-side database. For more API details please see this issue: https://gitlab.com/foundrynet/foundryvtt/issues/317

The primary configuration sheet for scenes has been associated with it's "sheet" property which previously was being inconsistently used for SceneNotes.

Refactored the collection of Playlist entities. This collection was previously named "Audio", but has been renamed to "Playlists" for consistency with other entity types.

Improved the implementation of Folders to use common Entity paradigms.

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D&D5e Game System Improvements

Redesigned (a bit) the D&D5e actor sheet to feature a more condensed layout, a slightly smaller UI, and some new features outlined below.

[Above - the redesigned D&D5e character sheet and a glimpse of the new UI file picker]

The improved Actor sheet now supports temporary hit points which may be tracked separately from the permanent HP pool.

The Actor sheet features tracking for Death Saves, Exhaustion, and Inspiration statuses.

Added (placeholder) Short Rest and Long Rest buttons to the character sheet which will (in hopefully the next version) automate some of the most common replenishment actions which occur for various types of rests.

Redesigned the D&D5e NPC sheet to feature a simplified layout which consolidates actions from Weapons and Feats onto a single view with passive Feat and Equipment bonuses.

Add an extra layer of detection to confirm that Actor biography or Item description text was altered before saving the sheet, if that element was not updated we can reduce the size of the data packet sent back to the server by omitting this as part of the update.

Expanded the "Feat" data model to allow for an ability modifier to be assigned to be used for attack rolls, damage rolls, or save DCs required by the feat or it's associated action.

Expanded the displayed formatting for formulas rolled by chat card actions to be more explicit about what data within the actor or item they are referencing.