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zWolf
December 17th, 2009, 06:21
I know most of us have all seen the teaser of some DnD being played on a Microsoft Surface table...

here is an update on what it looks like now with some improvments... and, I gotta say, it's lookin fun.

https://kotaku.com/5428356/dungeons--dragons-for-microsoft-surface-has-come-a-long-way

That said,

I did a quick 'google' of "Microsoft Surface Price"

and found the following discouraging info on a wiki page:


A commercial Microsoft Surface unit is $12,500 (unit only), whereas a developer Microsoft Surface unit costs $15,000 and includes a developer unit, five seats and support.[5] However, Microsoft said it expects prices to drop enough to make consumer versions feasible in 2010.[6]

Sooooo... untill this thing drops down below 2 or 1 thousand dollars, I just don't see it being a viable option for games for the masses.... and even then .. ya know, you'd have to be a pretty dedicated or pretty rich gamer.

I think a 500 dollar, projector, and Fantasy Grounds or Herucas Battlegrounds would do just as good if not a better job of it.

I still found the movie clip pretty interesting though...

Culdraug
December 19th, 2009, 22:42
What about win 7 and a touch screen monitor? Fantasy grounds could rock (more than it already does).

ddavison
December 20th, 2009, 02:39
I have been toying around with FG2, a projector, wii Remotes and IR led pens for user interface and running games locally.

unerwünscht
December 20th, 2009, 02:59
We attempted touchscreen monitors at one point, but FG only responds to the touch interface on the first screen. So if you take nine 15 inchers like we did to make a large wall interface it won't quite work..... yet.

Cuskarie
March 10th, 2010, 06:09
This is out of left field but what about a FG app for the iPad? Or maybe a different tablet computer. Seems like a perfect fit to me. No idea how tough porting it would be though.

tdewitt274
March 10th, 2010, 15:17
I think it was mentioned somewhere that it was wanted by Dev, but would take a lot to do.

From reading a couple of books on Objective-C, it should be possible, but would it be able to communicate?

drahkar
March 10th, 2010, 19:29
Actually it would require a complete rewrite of the graphical interface. You have to remember that FGII is DirectX based. And OS shift would require the scrapping of the DirectX side of things and replacing it with OpenGL. You could try and do both, but that makes things exponentially more difficult.

ddavison
March 11th, 2010, 05:24
The iPad looked promising at first, but the more I delved into it the less likely I think an iPad version would become. There are some nice iPad like Windows slates coming down the pipe though that should provide touch screen support without much effort -- if any.

BruntFCA
March 12th, 2010, 14:19
The iPad looked promising at first, but the more I delved into it the less likely I think an iPad version would become. There are some nice iPad like Windows slates coming down the pipe though that should provide touch screen support without much effort -- if any.

Ye just wait for the half price Taiwan or Samsung ones to come out. Prolly Windows based.

MS is not a very innovative company these days but they do know how to make a good copy in the end:P

I hear the new Windows phones will finally be quite good, kinda like Windows 7 upgrade from Vista.

As for surface, it's pure lol, you can make setups yourself at a fraction of the cost.

osarusan
September 12th, 2010, 00:57
The iPad looked promising at first, but the more I delved into it the less likely I think an iPad version would become. There are some nice iPad like Windows slates coming down the pipe though that should provide touch screen support without much effort -- if any.

That's too bad. :-\

I just got an iPad and WOW! This this is fun, and I can feel the gaming potential with it. FG would be so awesome on this. And the interface really wouldn't have to be tweaked much at all for FG (though obviously other things would... changing from DirectX to Open GL for one -- which I actually think would be a good move anyway, but anyway...).

EugeneZ
September 12th, 2010, 09:12
changing from DirectX to Open GL for one -- which I actually think would be a good move anyway

:confused: I'm curious why you would think this. Care to elaborate? :D

Zeus
September 12th, 2010, 10:42
I'll hazard a guess its because OpenGL is an Open standard thus its supported on practically all current platforms including Windows, Linux and OS X. Supporting an OpenGL engine would enable easier ports to the other non-Windows platforms.

Stitched
September 12th, 2010, 12:35
Fuel for the fire.

Comparison of OpenGL and Direct X (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_OpenGL_and_Direct3D)

EugeneZ
September 12th, 2010, 19:15
Just wondering if its for the right reasons! Hm... In any case, it's a task easier said than done. Besides the compatibility advantages of OpenGL, I just find DirectX to be a better graphics API. Maybe that's why Smiteworks originally chose it? Though perhaps they regretted it when working on that vaporware Mac port....

Zeus
September 12th, 2010, 23:59
Just wondering if its for the right reasons! Hm... In any case, it's a task easier said than done. Besides the compatibility advantages of OpenGL, I just find DirectX to be a better graphics API. Maybe that's why Smiteworks originally chose it? Though perhaps they regretted it when working on that vaporware Mac port....

I think its fair to say that when Smiteworks first launched FantasyGrounds the choice of DirectX probably made sense for two simple reasons i) Microsoft did a pretty good job of providing good support in the form of development tools for DirectX and ii) Windows accounts for about 80% of all home desktops.

Today, Windows pretty much remains the home platform choice for many but Microsoft are not the innovative company they once were and for the observant a shift is occurring and its not Windows thats leading the pact. Open platfoms like Linux and Apple's OS X platforms are slowly gaining ground and new platforms like Apple's i platform (iPad etc.) and Google's Android are providing innovative new platforms.

OpenGL whilst open still lacks the convenience of DirectX so I guess its a trade off. Picking DirectX is simply good business sense given it requires the least amount of input and addresses the largest proportion of home computing solutions.

osarusan
September 17th, 2010, 13:00
Bingo, for the reasons above.

DirectX is great for Windows, no doubt. I suppose the question is will FG remain a Windows-only product for the long-term? The compatibility mode works fine on linux and (I assume) MacOS, but if FG ever wants to enter the tablet/portable market, it would be useful to switch over to OpenGL at some point, since the tablet market is currently dominated by iOS and Android.

That may change if MS comes out with a great tablet... but that remains to be seen. In the meantime, the few iPad gaming apps out there don't even compare to FG, and I see some serious potention.

Of course, I recognize the herculean effort it would be to rewrite FG for non-Windows systems, so I wouldn't expect it anytime soon if at all... just saying it would be very cool.

ddavison
September 18th, 2010, 03:50
We will continue to re-evaluate as things change -- or if we end up getting really inspired by the next version of the iPad or something. ;)