Astral Tabletop, the virtual tabletop in partnership with DriveThruRPG, and a competitor to Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds has just released an update. The September code push improves how dynamic lighting works.
Dynamic lighting is the ability to show only parts of a virtual tabletop map to gamers based on where their characters are and what they can see. If a character token on the map is not in a position to see around a corner, for example, then the virtual map shades out behind the corner so the players also cannot see what lays beyond.
A pivotal update to Astral is that dynamic lighting works with more than one character when it comes to calculating where on the virtual tabletop should be illuminated.
GMs can choose to smooth out hard line-of-sight edges and share the party’s vision with everyone. Points of interest are now draggable, this means GMs can move a house across a map without having to re-do their dynamic lighting design.
Astral has announced other improvements in the latest update too. They’ve rebuilt their virtual stage and camera so that users aren’t snapped back to the centre map view unexpectedly. There has been improvements to the door tool.
Improved caching reduces the drain on memory and CPU, and the code has been enhanced for cross-device support.
Astral CEO Tom Lackemann told press;
Our goal is always to make Astral fast and fun to use. Not only does this release ensure a seamless experience for online groups, but tabletop roleplaying gamers who use tablet devices at the gaming table will notice a significant improvement.””
This overhaul allows us move even faster with more stability. We’re using the opportunity to deliver some really game-changing tools next month.”
Astral will be working on an improvement to their interactive character sheet next, having just launched a community content program for it.
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