Just be careful when you pass the laptop around to have changed the owner of all of the characters to the account that logs in. Otherwise the players will constantly be logging off and on again. You can just type the user name over the standard one in the character sheets and then change it back when you are done.
Yes, great point. I plan to have the one laptop log in to take ownership of all of the characters.
you can use any flat monitor you want.. just take an appropriate sized piece of plexiglass and lay over top of it so nothing actually touches the screen... we do the same thing for our biweekly family game of heroclix
A few more shots as I get ready for Sunday. The first shows the DM elevated nest with my laptop and resource material. The four players will sit at the green table and pass around the laptop and wireless mouse. The maps will be projected on the big screen. Ready for Sunday!Attachment 15183Attachment 15184
I wanna move to your town and be your friend.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwydion
Looking very cool. Game on! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwydion
Clear the owners on the Characters before you start.Quote:
Originally Posted by Myrdin Potter
Whoever logs in grabs all the characters.
At the end of the session you can clear all the owners again.
Clear the owners on the Characters before you start.Quote:
Originally Posted by Myrdin Potter
Whoever logs in grabs all the characters.
At the end of the session you can clear all the owners again.
Nifty tip that I haven't had to use yet. Thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by damned
Trenloe, with the tv that you are using, in practice, what is the length and width of the map measured by 1 inch squares that you are able to use?
We built this guy and I use it as a DM. The write-up is a little dated because at the time I used MapTool to drive the video table, but now I use Fantasy Grounds.
Mentioned in post #4.Quote:
Originally Posted by Talen
Essentially, whatever TV you use, you can fill the screen size with a map. So, just calculate the width x height for your TV and that's what you can use. Calculator here: https://tvcalculator.com/ If your map is larger (in inches) then you can move the map around (left-click & drag) to show the area you want to see.
I've also recently been playing with a 48" 4K TV, that gives 41.8" x 23.5 - allowing me to fit common 36x24 inch maps (like the digital versions of the Paizo flip maps) with a teeny bit of loss on the 24" edge.
Soon as I get a room that I can setup a permanent gaming area this is what I'm planning.
You mentioned that setup in post #2 of this thread over a year ago. Stop talking about it and do it! ;-)Quote:
Originally Posted by Nylanfs
Yea! you can talk about when you're working on it!
Well, ok, maybe not. But do want to encourage you to do it! I mean really, how often do you really use your dining room? (Note, if you figure out how to convince your wife regarding THAT, let me know, I could use the advice!)
Sorry - should have checked the chain before I posted the question - but how are you like the new setup? If you would recommend it, what model are you using now? (particularly interested in how stable it is when lying flat and the viewing angle)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trenloe
This is what I'm using now: https://www.woot.com/offers/vizio-sm...48-uhd-4k-tv-3Quote:
Originally Posted by Talen
I like it - I can just fit it under my arm, so can move it around OK - having a free arm to open doors etc. which is useful as I take it to stores and friends houses. At this size you really need 4K as you will see pixelation when sitting up close if it's just HD. The main "issue" is that I usually run on a Surface Pro 3 - which really begins to struggle when you attach a 4K TV to the HDMI port. Dice rolling is very jagged and just using FG on the big screen is very laboured. But, as all I'm really using it for is displaying the maps, it works for me. I'd probably have to look at a much more graphics orientated laptop if I was going to use FG in more anger in a portable setup. When I'm running at home I can use my desktop computer and it runs completely fine.
Couple things... I recently watched this video on YouTube with a guy that uses 3 50 inch 4k TVs Infront of him to play games and make YouTube videos. Said guy was a 15 year Microsoft programmer.... Anyways he made a comment about going 4k.... Something along the lines of if your screen is going to be 40+ inches you want to make sure you can 4k other wise it will look pixelated at 2k.
4k fantasy grounds is awesome FYI.
Your crunching numbers to figure out battle map sizes and you really don't need to worry about it. With a 40 inch TV you'll have all the room you need.
Getting the grid sized to 1 inch will quickly fall to wayside...I end up just eyeballing the maps. As long as you have your map gridded and your squares close to an inch... No one really cares.
I plan everything inside of fantasy grounds. Battle maps, encounters, story, items, even copies of character sheets. Every week I pack my TV and laptop up and head to the store. I use real Bennie's and decks of cards and that's it.... Any dice rolling I do in fantasy grounds and turn on show DM rolls so my players can see in the battle map what I rolled.
The chat window isn't used so I drop the combat tracker over it, or stretch the map out over top of it.
You can get a really cheap, great 4k TV from Walmart called a Sceptre I think I paid less than 200 bucks for it two years ago.
It is indeed.Quote:
Originally Posted by WansumBeats
Here I disagree. But, everyone's MMV. For me, I run a lot of Pathfinder games, and their common map size is 36"x24" - any of these maps here, for example: https://paizo.com/pathfinder/accessories/maps/flipmats are at least that dimension. With a 40 inch TV (35" x 19.5") I'd be losing close to 5 inches off the 24 inch side - which makes a difference for some of those maps. And making the map a little smaller isn't really an options for me, as this makes the grid squares smaller and means that a close in melee with a few minis involved doesn't fit properly. So, for me, I found I needed (or maybe just wanted!) a 48" screen, so that I had just about the width I needed to display all of the map real-estate I wanted to display.Quote:
Originally Posted by WansumBeats
That's what this extension is for: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...-To-Face-games Get's you a perfect 1-inch to grid square with two mouse clicks every time. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by WansumBeats
So, whereas the exact size of your screen/grid isn't that important to some people, it is important to others. Each to their own. I'm one of those where it is important - I want to be able to fully fit the maps I regularly use on my TV and I want the grid squares to be exactly 1 inch (not just close to 1 inch). That's why we're discussing TV size and what works for us. I'm happy with my 48" 4K TV. I'm happy you're happy with your 40 inch TV! :)
Gotta buy a new house first, we don't have a seperate dinning room currently.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trenloe
Well now, inspired by this thread I did something really quite lovely :)
I have an android box connected to my TV, just a generic one I got from Amazon for £30 (it had been £40; go go Black Friday!). I have a nice USB keyboard and mouse attached to it - £14. So for just £45 I have a usable android computer able to pump out up to 4K resolution. Lovely.
Anyway - I noticed someone had FG 'running' on android earlier in the thread, and he said it was a program called Splashtop. I think I love this program :)
My PC has Splashtop Streamer installed. This is a free app. I also found instructions to spoof my PC into believing it had a 2nd monitor attached, and extended the desktop on to this ghost screen.
The android box has the Splashtop app installed (also free for local network use), and connects to the PC. There's a button you can click to make the 2nd screen mirror (even though it is a ghost screen!).
The final touch is to have the main FG client run on my main screen, and a 2nd 'localhost' client connected to it running on the ghost screen. Now the TV shows the player map with tokens, and my kids can shout about where they want their tokens to go. I could also let them use the android box mouse to do it themselves, I guess, but I am a control freak.
This is lovely, and will make my gaming with them much more immersive (and also automate so much!)
As a side note - Splashtop will connect to the streamer over the internet for a $17 YEARLY fee. This would let me leave my desktop running at home and carry just the tiny android box and still allow me full access. I know everyone has a laptop, but what if you don't? £45 +$17 is far cheaper than a new laptop.... :)
Sorry if this reads a little disjointed - I just got it all working tonight and I'm as excited as a 12 year old :)
Maasq
Very cool Maasq! :)
Here are a couple of photos from my preparation to running Weird Wars Rome tonight:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...chmentid=18606
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...chmentid=18607
That's lovely. I am going to have to find a cheap TV to try that with :)
Nice Trenloe. Did you post more pictures and info about the table itself? It looks very nicely done from what I can see of the wood and finish. As an engineer, would love to see more details.
The table is from Carolina Gaming Tables: https://www.carolinagametables.com/Quote:
Originally Posted by LordEntrails
I quickly threw together the wood surround around the TV myself - to stop dice getting stuck underneath and to give a bit of a lip to stop dice rolled on the screen from falling off. Nothing fancy, just cheap wood with a couple of coats of black paint. Held in place by large velcro strips - makes it easy to move around and setup at stores etc..
I use a 1/8" plexiglass insert on the screen to protect it from scratches from minis and dice rolling.
Thanks. I think I've heard of them before.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trenloe
Seems like this should be easy to find - but oddly enough - that hasnt been the case for me....where did you get the plexiglass and how do you cut it to fit?
Usually you can find it at home improvement stores (Home Depot, Lowes), which can cut it for you. Sometimes craft/hobby stores (Michael's, Hobby Lobby), which can't cut it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Talen
Bought both the plexiglass and cutter tool on Amazon.Quote:
Originally Posted by Talen
What license is required to run the 2 instances on a sincle PC? One for the GM and one to drive the Monitor that the players will use as a battlemat? Would you need Ultimate for this? Or would Standard be able to do it?
Welcome to the forums!
A single Standard license works fine. Open another instance of FG and "Join Game" with an address of localhost
None, start a second instance of FG (either by running the link on desktop, or finding the actual fantasygrounds.exe if installed through Steam) and connect to your game using the IP address localhost.
edit: Damnit, I thought I got an answer in before the Trenloe AI/Bot. ;-P
Any Standard or Ultimate license can be used to run two instances on a single machine. Just connect the second instance to "localhost" as the server address.
Regards,
JPG