It’s really out! Foundry VTT released 0.8.6, and it is considered stable! Stable… but… wait, what? Right, beloved users of Foundry VTT please beware, before continuing with the high hype level and this article:
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
It’s really out! Foundry VTT released 0.8.6, and it is considered stable! Stable… but… wait,…
Foundry VTT 0.8.3 & 0.8.4 Beta Release
With last week’s 0.8.3 release, we entered the beta phase for the 0.8.x series, and…
Foundry VTT 0.8.2 Alpha Release
Foundry VTT is taking big steps forward towards the 0.8.x series, and if it wasn’t…
Foundry VTT 0.8.1 Alpha Release
We’re all getting excited about Foundry VTT 0.8.x series, and even though it is still…
Foundry VTT 0.8.0 Alpha Release
It has been about 7 months since the start of the Foundry Virtual Tabletop 0.7.x…
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
Internal Infrastructure Improvements
- The technologies underlying Foundry VTT have been improved to newer versions, bringing implicit improvements in performance and security. For buzz words, you may hear NodeJS, Electron and HTTP2.
- The data layer behind Foundry VTT has been improved under a schema called Document, which improves the overall consistency of the content in the platform. This will most likely improve and extend the capabilities for Module and System developers to achieve more functionality with less effort.
- General improvements in the performance of data storage and the way the content is modelled in the backend of Foundry, impacting significantly the performance overall and mostly in the content stored in Compendiums.
Audio Improvements
- The internal technology used to back everything audio related was changed (To something called WebAudio API), with better browser compatibility, performance, stability and functionality.
- Smooth fading between tracks, allow for a nice transition between tracks rather than a hard stop.
- Sequential and shuffled playlists behave more consistently.
- Scenes can have designated playlists.
- Bulk import into playlists.
- Better visual interface, indicators and searching through playlists.
- Ambient audio sources allow for triggers based on darkness levels.
- Walls matter to ambient audio, and can be configured to react as we want them to.
- Testing of ambient audio does not require a testing token any more.
Dice Rolling and Chat
- New features in syntax of dice rolls allow for new functions like min, max, even and odds, recursive rolls.
- Internal changes allow for dice roll syntax to contain descriptions like
/r 10[fire damage].
Overhead Tiles, Lighting and Canvas
- Tiles layer has been split into two, Underfoot and Overhead, so tokens can stay below the overhead ones, allowing the creation of tree canopies, bridges, hanging vines, etc.
- Interaction between tokens and tiles allow now for them to become transparent, when they are standing below certain tiles.
- Scene maps can have a “Foreground” image, representing everything that stays above tokens, as a whole. This will extend significantly the quality of maps being created and feeling more immersive.
- Multiple “Occlusion” mode allows tiles to be customized based on how we want them to react when tokens approach them.
- General improvements in performance for Ambient Light and Vision.
- The padding area of maps, outside the background image zone, is now considered permanently unexplored and non-visible for all tokens (except when they are out there). No canvas mode allows disabling it altogether.
Other Changes
- Installing Systems and Modules was improved significantly, allowing the user have a better understanding of what is going on when we update them. It also gives functionalities like “locking” packages so they are not updated if they don’t want them to, as well as a summary of the update process.
- Token configuration allow setting the default of token behaviour (like vision and how their names are shown) to be applied across the entire game for any new actor that gets created.
- Floating chat window! (Can be opened with a right click or when the sidebar is collapsed).
- Edit world settings without having to exit the game.
- 1500 categorized icons available as part of the core library, increasing the total to 500.
- Small interface changes that overall improve the user experience.
- Hundreds of bug fixes and uncounted small improvements inside Foundry.
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!
