Stable does not mean bug free, and also does not mean all of your beloved Systems and modules are ready yet!

If you followed Foundry Hub on the release series, you probably stumbled upon this article which reminds us that community developers are people too, dealing with time, family, and daytime jobs. So please, be careful before upgrading and backup your data folder, and check if your beloved systems and modules are ready.

We have today received Foundry VTT 0.8.6 as a Stable release. This version is accumulated work including all release changes and features throughout 0.8.0 up to this one. 0.8.6 by itself is not as significant as the entire series, but rather a combination of bug fixes and changes occurring during the last testing cycle. Thus, here you can find the articles that cover each of the important changes in the previous releases (We will however provide a summary of the biggest features here below):

Foundry VTT 0.8.6 Stable Release

May 31, 2021 No Comments

It’s really out! Foundry VTT released 0.8.6, and it is considered stable! Stable… but… wait,…

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Foundry VTT 0.8.3 & 0.8.4 Beta Release

May 17, 2021 No Comments

With last week’s 0.8.3 release, we entered the beta phase for the 0.8.x series, and…

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Foundry VTT 0.8.2 Alpha Release

May 2, 2021 1 Comment

Foundry VTT is taking big steps forward towards the 0.8.x series, and if it wasn’t…

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Foundry VTT 0.8.1 Alpha Release

March 28, 2021 2 Comments

We’re all getting excited about Foundry VTT 0.8.x series, and even though it is still…

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Foundry VTT 0.8.0 Alpha Release

February 18, 2021 6 Comments

It has been about 7 months since the start of the Foundry Virtual Tabletop 0.7.x…

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PS: 0.8.5 Was not exclusively covered, as it was mostly internal bug fixes and changes that were covered. A similar scenario we have with 0.8.6.

For a thorough list of changes on this release and previous ones, check out the official release notes here.
On this article, we will keep a non-technical human language, by smoothing out the vocabulary and technical details.

Features Overview in Foundry VTT 0.8.x

Updating from 0.7.x

Due to some technical changes updating from 0.7.x might not be as straight forward. Here are a few things you need to consider:

• If you are self-hosting using the desktop (Electron) application, it is not possible to update directly to 0.8.6 and instead, you must re-install Foundry Virtual Tabletop using the latest version.
• If you are currently using version 0.7.10 AND hosting your server using Node.js (not the Electron app) you can update directly to version 0.8.6 within the application UI.
• This requirement is due to a change in the required Node.js and Electron versions used by the software where 0.7.9 and older depended on Node.js 12+ and Electron version 10, while 0.8.x onward requires Node.js 14+ and Electron version 12.

So, this is a very quick overview of what Foundry 0.8.x means! Feel free to read the official release notes or our previous articles for a human-interpreted list of changes. We are as always, glad to have readers aboard the hype train, and looking forward to your comments and opinions.

And remember to BACKUP before you update and check out this post on Reddit that might help you figuring out if your favorite module or system is already compatible with the new release.

Have fun, readers!

There are only a handful of new features, and most of them are small minor ones however we will highlight a couple that might be interesting for you.

This release will most likely end the beta phase, and if all goes according to plan, you can expect the first stable release by the end of the month or early next month! If you follow the updates from module developers, you can already see many modules already being ready for the changes of the 0.8 release, so it’s a good time to get hyped!

Overview

• Overhead Tiles and Layers
  If you want to stop with the suspension of disbelief, and want your tokens to stop walking on top of the old tree, well, now you will be able to! Tweak and configure tiles to either appear on top, under or fade away when tokens come near.
  
• Game Quality of Life Enhancements
  Small changes all around the application to lower the amount of work needed to get things done. Changes in token configuration so you can set them up by default, journal setup to make it easier to include images, and chat as a floating window, make the whole experience in Foundry better.
  
• Vision and Sight Improvements
  Although implicit in many of the changes all around Foundry, further improvements in performance and accuracy are part of 0.8.2 too. This also includes changes in the Padding area.
  
• Worlds, Modules and Systems Management
  A lot of work was spent improving the system and module management. Better detection and warnings about compatibility, locking modules and systems to fix them on a certain version or better tools for finding problems with your game are now possible.

Overhead Tiles and Layers

Game Quality of Life Enhancements

Vision and Sight Improvements

Worlds, Modules and Systems Management

Wrapping up

Phew, what a long list! 0.8.x is becoming bigger and bigger. What do you, lovely readers, think about the direction Foundry is taking with 0.8.x? This being the last ALPHA build on the series means we will soon be entering the BETA stages and maybe, a stable release before next month!

So, let’s get hyped together about the changes that are coming to Foundry VTT 0.8.1 Alpha, which means that eventually, these will be part of a STABLE release some time down the road soon.

Previously, Alpha 0.8.0 began with mostly under the hood changes. 0.8.1 starts getting into perceptible changes for users. In this article, we are going to focus on the changes that actually have user impact. Technical topics will be only mentioned on the high level so at least you get an idea. The idea is to make it easier for you, as GMs, to catch on what’s going on, so hopefully this helps.

I recommend checking our previous article on what’s going on in the 0.8.0 Alpha release here, the official release notes here and check out Foundry VTT’s official twitch here.

Overview

These are the major feature changes that are introduced with 0.8.1. Check Foundry VTTs 3 hour Stream Preview for details.

• Audio System Improvements
  Audio System is one of the main focus areas of the series. Improvements in Playlist management, Tracks control, Ambience audio and Infrastructure will be covered in detail down below. These will certainly allow GMs and users have a more detailed control and management of audio, including crossfading, playback mode by playlist and mass import.
  
• Dice System Improvement
  New modifiers will extend system support and functionality, while also starting to allow external sources of dice rolls, which are becoming common in these times. Physical electronic dice rolls, web services, and other external systems will soon be able to define the dice results.
  
• Improvements in other areas as a side effect
  As development goes by, some times developer find areas of improvement as a side effect of other improvements. This is always good and it means things start getting each time more flexible and flexible. Journal entries and lighting also get some love in this release.

Audio System Improvements

Core Background Changes

This of course means little to normal users and GMs, but basically the backend audio was completely rewritten. The previous technology, called howler.js is being replaced with a more standardized modern approach called the Web Audio API. The benefits are mostly towards more streamlined development approaches where howler.js proved to be too much for what was needed by Foundry. This will also directly impact Macro usage and the way audio trackers are used by developers and avoid an issue where HTML 5 was running out of browser sockets.

New Features in the User Interface

Better UI feedback on buffering
When the audio is not yet loaded on the client, it will show a loading-loop to indicate that the audio track is not yet playing. This is one of the side-benefits also of the new technology behind Foundry VTT.

New Functionalities in Audio Controls

Fade & Crossfade support
This is if not, one of the most exciting new features we get. We can set Fade in/out time per both, track or playlist, and this will automatically slowly and smoothly fade in/out the song or crossfade to the next song coming up.
Individual settings on Audio Tracks will override the more general Playlist configuration.

Ambience Audio

(Audio that is placed on the map)

Wall configuration for Audio Passthrough
We will be now be able to precisely set the behavior of each wall (or group of walls) to define whether we want the audio to go through it or not. This will improve immersion significantly in dungeons, for instance.

Darkness Thresholds and Activation Range
For those super-pro scene builders, night and day can have different ambient audio tracks. So you can set up people talking during the day and the sound of insects during the night. This brings a side effect to scene audio control of darkness thresholds, now called Darkness Activation Range.

Behind the Scene Changes

.m4a and .opus audio format supported
Increase the compatibility with different audio formats.

Fading & Crossfading behavior
Fading applies when stopping and starting, as well on scene change, except on pause, which immediately stops playing audio.

Better preload buffering
Audio Tracks will automatically preload 20 seconds before the next audio track begins. This will help players stay more in synch with the GM. Tracks can be marked for preloading as before, but overall the functionality has been improved significantly.

Better client volume controls
Global volume levels apply to each user independently, and now variations in the volume are better handled and should act more precisely as expected, improving the synchronization between levels and the predefined volumes.

Better synchronized Shuffle
Randomness should now be less random and more predictable Shuffle playlists now ensure everyone starts the same audio track in randomized playlists.

Playlist sorting
Playlists will be sorted alphabetically by default, but also users will be able of drag & drop audio tracks on top.

Dice System Improvements

Dice Rolls Metadata
This impacts mostly developers, but a wrapper around dice rolls allows enhanced functionality in general. One of the user oriented benefits of this is that now rolls may now contain flavors related to their numerical components. For example a +1 Bonus can now come with “Strength Bonus from Thanos Glove”

_{Atropos writing code at the speed of light An Insight onto Dice Rolls Flavour text}

New Roll Modifiers
– minimum and maximum: Allows for defining absolute results on dice rolls
– even or odd: Allows for picking up certain roll results
– recursive rolls: Advanced logic allows re-rolling under a custom condition

Backend API Improvements and External dice rolling support
The Roll function will become asynchronous. This has several technical consequences of course, but the main reason behind this change, is to allow external inputs that provide dice results, for example results from rolling dice physically, the new Pixel Dice or external services, among other benefits.

Other improvements

Lighting Improvements in Darkness Threshold
As part of the audio improvements done, Foundry will allow setting up a Darkness Activation Range that affects illumination based on darkness level, but now, in both directions, rather than only lights off or on in Darkness.

Journal In-Line rolls flavor
In line rolls in Journals will allow a flavor text on top of the button, improving the user experience of this specific functionality.

Wrapping up

Phew! That was a LOT of info right? Well, the point was to give you an insight (yes, this is not all) of what’s going on in Foundry after all. So, what do you think about the changes mentioned? Foundry is growing up immensely and it comes together accompanied by it’s community. It’s main developer, Atropos, creates these Alpha builds not for just testing, but also for gathering feedback.

You can find the official patch notes here. Looking forward the next release will focus on a new feature Overhead Tiles as well as improvements to A/V and package management. So I hope everyone get’s on the hype train with me and get prepared for more roleplaying stuff to come in these online times

With the warning out of the way we will take a brief look on what this release has to offer and what you can expect going forward with the 0.8.x release series.

This release is mainly focused on Next-Gen infrastructure which means its mostly intended for developers and not as much for the regular user. That’s not to say you shouldn’t be excited for this release as it lays the foundations for future features!

So WHAT can you expect from this release? Well, first off, expect a lot of BREAKING changes which means some things will no longer work the same way as they did previously. You might ask why make breaking changes in the first place? To answer that, let me allow to quote the creator himself:

The main feature of this release is going to be the development of the Common Document Model, which will continue to take shape over the course of the 0.8.x release series. This feature is fairly technical, but the gist of it is unlike before where the codebase was strictly separated into client and server there will be a third set of libraries under the name common which can be used by both the client and the server.

Some of the other features in this release are amongst other things the possibility to disable the canvas completely while retaining all other VTT features and thus greatly improving the performance for the people who just do Theater of Mind play, the possibility to have combat encounters that are not linked to a specific scene, and a new icons library for consumables because I for one love giving players the option of gathering 10+ different kinds of nuts!

We asked the League of Extraordinary FoundryVTT Developers to comment on this first 0.8.x update for their thoughts and advices.

You can find the detailed Patch notes here. If you wish to see an extended preview of these changes, you can check the VOD from the last Twitch live stream where Atropos goes in-depth into the new architecture and what’s to come in the next versions.

And this is just the beginning of this new release series. The next release 0.8.1 will focus on overhauling the way audio is played and presented but don’t get too hyped up just yet and expect that it will take another couple releases for a stable one to arrive.