Coolest. Gaming Set-up. Evar.

[Steel_Wind]

Seeing as all I display onto the whiteboard is still pictures - maps basically - I can't see any reason why a Wifi connection shouldn't do the trick. Can anyone else? I'm not looking to display stunning movies or anything.

If all you are using is stills - I see no reason at all why 802.1g won't work. I would not want to mess with 802.1b though - too slow.

For my purposes, seeing as I do use NWN and zoom and rotate and use animated effects "live" in the toolset (and am looking forward to NWN2's toolset very much) the WiFi approach is not an option for me.

Your mileage may vary - and clearly does.

BTW Blakey - can you post a pic of your projector where it is located in relation to the table? A picture from the side/end of the room , as it were, presumably showing the projector mounted on the wall near the ceiling and the tabletop down and off to the side all in the same frame?

I'm interested in your mounting setup and angle you are projecting at and wonder if there are any problems you have encountered. A nice schematic showing the mount/projector and table would be appreciated by many here, I am sure.

Has there been any problems with people getting in the way of the projected image either when sitting or moving around the room during the game?

 

[Blakey]

Hi Steel Wind,

I am at work now, but will try and remember to take a picture tonight of the Games Room from a sort of side on view. I think I can capture it.

We have the projector mounted on a side wall, facing virtually straight down, but angled slightly out. Amazingly enough this projects an image which is centered in the middle of the room. This is because projectors send their image out from the bottom of the projector and up from there, not out equally in all directions - if that makes sense?

I sit directly under the projector and even when I lean forward I do not find I am getting in the way of the image. As I use a tablet PC to DM I do not have a laptop on the table in front of me - if I did, that would cast a shadow over the table I think. So far - we have had the projector for about 4 or 5 sessions I think - we have had no problems and have found it to be an awesome addition to our set up.

I use FM7 from NBOS for my maps. This generates pretty high quality maps but with no moving images so I suspect that Wifi (it is 801g) would be fine with our set up. I think I'll probably buy the Wifi adaptor. I'll let you know how it works out.

I do own NWN and might give that a whirl as well with and without Wifi. I'm not 100% convinced that I want to use two different maping/visual programs though. I can deffo see that NWN will be loads better than FM7 at doing random wilderness maps and all the benefits of its improved graphical whizziness might be worth looking into. I shall have to see!

Cheers
Blakey

 

[Blakey]

Have updated my Games Room page with a picture which shows the projector on the wall and good indication as to the angle it is working at...

Blakey

 

[Steel_Wind]

Very nice. That's a helpful shot and will be appreciated by many.

 

[DrNilesCrane]

Steel Wind,

Slightly projector related question: I'm looking at how to use my laptop in conjuction with a mapping program and am playing around with the Aurora toolset. I understand that (unfortunately) only one tile set is usable at a time, but I can't seem to figure out how to add new tilesets. For example, I purchased the "holiday pack" of modules which includes a pirate adventure, thinking this would give me access to some decent naval tile sets, but no such luck. I've downloaded some hak packs but nothing useful for creating islands, jungles, etc. I'm hopefully just missing something obvious - can you point me in the right direction? (I've spent the weekend reading the FAQ, tutorials, and NWN forums and can't seem to make this into a useful tool).

Thanks!

 

[Steel_Wind]

Yup. I can help.

First off - if your specific question is "how do I use the tilesets that came with Pirates of the Sword Coast" the short answer is this:

0 - extract the assets into a new hak
1 - create a new .itp file for all of the tiles
2- create a new .set file for them as well
3- adjust user .tlk as required.
4 - insert .itp and set into hak and save

The number of people who are able to do this in the community is about thirty or less. Creating a full .itp and .set is not trivial work.

For all but the most sophisticated of users - it cannot be done. This is not an accident. The content which was shipped with PotSC was encrypted and was never intended to be used for building by the end user.

The tilesets developed for PotSC were not rigorously tested in terms of technical design - they were tested with the mod to see that they worked. Due to the way tilesets are designed not everything in the tilesets is used in a given area. So the stuff in those sets that didn't make it into areas used in PotSC was not thoroughly debugged. (*Ahem*. DLAs stuff that made it into PotSC, however, was rock solid )

All, however, is not lost. BioWare is releasing the material in PotSC so that it can be used to build with as part of Patch 1.67. Those assets are being debugged by the Live Team now. It will be available for download through the updater sometime in early 2006. When, I can't say (and don't know). Jan/Feb, most likely.

If you are having trouble getting tilesets in use other than from the Premium Downloads and cannot get tilesets working from the Vault - that is because you need to add the hak in use through the custom content tab (look under Edit>module>properties) - save the mod and reload. It should then be visible to build with.

 

[DrNilesCrane]

Steel Wind,

Thanks again! Bummer about the time frame but better they debug and have it right rather than cause the program to crash.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Update

JeuxOnline : On the forums we can sometimes read that a patch 1.67 is on work. Is it the case? Could you give us more information about it? Moreover, can we hope for other patches for NWN or will it be the last?

Rob Bartel : Patch 1.67 is real and will likely be entering beta in January. It contains a ton of new functionality for our upcoming premium modules and the builder community will be very excited to get their hands on it. With Brian’s arrival, we’ve also been able to touch up all of the art content from Pirates of the Sword Coast and cram that into the patch as well. The only thing that didn’t fit was the two tilesets, which we’ll release as free hakpaks available from our site.
On a related note, there will be a 1.68, a 1.69, and beyond. Thanks to the ongoing success of the Online Store, you’ll be excited to hear that we’re in an excellent position to continue expanding and supporting NWN into the future. We expect the typical rollout to be as follows:
1. A new patch will be released, containing new functionality and scripting features.
2. A premium module will be released, showcasing that new functionality and introducing new art and audio content.
3. A new patch will be released, integrating the art content from the previous premium module and containing new functionality and scripting features for the next. New tilesets will continue to be released as free hakpaks.

 

[Nyrath]

The Toshiba TDP-FF1ADLP projector
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/toshibas-tiny-dlp-projector-142993.php
I'm sure this one is worthless as a game projector, but it is encouraging that the trend to more miniaturization is continuing.

 

[DrNilesCrane]

Just got our BenQ 6240 today (whole gaming group pitched in) and it looks great! Projects a larger image than I expected (much to my surprise) as well. I'll be working with one of my players to set up a mounting rig for it over the holidays and will put together a picture of it in action (we take a lot of in game photos anyway) as well as the set-up in January.