Interest level in a shared whiteboard for remote players?

andargor · Aug 25, 2003

Hi,

My group has a player that is in a different city, and we've been using NetMeeting (with camera and voice) and it's built-in whiteboard. We use the whiteboard to draw what's on our battlemat so that the remote player can effectively participate in combats and such.

To put it mildly, the NetMeeting whiteboard sucks.

I have done some experiments with OpenRPG and WebRPG, and other shared whiteboards (Flash-based, browser-based, etc.). They were all somewhat unsatisfying. Quirks in how the whiteboard works, hard to place terrain, lack of some drawing features, bugs, use of Java (ick), etc...

Sure, OpenRPG and WebRPG are good products, but they are "all in one" packages that give you everything except the kitchen sink. But all I want is a good whiteboard. My theory is that if you have a slew of features in your package, then an application that is made for one specific feature will always do a better job for that specific feature.

So I've decided to code my own shared whiteboard for Windows machines (dubbed "RPG Whiteboard" for now), and I have been wondering, would any of you see the utility of this?

I don't intend to sell the application. I'm just wondering if I should take the trouble to write documentation and such. I'm starting the first test sessions very soon.

Andargor

Dimwhit · Aug 25, 2003

That's exactly something I was looking for a while back. Unfortunately, I'm on a Mac, so I wouldn't be able to use yours, but I'd bet peole could get good use out of it.

Emiricol · Aug 25, 2003

I'm on Linux, plus OpenRPG works for my group (everyone is online). The whiteboard you detail would be very useful for the kind of gaming you are describing, though. I don't know how common that is, having not played face to face in a while.

Painfully · Aug 25, 2003

I've heard of something called Klooge that looks like what you might be looking for. Here's a link

I've been wanting to give it a try. It does not make maps, but does allow you to take any graphics file and turn it into a background. The cool part is that players will only see what their players "should" see, and nothing more. So, they cannot look around corners and such without a proper light source and line-of-sight. Invisible creatures can also properly disappear from a player's view.

Certain actions can cue sound effects, which is just cool IMO. Doors, traps, and anything else can all be linked with sound effects.

The downside is that each copy of the software requires it's own license. That makes it expensive IMO, but I am still debating with myself whether to buy it. Version 2.0 is coming soon, so you might also want to hold off a bit if you can.
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edit: And, oh yes, it's in JAVA, so cross-platform compatible with Mac and PC. Definitely a plus.

andargor · Aug 26, 2003

Dimwhit said:
That's exactly something I was looking for a while back. Unfortunately, I'm on a Mac, so I wouldn't be able to use yours, but I'd bet peole could get good use out of it.

Originally posted by Emiricol
I'm on Linux, plus OpenRPG works for my group (everyone is online). The whiteboard you detail would be very useful for the kind of gaming you are describing, though. I don't know how common that is, having not played face to face in a while.

Yes, I know I should get over my aversion to Java

I don't know the first thing about Mac programming, but Linux I'm pretty good at.

As it stands, the server is Linux-based, written in C (threaded). Just because that's what I run as a web server. The whiteboard itself is C++.

I just had a chat with one of my friends, and he proposes to separate the whiteboard engine from the interface and make it portable to Linux, and perhaps to Mac if we can find a C++ programmer for it. It would probably be easiest on OSX.

The server is a simple reflector with basic security. It's trivial to make it portable to Windows/Mac. Its firewall friendly, as it only uses TCP. The objects are vector-based, so bandwidth is minimal.

Obviously, we need to play-test it to make sure it works correctly, and then I'll probably release.

Originally posted by
Painfully
I've heard of something called Klooge that looks like what you might be looking for

I does indeed look pretty slick. However, all of us are professionals and most have families (I'm youngest at 36...), so the DM doesn't have a lot of time to create the rooms in advance.

The whiteboard, for us, is our mapping tool as we progress through the adventure. So it's minimal preparation for the DM.

But I can see how modules could be developed, and perhaps distributed for others. I believe OpenRPG supports events and such. Maybe it's something I'll look at eventually...

Andargor