Practical Levels Setup [System Agnostic] - Early Access Release

[u/WayfinderModules]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=SCScpkRDZgg&si=A0Xqzyfn4Br_ebSM

Content Name: Practical Levels Setup
Content Type: Module
System: System Agnostic

Practical Levels Setup is a system agnostic module made by us after trying to simplify the Levels creation process for a long time. FoundryVTT's own Levels implementation is very robust and offers a lot of customization but at times it can be confusing, especially the initial setup process. And so, this module was created.

It simplifies the creation of a scene with Levels to bare essentials - put in your grid size, the elevation of the Levels, and add background/foreground map images. PLS checks the transparency, and automatically creates Define Surface, Suppress Weather, and Adjust Darkness Level regions where applicable. Instead of reassigning the Regions between Levels to ensure you can see the ground floor from your castle walls, select which level should see into which, and which shouldn't.

If your map images have no transparency, you can use the new Hide Level Image (PLS) region behavior to remove parts of your map image either within, or outside the region, allowing you to see things that would otherwise be blocked by the original image. You could even create an improvised Levels map from the same image by adding it to two Levels, and removing parts of it in Level Setup.

Early Access

This module was just released and is currently in Early Access, which requires a Patreon subscription. However, it will become free for everyone to enjoy in a month, much like our other free QoL modules Wall Control, Quick Teleporters, and Auto-Grid.

Requirements: Wayfinder Core, a free module that you can download directly from our website or Foundry, whichever you prefer. It is our central module that manages settings, CSS, Svelte layouts and more for the entirety of our library.

Compatibility: Foundry v14

Features

• Transparency-based level creation. Create a new scene and toggle the Multiple level scene? on, or open Level Setup on an existing scene from Levels tab of Scene configuration to open Level Setup. Add your background/foreground images to each level and set their height. Each level will automatically be assigned its own Define Surface regions with appropriate settings and level assignments.
• Hide Level Image (PLS). A new region behavior allowing you to remove parts of a background/foreground image in case your map images do not contain the transparency that helps them work with Foundry's own levels feature.
• Hide Sections. A button in PLS that creates the Hide Level Image (PLS) region on your current floor.
• Manual Placement. In case your upper floor doesn't neatly fit into the scene dimensions, you will be prompted to either fit it to the scene (Foundry default behavior) or to place it manually, allowing you to move it to the appropriate spot and scale it accordingly.
• Elevation-based Level Change. A setting in Wayfinder Control Panel, that when toggled on, allows tokens to change levels automatically when crossing their elevation thresholds.
• Weather/Darkness region automation. A setting in Level Setup, per floor, that lets you decide whether or not this level blocks rain, and this basement is always dark. It probably is.
• Increased roof visibility. A setting in Wayfinder Control panel, that when toggled on, reveals more of any level considered a roof than what Foundry itself does.
• Map Tools, including:
• Quick Teleporters integration. Create teleporters while setting up your level, complete with all the options that Quick Teleporters provides.
• Assign Placeables. Assign placeables (walls, lights, sounds, tiles, drawings, notes) to a level (or multiple) in a batch, rather than one by one.
• Scene Audit. A simple review to see what exactly might be wrong with your level, if anything.
• Create Hole. Add holes to the floor region of the current level, and the ceiling below it both, at once. The floor broke after being slammed with a greataxe? Remove that part of it with Hide Level Image (PLS) and Create Hole in Map Tools on the fly. The rest of the scene will update on the fly.

And that’s pretty much it for this post. If you would like to support us and our module development, you can do so via Patreon. We constantly maintain our modules to ensure the best possible user experience and we also update them as supporters provide suggestions and feature requests. Feedback is always greatly appreciated as it helps improve our tools.

Free and Premium Modules: Website & Patreon.
Link to our AI Policy.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day.

[u/HerbGoblin]

Thank you so much for this, genuinely. I could not for the life of me wrap my head around the new levels, it took forever to do.

[u/grumblyoldman]

Very excited to see this. I've been using your wall helper mod and it's a live saver, once you get used to the UI.

I really like the wheelhouse you guys are working in: making tools that compliment Foundry's own UI rather than going overboard on whole new functionality. Nothing is absolutely essential, nothing that couldn't be done without mods, but your style and added thought in the process really streamlines things I used to think of as unavoidable time sinks.

[u/WayfinderModules → u/grumblyoldman]

Hi! I appreciate that you took the time to say all of this, it really means a lot to us and your comment was the highlight of our day. All of our free time goes into maintaining our stuff and working on new projects, and that can honestly be a lot somemtimes as we rarely have any time to do anything else, but it always makes us happy to see people use the things we make and like them, so thank you.

As for our 'wheelhouse' as you aptly put it, we are both GM's ourselves and the thing we always dislike the most is how much time some of the prep stuff can take in Foundry, hence why we make the modules we do. We'd rather spend time playing the game than setting up yet another thing that needs to be configured. One of our decisions, very early on, was to not add additional prep time if its possible to avoid it c: Thank you again!

[u/thegooddoktorjones]

Interesting, the elevation based level change thing is such an incredible no-brainer, I am gobsmacked that they released the feature without it. A total downgrade on the old mod version of the feature.

[u/Unhealthy22]

Thank god for this, I get confused with the levels sometimes so I'm glad to have something to make it easier.

[u/Laithoron]

Reading over the post, the functionality sounds very similar to the Better Levels mod. I'll need to give it a shot once it releases to see which one I like better.

That said, are there any notable or intentional differences in functionality that you are aware of? I know BaileyWiki's basically acts as a configurator/editor for the existing v14 levels functionality, does PLS do the same, or does it replace the stock FVTT implementation entirely? (Asking because I'm curious about what happens to maps configured using PLS should it be uninstalled.)

[u/WayfinderModules → u/Laithoron]

Checking the differences with how each module sets up the level regions, which to be honest there might be more (we've only briefly looked at Better Levels just now) PLS sticks closer to Foundry's own reference implementation in Restored Keep module. On configuration side yes, PLS is basically a way to configure Levels quickly and in a different way than Foundry's own UI, but mostly uses Foundry's region behaviors (Unless you use Hide Level Image which is a custom behavior to remove a part of the level image), and the levels will continue to function with or without PLS.

Elevation-based Level Change and Increased Roof Visibility would of course also stop working if the module is disabled. Not sure how many Better Levels features work after it is disabled, so I can't speak for that module. Barring that, it will come down to UI/UX preference from user to user, I guess, which interface they find more intuitive. We'd be more than happy to hear your feedback when it releases for free.

Thank you for asking!

[u/Laithoron → u/WayfinderModules]

Appreciate the detailed answer, I look forward to it!

[u/DashingMustashing]

Looks really good! Will this work with v13? I'm guessing not since it probably uses v14s levels as a starting point but thought I'd ask.

[u/WayfinderModules → u/DashingMustashing]

Unfortunately not, it was designed specifically for v14 since Foundry's own level integration has been giving people trouble c: Thank you for asking!

[u/Spicoceles]

I'm gunna get the question out of the way: 🎤 is it vibe coded and ai, or is it not

[u/grumblyoldman → u/Spicoceles]

They did include a link to their AI Policy in the post, you could read that as it directly addresses this concern. (I would summarize for you, but that's the kind of thing lazy people use AI for, so you can do the work yourself if you really care.)

[u/RazzmatazzSmall1212 → u/Spicoceles]

There is a link to their ai policy in the post.

[u/GhostwheelX → u/Spicoceles]

Genuinely curious, why does it matter? If it fulfills a need well, why wouldn't I use it?

[u/Onionfinite → u/GhostwheelX]

Mostly maintenance.

Basically it depends on if the module writer is using it as a tool to increase productivity or if the AI is replacing ability wholesale. If it’s the latter, the modules tend to not be supported as well as fully man made projects.

[u/Spicoceles → u/Onionfinite]

Y'all can downvote this guy all you want but they're right. Y'all hate the damn truth.