Coolest. Gaming Set-up. Evar.

[Chairman7w]

Man - why all the hate? (Answer: Jealousy)

That truly IS the collest gaming setup ever. VERY cool! Nice job!

 

[Von Ether]

This is very cool. One step closer to ultimate cool would be to be able to project from underneath onto some kind of rear projection surface so that arms, miniatures, and other objects don't get in the way of the light.

But then your books and arms cover up the map and it can't be seen. This was the project puts the map on EVERYTHING on the table. You can have your book out and still share space with the map unless everyone goes over the tiny treasure chest projected on top of your book cover.

 

[Steel_Wind]

There are strengths and limitations to either top down or bottom up projection.

I think its fair to say that bottom-up projection is, all things being equal, preferential for actual use during play. I have no argument with this observation and I agree with it.

But all things are not equal. Bottom projection requires a special table and a special projector. It increases expense, abandons convenient portability and flexible use of the projector for Home Theatre when not used for gaming - all in pursuit of eliminating shadows and map obscurement. For the most part, these perceived problems rear projection addresses do not actually manifest during play or interfere with the enjoyment of the top-down projected map nearly as much as people who have not tried it think it does.

My point: you need to try the top-down technology before you start poking holes in it. It's not as problematic as you think. And it's affordable for many ENworlders, right now for use in your living room. You can actually do this for your gaming group.

 

[Slayden]

Man great minds think alike about a month back i got the idea to use a projector to enhance my groups game. I hadn't thought to use it in the maner of combining Fig's and most likely won't due to my ceiling not being high enough. My set up thus far is just projecting a map on the wall and with the magic of photoshop which can put a visible grid on any pic. The nice part with photo is that you can have multiple layers to overlay yer map in black and reveal it as the gamers move about. I'd say the projector is a good buy for any group plus it play movies so well.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

My only concern would be burning out the projector since it would be on for very prolonged periods of time. I could be wrong, but I don't think they're meant to be on for 6-8 hours at a time (at least not the economical ones).

 

[ColonelHardisson]

The only way to top this is to have that big, specially-built gaming table I've seen pics of floating around the net be where the projection goes.

Very cool.

 

[Dragonblade]

Would it be possible for the mods to save and turn Steel Winds posts into some sort of feature article on ENWorld? Create an article titled: "How to setup a digital projection gaming environment." or something. I really think this is worth saving

 

[pogre]

But if we have more sizzle to make the game more fun for ourselves - and to permit the game to connect and appeal to others in order to allow it to expand and grow, I don't think that can ever be a bad thing.

Absolutely! I take a slightly different method - using miles and miles of Master Maze, Hirst Arts Dungeon rooms and buildings, and miniatures to create 3d scenes at the table, and that stuff just draws kids to the game.

I'm thinking about using your methods for some convention games I run - lugging all of my dungeon stuff around is just not practical for every Con. I recently ran a massive dungeon scenario at a local convention and it took me a couple of hours to just pack the stuff! Totally worth it for the reaction at the con though

Thanks for sharing - I think it is very cool - and will probably try to use it soon.

 

[skinnydwarf]

My only concern would be burning out the projector since it would be on for very prolonged periods of time. I could be wrong, but I don't think they're meant to be on for 6-8 hours at a time (at least not the economical ones).

Then only use the projector during combat. I hope your combat scenes don't last that long

 

[Steel_Wind]

Finally... 'NWN tools are available to anyone reading this'... you missed a clause. 'Who uses a PC rather than a Mac.' Not that I'm still bitter or anything.

To you and the other bitter NWN Mac user...

You should be aware that you are not shut out of the fun. Neveredit .80 was released a few weeks ago and it supports full NWN toolset creation on Mac OS X.

The relevant link is here: http://openknights.sourceforge.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=neveredit