Sales Enquiry

[chook]

I cannot find the contact details for your sales team on the site. Could you please provide them?

[dulux-oz]

You could try [email protected]

[chook]

You could try [email protected]

Thanks, I am looking for sales though. That is listed as the e-mail address for technical support.

[Zacchaeus]

Hi chook, welcome to FG. What is it that you have a problem with. We might be able to help here.

[chook]

I don't have a problem however happy to talk here before making a purchasing decision.

I am interested in a VTT solution and so far Fantasy Grounds appears to be the only on-premise product in the market. My home environment is virtualised and my preferred implementation method is to install Fantasy Ground on a virtualised Linux server; Arch Linux specifically. My virtualisation solution is ESX and vSphere. I have read in some of the literature on the site that Fantasy Grounds is limited to a single machine however there are times when I will be travelling and will want to also operate on a laptop. I am flexible in this regard that I can connect back to my server from the remote workstation. My primary concern about the installation being locked to a single machine is if I need to migrate my virtual machine what mechanism is used to identify the machine? I have encountered issues in this department before, usually where the identification is related to the MAC address of the NIC. While MAC spoofing is a simple matter it is not recommended in VMWare's best practice guides as it can cause issues with the MAC database on the ESX host going out of sync.

Before making the decision to purchase I am interested in understanding the technical limitations of the product and also if you offer a true Linux version or only support the platform via WINE. I am fairly confident these are not the normal run of the mill type questions you get from customers which is why I was happy to talk to your sales team directly as I felt they would be used to these types of enquiries. Any information you can provide is greatly appreciated.

[dulux-oz]

Hi Chook,

FG is a windows program and so at the moment any Linux-implementation is via Wine. Your setup sounds a lot like mine (although I went with Centos - big deal ). However, I run FG on both my main Win10 box and my Win10 laptop with the same license - although NOT at the same time - and I also run up to 6 copies of (Free/Demo) FG via VMWare for testing/development purposes.

So there is no need to install FG to a server and remote in (indeed, with the current 32-bit engine its not recommended at all - this MAY change when the new Unity-based version is released - ETA = Unknown). Instead install FG where you need to and if you need to GM away from home grab a copy of your campaign folder and copy it to you laptop/whatever.

BTW don't run FG from a Cloud (private or hosted) as it tends to corrupt the database. You can transfer an "offline" copy of your campaign via cloud (for backup, etc) but don't run it from cloude.

Does that help?

Oh, and for the record, you would be surprised at the type of people and their level of coding, networking, business, and other knowledge and experience in this Community

[chook]

Thanks dulux-oz,

That does help. My intention had been to purchase the ultimate license and put that on the server then use free licenses as clients via tablets/laptops at the table. I am working on the plans for a table with a large video panel built into the surface for the maps and this seemed like it would work. Actually, I almost scored an old Samsung Microsoft Surface for $50 a few weeks ago which would have been perfect.

I don't think Fantasy Grounds is the solution I am looking for at this stage but maybe when they have fixed the database problems (which intrigue me but are also none of my business).

Thanks again for the information and taking the time.

[dulux-oz]

Don't get me wrong, there's no database problem, just an issue running from cloud storage.

And your model is "less then optimal" - what you want to do has been done before and is being done right now (by me as well as by others). The thing is you don't put FG on a server and then log into it - it doesn't work like that. Instead, the GM runs a host locally and then the players connect in as clients - a subtle difference but a difference never the less.

Don't dismiss FG out of hand - instead, take some more time to actually learn how the architecture actually works. I was in your boat several years ago and was actually writing my own VTT when I discover FG (and the others). I settled on FG to do the exact same job you want to use it for and I've never looked back since - and you won't find a better VTT anywhere (especially when you consider the great FG Community).

So, if you've got any other questions or queries then please ask

Cheers

[chook]

I think perhaps we might have had a misunderstanding due to our differing uses of the term cloud. My server is an on-premise physical device and the VM's are hosted there. I consider this to be an on-premise private cloud in the sense that cloud is more of marketing term than a technical one. Those of us (which I suspect includes you ) that remember those mainframe things in really big rooms know that the terms distributed and centralised computing are more accurate.

From what you are saying I suspect that the problem is due to some kind of latency issues than an actual issue with having the DB stored on a different VM to the software installation (which would be my intention; put the DB on a dedicated SQL server). SharePoint suffers the same problems with a 20ms time to first byte requirement which is part of the reason MS dropped support for stretched farms in the 2013 release. I did search for the architecture information but all I could find was a high level wiki article that you had written. It didn't provide any technical detail on how the solution worked or what the technical requirements are.

The primary reason for wanting a server based application is that I want to use a RaspberryPi in the lounge that is stuck on the back of my TV. All of my players bar one will be local and we really just want to include "that one guy." Sometimes I plan to travel to where the one remote player is and run the game from there since we have been gaming together for 25 years and this is a handy excuse to catch-up.

I certainly haven't written FG off. It is certainly the best product on the market right now; perhaps a VTT just isn't the solution for my problem. I think that being able to bounce this off you has helped me realise that. Quite possibly all I need is a video chat solution.

[Myrdin Potter]

The recommended non-primary machine backup (cloud or whatever you want to call it) is run the game on a local machine and then copy it to the networked storage after the game ends. Then if you are traveling, copy it to whatever computer you are using when you are traveling.

I know you want to run the program on a Linux VM. I guess the first thing to make sure is that it works with wine. If the hard drive is physically part of the machine the VM is running on, the occasional fail to write issue may not happen. From what I can tell, FG is often writing to the database and because of latency when sending the information over a network, a failed write or an out of sequence write can eventually corrupt the database.

I travel all the time and use a laptop to host when I am traveling and my main machine when I am home. There should be no reason when some remote screen application would not work if it was absolutely needed to always run on the VM on your Linux machine, as long as the file issue does not occur.

If all you are doing is displaying a map, you may be able use a chat program and screen sharing. You will lose all the automation and token handling of a VTT, but it may work fine for you.