Manage Layers

Manage Layers presents active Scene, Region, and API effects in the order FXMaster composites them. Order 1 is the highest FXMaster row; larger numbers are processed beneath it.

Tokens, tiles, Scene artwork, lighting, darkness, fog, and vision do not appear as rows. Use each effect’s Below Tokens, Below Tiles, Below Foreground, Scene Level, and vision-related settings to control how the FXMaster stack interacts with those Scene elements.

Columns

Column	What it shows
Order	The row’s current position in the FXMaster stack. Order 1 is the top FXMaster row.
Effect	The effect’s display name. The smaller line beneath it identifies the row as a Particle, Filter, Suppression, or Grid entry and shows its effect type.
Source	Where the row came from: Scene, Region, API, API - Macro, or API - Preset.
Owner	The Scene name for Scene and API rows, or the Region name for Region effects and suppression rows.
Level	The Scene Level selection for the row. This column appears in Foundry v14 when the Scene contains more than one Level. All Levels means the row is not limited to a smaller selection.
Actions	The Move up and Move down buttons used to change the row’s position one step at a time.

When a row uses more than one selected Level, the Level column shows the first Level and an ellipsis. Hover the ellipsis to see the additional Levels.

The optional Foundry Grid row appears when the grid is included in the FXMaster stack through its related setting.

Masking and performance

Manage Layers only changes the order of FXMaster rows. Masking options such as Below Tokens, Below Tiles, Below Foreground, suppression Regions, and other Region or tile restrictions are configured on the effect or Region that owns the row. These masks require additional rendering work, so use them where they are needed and account for some added performance cost.

Include Foundry Grid in FX Stack

Open Configure Settings → Module Settings under Gambit’s FXMaster and enable Include Foundry Grid in FX Stack to add the normal Foundry grid lines to FXMaster’s compositor input. The setting is client-specific, so each user can choose whether the grid participates in their FXMaster stack.

When enabled, Foundry Grid appears as a row in Manage Layers and can be moved with the same Move up and Move down actions as an effect row:

• Effects above Foundry Grid can render over the normal grid lines.
• Effects below Foundry Grid remain behind the normal grid lines.
• Grid highlights and controls remain above FXMaster and are not moved into the stack. The Disable Grid Movement Highlighting world setting can hide token movement grid-space highlights separately.

Find where a row is configured

Use Source and Owner together:

• Scene: Edit the row through Particle Effects or Filter Effects for the Scene named in Owner.
• API, API - Macro, or API - Preset: Review the row through Manage API Effects. Owner identifies the Scene receiving it.
• Region: Open the Region named in Owner and edit the FXMaster behavior that created the row.

Suppression rows are also owned by Regions and are configured through the Region behavior rather than an effect management window.

Reordering

Use Move up and Move down in the Actions column to move a row one position at a time. Select Reset order from the window controls to clear the stored custom order and return to the default stack arrangement.

Effects created by the Direct Effect API can also request an order. Entries in an effects array are treated as the requested top-to-bottom order for newly created rows.

await FXMASTER.api.effects.play({
  effects: [
    { kind: 'filter', type: 'color', options: { saturation: 0.8 } },
    { kind: 'particle', type: 'rain', options: { topDown: true } },
    { kind: 'filter', type: 'fog', options: { density: 0.3 } },
  ],
});

A useful environmental order

For a rainy map, a sensible starting point is:

1. Lightning or Screen Shake.
2. Bloom.
3. Color grading.
4. Rain particles.
5. Fog filter.
6. Wet-ground background below tokens.

There is no universal correct order. The intended visual relationship determines the stack.

Diagnosing an unexpected result

1. Use Source and Owner to locate the interface responsible for the row.
2. Disable the suspected row through Particle Effects, Filter Effects, the owning Region behavior, or Manage API Effects, then confirm whether the result changes.
3. Re-enable it and use Move up or Move down to compare it with adjacent FXMaster rows.
4. Confirm Below Tokens, Below Tiles, and Below Foreground.
5. Confirm the Region, Level, and tile masks.
6. Confirm vision and darkness settings.

The owning interface defines and edits a row; Manage Layers controls where that row sits relative to the other FXMaster rows.