Fantasy Grounds Unity engine

[damned]

They have demo'd weather effects and water effects.
I see no reason why they wont be able to have many similar types of effects.

Maybe the future might have windmills with spinning blades, a weather vane that moves every now and again in the wind, waves that wash up on the shore...

[icedern]

I think these things would add a huge amount to the VTT. Also being able to use player made maps like this. I would love to support this guy that is making these types of maps, but if I can't use them in my VTT, no reason to do it.

[Valyar]

So many things are ahead of their time and so many are behind...

[lostsanityreturned]

Unity could handle it without too much trouble in theory. framed video playback shouldn't be too hard to handle.

But there are other issues and compatibility abysses that I wouldn't want to delve into as smiteworks, at least not in the short term.

[notrealdan]

In the case of the animated maps that are simply videos (like Dynamic Dungeons), Unity should be able to handle video playback pretty easily, but many these are around 200MB each, so the time to push these up to all clients would be a problem for many.

Still would be fantastic for local play!

[notrealdan]

In the case of the animated maps that are simply videos (like Dynamic Dungeons), Unity should be able to handle video playback pretty easily, but many these are around 200MB each, so the time to push these up to all clients would be a problem for many.

Still would be fantastic for local play!

(Just speculating here... I don't think any of this could be expected on FGU day-one, of course! But it's fun to think of new possibilities the new engine opens the door to.)

Maybe to solve the bandwidth issue, a static image (grabbed from the video) could be generated by the GM's instance, sent to clients, and used right away. Then while the video loads in the background, the encounter could go on like normal. Once each client has the video cached, it could seamlessly switch to the video version. People could even choose to have their client only receive the static image and ignore the video, if they (for whatever reason) don't want the video.

If sharing video assets like this were possible, I could also see some modules coming with short animations or "cut-scenes" as hand-outs.

[lostsanityreturned]

(Just speculating here... I don't think any of this could be expected on FGU day-one, of course! But it's fun to think of new possibilities the new engine opens the door to.)

Maybe to solve the bandwidth issue, a static image (grabbed from the video) could be generated by the GM's instance, sent to clients, and used right away. Then while the video loads in the background, the encounter could go on like normal. Once each client has the video cached, it could seamlessly switch to the video version. People could even choose to have their client only receive the static image and ignore the video, if they (for whatever reason) don't want the video.

If sharing video assets like this were possible, I could also see some modules coming with short animations or "cut-scenes" as hand-outs.

This is a long way off being reasonable given average connectivity and the power of computers using the program.

If they launch something cool that 3/4ths of the userbase cannot get a good experience with, it would be suicide to advertise that feature.

[Hector Trelane]

To add to the concepts here: how about adding triggers to certain spots on the map so that when an (N)PC hits it, certain effects take place: an audio file is played (via Dulux-Oz's Sound extension), or an animation is triggered (trap sets off; you startle a deer or a bird; the boar hidden in the underbrush rushes you and attacks...)

[Full Bleed]

This is a long way off being reasonable given average connectivity and the power of computers using the program.

If they launch something cool that 3/4ths of the userbase cannot get a good experience with, it would be suicide to advertise that feature.

Not following your "suicide" logic. You're saying that FGU can only pursue features that appeal to the lowest common denominator?

News flash: All of the major internet providers in the US are providing up to consumer level gigabit service in most major markets these days.

Heck, Verizon alone has 5.5 million FIOS subscribers with their slowest speeds being 50/50.

Comcast has 26 million internet customers and they've increased their internet speeds 17 times in 17 years. Most of them have *at least* 60mb service.

And I haven't even mentioned AT&T and Google customers...

Pushing 100-200mb assets wouldn't sweat any of those customers at all.


FG has been around for over 10 years now. And FGU will probably be around 10 years from now.

They needn't fear promoting optional high bandwidth features. That market is only going to continue to grow and, more importantly, anyone willing to spend a little more money for highspeed internet service right now is exactly the kind of customer they should be looking to get their hooks in.

[LordEntrails]

Not following your "suicide" logic. You're saying that FGU can only pursue features that appeal to the lowest common denominator?...

Pushing 100-200mb assets wouldn't sweat any of those customers at all.
...

They needn't fear promoting optional high bandwidth features. That market is only going to continue to grow and, more importantly, anyone willing to spend a little more money for highspeed internet service right now is exactly the kind of customer they should be looking to get their hooks in.

Its not about lowest common denominator.

Most of "those customer" are only a small percentage of users worldwide. FG is an application that is used worldwide.

Maybe Maybe not about promoting optional high bandwidth issues. Yes the market will grow.

But development of such features really isn't about the customer base, it's about available development resources. Their are so many things that would benefit the vast majority of the FG user's that reasonable would/could/should be developed before these flashy things. Sure, they would be cool to have, but there are several hundred ideas on the wishlist that would have greater benefits.