Dumb Guy asking Computer Specs for FGU

[Poe the Homunculus]

Hello - I am 120% sorry and know this must have been asked before. I am a real-life writer/inspector, and NOT I.T., so please, please be patient with me.
I GM('ed) in real life at least once a week. Role-playing is my favorite hobby, my escape, and my re-charge from 13-hour shifts stress (I watch little TV, and do not own any video games). However, these last few months have been making me want to role-play online, so I have been trying to learn FGU.

I want to be a GM for a group. There are about 5 to 6 players at one time. I notice the more players, the slower the game.
What computer or internet do I need to run FGU in a normal "speed"? I have about 13 to 15 internet tabs open at a time for work and the Discord.
Speaking of which, what is the best "push to talk" button, because all of them do something on FG like shift, Ctrl, Alt making different shortcuts.

Thank you for all the help. :confused: :(

[Zacchaeus]

Hi Poe, welcome to FG.

You'll find details here on specs https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?50373-FGU-Early-Access-Overview-and-Download

I don't use PTT so I can't really advise.

[Griogre]

Often the best PTT button is a mouse button other than right or left click - your hands on the mouse all the time anyway if you are not typing. On the keyboard, a good push to talk key is "Scroll Lock" or the "Num Lock" over the numeric keypad. Basically you are looking for toggle keys with no output. Personally as a DM I usually use voice activated - but obviously the amount of background noise where you are at can sometimes make that impossible.

Even though I use voice activation, I have a mute button set up - Scroll Lock - for when I need to sneeze or something.

[Poe the Homunculus]

Often the best PTT button is a mouse button other than right or left click - your hands on the mouse all the time anyway if you are not typing. On the keyboard, a good push to talk key is "Scroll Lock" or the "Num Lock" over the numeric keypad. Basically you are looking for toggle keys with no output. Personally as a DM I usually use voice activated - but obviously the amount of background noise where you are at can sometimes make that impossible.

Even though I use voice activation, I have a mute button set up - Scroll Lock - for when I need to sneeze or something.

yah... "NOT I.T." and "do not own any video games" - my mouse has two buttons and a wheel. I do not have a scroll lock.
I just want to go back to sitting at a table, honestly

[LordEntrails]

Ilin my case I usually don't use PTT because I'm fortunate enough to have a roo. For playing I have a room. But when I do I use left alt. Yes it means my dice sometimes do something fun, but that's ok ;)

[Griogre]

Your mouse wheel can be pushed as a button, in addition to scrolling, on most mice, which does give you another button, but it sounds like you are using a laptop. They often have a few extra status buttons that show things like like battery level or something those would work with push to talk as well.

Keep in mind you can get a cheap wired 5 button gaming mouse for $10 at a place like Newegg.com and something like that might just be easier, a side button for your thumb would be easy to use. If you go this route my advice is buy the mouse directly from Newegg or Amazon don't buy a cheap mouse from 3rd parties on either site. Both have great return policies if the thing doesn't work, but the 3rd parties often don't or its a massive hassle.

[Poe the Homunculus]

Does the internet speed or connection type have anything to do or help with playing?
Or is it just hardware?

Thanks,

[LordEntrails]

Internet speed helps. For the GM it is their upload speed. (Most ISPs advertise your download speed, not upload.)

But, FG is not particularly bandwidth intensive and it is more tolerant for latency (lag) than most applications. What you will see is lag/pause when new players join (and are downloading the ruleset and books) and when new images are shared. But most of the time those pauses are less than a minute.

If you can watch a movie on Netflix or Amazon Prime, you can run FG.

[damned]

Does the internet speed or connection type have anything to do or help with playing?
Or is it just hardware?

Thanks,

Internet speed - GM upload speed mostly - does affect how long it takes for players to get all the resources downloaded to their end.
If you have 5mbps upload that is generally ample. There are plenty of people playing with less than 1mbps upload but they have to plan large uploads more carefully.
FGU is still being optimised and Im hoping there will still be more speed improvements.

[Rylan Storm]

Please be aware that a LOT of keyboards have an inbuilt repeater on each key. That means, if you hold down a button it starts acting as if it's being repeatedly tapped. These keyboards are terrible for Push to Talk where you want the button to be depressed until you stop depressing it.

I have to use a thumb button on my mouse.

Personally I avoid in game voice services in almost anything I play. The reasoning is that VoIP provided with a game or application is usually an add-on, it's usually low quality audio, it's often laggy due to server location and it doesn't contain a lot of the features that modern conferencing software includes. I use Zoom for my DMing because Im lucky enough to have access to a corporate account. I would recommend Skype since it's free.

[midas]

Years ago due to issues I was having keeping my fellow raiders from dying in MMORPGs I set my Push-to-Talk button to F8 (I think) and mapped that to one of the side buttons on my mouse. That's eliminated any keying issues I've had in any games, and also prevented it from going back a page when I had my browser active (which was what that key on my mouse defaulted to).

[Poe the Homunculus]

You'll find details here on specs https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?50373-FGU-Early-Access-Overview-and-Download



So - following up. This uses a lot of IT common nomenclature I don't know. Are Memory and RAM are the same (recommended 8 GB); "Disk" is like hard drive space...?; and how do I find out if a Graphics card is DX10 support and video memory of 4GB?

Thanks -

[Rylan Storm]

If you go to start and type "DXDiag" it will tell you nearly all of these things.

Your card will almost certainly be DX10 compatible but we'll need to know the name of your video card to be able to tell you the video RAM.

[LordEntrails]

So - following up. This uses a lot of IT common nomenclature I don't know. Are Memory and RAM are the same (recommended 8 GB); "Disk" is like hard drive space...?; and how do I find out if a Graphics card is DX10 support and video memory of 4GB?

Thanks -
Memory and RAM are the same. Disk is the same as Hard Drive Space.

Assuming you are using Windows find an icon for "My Computer" or "This PC", right click and select properties.