Fog of War & Tools

This is about tools! Everything you need to stay in control at the table and get Infinite Realms to do what you want quickly and easily. By the way, the Fog of War & Tools Tab can be opened via the F hotkey!

Fog of War & Tools Tab

This article steps a bit out of the shadow of the other tutorials, which always refer to a single tab in the bottom menu. There is one here too, the Fog of War & Tools menu. For the selection of the active tools there is also the small top menu. Some tools also offer additional options via menus that appear on the sides of the gamemaster screen…

Sounds complicated? It’s actually not, as you’ll see in a moment!

But first a hint to the top menu to select the active tools. When the bottom menu is opened, the tools menu is displayed at the top of the screen. This is always available, no matter which tab is currently open in the bottom menu!

By the way, we consider the tools to be absolutely essential and therefore they are all available from the Adventurer Tier upwards without any restrictions! If more tools are added in the future, they will of course be freely available as well!

Movement

The Movement Tool is used to move around the map. On the one hand, there is the scheme known from computer games via the WASD hotkeys. By the way, the keyboard control is an absolute special case!
It works even if the bottom menu is open, which is usually not the case with other tools. It is even possible to move the view with the keyboard while another tool is active!

Alternatively you can use the mouse to move over the map while the movement tool is activated in the top menu. By holding down the left mouse button you can easily move the map.
With the right mouse button you can center the view on the clicked point.

The mouse control behaves like other tools and is not available when the bottom menu is open!

Fog of War

The Fog of War tool appears both in the Fog of War & Tools tab and with the two buttons on the left side of the top menu.

These two buttons are highlighted in red and are disabled when the fog of war is not enabled. If they are active, you can use them to select the two eraser tools!

Please keep in mind that you need to close the menu before you can use any selected tools. You can do so by clicking the arrow on top of the bottom menu or using the hotkey TAB.

The tool on the very left edge is the Fog Selection tool. With it you can draw a green rectangle with the left mouse button pressed, which reveals the fog of war underneath.
The right mouse button, on the other hand, draws a red rectangle that restores the fog of war.
If you have made a wrong turn, you can cancel the selection at any time by pressing the ESC key!

The second tool from the left is the Fog Brush. With it you can remove or restore the fog of war like with a real brush. Analogous to the selection tool, the left mouse button uncovers, the right covers the area under the brush again!

The size of the brush can be adjusted by the mouse wheel!

Last but not least, there are several shapes you can set for the brush. The options are available at the bottom left edge of the Fog of War & Tools tab. There is the standard round brush, a square brush and two hexagonal brushes!

Speaking of the Fog of War & Tools tab! There the fog of war can also be switched on and off, as well as be completely blacked out again via the Reset Fog button!

Fog Brush Shapes

You can set some Defaults for the Fog of War Tool in the settings.

Paint

The Paint Tool has some similarities with the Fog of War Tool in handling. It is used to mark things or places in a scene in a simple way. Works of art will probably not be created with it…

However, the Paint Tool can also be activated at the bottom of the Fog of War & Tools tab. There is also a reset button and a small selection field. This selection field is used to set how the colors on the canvas should be applied to the scene. Depending on your personal preference and the lighting conditions on the map, different settings can make sense here.

To use the Paint Tool actively, the button on the far right of the top menu must be clicked. This button is also highlighted in red and inactive when the Paint Tool is deactivated.

As soon as the tool is selected, a menu for configuring the brush appears on the left side of the screen. Here you can choose between a few shapes. There is also a color wheel available.

After closing the menu via the arrow at the bottom menu or the hotkey TAB you can start painting!

Please note that the color that is finally visible on the canvas depends in the Multiply and Additive modes on the type of the calculation with the background!

Multiply, Additive and Opaque Modes

You can set some Defaults for the Paint Tool in the settings.

Grid

The Grid Tool is a purely passive tool without an entry in the top menu. Below in the bottom menu there are however some setting options!

First there is a switch to turn the grid on and off and a button to reset it.

With the slider Grid Scale the size can be adjusted. In a 3D scene 100% corresponds to the D20 standard of 5 feet.

Grid Strength indicates how well the grid is visible against the background. The setting is purely linear and can vary drastically depending on the color of the grid.

The two Shift sliders at the bottom right can be used to move the grid horizontally and vertically.

The last two controls offer options for the Shape and Color of the grid.

Some Grid Tool styles

You can set some Defaults for the Grid Tool in the settings.

Line of Sight & Distance

As the name suggests, the Line of Sight & Distance tool has two functions that it covers in the simplest way.

Once the tool is selected in the top menu, you can left-click on any point in the scene. Now the starting point is set and the measurement starts. Data will now be displayed next to the cursor. On the one hand the distance from the start point to the position of the cursor and on the other hand the height relative to the ground level.

The height relative to the ground level can be adjusted with the mouse wheel. This also works in the negative range, which can sometimes make sense in 3D scenes! With a second left click you set the target point and the measurement is constantly displayed at the cursor.

You can cancel the measurement at any time by pressing ESC or right-clicking. If two points are already set, the measurement will be deleted. By the way, it is only possible to delete a measurement if the Line of Sight & Distance tool is active!

In 3D scenes the line of sight can be colored red. This means that a 3D object is in the line of sight and interrupts it.
However, since this object may be a very small, narrow or semi-transparent object such as a bush, the red or green coloring of the line of sight should, in case of doubt, be regarded by the game master as a recommendation rather than as absolute truth!

Token

Note: The Token system in Infinite Realms is still at the beginning of its development and currently offers only a few basic functions. This will change in the future. The integration with the Fog of War tool is experimental!

In the top menu there is a button with a coin with a crown as symbol. This button activates the Token system.

After clicking it, another menu appears on the right side of the screen. Here you can select a token model and spawn it. It is also possible to give the token a name.

The token now appears in the middle of the screen and can be selected by clicking on it. When a token is selected, the menu on the right side of the screen changes and offers options to customize the token.

Here you can now change the size and color. In addition, a size configurable aura can be added to the token. The color of the aura corresponds to the color of the token.

Below that, the experimental connection to the Fog of War tool can be activated. The radius in which the fog of war is revealed can be set via the slider.

Last but not least there are buttons for copying and deleting the token.

A selected token can be moved with pressed mouse button. A click anywhere in the scene ends the selection of a token.

Please note that the tokens can only be moved when the Token Tool is activated!

Virtual and physical tokens working together

Video

Fog of War & Grid for a Battle Map

We have a Fog of War & Tools tutorial video available on our YouTube channel.

It was recorded some time ago with Infinite Realms version 2021.1.2 and is thus not up to date, e.g. the Paint Tool is missing.
But the basic principles and workflow still apply!

Click the cover picture to watch on YouTube!

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