Layer Settings

The Layer Settings panel is found in the right sidebar. Its contents update depending on which layer or object is currently selected. This article covers the settings available for Dungeon layers, the Background layer, and the Fog of War layer.

Dungeon Layers

Dungeon layers are the primary drawing layers used to create map areas. To view a Dungeon layer's settings, select it in the Layers menu.

• Opacity: Controls the overall transparency of the layer. Reducing opacity can be useful for features such as shallow water, where you want underlying details to remain visible.
• Floor Texture (Pro Feature): Floor Textures are automatically masked within drawn shapes, allowing you to apply surface detail that would otherwise require hand-drawing. Choose from floor texture options like Dirt, Stone, Marble, and Wood in the dropdown, each available in colour or black and white. You can adjust the scale and rotation of each texture and apply colour blending to fine-tune the result.

• Walls: Controls the appearance of the walls on the layer. (The Walls section can be hidden using the eye icon.) Settings include:
  • Colour
  • Width
  • Roughness (Off, 1, 2, 3)
  • Blocks Light (Yes / No)
• Floor: Controls the fill colour of the drawn areas on the layer. The Floor section can be hidden using the eye icon.
• Grid: Controls the grid overlay on the layer. Settings include variant, colour, and width. The Grid section can be hidden using the eye icon.
• Shadow: Controls the depth of the shadow effect on the layer. Settings include opacity, direction (X and Y), colour, and blend mode. The Shadow section can be hidden using the eye icon.
• Hatching: Controls the hatching pattern on the layer. Settings include variant, size, stroke colour, and stroke width. The Hatching section can be hidden using the eye icon.
• Shading: Controls the edge shading on the layer. Settings include size, roughness, and fill colour. The Shading section can be hidden using the eye icon.
• Advanced: The Advanced section allows you to unpack a Dungeon layer into its individual sub-layers, giving you more granular control over each component. This is recommended for intermediate and advanced users only.

The Background layer

The Background layer sits beneath all other layers on your map. It controls the overall background colour, the dot grid, and the isometric view setting. To view its settings, select the Background layer in the Layers menu.

Tip: To lock the Background layer once you are happy with its settings, click the padlock icon next to it in the Layers menu. This prevents the background settings from being overwritten when new layers are added.

• Opacity: Controls the overall transparency of the Background layer.
• Colour: Sets the background colour of the map.
• Isometric: Switches the map to isometric view. This setting is also accessible via the View menu in the Global Navigation.
• Background Texture (Pro Feature): Background Textures define the environment of your map at a glance, applying surface materials such as Grass, Water, or Snow across the entire background. Choose from multiple texture options in the dropdown, each available in colour or black and white. You can adjust the scale of each texture and apply colour blending to fine-tune the result.

• Grid: Controls the background dot grid. Settings include type, variant, colour, and radius.

The Fog of War Layer

The Fog of War layer is a special Dungeon layer designed to work with the Send to Tabletop feature. It is available to all users and can be found in the Dungeon Presets section of the Presets panel.

The Fog of War layer controls what players see on the external display in Send to Tabletop mode. Areas covered by the layer are hidden from players but remain visible to you behind an opaque overlay in your editing window.

To view its settings, select the Fog of War layer in the Layers menu.

• Opacity: Controls the overall transparency of the fog layer.
• Fog: Controls the colour of the fog. The Fog section can be hidden using the eye icon.
• Advanced: As with standard Dungeon layers, the Advanced section allows you to unpack the Fog of War layer into its sub-layers for more granular control. For more information on using the Fog of War layer, see Send to Tabletop.
• Blend Modes: Blend modes are available on several layer types and control how a layer interacts with the layers beneath it. (For a more detailed explanation of blend modes, see the Adobe Photoshop blend mode documentation, as the same principles apply in Dungeon Scrawl.) 
  
  The following blend modes are available:
  • Normal: renders the layer as standard, with no blending.
  • Add: brightens the layer. White has the strongest brightening effect; black has no effect.
  • Multiply: multiplies the colour of each pixel by the colour of the layer beneath it. Useful for making white areas appear transparent or for darkening already dark areas.
  • Screen: creates a translucent brightening effect on both the layer and the layers beneath it.