Using FG at the tabletop

[Equitable Remedy]

The short version: can FG serve as a useful tool for a group of gamers playing in-person at the tabletop (for mapping encounters, etc)?

The long version:

I'm starting a D&D group with a few people from work. We've all had some experience with D&D in the past, but we've all been out of the RPG scene for quite a while. Since it looks like I'll be DMing, I've been trying to get up to speed with D&D in particular and with modern tools of the trade in general. It's a lot to take in all at once, so I thought that I'd just ask my question at the outset and save myself a lot of time in trying to figure out if FG could be the kind of tool that I'm looking for.

As I said, it looks like I'll be the DM. My players and I are all professionals who work long hours, so we (especially me as the DM) will have limited time to put into all of the prep work for sessions. I'm really interested in anything that could help streamline the process. For instance, we plan to run Lost Mines of Phandelver, and, if that goes well, continue into Princes of the Apocalypse after that; using published campaigns should, I would hope, cut down on the amount of prep time necessary.

I'm really intrigued by FG's modules for these published adventures. Were I going to be playing online, I'd be all over FG; it looks really great from what I can see! However, we'll be getting together every other week in person, and I'm wondering if FG could help us (me!) at the tabletop with maps, battle grids, pictures, whatever. I think the idea would be to have us all sit at a table with me on one end, two players on each side, and an old wide-screen TV hooked up to my laptop at the end opposite me. We could use some sort of digital tool (maybe FG!) to map out battles and anything else that would be helpful.

So, my question is this: could FG be helpful in this way, or is it really not amenable to that kind of use? In an ideal world, it would stop me from having to prepare maps and help keep track of everything. If it would be a really awkward use of the platform or just not workable, that's fine; I'm just trying to get a sense of that at the outset of my exploration.

Thanks so much for your help!

[kylania]

It absolutely can be used like that. What I'd do is run the GM client on your main laptop and connect in with a player client on the TV output screen. That way you can retain the GM only things just for you and use map masking and all of that.

There's a few tricks for 5E as well where you can have your friends roll dice at the table and just apply the effects in game. You'd set up Attack and Damage effects on a dummy character with no dice. drag them to the bar and use the modifier stack to add whatever the roll is then drag onto wherever you need it.

The 5E adventures are amazing too since they include everything needed, maps, monsters, pregens and story for you. My friend, who had never DM'd before, bought Lost Mines of Phandelver and ran a flawless and fun game since it was all so easy for him.

[Griogre]

Some groups do use FG in face to face groups, so that use is viable and there are some threads giving their experience. I will say there are three reasons people use FG for a face to face game, convenience, being able to broadcast the map and figures to a screen, and they have a hybrid group where only some are online.

There have also been some groups where they start out like you are proposing and then have gone to everyone having a laptop sitting around a table. Given your situation this sounds like it would be optimal if you guys already have laptops. This would mean everyone could use all the built in automation of the FG combat tracker and you would not have to pass around a wireless keyboard or mouse or just move everyone. You could also have a "player" computer + the widescreen and just have the player's "hotseat" the laptop if not everyone has one.

For you, the DM, running FG would make things easier if you used the official adventures since you would not have to input anything, carry any books around and could just prep by reading the adventure. It would be easier on you, the DM, if there was at least one other computer the player's could use for input so you would not have a share a mouse and keyboard with the players or have to move the PCs.

[Nylanfs]

Welcome to the community!

Yes to all the above posts and I will throw this out there if you are going to be playing in one location.

https://goo.gl/photos/ce2pLw2G98Sno6Ht7

[ddaley]

I am using FG to DM LMoP at the table and also as a player in Dragon Hoard. I would say that FG can definitely help at the table, but not as much as it could. I run 2 instances of FG... the DM instance and the player instance. I run the DM instance on my laptop and display the player instance on an external monitor for the players to see. I can easily display maps and pictures of items/creatures/etc. I use the combat tracker to help run combat, which is pretty useful. Using the fog of war to reveal maps as the characters explore is nice. It frees up time that is normally wasted by players drawing maps.

The downsides:
1) The font is too small, making text difficult to read. You cannot change the font size. You have to scale the entire UI in order to make the fonts readable, which isn't ideal. Since I also have the physical manuals and adventure, I tend to use those rather than trying to read too much text from FG....
2) A lot of content is linked, making it easy to jump to related content. However, each click opens a new window. So, you quickly end up with many windows open, cluttering up the desktop. If FG navigated content similar to how Realm Works navigates content, I think it would be much easier.
3) Finding ad-hoc information in the reference books can be a pain. Try finding the list of available languages from the PHB in FG. I was originally hoping that FG would streamline game play by making it easy to look up rules.

All in all, we have found it useful. However, if the above were addressed, it would be so much more useful (to me at least).

[Equitable Remedy]

Thank you so much for your quick responses!

@kylania and Griogre: The idea would definitely be to have people roll physical dice at the table; that's the best part! We'd use FG to track and organize other things, in and out of combat. My strong desire would be to not have everyone with laptops at the table; I think that that would make us too disconnected. In the idea case, there'd only be one, but we could use two if needed. I think that, rather than pass around the player computer, people could just point to where they want their characters to go (for instance: "up three squares, one square to the right, next to that orc"), and one person could do the moving. Passing around a computer/mouse seems like it could really bog things down.

@Nylanfs: That's a sweet setup, but I have neither the time nor the resources (like a room where I could leave that sort of setup in place) to execute it! I think that a TV at the end of the table is the best that I could do, haha.

@ddaley: I am very interested in your experience; thanks for sharing! To be clear, are you running these two instances on the same laptop? Being able to run the DM instance on my laptop screen and a player instance (with fog of war and everything) on the TV screen would be perfect. Are you on mac or PC? Is running to instances possible on Mac? (I've got a windows partition on my laptop, but I really don't like using it if I don't have to, haha!)

Thanks again!

[damned]

ddaley - I assume you are playing 5e? what theme are you using? Is it just the Library and Story fonts that you would like bigger? How much bigger?

[ddaley]

ddaley - I assume you are playing 5e? what theme are you using? Is it just the Library and Story fonts that you would like bigger? How much bigger?

Yes, we are playing 5e. I am not sure what theme... I didn't change the theme (and not sure how to). I think it is mainly the fonts in the Library and Story. I did scaleui 125 to make things more readable. I would go a bit larger if I didn't have to scale the entire UI.

Both my laptop and external monitor are running at 1080p.

[ddaley]

Thank you so much for your quick responses!

@ddaley: I am very interested in your experience; thanks for sharing! To be clear, are you running these two instances on the same laptop? Being able to run the DM instance on my laptop screen and a player instance (with fog of war and everything) on the TV screen would be perfect. Are you on mac or PC? Is running to instances possible on Mac? (I've got a windows partition on my laptop, but I really don't like using it if I don't have to, haha!)

Thanks again!

Remedy,

I am running two instances on a single PC (laptop) and displaying the player instance on an external monitor. I have run two instances on a Mac as well. In order to run two instances on the Mac, it seemed like I had to copy the application and give the second instance another name. However, my macbook is too old, small and under powered.

I think what you are wanting to do is exactly what I am doing. I display maps and use fog of war to conceal unexplored parts from the players. My players use paper character sheets, but I try to keep their characters in FG up to date. That makes it easy for me to see what abilities and spells and what not that they have. I use the combat tracker and display combat tokens on the screen most of the time. We also use a flip mat and minis, but I like to keep the screen in sync with the mat. But, it is easier for the players at the table to move their minis on the mat. There are times when we don't use the mat and there are times when I don't bother with putting tokens on the map (on the screen). It just depends on the situation.

EDIT: I should point out, that when I installed on the Mac, I did not use Steam (as I avoid Steam whenever possible). I am not sure how Steam would impact running two instances.

[Trenloe]

The font is too small, making text difficult to read. You cannot change the font size. You have to scale the entire UI in order to make the fonts readable, which isn't ideal. Since I also have the physical manuals and adventure, I tend to use those rather than trying to read too much text from FG....
Try the extension below as a quick experiment. This increases the body text of story entries and reference entries from 10 points to 11 points (the body text, not the headers).

Instructions on installing extensions here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Data_Files_Overview#Extensions

Activate the "5E Reference Font - 11 points" extension for a 5E campaign.

[ddaley]

Try the extension below as a quick experiment. This increases the body text of story entries and reference entries from 10 points to 11 points (the body text, not the headers).

Instructions on installing extensions here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Data_Files_Overview#Extensions

Activate the "5E Reference Font - 11 points" extension for a 5E campaign.

Thanks,

That definitely helps.

[damned]

Try the extension below as a quick experiment. This increases the body text of story entries and reference entries from 10 points to 11 points (the body text, not the headers).

Instructions on installing extensions here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Data_Files_Overview#Extensions

Activate the "5E Reference Font - 11 points" extension for a 5E campaign.

Thanks Trenloe - that is exactly what i was going to do!

[Draca]

Would it be possible for this extension to increase the chat font as well?
I was thinking if we could increase the fonts in the chat window and the story/ reference areas , then the ui could go alot smaller!
Leaving more room for other things on my handicapped one monitor system.

[Trenloe]

Would it be possible for this extension to increase the chat font as well?
Try this.

[damned]

here is another variation using a bigger font again.

[Draca]

Damned that one i was able to scale to 70, anything smaller and the unmodified text and other things started to lose clarity.10778

[damned]

Damned that one i was able to scale to 70, anything smaller and the unmodified text and other things started to lose clarity.10778

Hi Draca I see what you are saying but not what you are asking :)
What ScaleUI are you after and what other things need to change to support that?

[Draca]

Dont need anything else =)
But any lower on the UI scale and the modifiers at the bottom adv/dis +2 +5 -2 -5 start to degrade rapidly.
The 70 scale maintains quality across the board, and super easy to read!

I was throwing the picture out to raise awareness, and show off your extension.
It might scale lower under a different resolution , but the extension lets me drop from a 85 ui scale to a 70 and i can still read everything.

[Trenloe]

here is another variation using a bigger font again.
Nice.

There's no need to use all the code you have in extension.lua - it's pretty much overkill. And now you can just use the (relatively) new <announcement> tag in your extension .xml - see the example in my extension above, or in some of the recently released FG extensions.


<announcement text="Character import / export extension v1" icon="rulesetlogo_CoreRPG" font="systemfont" />

[damned]

Nice.

There's no need to use all the code you have in extension.lua - it's pretty much overkill. And now you can just use the (relatively) new <announcement> tag in your extension .xml - see the example in my extension above, or in some of the recently released FG extensions.


<announcement text="Character import / export extension v1" icon="rulesetlogo_CoreRPG" font="systemfont" />

Thanks for the pointer Trenloe - I have been meaning to check that out but just havent got there. I stole the extension.lua from holognome a long time ago and have stuck with it :)

[Draca]

Damned,
Can the story reference text be increased as well?
Im not sure what to call it , click story , Select module or chapter i guess and all those links , can they be increased?

[damned]

Damned,
Can the story reference text be increased as well?
Im not sure what to call it , click story , Select module or chapter i guess and all those links , can they be increased?

Draca can you post me a screenie so I know exactly which bits you mean?

[damned]

Trenloe - I cant seem to get the Icon to load in the Chat Frame using the announcement tag.
Draca - I think this is what you are after?

[edit] Added new Fonts.

[Trenloe]

Trenloe - I cant seem to get the Icon to load in the Chat Frame using the announcement tag.
The <icon> reference name doesn't match the name you're using in the <announcement> entry. One is diehard the other is diehard-logo - no matchy, no showy. ;)

[damned]

Thanks Trenloe. The icon name I had used was defined in /graphics/graphics_icons.xml
I was sure I had also tried using the one I had in the extension.xml.... but obviously not as it works with that one.... :)

[Draca]

10792
The first box next to the chat window. Can that one be increased?

[Nyghtmare]

You can increase the size of all text from the SETTINGS options before you go into any campaign. I have mine set to 120% of normal size, which greatly helped out one of my players who was having some issues reading the text.

[damned]

Draca please try now.... updated the file in the post above.

[Draca]

@Damned....That is perfect!
@Nyghtmare.. The settings option increases the entire UI along with text. Using the above extension by Damned you can scale the UI to 70 and the text is still nice and readable. This gives you more room on your screen for other things.
10797

[Andraax]

I modified the extension for Castles & Crusades and used it in my game last night. I had the UI scaled to 80, with this extension the fonts were still readable (well, with my reading glasses on, but I need them anyway...) but I had lots more space on the desktop for more windows...

[damned]

I modified the extension for Castles & Crusades and used it in my game last night. I had the UI scaled to 80, with this extension the fonts were still readable (well, with my reading glasses on, but I need them anyway...) but I had lots more space on the desktop for more windows...

If you experience issues with this, try an updated extension here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?25600-Using-FG-at-the-tabletop&p=354111&viewfull=1#post354111

I removed all the 5e tags just now so it will/should work with most CoreRPG rulesets.

[JohnD]

I modified the extension for Castles & Crusades and used it in my game last night. I had the UI scaled to 80, with this extension the fonts were still readable (well, with my reading glasses on, but I need them anyway...) but I had lots more space on the desktop for more windows...

Can you share that? More real estate on screen sounds attractive.

Edit: thank you!

[Patou]

Is there a visual we can have to show the user the different Fonts available by using these extensions. Is there an example somewhere? Like a before and after...

Thanks

[damned]

Just download it and try it - it will take you about 7mins from woah to go...
I used Big Fonts without scaling last week playing Call of Cthulhu. It was just a lot easier on the eyes all round :)

[Patou]

Just download it and try it - it will take you about 7mins from woah to go...
I used Big Fonts without scaling last week playing Call of Cthulhu. It was just a lot easier on the eyes all round :)

Will do. (I was asking because i'm at work right now and was curious...... long day)

Thanks :)

[Galach]

Well, since I am getting a bit blind with age, I am trying this extension right now, and also tried another one with a font size 11 (I think this extension is something like a 14pt size). The previous mod (11pt size) did not worked, or the change was not visible for me, and this one (BigFonts) is a bit too large. So, here goes my question: is there a way I can edit the .ext file to get something in between?

EDIT:
Well, just forget about it. I just downloaded the BigFonts (not 5eBigFonts) and it works perfectly. The size is slightly smaller and it changes all entries, so the screen have a better look.

[Nylanfs]

/scaleui xxx (like 150 or something)

[damned]

Well, since I am getting a bit blind with age, I am trying this extension right now, and also tried another one with a font size 11 (I think this extension is something like a 14pt size). The previous mod (11pt size) did not worked, or the change was not visible for me, and this one (BigFonts) is a bit too large. So, here goes my question: is there a way I can edit the .ext file to get something in between?

EDIT:
Well, just forget about it. I just downloaded the BigFonts (not 5eBigFonts) and it works perfectly. The size is slightly smaller and it changes all entries, so the screen have a better look.

To answer your question though - yes - unpack it and have a look at the graphics_fonts.xml file and play with those settings.

[Galach]

To answer your question though - yes - unpack it and have a look at the graphics_fonts.xml file and play with those settings.

Nice! I will change them and see how it works. Thanks! =)

[Galach]

To answer your question though - yes - unpack it and have a look at the graphics_fonts.xml file and play with those settings.

Nice! I will change them and see how it works. Thanks! =)

[Zeus]

Here's another version of Trenlo's 5E Font Extension - this one with 14 point font size.

[Gwydion]

Here's another version of Trenlo's 5E Font Extension - this one with 14 point font size.


Hey, guys. Any reason these shouldn't work with 3.2? I'm testing them and didn't see a reason they wouldn't work.....

[damned]

They should work. They might deform or bleed in a few places where they were snug before the increase but that should not do any harm...

[Gwydion]

They should work. They might deform or bleed in a few places where they were snug before the increase but that should not do any harm...

Ok, so I know this isn't rocket science but I had to tell someone! I know absolutely zilch about programming but read some of your posts and rob2e about how to crack open extensions. So, I cracked open the font extension created by Trenloe (his 11 pt 5e reference extension) and bumped everything up by 1pt. I changed the name to 12 pt font, re-zipped the extension and named it back to a .ext, loaded it in my data folder and launched fg. I selected it and and launched a campaign and waited....

It worked! It bleeds over ever so slightly in a couple places, but with my UI scaled to 85, it looks great to me. Ok, now this has given me just a little confidence to try more stuff out! You guys all rock. So cool to be able to do these little things. Maybe one day I can actually create a real extension of my own..... :)

[Trenloe]

Ok, now this has given me just a little confidence to try more stuff out!
Oh, oh. Watch out!

;)

[Patou]

1634916350
Enjoy!!
I use FG for my in-house games and there has been a major improvement all around. Never had so many players around the table, combat is super fast, and the attention on the table is awesome!

[Trenloe]

As a note to anyone who uses FG for face-to-face gaming with a TV/projector for the table. I've updated the Map resize to TV extension for v3.2.0 compatibility: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33834-Map-resize-to-TV-resolution-for-Face-To-Face-games

[Trenloe]

I use FG for my in-house games and there has been a major improvement all around. Never had so many players around the table, combat is super fast, and the attention on the table is awesome!
Nice setup!

[Patou]

Nice setup!

it's all thanks to you guys! Awesome feedback and help that I got! So.. Trenloe.... when you coming to Montreal area to join us for a game... free beer and Pizza for guest players:)

[Trenloe]

Trenloe.... when you coming to Montreal area to join us for a game... free beer and Pizza for guest players:)
Will have to organize a trip sometime. Lachancery owes me lots of beers!

[Salva]

Try the extension below as a quick experiment. This increases the body text of story entries and reference entries from 10 points to 11 points (the body text, not the headers).

Instructions on installing extensions here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Data_Files_Overview#Extensions

Activate the "5E Reference Font - 11 points" extension for a 5E campaign.

Didnt know this exist until now. (I didnt see it in the extension list.)
Thanks!!!!

[Dracius]

Is there a way to increase just the size of the chat window font and story text?

Basically the small fonts (story/flavor text/chat) are too small, but everything else is already a perfect size.

[Trenloe]

Is there a way to increase just the size of the chat window font and story text?
See posts #14 and #41.

[Trancekat]

What size TVs are you guys using for laying flat on the table? I want to do this set up, but not sure how big of a TV I need. Thanks in advance!

[Trenloe]

Some info (and photos) here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33834-Map-resize-to-TV-resolution-for-Face-To-Face-games

Basically, it depends how big the maps are you want to display and how portable you want the TV to be and what pixel resolution you want. I use a 48" 4K TV - it displays the 30"x24" maps I use a lot, I can move it around (fits under my arm) and gives about 100 pixels per 1 inch square.

You can play around with TV sizes here: https://tvcalculator.com/ and see what size and PPI you'dget for each TV size and resolution (1080p/4K).

[Trancekat]

Thank you, Trenloe!

What make/model do you use, out of curiosity, please?


Some info (and photos) here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33834-Map-resize-to-TV-resolution-for-Face-To-Face-games

Basically, it depends how big the maps are you want to display and how portable you want the TV to be and what pixel resolution you want. I use a 48" 4K TV - it displays the 30"x24" maps I use a lot, I can move it around (fits under my arm) and gives about 100 pixels per 1 inch square.

You can play around with TV sizes here: https://tvcalculator.com/ and see what size and PPI you'dget for each TV size and resolution (1080p/4K).

[Trenloe]

What make/model do you use, out of curiosity, please?
It's a Vizio TV. Got it refurbished off Woot 9 months ago: https://www.woot.com/offers/vizio-smartcast-e-series-48-uhd-4k-tv-3

[Valacar]

I picked up a 42inch for our 4x7 foot game table. Working great so far for displaying digital maps! using the player image size extension as well...enjoying it!

[Trenloe]

I picked up a 42inch for our 4x7 foot game table. Working great so far for displaying digital maps! using the player image size extension as well...enjoying it!
Great to hear. :)

[Patou]

Another awesome evening!!

[Patou]

Check out this picture of our last game!https://0vya3w.dm2301.livefilestore.com/y4mEalYwA5bEi3VXY-lcSf9VEuseqRirrzZ-NQ67pldqi7h-p2rr6_1RlMm5n924SY4BieKALitTGGU0_ZcKInG0UMz8lxyeAZ klDhZ_gwaj_RTBdkqKbjirgYtjP0X69oMUCJsoU4MGeLerBsaI SR0OG_P-uMbqWKeMR0vMK6V_mEC_1w2sbMsBM8t2vKL1M1UcMG_0i3VVkR CpkS8PP4ZQg?width=4032&height=3024&cropmode=none

[Valacar]

Check out this picture of our last game!https://0vya3w.dm2301.livefilestore.com/y4mEalYwA5bEi3VXY-lcSf9VEuseqRirrzZ-NQ67pldqi7h-p2rr6_1RlMm5n924SY4BieKALitTGGU0_ZcKInG0UMz8lxyeAZ klDhZ_gwaj_RTBdkqKbjirgYtjP0X69oMUCJsoU4MGeLerBsaI SR0OG_P-uMbqWKeMR0vMK6V_mEC_1w2sbMsBM8t2vKL1M1UcMG_0i3VVkR CpkS8PP4ZQg?width=4032&height=3024&cropmode=none

looks like a sweet projector set up - nicely done!!

[LordEntrails]

I picked up a 42inch for our 4x7 foot game table. Working great so far for displaying digital maps! using the player image size extension as well...enjoying it!
Pictures?!?!?

[Valacar]

I'll see if we have any from last session on the phone and post. If not, I'll take a few and post those.

[Trancekat]

I'll see if we have any from last session on the phone and post. If not, I'll take a few and post those.

Would love to see the pix.

Is 42" enough space?

I'm planning to take this to local cons and DM for people. I want to make sure they have a good experience.

[Valacar]

Would love to see the pix.

Is 42" enough space?

I'm planning to take this to local cons and DM for people. I want to make sure they have a good experience.

Seems to be plenty big so far. The TV dimensions are 22.5"x38" so the 20x30 gale force nice fit nicely on top for non-digital map along with most of the 4e maps. We also like it as it creates a game space for the maps/digital maps but also gives the players room to place their books and such on the table and not take up table space if we didn't have the TV and needed the table for all for maps.

The pathfinder flip maps overhang about an inch on each of width side as they are 24'"x30"

Sorry for the mess, in between sessions, it turns into props and mini painting space. plus the table I bought seats 5 easily and at one time we had 6 total and needed the extra make shift white leaf as the Room to Go didn't or wont sell just a leaf.
19158
19159
19157

Also plan on using the TV for the 3D FG in the future :) Give Carl and Doug a little nudge whenever possible cause it's going to be awesome!

[LordEntrails]

Thanks for the pics! Always cool to see.

[Valacar]

We have a projector set up at a friend's house we used for a couple years (2012-2014). Projected onto a 4x7 DIY table that had a white top you could wet erase write on. Just recently starting using the tv at my place...granted after I had spent a chuck of change for maps we could use physically as well.

[Patou]

My setup is about that...42 inch.. using the projector. on a 4x8 sheet of plywood there is room for seven players with open book space.

[BgHurt]

There was an issue with the Candara.ttf font due to an errant comma in the xml on this.

I tried to email damned, the original poster of this extension, but his inbox is full. So I just fixed it and uploaded it here. Hope that is "OK"

[Trenloe]

I tried to email dammed, the original poster of this extension, but his inbox is full. So I just fixed it and uploaded it here. Hope that is "OK"
I'm sure damned will be OK with that.

[Lonny Zone]

Sorry if I sound a little lost, I can't seem to get hold of the BigFont.ext file. Is it possible to repost it or direct me to the location of the file? Thanks.

[damned]

Welcome Lonny Zone
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?25600-Using-FG-at-the-tabletop&p=354111&viewfull=1#post354111

[Lonny Zone]

Welcome Lonny Zone
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?25600-Using-FG-at-the-tabletop&p=354111&viewfull=1#post354111

Magic! You have my thanks.

[Patou]

Happy Holidays!
21801

[Bidmaron]

Impressive. Projection or TV?

[Patou]

Impressive. Projection or TV?

Projection:) BenQ

[Ripskreig]

HI guys, I cant seem to access any of the indicated "attached files" relating to extensions such as Big Font in this or other threads. All I see is the text stating that there is an attached file. Having a senior moment. Any hints?

[Zacchaeus]

HI guys, I cant seem to access any of the indicated "attached files" relating to extensions such as Big Font in this or other threads. All I see is the text stating that there is an attached file. Having a senior moment. Any hints?

Most likely this will be because you are viewing the tablet version of the forum. Down at the bottom of the screen you should see a drop down and if you select FGResponsive or FGQuick you should be able to see the full site and links will then work. You might also see a button or text string somewhere that says 'Switch to Full site' or 'View full site' or some such; clicking that should do the trick.

If that isn't the problem it could be that your choice of browser is the issue or you have set (or it has been set by default) an option which disables links.

[Ripskreig]

Most likely this will be because you are viewing the tablet version of the forum. Down at the bottom of the screen you should see a drop down and if you select FGResponsive or FGQuick you should be able to see the full site and links will then work. You might also see a button or text string somewhere that says 'Switch to Full site' or 'View full site' or some such; clicking that should do the trick.

If that isn't the problem it could be that your choice of browser is the issue or you have set (or it has been set by default) an option which disables links.


"Full site" - That was my issue - Thankyou very much!

[nebbiolo]

Hello, I tried using BigFonts.ext (the one from the 4th page of this thread) with /scaleui 70 to give me more real estate and it does work. However, my campaign now takes 55 seconds to load instead of 28. I tried with the extension enabled and disabled several times and the results are consistent. Is this normal that it doubles the time to load? Not that big a thing because it's not as if you load the campaign very often in a day, but I'm kind of worried it could have a hit on memory (did not check). Thanks.

[Moon Wizard]

The extension is probably using TTF fonts, which do add a big load time factor as the letter bitmaps are all created at load time.

Regards,
JPG

[Gwydion]

Hey nebbiolo. I modified one of Trenloe's extensions last year and at some point updated it to work with all rulesets. It uses droid serif 14 pt font. I have not heard of any loading issues with it so it might be worth a shot? I've attached it here in case you want to try it.

[nebbiolo]

Thank you Gwydion! With your extension my campaign loads as fast as without it, and it does work (ie. increases font size) and looks good! It's a keeper for me. :o

[damned]

The extension is probably using TTF fonts, which do add a big load time factor as the letter bitmaps are all created at load time.

Regards,
JPG

Ahhhh - that would do it!
All my extensions that change fonts use TTF fonts!

[Gwydion]

Thank you Gwydion! With your extension my campaign loads as fast as without it, and it does work (ie. increases font size) and looks good! It's a keeper for me. :o

Excellent! Glad it helps!

[Bidmaron]

Can we get this extension preserved somewhere so it doesn't vanish into the void of time?

[JTM3469]

As far as setting up the DM area and controlling all the window popups, I found a GREAT video by the Digital Dungeon Master on a great way to set everything up and keep everything organized. You can check out the video on youtube here.

By the Digital Dungeon Master:
How to Use Fantasy Grounds For Beginner DM's -- Getting Your Game Organized Martha Stewart Style
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Pr2v0f1d4

He has some fantastic tips and ideas that really help.

[Zacchaeus]

Can we get this extension preserved somewhere so it doesn't vanish into the void of time?

It has been stickied in here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?35568-Another-14-pt-font-extension) since it was produced.

[Gwydion]

It has been stickied in here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?35568-Another-14-pt-font-extension) since it was produced.

I think he meant that its only stickied in the 5e extension thread. Since I removed the tags should I upload the extension somewhere else? I'm exclusively a 5e guy (and maybe SotDL), so I'm not sure if I should start a thread in the corerpg section and attach the updated extension without the tags? Just let me know. Happy to do whatever is easiest for everyone. Thanks, Zacchaeus.

[LordEntrails]

I think he meant that its only stickied in the 5e extension thread. Since I removed the tags should I upload the extension somewhere else? I'm exclusively a 5e guy (and maybe SotDL), so I'm not sure if I should start a thread in the corerpg section and attach the updated extension without the tags? Just let me know. Happy to do whatever is easiest for everyone. Thanks, Zacchaeus.
IMO, every extension should have it's own thread :)

[Mistamichal]

Hey nebbiolo. I modified one of Trenloe's extensions last year and at some point updated it to work with all rulesets. It uses droid serif 14 pt font. I have not heard of any loading issues with it so it might be worth a shot? I've attached it here in case you want to try it.

Thanks for that. Greatly decreased loading times here, too.

I have one question for you - or anyone actually. Is there a way to increase the font size in other elements - specifically tables and charts?

In the screenshot, you can see that the font in the equipment list is very small, even at 100% ui size. so, I'd like to make the fonts bigger there.
Cheers

22559

[Zacchaeus]

I think he meant that its only stickied in the 5e extension thread. Since I removed the tags should I upload the extension somewhere else? I'm exclusively a 5e guy (and maybe SotDL), so I'm not sure if I should start a thread in the corerpg section and attach the updated extension without the tags? Just let me know. Happy to do whatever is easiest for everyone. Thanks, Zacchaeus.

I hadn't noticed that it was now tagged for all Core rulesets. I'll ask Trenloe to add it to the CoreRGP sticky.

It is probably best to start new threads for a new extension; or even a modification of an extension which allows it to be used in another ruleset. That way the moderator in that forum is more likely to spot it and if they think it worthwhile sticky it.

[Gwydion]

I hadn't noticed that it was now tagged for all Core rulesets. I'll ask Trenloe to add it to the CoreRGP sticky.

It is probably best to start new threads for a new extension; or even a modification of an extension which allows it to be used in another ruleset. That way the moderator in that forum is more likely to spot it and if they think it worthwhile sticky it.

Yes. Good point, Zacchaeus. Will definitely do so in the future!

[Gwydion]

Thanks for that. Greatly decreased loading times here, too.

I have one question for you - or anyone actually. Is there a way to increase the font size in other elements - specifically tables and charts?

In the screenshot, you can see that the font in the equipment list is very small, even at 100% ui size. so, I'd like to make the fonts bigger there.
Cheers

22559

Hmm... This might be outside my skillset! When I use it in my 5e campaigns and open the PHB the table font is increased as well to the 14 pt font. Not sure why it isn't working for your tables. Do you possibly have any other extensions loaded that affect font size that might be conflicting? If not, we definitely need someone more technical!

[Trenloe]

I have one question for you - or anyone actually. Is there a way to increase the font size in other elements - specifically tables and charts?

In the screenshot, you can see that the font in the equipment list is very small, even at 100% ui size. so, I'd like to make the fonts bigger there.
Cheers

22559
This is the Rolemaster ruleset, which is not based on CoreRPG, which is what the extension is built on. It's luck that so many of the fonts already matched. Someone will have to go through and make the relevant changes for the Rolemaster ruleset fonts. Probably the person that wants it to work with Rolemaster! ;)

Reminder to everyone posting in the forums - please always state what ruleset you're using/having issues with. This helps everyone - give the poster more accurate and quicker answers and prevents other people from giving incorrect replies - which wastes everyone's time. Thanks!

[Mistamichal]

Ahhhh, that would make sense. Maybe there's an extra text type in the RMC ruleset that isn't in the big font extensions. Is there a list anywhere of the different text types? e.g. reference-r, chatfont, story-h, etc. maybe I could figure out which one it is from that.

[Moon Wizard]

They're defined in the ruleset. You'd have to search through all the XML files in the ruleset, and look for anything tagged as <font name="fontname">.

Regards,
JPG

[Mistamichal]

I didn't realise you could unpak official rulesets. I'll have a look and see what I can find.
Cheers.

[Moon Wizard]

Only some of the older ones such as RMC are not encrypted.

Regards,
JPG

[Mistamichal]

So, I've found the fonts used for tables and have changed them to a nice big size - for my liking at least :p

Now, I just need to find the fonts used for lists and I'm good to go.

[Gwydion]

So, I've found the fonts used for tables and have changed them to a nice big size - for my liking at least :p

Now, I just need to find the fonts used for lists and I'm good to go.

Awesome! Nice work!

[Sacksquatch]

Anyone know offhand which of these values in the xml are for the chat?

[Mistamichal]

These ones:

<!-- Chat fonts - REQUIRED -->
<font name="chatfont">
<fgffile name="graphics/fonts/calibri-13.fgf" />
<color value="#261A12" />
</font>
<font name="emotefont">
<fgffile name="graphics/fonts/calibri-13.fgf" />
<color value="#880000" />
</font>
<font name="narratorfont">
<fgffile name="graphics/fonts/bold-14.fgf" />
<color value="#261A12" />
</font>
<font name="systemfont">
<fgffile name="graphics/fonts/calibri-13.fgf" />
<color value="#660066" />
</font>
<font name="msgfont">
<fgffile name="graphics/fonts/calibri-13.fgf" />
<color value="#660066" />
</font>
<font name="oocfont">
<fgffile name="graphics/fonts/calibri-13.fgf" />
<color value="#005500" />
</font>

<!-- Chat fonts -->
<font name="chatnpcfont">
<fgffile name="graphics/fonts/calibri-13.fgf" />
<color value="#000066" />
</font>
<font name="chatgmfont">
<fgffile name="graphics/fonts/bolditalic-14.fgf" />
<color value="#000000" />
</font>
<font name="whisperfont">
<fgffile name="graphics/fonts/bold-14.fgf" />
<color value="#660066" />
</font>

[Sacksquatch]

TYVM. I heart this community. Make it easy for guys like me who aren't very mod savvy to get **** done.

[Mistamichal]

No worries. I'm not very mod savvy myself. I've just been lucky to get a bit of help here and there as well.

[Korak]

Hello all,
In Saturday i am going to use FG for the first time IRL game session, i dont have a problem with running the game, its kind of easy i am worry about and still dont know of to use the CT or the combat do normally.
the players wont have a PC so i mainly would like to use the CT for initiative order and HP management.
Any suggestions?

[Trenloe]

the players wont have a PC so i mainly would like to use the CT for initiative order and HP management.
Any suggestions?
It can definitely be done, so try it! And if it doesn't work well for you, revise what you're trying to do or go with the usual manual method.

For face-to-face games I usually still track Init and HP on a dry-erase init tracker board - it keeps me in front of the players and not forever messing around with the CT and typing in/changing values in FG. Plus a lot of the maps I use don't leave much space on my battlemap TV to display the CT to the players. But that's me - it might work fine for you. If you're not that familiar with the CT I'd recommend that for your first session you just use FG for maps, otherwise you'll be spending too much time messing around with unfamiliar stuff in FG. Once you've got the basic down, you can work out what else you want to do in FG.

[nebbiolo]

Yeah FG is very useful for face-to-face games. I have now done 11 sessions in my Curse of Strahd campaign. I keep my laptop behind the DM screen and connect an external monitor where I run a second instance of FG so that the players can see the maps with fog-of-war. On my laptop I use the combat tracker for initiative, hit points and keep track of effects like Bardic Inspiration. Also, since my players and I are pretty new to DnD, I make sure to keep their character sheet up to date in FG so that I can quickly see what spells and abilities do when a player says "I cast xxx on yyy...". After the session I update their sheets (in FG for me, they each keep the paper version) with new abilities, new loot, etc. During the game to keep track of HP I just enter the numbers manually in the "wounds" box based on the results of the attack/heal. Everything is done with real dice. Works really well for my group.

[Korak]

Yeah FG is very useful for face-to-face games. I have now done 11 sessions in my Curse of Strahd campaign. I keep my laptop behind the DM screen and connect an external monitor where I run a second instance of FG so that the players can see the maps with fog-of-war. On my laptop I use the combat tracker for initiative, hit points and keep track of effects like Bardic Inspiration. Also, since my players and I are pretty new to DnD, I make sure to keep their character sheet up to date in FG so that I can quickly see what spells and abilities do when a player says "I cast xxx on yyy...". After the session I update their sheets (in FG for me, they each keep the paper version) with new abilities, new loot, etc. During the game to keep track of HP I just enter the numbers manually in the "wounds" box based on the results of the attack/heal. Everything is done with real dice. Works really well for my group.

That is exactly what i want to do, do you prepare the encounters before the sessions?
because i know i will sometime improvise and will need to manually drop monsters to the CT, i dont need i will need the actual monster type. just a token to the CT.
do you also use the map for combat?

[nebbiolo]

Well a module like Curse of Strahd already has all the encounters prepared, but I make sure to prepare by reviewing all the areas I think my group will visit to get familiar with encounters, traps, role-play opportunities, etc. And I sometimes edit the encounters before dropping them on the CT if I think the encounter is too easy or too hard for my group. And yes I use the map for combat so it's easy for my players to say "I go up to this zombie and hit it with my warhammer" by pointing at the screen. I usually put the PCs on the map as well to have a clear image of positioning but sometimes I will just use a letter "P" token to represent the whole party. And creating simple encounters on the fly is easy too if the need arises.

My first session was entirely pen-and-paper and theatre-of-the-mind but perhaps I was having a hard time describing the locations they visited because the players kept getting confused about directions and when they showed me the maps they made as they progressed, they were completely wrong! So for the next session I brought my laptop and a monitor, showed them the map with fog-of-war, they loved it, and that's how we run now.

[Salva]

There was an issue with the Candara.ttf font due to an errant comma in the xml on this.

I tried to email damned, the original poster of this extension, but his inbox is full. So I just fixed it and uploaded it here. Hope that is "OK"

Hi BgHurt, hope you read this. Tried this ext and so far is the best for the the clarity and size of fonts of all FG but i got an issue and maybe you have a solution:
Last text lines on CT are Cutoff, dont know why:
23116
I really hope you can fix it.
Thank you very much!

[Trancekat]

Hi All,
I'm starting to look for a new laptop, and one of my considerations is to be able to smoothly run Fantasy Grounds out to a 43" 4k TV. Right now, if I move a map it's chopping and laggy, but fine once it's moved. My current hardware is a Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 (Intel 620 Graphics)

First, are there any considerations I should have in mind for improving performance with FG while extending my screen to a 43" TV via HDMI?
Second, what are the recommended hardware specs to have a good experience with this sort of set up, please? I'm specifically looking for requirements for a GPU, CPU, and RAM, please.

Thank you.

[damned]

Hi All,
I'm starting to look for a new laptop, and one of my considerations is to be able to smoothly run Fantasy Grounds out to a 43" 4k TV. Right now, if I move a map it's chopping and laggy, but fine once it's moved. My current hardware is a Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 (Intel 620 Graphics)

First, are there any considerations I should have in mind for improving performance with FG while extending my screen to a 43" TV via HDMI?
Second, what are the recommended hardware specs to have a good experience with this sort of set up, please? I'm specifically looking for requirements for a GPU, CPU, and RAM, please.

Thank you.

Its possible that some of the lag may have nothing to do with hardware and be a limitation of the engine...

[Liamos]

I have successfully used Fantasy Grounds at the table and it worked very well. I hooked up a big screen TV to my laptop as a second monitor and ran two copies of FG, one as the DM and one as a "player" on a local host. I used the "player" version on the TV to show maps (using the fog of war to uncover it as the player's went through the dungeon) and images (NPCs, monsters, landscapes, etc.). I would be tempted to even use the TV as a battle mat next time by laying it flat on the table and using the maps for miniatures (but I think I need to put a piece of plexiglass over the screen to protect it) as they can be easily zoomed in and out of.








__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________
There are no solved problems; there are only problems that are more or less solved.
All the best,Liamos Diceus (https://diceus.com/)

[Nylanfs]

Welcome to the forums and FG Community Liamos!

[Trenloe]

I would be tempted to even use the TV as a battle mat next time by laying it flat on the table and using the maps for miniatures (but I think I need to put a piece of plexiglass over the screen to protect it) as they can be easily zoomed in and out of.
I do this all the time. Definitely get a plexiglass insert for the screen.

You'll also probably need this extension to help with map sizing: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33834-Map-resize-to-TV-resolution-for-Face-To-Face-games

[Trancekat]

I do this all the time. Definitely get a plexiglass insert for the screen.

You'll also probably need this extension to help with map sizing: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33834-Map-resize-to-TV-resolution-for-Face-To-Face-games

Trenloe's extensions are a must have to do this well.

[Trenloe]

Trenloe's extensions are a must have to do this well.
Thanks! :)

[notrealdan]

Hi All,
I'm starting to look for a new laptop, and one of my considerations is to be able to smoothly run Fantasy Grounds out to a 43" 4k TV. Right now, if I move a map it's chopping and laggy, but fine once it's moved. My current hardware is a Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 (Intel 620 Graphics)

First, are there any considerations I should have in mind for improving performance with FG while extending my screen to a 43" TV via HDMI?
Second, what are the recommended hardware specs to have a good experience with this sort of set up, please? I'm specifically looking for requirements for a GPU, CPU, and RAM, please.

Thank you.

Any modern CPU and reasonable amount of memory (by today's standards, I wouldn't get anything with less than 8GB RAM) would do just fine. The CPU and memory are not very important, as FG does not push those hard right now. Avoid anything with an Intel GPU, as the current FG engine has graphical performance problems with those chips. While the Intel chips are pretty good for most purposes, and can drive a large monitor just fine, it seems like those chips are not optimized very well for DirectX9, which is what FG currently uses.

I have a pretty new (<1 year old) laptop with an Intel GPU that FG runs very choppy. I also have a ~7 year old laptop with an nVidia GPU and FG runs perfectly smooth on it by itself. But, the old laptop doesn't have HDMI or work well with my 4k TV, so it's not much help there.

All of this may (and probably will) change when FGU becomes available...

[Sirjohn2]

Where do I put these .ext files? I was assuming the extension folder, but can't figure it out. Any help would be great!

New: NVM found it. Would help to enable the extensions when launching FG.

[Azariah]

Hi, I'm new and seeing this thread, I figure it's better to piggy back off this one.

I'm looking to do something similar down the road with a local/in house game and use FG to help with the campaigning.
Probably going to eventually run Out of the Abyss with some friends.

If I understand the purchase options correctly, would I just need a Standard license to DM locally? I'd plan on my laptop with the DM screen, and a 2nd screen on a tv for the players, and it seems that a "demo" version would be sufficient to make that happen provided no one else is logging in to the server?

Is that correct?

If I do have someone down the road (have a sister in England who may want to remote in), I would either need to upgrade my Standard account to Ultimate, or she would need to buy a standard license as well? On top of that my "demo" version would have to be upgraded to Standard too so that it can also log in locally? (As the demo player gets booted the minute any additional users join).

At which point the Ultimate license seems the most cost effective way if that's 3 standard licenses. Am I understanding all that correctly?

Thanks, and looking forward to diving a bit deeper into this "dungeon"

[LordEntrails]

You've got it.

With the one caveat that if you run your local table as a second monitor from your laptop (for instance if it has an HDMI port you use) then you would just just the TV instance as a second instance on your laptop (assuming it can handle that).

[Azariah]

You've got it.

With the one caveat that if you run your local table as a second monitor from your laptop (for instance if it has an HDMI port you use) then you would just just the TV instance as a second instance on your laptop (assuming it can handle that).

Thank you. I probably will try the double instance route. We're probably getting a new laptop in the coming months.

Doing research now on how thin/light I can go while still having a good gpu.

[LordEntrails]

I run a Dell Precision M3800. Its much more than FG needs, but it is light (for a workstation class laptop). It's also pretty old and I doubt you can find them anymore.

[iotech]

I would just add that if you are playing face-to-face games and even if you choose NOT to use a TV or second monitor (or all players have their own laptops), Fantasy Grounds is still an OUTSTANDING campaign management tool for the DM/GM to track rules, characters, npcs, etc. It (to me) is much more than just a VTT... I keep ALL my campaign notes and data in it (and I keep backups of all of it on another PC and the cloud... just in case).

Oh, and Welcome to FG!

[Azariah]

I would just add that if you are playing face-to-face games and even if you choose NOT to use a TV or second monitor (or all players have their own laptops), Fantasy Grounds is still an OUTSTANDING campaign management tool for the DM/GM to track rules, characters, npcs, etc. It (to me) is much more than just a VTT... I keep ALL my campaign notes and data in it (and I keep backups of all of it on another PC and the cloud... just in case).

Oh, and Welcome to FG!

Yes, that's the nice thing and right now all I own is the PHB as a hardcopy so getting some of these on digital isn't going to be a double cost. My brother in law who will typically be playing with me has most of the hardcopies.



Also, one clarification I need. If I start with the standard, to upgrade to the ultimate is just the difference in cost? So upgrading from S to U would be $100, but not the full $150 the U normally costs, as I'll have sunk $50 in for the Standard version already?

[iotech]

As far as I understand, you are correct about the upgrade price.

[LordEntrails]

Yes, their is an Upgrade licesne. It's hard to find, I can't find it at the moment, but I've seen the link before and its is often mentioned. I think it's $111, but not sure ($149-$39 plus a dollar).

[Kelrugem]

Yes, their is an Upgrade licesne. It's hard to find, I can't find it at the moment, but I've seen the link before and its is often mentioned. I think it's $111, but not sure ($149-$39 plus a dollar).

I found it here :) https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.php?id=SWK03UPGRADE

But I only found it via Google, via the store it is probably a bit more complicated as you said :D

[Bull2049]

Hey

[Bull2049]

I downloaded the file,"BigFonts.ext", now what do I do with it?

[mattekure]

If you want to load the extension, put it in your Fantasy Grounds data directory, inside the extensions folder. then when you load your campaign file, make sure you select the extension on the list before load your campaign

[Rothana]

We play TTRPG (Pathfinder) with a projector and FG. I project the "player login" via chromecast onto a cheap dry erase/frameless white board ($8 at Home Depot) so my players can move around physical minis and roll physical dice (be in the moment) but still have the benefit of utilizing FG content/maps.

26815
26816

Projector: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B078PC1QS5/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Patou]

We play TTRPG (Pathfinder) with a projector and FG. I project the "player login" via chromecast onto a cheap dry erase/frameless white board ($8 at Home Depot) so my players can move around physical minis and roll physical dice (be in the moment) but still have the benefit of utilizing FG content/maps.

26815
26816

Projector: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B078PC1QS5/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Very nice:)

[Trenloe]

We play TTRPG (Pathfinder) with a projector and FG. I project the "player login" via chromecast onto a cheap dry erase/frameless white board ($8 at Home Depot) so my players can move around physical minis and roll physical dice (be in the moment) but still have the benefit of utilizing FG content/maps.

Projector: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B078PC1QS5/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Nice! How do you find the detail on the map, with that projector having a native resolution of 800x480?

[Rothana]

We have to use dim lighting, but the detail is pretty good. Experimenting with larger font extensions now because the FG font isn't readable. Otherwise, very happy!

[Trenloe]

We have to use dim lighting, but the detail is pretty good. Experimenting with larger font extensions now because the FG font isn't readable. Otherwise, very happy!
Cool!

[Xemit]

OK, now put a lock out tag on the ceiling fan switch!

I was wondering how a 1080P projector could be so cheap, until I realized it isn't 1080P at all...

I've been thinking of the same idea in using a whiteboard surface on the table. Projected content can be augmented with markers if needed. Cleans up easy.

[Rothana]

Nope, not 1080, but as long as the map you are projecting is high enough quality, it's not an issue.

[Patou]

I really shopped around for a good projector at a affordable price without going to low on lumens. I ended up with a BenQ MW526. I paid around $400 Canadian. Still works great and i plug it once in while to my PS4.

[Patou]

26841

Enjoy:)

[notrealdan]

Here's mine (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?48934-My-Gaming-Table) :)

[lesliev]

26841

Enjoy:)

This is a projector? What is it projecting onto?

[Patou]

This is a projector? What is it projecting onto?

Currently a 2x4 foot sheet of white laminate. Prior it was hard white cardboard.

[Nick Masotto]

Is there a MAC friendly version of this Font Code

[LordEntrails]

Is there a MAC friendly version of this Font Code
What font code? I don't see any mentioned but I could be missing it. Do you mean the linked to extension? Since FG runs in a Wine skin, everything in the extension should be self contained... Have you tried and are having trouble or...?

[Trenloe]

Is there a MAC friendly version of this Font Code
See info provided here (and the next post): https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?46013-Big-Fonts&p=436662&viewfull=1#post436662

[Quaglin]

Whoever made this ext thank you

[Milmoor]

I'm using Bigfonts.ext for my tabletop, which works wonders for readability. By I would like to disable it on my GM session, since that uses my puny laptop screen. Is that possible?

[Trenloe]

I'm using Bigfonts.ext for my tabletop, which works wonders for readability. By I would like to disable it on my GM session, since that uses my puny laptop screen. Is that possible?
Nope, not possible without changing a lot of code (and I mean a lot). Extensions affect everyone in the campaign, both players and GMs.

[damned]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/apurpleturkey/turntable-use-your-tv-as-an-rpg-map-table-or-desk

[LordEntrails]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/apurpleturkey/turntable-use-your-tv-as-an-rpg-map-table-or-desk
Pretty cool. Thanks for the link :)

[chlarizthe]

Excellent Extensio, Tank you. Very useful

[Nylanfs]

Welcome to the forums and FG Community chlarizthe!

[chlarizthe]

Thank u Nylanfs

[Balamor33]

Nice! I like that one. Thanks.

[Burbage]

How do you make the extension work?

[Kelrugem]

How do you make the extension work?

Go into the data folder of FG and copy the extension into the extension folder :) Restart the FG launcher and when you want to start the campaign you should be able to see some list on the right where you can choose extensions for that campaign to load :) Select the extension there (probably you mean the big fonts one?)

[Steampunk Gamer]

Has anyone tried it on FGU? Does this extension work on Unity?

[LordEntrails]

Has anyone tried it on FGU? Does this extension work on Unity?
Not that has been reported. I doubt that it will work (since images are handled differently with FGU), but perhaps you'll try and let us know?

[Trenloe]

Has anyone tried it on FGU? Does this extension work on Unity?
There are a few extensions mentioned in this thread. Which one are you referring to?

[Steampunk Gamer]

My thanks for your response LordEntrails!
I will do that despite the time it entails.
And will return to tell the tale.

[Steampunk Gamer]

Oh my bad! I was referring to the BigFonts.ext. My eyes aren't so good...

[LordEntrails]

Oh my bad! I was referring to the BigFonts.ext. My eyes aren't so good...
Some of the large font extensions have been reported in the Playtest forum to work and others to not work. Note that fonts are currently in flux in FGU so something might work or look good today, but not after the next update.

I assume once things in FGU stabilize, their will be more definitive answers as well as possible new extensions to try.

[Malumake]

I am currently troubleshooting this extension in FGU. There are some typos in the graphics_fonts.xml (,ttf instead of .ttf) which is a simple enough fix. It is, however, throwing ttf tag errors for the fgf entries. I have tried copying the fgf file to the extension from Core but it is still throwing the ttf tag errors. Any suggestions? Maybe just change the fgf tag to a ttf tag?

Nevermind, looked in Core and saw that fgf needs a subsequent ttf reference.

Mahalo for the Rubber Duck Debug!

OK last edit, found damned's referral to bgHurt's comma fixed version, my version also has the additional ttf reference for the fgf tag required in FGU.

[cboillot]

I am currently troubleshooting this extension in FGU. There are some typos in the graphics_fonts.xml (,ttf instead of .ttf) which is a simple enough fix. It is, however, throwing ttf tag errors for the fgf entries. I have tried copying the fgf file to the extension from Core but it is still throwing the ttf tag errors. Any suggestions? Maybe just change the fgf tag to a ttf tag?

Nevermind, looked in Core and saw that fgf needs a subsequent ttf reference.

Mahalo for the Rubber Duck Debug!

OK last edit, found damned's referral to bgHurt's comma fixed version, my version also has the additional ttf reference for the fgf tag required in FGU.

In FGU, your extension isn't even showing up for me to select.

[[email protected]]

I use it for live games. I love it! Big screen tv monitor behind the DM. I have one player with a laptop running player client, the party tells him what to do with their characters so I don’t have to. We roll real dice so I just enter in damage and effects after the rolls have been made. It works great! The combat tracker makes my life so easy!

[Shady Allie]

In FGU, your extension isn't even showing up for me to select.

It is packed up wrong. If you look inside the extension, you will see it is all plopped into a folder named BigFonts. All the junk in the big fonts folder should be in the root of the archive. unpack it, delete that folder, then add the stuff that lives in the BigFonts folder (without the folder itself)

So when you examine your new packed extension you will see:
Graphics (a folder)
extension.xml (a file)

[cboillot]

It is packed up wrong. If you look inside the extension, you will see it is all plopped into a folder named BigFonts. All the junk in the big fonts folder should be in the root of the archive. unpack it, delete that folder, then add the stuff that lives in the BigFonts folder (without the folder itself)

So when you examine your new packed extension you will see:
Graphics (a folder)
extension.xml (a file)

Thanks! That worked!

[Kalikisan]

[crap disregard, this has been resolved. I didn't see the following pages..]

I am a little late to the game here...

**for reference i downloaded the extension file from the head post of this thread.

after downloading the Big Fonts.ext i was receiving errors that it could not find "Candara,ttf" in multiple places

upon further inspection i noticed the comma in the font name.

some small digging and found that all the errors were in graphics_fonts.xml

i was able to fix it with a simple search and replace but for reference the lines were:

35,39,61,65,73,77,81,87,105

Edit::

There was another error with loading the bold-10.fgf for
reference-subtitle: 24
sheetlabel: 101

the error said that a ttf declaration was missing.
I dont know much about fonts or how they are all linked but i just inserted one of the other font lines and it works.

verified the extension works in FGU

Cheers,

Kal

[thornious]

I want to be able to use a second session as a digital map for in person games. Is this possible to hide everything but the map itself? Chat window, side bar, dice, player portraits etc. I mean everything but the map itself. Now I know you can just resize and drag the map over top of everything, but that still leaves the dice and it is not the best or cleanest option IMHO. I was just hoping there was some out of the box support for this.

[LordEntrails]

I want to be able to use a second session as a digital map for in person games. Is this possible to hide everything but the map itself? Chat window, side bar, dice, player portraits etc. I mean everything but the map itself. Now I know you can just resize and drag the map over top of everything, but that still leaves the dice and it is not the best or cleanest option IMHO. I was just hoping there was some out of the box support for this.
top right corner of an image window has an arrow point to the upper right. click it twice. How's that?

[Steampunk Gamer]

It is packed up wrong. If you look inside the extension, you will see it is all plopped into a folder named BigFonts. All the junk in the big fonts folder should be in the root of the archive. unpack it, delete that folder, then add the stuff that lives in the BigFonts folder (without the folder itself)

So when you examine your new packed extension you will see:
Graphics (a folder)
extension.xml (a file)

Double checked to make sure I followed these directions correctly, but the BigFonts extension doesn't show up under the list of extensions available when loading my campaign. I also don't see any changes in game. I've attached an image of my packed extension. I don't know why it won't show up, maybe a recent patch to fantasy grounds unity is broken it.39540

If anyone has any ideas on how to get to work, that would be cool.

[LordEntrails]

Double checked to make sure I followed these directions correctly, but the BigFonts extension doesn't show up under the list of extensions available when loading my campaign. I also don't see any changes in game. I've attached an image of my packed extension. I don't know why it won't show up, maybe a recent patch to fantasy grounds unity is broken it.39540

If anyone has any ideas on how to get to work, that would be cool.
When you zip, do not select the folder to zip it, only the content. When you zip only use Windows zip, not 7z or other zip formats.

[thornious]

duplicate removed

[thornious]

top right corner of an image window has an arrow point to the upper right. click it twice. How's that?

Sorry I just saw this response. That is how I am using it, but it still displays the hotkeys, the bar at the top, and the dice. Now granted you can oversize the map, but it also starts messing the grid sizing or so I have found.

[velshandru]

FGU has deprecated FGF fonts, so I needed to change this in any case. Simply replace <fgffile name="graphics/fonts/bold-10.fgf" /> with <ttf file="graphics/fonts/Candarab.ttf" name="Candara Bold" size="10"/> in both instances. Or use the attached version :)

[Oladahn]

So I'd just like some advice from peeps here.

Our group started using Fantasy Grounds while we were in lockdown but never really did as much as I hoped.

Just recently one of my players suggested we just start playing around a table again, face to face. We live on a small Island that has no lockdown now as we are almost completely Covid free.

I think that is what we will do but having used Fantasy Grounds Ultimate we appreciate the many cool things we can do with it, so we would like to play a hybrid game.

My plan is to host a local port game and either everyone brings a laptop or we run with the DM having a laptop and having two or maybe three laptops available and connect one of the laptops to our tv.

Alternatively we could run with two laptops, one DM laptop and one player laptop connected to our tv. The one player laptop would run each of the player characters.

Does anyone have any advice on what worked for them? Any obvious pitfalls we could avoid?

We will start with 1E/2E D&D and Cthulhu/Pulp Cthulhu games and probably expand into Traveller and more up to date versions of D&D later.

Also, at some point a player from mainland UK would prob like to join us as he was in our original group nearly 40 years ago. Is there a way I can run a local game but shoehorn someone in remotely?

Thanks in advance.

[LordEntrails]

Lots of options, and depending upon how many computers you have access to etc you can try different things. Here's what I would do;
- 1 GM computer that just runs itself.
- 1 player view computer that you hook to your TV so everyone has a big visual reference. (If needed and the GM computer has enough CPU/RAM, then this can be a second instance of FG run by the GM).
- 1+ player control computers. This would own the various PCs and can be passed around to the players if you don't have one for each person.

Also, turn on Party Vision in the GM options, this way the big TV sees everything :)

As for your remote friend, as long as the GM has internet access, your remote player can connect it no problem. If you have the bandwidth, I suggest a 'room' web camera with something like Discord so he can see what everyone if up to, and he can have a camera so all of you can see what he's up to :)

[Lady Archer]

Hi Velshandru!

Thank you for working on the text extension. I have downloaded the version you posted in post #178. However I am having no such luck with having it work. The extension is being read but not applied. (i.e. I can select it as an option to load, but it does not actually apply the larger font size to the FGU campaign.) Any help you can offer would be much appreciated! (I am not a technology savvy person....)

- Lady Archer

[rosemary89069]

I don't even see where to put extensions or how to make them work, i just installed the unity demo for mac and there's only the 1 sub-folder for the updater...
42836

[LordEntrails]

I don't even see where to put extensions or how to make them work, i just installed the unity demo for mac and there's only the 1 sub-folder for the updater...
42836
You're looking in the wrong place. You don't want to be looking in the updater or the application directory. Instead, Launch FG, in the top corner is a folder icon. Click that and it will open the FG Data Folder. In there is a folder called extensions (and modules, and rulesets, and...), create it if it doesn't exist. Put your extensions in that folder then select them when you start a campaign.

Please understand;
- extensions = risk, they have the potential to break things and are only supported by the extension developer and not SmiteWorks
- Do not use more than one theme, or you should expect things to look bad/wrong

In short, if you don't know what an extension does, don't use it.

[Lady Archer]

Hi Velshandru!

Thank you for working on the text extension. I have downloaded the version you posted in post #178. However I am having no such luck with having it work. The extension is being read but not applied. (i.e. I can select it as an option to load, but it does not actually apply the larger font size to the FGU campaign.) Any help you can offer would be much appreciated! (I am not a technology savvy person....)

- Lady Archer

Any updates on increasing font size through an extension in FGU?

[Milmoor]

43971
Thought you might like this. Got a second hand touch screen TV. It's on a pivot frame now, the photo was before that enhancement.

[LordEntrails]

43971
Thought you might like this. Got a second hand touch screen TV. It's on a pivot frame now, the photo was before that enhancement.
Nice :) though I think the guy on the upper left needs to see a doctor, he's looking a bit jaundiced *G*

[ccatterson]

It absolutely can be used like that. What I'd do is run the GM client on your main laptop and connect in with a player client on the TV output screen. That way you can retain the GM only things just for you and use map masking and all of that.

There's a few tricks for 5E as well where you can have your friends roll dice at the table and just apply the effects in game. You'd set up Attack and Damage effects on a dummy character with no dice. drag them to the bar and use the modifier stack to add whatever the roll is then drag onto wherever you need it.

The 5E adventures are amazing too since they include everything needed, maps, monsters, pregens and story for you. My friend, who had never DM'd before, bought Lost Mines of Phandelver and ran a flawless and fun game since it was all so easy for him.

Absolutely agree. I have done it just like this at my tabletop when I was having in-person games. The players still get to roll all of their physical dice at the table as normal, but you as the DM can still use the combat tracker to input their damages manually. It is so much better than on a scrap of paper like I used to do before Fantasy Grounds! Also, on the DM side it still makes running monsters quick and easy for you. I suggest embracing the digital dice for attack rolls against your players and especially for things like rolling a ton of saving throws.

It's also great because I no longer need to find minis for everything, just use the artistic tokens -- it saves you money there! :)

[thornious]

43971
Thought you might like this. Got a second hand touch screen TV. It's on a pivot frame now, the photo was before that enhancement.

Very nice if we ever in game def will be doing a table top monitor.

[Ramza]

Using the big fonts posted in #178. One thing I've noticed using this extension with FGU is this: The name of whoever is active in the combat tracker reverts to really small text. Not game breaking or anything but wondered if anyone else is experiencing this. 47218

All around the bigger text with smaller ui is working well regardless. Thanks!

[damned]

Hi Ramza post that in the thread that contains your specific Big Fonts extension version (there are several).

[Ragnar Redbeard]

1. I went to "open data folder".

2. I copied the .ext file into the extension folder.

3. I clicked on load sample 5e campaign.

4. Then I clicked on the "campaign details" and loaded the big font extension.

[Ragnar Redbeard]

1. I went to "open data folder".

2. I copied the .ext file into the extension folder.

3. I clicked on load sample 5e campaign.

4. Then I clicked on the "campaign details" and loaded the big font extension.

5. I opened the sample 5E edition and it made the fonts just right on my laptop.

[Trenloe]

1. I went to "open data folder".

2. I copied the .ext file into the extension folder.

3. I clicked on load sample 5e campaign.

4. Then I clicked on the "campaign details" and loaded the big font extension.

5. I opened the sample 5E edition and it made the fonts just right on my laptop.
You've posted similar posts in two different threads.

Do you have a question or an issue?

[Ragnar Redbeard]

1. I went to "open data folder".

2. I copied the .ext file into the extension folder.

3. I clicked on load sample 5e campaign.

4. Then I clicked on the "campaign details" and loaded the big font extension.

[Ragnar Redbeard]

I apologize and fell free to delete redundant posts. Thank you and just trying to help.

[Ragnar Redbeard]

I like the program as a newb and just learning. Sorry. I am trying to convert my D&D friends here.

[Ragnar Redbeard]

I would like to change my login name. I am not comfortable with it here.

[Trenloe]

I would like to change my login name. I am not comfortable with it here.
email [email protected]

[Trenloe]

I like the program as a newb and just learning. Sorry. I am trying to convert my D&D friends here.
Please only post relevant things in relevant threads if it matches exactly the subject of the thread. If it doesn't match exactly, please start a new thread with your topic of discussion. Thanks.

[Patou]

Was that app or attempt to be able to move the tokens or look at your character sheet via phone or tablet ever pushed forward. Trying to see different options for my players around the table...

[the_ghostboy]

Hi, have just tried Trenloe’s extension for scaling up the maps to be used on a screen at one inch scale. I’ve asked the question on that thread, but it’s a bit old now and I’m not sure it’s still being checked.

The extension is giving me some trouble. When I scale the map up to one inch size, the window containing the map scales with it, so becomes massive. In this particular instance it’s the Sunless Citadel fortress level, so not a small map.

The problem is. The map window becomes so big that my laptop starts to struggle a s I can’t navigate around it. Can I lock the size of the window in place and just scale up the map itself?

[Trenloe]

Hi, have just tried Trenloe’s extension for scaling up the maps to be used on a screen at one inch scale. I’ve asked the question on that thread, but it’s a bit old now and I’m not sure it’s still being checked.
I've replied to your post in the extension thread. The best place to ask questions about extensions is in the thread for that extension.

[americodubas]

/scaleui xxx (like 150 or something)

THX a lot

[Wulfgangrpg]

The Big fonts ext is nice I think it is a good size, However, when loading FGU with this extension it throws up errors

[Trenloe]

The Big fonts ext is nice I think it is a good size, However, when loading FGU with this extension it throws up errors
That will be the case if you're using the extensions from 2015 as these were for FG Classic, not FG Unity.

Look in the FG forge for a similar extension - search for font and see what you find...

[Wulfgangrpg]

Ok and thank you