Assets

An asset is a piece of artwork used on a map. Every token, tile, area effect and aura is drawn with one.

An asset is more than an image file. It has a name and tags, a type that decides how its file is played, and parameters that control size and placement. Open one in the asset editor to change any of these.

Where assets come from

Assets live in the library, inside a module, a campaign or a game system. Asset packs from the Package Manager are the usual source, and you can add your own to any campaign.

Assets in the library are blueprints. When you place one on a map, the tile or token gets its own copy of it:

Editing a placed asset changes only that object. Tint one brazier red and the others on the map, and the original in the library, stay as they were.
Editing a library asset does not change what is already on your maps. It applies the next time you place it.
Copies do not use extra space. Every copy of an asset points at the same file on disk, so placing the same tree a hundred times costs one image.

Asset types

Type	What it is
Image	A single still image. The default.
Pattern	An image repeated to fill the area it covers, such as a floor texture or a hedge.
Sprite Sheet	A grid of frames played in sequence — the classic format for animated effects.
Animated Image	A file that carries its own animation, such as an animated GIF or WebP.
Video	A video file, played in place. It can be transparent — see Video assets.

Parameters

Every asset has these:

Parameter	What it does
Grid Size	How many grid squares the artwork covers, written as `2x3`.
Scale	A multiplier on the drawn size.
Horizontal / Vertical Offset	Nudges the artwork off centre, as a percentage.

Some types add their own:

Type	Parameter	What it does
Pattern	Grid Align	Lines the repeating pattern up with the map grid.
Sprite Sheet	Frame Width / Height	The size of one frame, in pixels.
Sprite Sheet	Duration	The length of the animation, in seconds. Set to 1 second on import.

Video’s parameters are covered in Video assets.

Set from the file name

When you import an image or video, the app reads its file name to fill in the type and parameters, so a well-named asset pack needs no editing:

In the file name	Sets
`2x3`	Grid Size to 2 × 3 squares
`fx256x256`	Sprite Sheet, with 256 × 256 pixel frames
`.gif`, or `afx`	Animated Image
A video extension	Video — see the naming rules for transparency

You can always correct what was guessed in the asset editor.

Names and tags

An asset’s name and tags are how you find it again in a large pack.

They also drive random assets. When the app places something that has no artwork of its own, such as a status effect’s aura, it looks through the modules chosen in the current campaign’s Campaign Settings for an asset whose name or tag matches, and picks one at random. Tag a few flame effects fire and every fire effect gets one of them.

Components

Components change how an asset is drawn without editing its file. Add them under Components in the asset editor; an asset can have one of each.

Component	What it does
`filter.hsb`	Shifts hue, saturation and brightness.
`filter.tint`	Tints the artwork towards a colour, at an intensity you choose.
`animation.rotation`	Spins the artwork.
`animation.opacity`	Fades it in and out.
`animation.scale`	Pulses its size.

The animations each take a start and end value, a duration, a repeat count and whether to play back in reverse. A still image of a portal becomes a living one with a slow rotation and a pulse.

A component can be switched off without deleting its settings. Components set on the asset apply wherever it is used.

Video assets

An asset can be a video instead of a still image. Set its Type to Video in the asset editor and point it at an .mp4 file, and every tile, token or area effect using that asset plays it.

This is how animated spell effects work: a fireball that actually burns, a shimmering portal, a banner that moves in the wind. Most of the effect packs people use are built for exactly this.

Playback options

Parameter	Default	What it does
Loop	On	Restarts when it reaches the end. Most ambient effects want this.
Muted	On	A map can hold many videos at once, and none of them should start making noise on their own.
Speed	1.0	A multiplier on normal playback speed.

Transparency

A spell effect has to sit on top of the map without a black box around it. That needs transparency, and no video format the iPad can play carries a transparency channel reliably.

Encounter+ solves it the way the wider effects community does: a split alpha video. Each frame of the file is twice the size of the picture — one half is the artwork, the other half is the transparency mask in greyscale, where white is solid and black is invisible. The app reassembles the two halves as it draws.

So the file looks wrong if you open it in a normal video player. That’s expected. What matters is that the asset’s parameters describe how it’s packed:

Parameter	What it does
Transparent (Split Alpha)	Tells the app the frame is packed this way. Off means the video is drawn opaque.
Alpha Layout	Side by Side — artwork left, mask right. Top and Bottom — artwork top, mask bottom.

Both are set for you when you use the built-in conversion below.

Converting a WebM file

Almost every transparent effect pack you’ll find online ships as .webm, which iOS cannot play at all. Encounter+ can convert one for you.

In the asset editor, open the menu beside the video row and choose Convert WebM (Experimental), then pick the file. A progress sheet appears while it works — a few seconds for a typical effect — and when it finishes the converted video is attached to the asset with its transparency parameters already filled in.

The conversion happens entirely on your device. Nothing is uploaded anywhere, and it works offline.

A few things worth knowing:

AV1 files can’t be converted. They’re rare in effect packs today but becoming less so. The app will tell you if you hit one.
A WebM without transparency still converts, to an ordinary opaque video. That’s still useful, since iOS couldn’t open the original.
Very wide videos are packed top-and-bottom instead of side by side. A 4000 × 400 line effect would be 8000 pixels wide packed side by side, which is more than the video encoder accepts.
Converted files can be larger than the original. WebM is an efficient format, and the converted video is twice the size of its picture. This matters because assets travel inside every module you export.

Converting on a computer

If you’d rather convert in bulk, or the in-app conversion refuses a file, ffmpeg does the same job:

ffmpeg -i effect.webm -filter_complex \
  "[0:v]alphaextract,format=yuv420p[a];[0:v]format=yuv420p[c];[c][a]hstack=inputs=2" \
  -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -pix_fmt yuv420p -an effect_sbs.mp4

That produces a side-by-side file. For a top-and-bottom one, replace hstack=inputs=2 with vstack=inputs=2.

The _sbs suffix isn’t decoration. When Encounter+ imports a video file, it reads the name to work out how the frame is packed:

_sbs or _alpha — side by side
_tb — top and bottom

Name your files this way and the transparency parameters are set automatically on import. You can always correct them by hand in the asset editor.

Where to go next

Drawing, Markers & Effects — placing tiles and area effects.
Tokens — token artwork and auras.
Campaigns & Modules — choosing the modules random assets come from.