General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
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You need to take the white mat to Kinkos and have them put a grid on it.
Actually, you can get flipchart paper in 1" grids. Use that instead - then you can draw on it if need be (to denote spell effect areas, etc) and toss the sheet at the end of the battle.
Office Depot used to have 50 sheet pads fo $9.99
__________________ "I hurt Firewing." is not something a huge number of people can say. "He dropped a parking garage on me," on the other hand, a lot of people can say. -Kazan, my Champions GM.
The room shouldn't get hot, but some of the projectors might be a bit noisy. Boredflak's InFocus is probably a little noisy, but the one Steel Wind has should bemuch quieter.
In regards to the lamp heating up too much - it's not normally an issue. Don't put anything to cover the vents on the projector (say, to muffle the above-mentioned noise) and you'll be fine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ogrok the Mighty
My only concern would be burning out the projector since it would be on for very prolonged periods of time.
Our projectors at work get used 6-8 hours all the time. The only issue is lamp life - which in the newer models is working its way up to 2,000-3,000 hours. Some can be set at low brightness or high brightness. For example, we just bought a couple of Epson PowerLite 81p's. They're $1800, 2000 Lumens at high brightness, 1500 lumens at low. 1500 lumens is still pretty good, good enough to allow you to see the projectionfairly well in a daylit room. At low brightness, the lamp would last 3,000 hours. That's 500 6 hour sessions. It can also project a 30" image at 2.9 feet distance.
__________________ "I hurt Firewing." is not something a huge number of people can say. "He dropped a parking garage on me," on the other hand, a lot of people can say. -Kazan, my Champions GM.
We are using an Optoma EZPRO 750. The device is no longer manufactured by Optoma who discontinued its production last year, but it still can be found new from many retailers.
That is not, however, the projector I would buy if I had a choice and a decent budget. We got that one off of e-bay simply because it was one of the more attractive models which met our minimum specs and was available at the time. We got lucky on our lamp and unit. You are not likely to be as lucky.
If money is really not your major concern, I would recommend the Dell2300MP. It retails for $1349, brand spanking new, at 2400 Lumens it is daylight bright with a contrast ratio which is among the best in class. Best of all - its XGA native mode at 1024x768 so your picture will be sharp and have vibrant color.
At a throw distance of 5'7", depending on the zoom factor you employ, you will get a diagonal resolution of between 36" and 43" for that projector. That is about average for a DLP at that throw distance.
The brightness, contrast and reosolution are exceptional on this projector. You will have a very fine piece of hardware for your money - very nice for Home Theatre use as well if you plan to employ it for that purpose.
For a SVGA projector, meaning only 800x600 resolution, there are a lot of other options.
The Dell 2200MP is 1200 ANSI and will give you 39" to 47" at the that throw range. The Dell's price is once again - AWESOMELY attractive and probably makes this the most favored choice of gamers looking to get in on this technology. Currently, Dell is selling the 2200MP for $719. That is incredibly cheap folks.
For a brand new projector, that's pretty hard to beat. You'd be doing very well to get a used projector off of e-bay for much less than that.
The Dell 2200MP has to be a front-runner for a lot of people on ENworld.
If image size is your goal, the Sony VPL-DS100 can give you an image from 48" to 59" or so at that throw range. It has a street price of about $1,000.00-$1,100 - and it's at 1200 ANSI.
When given a choice, I would choose brightnesss over size, any day. For images larger than 44" or so, I would want a XGA - not SVGA projector. Your image is going to become visibly pixellated at times if you go for the Sony.
A final reminder: If you look to buy your projector used off of e-bay, you need to be VERY aware of the fact that your lamp is definitely used. How used? You don't really know - no matter what the seller says.
What you must remember is that it is $300-$400+ to replace your lamp in a DLP projector. One can be penny wise and pound foolish buying used.
An unknown used projector for $600-650 or so vs. a brand new 2200MP from Dell for $719?
You don't need me to tell you where the smart money goes on that prospective purchase.
__________________ .Robert
Last edited by Steel_Wind; 1st March 2005 at 02:12 AM..
I'm tempted to buy something like your highest option there, and while I have the means, I am not so sure I have the will. (Funny, I didn't mind spending $1000 on the laptop I only use for DM'ing.)
Thank you for the information! I've got a lot of hunting and deciding and planning to do.
__________________ "No man should outlive his fictional wizard. No man!" - Homer J. Simpson
Now if only my players were millionaires, they could get it for me for DM's day...
__________________ National Capital Area Gameday, 24-25 October 2009 www.dcgameday.com My Story Hour: A Kingdom of Ashes. Updated 07/01/05! Zombies! Pirates! Giant Lizards! Intrigue! The Universe commands you to check it out!
Wii #0817 9834 1380 0807
While this technology is not as cheap as a pair of dice, at $719 USD for a brand new projector, it costs less than the large majority of most of the computers people are using to read this message and less still than most of the laptops kicking around at the gaming session.
Do try to keep the cost in perspective
A recent ENWorld poll had a substantial number of gamers indicating that they spent about $100 a month on gaming stuff.
Especially if a group chips in for a projector, $719 is hardly cost prohibitive. For a group of five gamers, gaming once a week, that's less than a $1 a game session over the course of three years. IF your group is larger - the costs per player only goes down.
Would you RENT one of those for, say, 16 cents per hour to game with? I'm guessing the answer for many if not MOST here is yes.
It is not cheap, admittedly...
But millionaires? No. This is affordable technology.
__________________ .Robert
Last edited by Steel_Wind; 2nd March 2005 at 06:51 PM..
Quick question before I take a nap before working the night shift: How do you do the "fog of war" stuff to hide things from the players.
{Two more years. Just two more years of night shift and then I can call it quits and move to days.... }
__________________ --Doc Klueless "I like to get XP intravenously. That, or sucking it directly from the marrow of my fallen foes." - RangerWickett "I just want [my RPG] to run smoothly, palpate my gamer gland, and bring the metal." - Wormwood (paraphrased)
While this technology is not as cheap as a pair of dice, at $719 USD for a brand new projector, it costs less than the large majority of most of the computers people are using to read this message and less still than most of the laptops kicking around at the gaming session.
Do try to keep the cost in perspective
A recent ENWorld poll had a substantial number of gamers indicating that they spent about $100 a month on gaming stuff.
Especially if a group chips in for a projector, $719 is hardly cost prohibitive. For a group of five gamers, gaming once a week, that's less than a $1 a game session over the course of three years. IF your group is larger - the costs per player only goes down.
Would you RENT one of those for, say, 16 cents per hour to game with? I'm guessing the answer for many if not MOST here is yes.
It is not cheap, admittedly...
But millionaires? No. This is affordable technology.
I was exaggerating, of course.
I'd let them chip in even if they were otherwise destitute. Priorities!
__________________ National Capital Area Gameday, 24-25 October 2009 www.dcgameday.com My Story Hour: A Kingdom of Ashes. Updated 07/01/05! Zombies! Pirates! Giant Lizards! Intrigue! The Universe commands you to check it out!
Wii #0817 9834 1380 0807
...(or even if we have a diferent display technology which accomplishes the same thing, like a flexible LCD battlemat you could unroll and plug in)...
Do a Google search for "flexible" "LCD".
Samsung, Toshiba and Philips have been working on it for some time already. The Philips' technology is called 'Paintable LCD'. That's right... Just like in Traveller.
Give it a couple years, and you'll have that LCD Battlemat.
__________________ The Pbartender
"It ain't what you don't know that kills you. It's what you know that ain't so." - Larry Niven
YOU BASSSSSSSSSSSSSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRD!
You just had to give us all another reason to hate your gaming setup.
Feel free to ship me any Master Maze you decide to mothball.
Wulf
Oh no - I'll never mothball my 3d goodies.The projector is definitely for stuff like magma filled chambers and convention games. You're always welcome at my gaming table though
Samsung, Toshiba and Philips have been working on it for some time already. The Philips' technology is called 'Paintable LCD'. That's right... Just like in Traveller.
Give it a couple years, and you'll have that LCD Battlemat.
I know. I've been following flexible TFT R&D for a while for just that reason.
I think 5-10 years plus is a better time frame for these though. The plants required to make large panel LCD's are extremely expensive to tool up for. The current manufacturing process for TFT has a reject rate that begins to soar geometrically the larger you make the panels.
Still - either way: if its cheap ass projection or cheap ass super sized LCD panels - we win
Quick question before I take a nap before working the night shift: How do you do the "fog of war" stuff to hide things from the players.
We deal with fog of war in several ways. One, in particular, I shall detail here and show you how it looks as you can use this with a laptop to your TV if you don't have a projector.
1 . No See; No Show: Fog of War is easy when it comes to critters. Just don’t place the minis down on the map unless the party can see em.
2. Fudge it with Scrolling: The map visible in the NWN toolset window can be scrolled a little bit at a time. As I tend to use NWN for outside encounters or simple interiors, this is usually not a problem to just scroll your window so that the not visible part is…well…not visible on the tabletop until it needs to be. For something like caves – again – pan and scan scrolling of the visible map seems to work very well in most cases.
[Note: NWN Game Client: the game client has camera blockers and LOS built-in, so in theory this should work well. Sounds cool right? Sadly, it does not work in practice. The problem is one of scale. Even zoomed out to the max distance, the NWN game and DM client will show too little of the screen all at once on the tabletop, The toolset’s zoom feature is unrestricted so this problem does not arise in the toolset.]
3: Photoshop and layer masks. While I don’t use this approach, Jans Carton (who is a pro photographer in his day job) uses Photoshop and layer masks to add fog of war obscuration to his maps. He prepares his maps ahead of time with Photoshop then erases the black mask layer, a bit at a time, as his players explore. He puts secret doors and traps on a separate layer – and reveals those also when appropriate using the eraser. The effect during game sessions is shown on his LCD projector page here:
4: TableTop Mapper: This is my preferred solution for dungeon interiors where the layout of the complex and corridors and positions of rooms and secret doors is important. Jans computer is a Mac and can’t use Tabletop Mapper. I have a PC. For me – Tabletop Mapper is ideal.
It’s pretty simple. Let me show you an example of how it works.
For this, we will use a recent map from Dungeon #119 The Tomb of Aknar Ratalla. This map is available as a free download off of Paizo’s site – a service they started to provide to readers after Jans Carton wrote Paizo about his need for clean maps to work with for use with tabletop projection.
So you export this pic from your .pdf and save it as a jpg.
Now, fire up tabletop mapper, and Load Picture. You've got this to look at essentially:
Your mouse now changes to a cross hair. You can draw a box anywhere on the image. Whatever size box you draw will be tiled across the entire map. In this case, there is already a grid on Paizo’s map. We just want ours to match it in size. So make your box the same size as the one on the map. It amounts to digital tracing. My six year old son can do it.
[A further note: if the artist fudged the grid in the map so it is not to scale or is uses a partial grid square next to a wall ….well…let me just say that TableTop Mapper will give you an abiding hatred of such a practice. ENWorlder MerricB carped about this to Dungeon in Prison Mail a few issues back.]
Now – the “hard” part. In order to prepare your map for play, you will want to define your areas. You can number these to correspond to the room numbers on your map if you like or choose whatever scheme suits your fancy. Whatever the case, you do this by looking under the menu Map Preparation and simply using your mouse and left clicking a grid cell to attach it to that defined area. (And yes, a grid cell can be set to be part of more than one area). After you have finished blocking it off that area, you choose “hide area. Poof. That room is done. Since you have hidden it, the image under it now goes black. Wash, rinse & repeat for your entire map.
You end up with this:
http://www.dladventures.com/gallery/public/tomb2.jpg [removed direct link to to login prompt - Kid Charlemagne]
Time it takes for each map is obviously dependent upon the complexity of the map – but it is not a long process. 10 minutes for the map, if that? Something like that. Not a lot.
When you load your map in a saved state, it will be with all areas hidden and completely black. I tend to keep just the entrance visible so I unhide that portion. You then use your mouse to unhide adjoining areas, one area at a time by clicking on it and choosing “unhide” as the party explores. As the players explores during the game, more of the map is displayed, thusly:
TableTop Mapper allows you to save the state of your map, so that if you need to end your session with only some of the map being displayed, it will remember what’s been revealed and what has not. Pretty nifty huh?
Total cost of Tabletop Mapper? Zero dollars and Zero cents. It’s available as a free download right here.
One last thing – there is a spell area of effect tool in Tabletop Mapper which is nifty. So you can use it to highlight the map being projected on the tabletop and it will show you exactly what grid squares will be effected by a spell effect of that radius. For common spells like fireball – this is a very handy little digital tool to use in game on the tabletop.
__________________ .Robert
Last edited by Kid Charlemagne; 11th February 2008 at 07:55 PM..
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