D&D General Alternative to Roll 20 for Mapping with Fog of War?

Cadence · Nov 11, 2021

I'm running a dungeon crawl online and was hoping to use Roll 20 for the mapping and fog of war... but while the new lighting/exploration looks spectacular, in the test it was too laggy (a minute or more to see others moves) and unstable (randomly slogged down and needed a refresh regularly).

Any favorite alternatives for just the mapping part? (We have the voice and die rolling and other sharing taken care of between Discord w/Avrae, DnDBeyond, and/or Google Meet). If not, I'll continue manual erasing and moving letters/numbers around on a generic art program.

billd91 · Nov 11, 2021

Cadence said:
I'm running a dungeon crawl online and was hoping to use Roll 20 for the mapping and fog of war... but while the new lighting/exploration looks spectacular, in the test it was too laggy (a minute or more to see others moves) and unstable (randomly slogged down and needed a refresh regularly).

I think either your hardware or your internet connection is having a hard time keeping up. And if so, it may bode poorly for other methods of serving up maps for online games in the long run as well.
I DM with Roll20 on a 5ish year old Windows laptop over my home WiFi and fiber optic broadband with at least 4 other devices running streaming video and/or Roll20 in the same house. And it runs fairly well for me, even with fog of war and/or dynamic lighting.

Cadence · Nov 11, 2021

billd91 said:
I think either your hardware or your internet connection is having a hard time keeping up. And if so, it may bode poorly for other methods of serving up maps for online games in the long run as well.
I DM with Roll20 on a 5ish year old Windows laptop over my home WiFi and fiber optic broadband with at least 4 other devices running streaming video and/or Roll20 in the same house. And it runs fairly well for me, even with fog of war and/or dynamic lighting.

Thanks! I'll give a try on my PC at work and see if the university's faster connection and better computer fix it. (Could be another excuse for a new one at home).

Cadence · Nov 11, 2021

billd91 said:
I think either your hardware or your internet connection is having a hard time keeping up. And if so, it may bode poorly for other methods of serving up maps for online games in the long run as well.
I DM with Roll20 on a 5ish year old Windows laptop over my home WiFi and fiber optic broadband with at least 4 other devices running streaming video and/or Roll20 in the same house. And it runs fairly well for me, even with fog of war and/or dynamic lighting.

What's the typical dimension of the map you have up? (It gave a warning for the size I wanted, so I shrunk it down to 1/2 on each dimension and it didn't give one).

Longspeak · Nov 11, 2021

I'll throw in my support of billd91's statement. I've had the occasional issue with roll20's connection over the last four years or so, but most of them turns out to be my end, and hooking into another service didn't help.

One thing that DID help was to limit the size and number of my maps. Now, about a year ago I moved and upgraded my connection. Apart from the pretty rare red notice where Roll20 says you're dropped for a bit, no issues with lag.

My maps usually go 25x25, or similar overall size. I tried one that was about four times the size once with no issues.

Cadence · Nov 11, 2021

Longspeak said:
My maps usually go 25x25, or similar overall size. I tried one that was about four times the size once with no issues.

I was trying 82x45 to get the entire Caves of Chaos from B2 in. I'm interested to see how it does when I try it on a better computer.

billd91 · Nov 11, 2021

Cadence said:
I was trying 82x45 to get the entire Caves of Chaos from B2 in. I'm interested to see how it does when I try it on a better computer.

I did a large map like that for the Caves of Chaos as well. With dynamic lighting, it overloaded Safari on my iMac, but now with the latest Roll20 upgrades, Safari is out anyway. Chrome handled it fine, though. No significant slowdown. Most of my maps are in the 20x30 to 30x40 range.

Paul Farquhar · Nov 11, 2021

Roll20 recommends you keep maps below a certain size for download speeds on clients, it not really a "power of your computer" thing. What you can do is subdivide the map grid by setting the square width to a fractional value (0.5 is the obvious choice). This doubles the effective dimensions of the map (but reduces the graphical resolution).

If the map can be chopped up it's a good idea to do so though.

HippyCraig · Nov 12, 2021

Try Owlbear Rodeo. It’s just a map tokens and FOW. No automation no character sheets just maps and its free

as for vtt d20 pro and foundry are good alternatives to roll20. But I think based on your needs owlbear is the way to go

darjr · Nov 12, 2021

I’ll second Owlbear Rodeo. Just mapping. Done simply and intuitively. It’s light weight may help with any speed issues. I know some of the folks in my gaming circles appreciate it just because if that very reason.

D&D General Alternative to Roll 20 for Mapping with Fog of War?

Cadence

Legend

billd91

Not your screen monkey (he/him)

Cadence

Legend

Cadence

Legend

Longspeak

Adventurer

Cadence

Legend

billd91

Not your screen monkey (he/him)

Paul Farquhar

Legend

HippyCraig

Explorer

darjr

I crit!

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