Lib:Elevation - Elevation support for MapTool

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digiacom
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Lib:Elevation - Elevation support for MapTool

Post by digiacom »

Announcing Lib:Elevation 1.0 Release Candidate 1!
Want help? Check out the #map-elevation Discord channel!

Please view the Video Introduction:
Image
Seeing it in action is SO much better than reading about it!


This is a tool to create vertical maps, enable flying, multi-story maps, and other elevation- and blocking-layer-related tricks in MapTool. I'm really proud of this tool. Using it with my group resulted in a smooth experience where NPCs remained on different levels of a multi-story building while characters could see where they were vertically in relation to each other.

Image
Embedded UI style with dynamic, theme-sensitive color scheming!

GitHub Release: https://github.com/melek/lib_elevation/releases
Wiki Documentation: https://wiki.rptools.info/index.php/Lib ... ion_Manual

Please visit the GitHub release page to download the alpha release. Play with it, explore it and ask questions before filing issues, there is a lot in the library. I'll be expecting to use mainly the discord #map-drawing-tools and #vbl-mbl-fow-discussions to discuss this tool, though here on the forum is of course welcome also.

I strongly recommend diving into the demo campaign and dragging the colored GM macros to your GM Panel to try things out. The tooltips should help, and the documentation will hopefully assist. All of the built-in functions have tooltips and start with elevation., so in the macro editor you can use the CTRL-Space auto-complete feature to view all the functions. Some have further comments in the macros (and most function macros can be clicked directly as well) if you toggle them to be visible with the Safe/DIY mode button.

If you have questions not covered by the tooltips or by the documentation, you can ask here or on Discord in the #map-drawing-tools channel. You can also file an issue on GitHub.

Enjoy!
Nothing to see here
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Last edited by digiacom on Wed Mar 22, 2023 12:57 pm, edited 11 times in total.
a.k.a. Melek on Discord.
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digiacom
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Re: Lib:Elevation - Elevation support for MapTool

Post by digiacom »

[reserved]
a.k.a. Melek on Discord.
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digiacom
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Re: Lib:Elevation - Elevation support for MapTool

Post by digiacom »

Bumping since I added a tutorial video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbFEi2FyHIc
a.k.a. Melek on Discord.
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Scubba
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Re: Lib:Elevation - Elevation support for MapTool

Post by Scubba »

So much goodness here. Just came across this, and I must applaud the various levels of cleverness and implementation in the macros.

How did I miss overlay???

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Re: Lib:Elevation - Elevation support for MapTool

Post by Full Bleed »

Scubba wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:22 pm
How did I miss overlay???
Been around about a year and a half now... but tutorials and wiki examples are pretty thin... so there are very few uses of it.

This dropin happens to be one of the better ones implementing it.
Maptool is the Millennium Falcon of VTT's -- "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

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Re: Lib:Elevation - Elevation support for MapTool

Post by jshank »

How did you do the automated elevation changes shown in the beginning of the intro video? You mentioned "another add-in" but I couldn't find reference to what/how. Thanks!

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digiacom
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Re: Lib:Elevation - Elevation support for MapTool

Post by digiacom »

This reply is late, but oh well!

The demo campaign in the GitHub uses a tiny 'Event pads' library I created for the purposes in the video. My mini library uses onTokenMove so it is not compatible with other OTM-using macros such as Bag of Tricks, and it is very simplistic - so I would only recommend using it if you are comfortable troubleshooting complex macros.

On Discord, someone also wrote up an explanation of how to do the same with Bag of Tricks, which is a more robust way to get this functionality. I'll quote the process here - from Jim on Discord (https://discord.com/channels/2962308222 ... 6901040178):
Triggering Elevation Changes with BoT EventPads
  1. Install BoT per directions: (viewtopic.php?f=46&t=28409&p=274496#p274496)
  2. Install Elevation per directions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbFEi2FyHIc)
  3. Select the Lib:EventMacros token and then go to the Selected window
  4. Add a new macro named ElevationToX where X is the elevation you want tokens to move to when they step on a specific location
  5. Edit the Command to be:

    Code: Select all

    [h: elevation.stepAndFollowTokens(X)]
    ... Where X is the elevation you want the token set to. You can also use elevation.stepDown() and elevation.stepUp() if your elevation changes are sequential.
    * You will need to create one of these macros for each elevation in your map that you want to automatically change to. (Melek's note: this is where the stepUp and stepDown functions may be useful if you have a lot of elevations.)
  6. Switch to the map you want the triggers on and add a token to the location that should trigger the event. We'll call this the trigger token. It can be any token, I used a simple 100x100 tranparent square I made in GIMP.
  7. Name the Token EventPad XXXXX where XXXXX can be anything you want. I used EventPad Switch Elevation 0
  8. Select the token you want to use as a trigger and click on Set Event Pad on the BoT Macros (click on Bag of Tricks Macros button to show the toolbar)
  9. In Name of associated macro, select the ElevationToX macro you created earlier
  10. . Check Token moved onto pad and click Ok
  11. . Click Initialize Pads on the BoT Macros window and make sure you see your token name show up in the EventPad list for that map
  12. . Move a player token onto your trigger token and watch the magic!
Note that you should have two trigger tokens adjacent to each other along the "path" so that you can easily transition between elevations. I put a trigger token on the stairs for the ElevationTo0 and one a the top of the stairs (landing) for the ElevationTo15
a.k.a. Melek on Discord.
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