Coolest. Gaming Set-up. Evar.

[JDragon]

Not sure on this one. I see it at Tiger Direct. It may be a rebranded older Optoma model or a specific brand for the direct market.

Whatever the case, resolution is a tad low at SVGA - but brightness and contrast appear to be quite decent and it should get the job done.

Post pics and have fun!

Cool, thanks for the info.

I'm hoping the resolution will not be a problem as all I plan to use it for it gaming.

Yeah I've been having trouble finding info on it online too. I think she said she got it CompUSA.

The first challange is mounting it, but one of the guys at work gave me a good suggestion today.

JD

 

[Heathen72]

So anyone tried the projector setup with the new NWN2 toolset?

 

[DonTadow]

So anyone tried the projector setup with the new NWN2 toolset?

I'm very interested in trying this out, but havn't bought the game yet. Though from what I"ve seen it seems as if it'll be difficult considering the camera looks a bit different now.

I hope there's a way to export maps though. I want to make an nwn2 campaign online and use the same maps in my tabletop game.

Buy the way, projector tip I discovered a month ago. forget analog. If your computer spits out DVI, it is worth the money to buy a DVI cord that hooks up to your projector. I've never had such crisper images coming from my projector since I bought the DVI to MD1 cord. Don't get stuck with the high priced factory cords too. I bought mine from here for 15 bucks, this is compared to 150 bucks that Infocus wanted me to pay for the cord.

http://www.monoprice.com/home/index.asp

 

[Steel_Wind]

So anyone tried the projector setup with the new NWN2 toolset?

Not yet. One of the problems with the NWN2 toolset is that it takes so much longer to make an area with it than NWN1.

Flexibility has its price.

For those who want to be able to whip something up on the fly as they game, NWN2 is not for you. Stick to NWN1's toolset.

For those who want a very flexible mapping system for exteriors - well - ok. If you care to put the time in, NWN2 will show it off in style.

 

[Michael Morris]

I'll get my digital camera out and photo it sometime, but yes I've whipped up a scene in 5 minutes with NWN2. Granted, it's not as detailed as NWN2 is capable of but it was more than acceptable for top down.

I'm thinking of setting up a collection of psuedo modules for NWN2 that give the very basic layouts of locations.

It does take more time than NWN1 by a long shot though, 5-10 minutes as opposed to 1 or 2 for NWN1

 

[JDragon]

Ok, here's my first real question of what I belive will be many in getting everything set up to use my new projector.

We play in the living room and I belive I will using a ceiling mount for the projector. Our current playing surface is a sheet of ply wood that sits on the coffe table with the players around it on the couch. This gives us approx a 4' by 8' area for playing, book, dice and such.

I plan to continue to use the board as the surface but want to prep one side of it for use with the projector.

From what I have read and common sense says a white surface is best, so my plan is to paint one side of the board white.

The ? is, what color / type of white paint do I use?

I saw mention that to bright/shiny can cause a glare and such and want to get the best surface I can that will not cause other problems.

has anyone painted a surface for this use yet?

Also, do I make a grid on the board or do it with the computer?

Thanks

JD

 

[Steel_Wind]

You just are not going to get a great projection surface with plywood, imo.

However, if you are so inclined - use a medium gloss white for the wood. It's going to get a little dirty over time as the wood soaks up dirt, grease, natural oils, not to mention Coke stains, pizza, etc..

For principal use, get a presentation pad of paper, with a grid of 1" squares. They are 3x4' sheets. Should cost you $10 for a pad of 50 or so at Business Depot. Use this as your main surface on your tabletop and your painted plywood as your spillover for the projected image.

Generally speaking - keep the grid on the projection surface. You can use photoshop and some other programs to do a grid on a separate mask - but it's a pain and it's fiddly. You end up screwing around with it instead of keeping your game moving along. A pad of white paper pre-gridded with 1" square is no muss, no fuss takes exactly ZERO seconds to maintain as you project on to it - and may be marked up physically if you need to do so.

If it gets dirty over a few sessions (and over time, it will) - rip it off and a brand new gleaming white page is right there, ready for you to use. Unless you are marking up your pages multiple times during a session, a pad should last you - what - a year or three - depending on how often you game? For $10?? That's a bargain.

Note - most ceiling brackets for projectors won't work for this purpose as you need to point it straight down and they are not made to accommodate that angle; however, a WALL mount bracket for a projector works extremely well for Tabletop projection when it is mounted to the ceiling (it will permit straight down with as much of an angle as may be necessary). You can find em on eBay. (search "projector mount")

 

[JDragon]

You just are not going to get a great projection surface with plywood, imo.
...snip...

Just wondering why a sheet of plywood thats been filled, sanded and painted would not make a good surface to use? Gotta be something I'm missing here.

I understand the issues of it getting dirty and such, but can deal with that.

Thanks

JD

 

[JDragon]

Well, after going over this thread about 6 times in the last few weeks, I'm starting to make a little progress.

I've opted to go with an overhead projection set up. Since I'm setting it up in my living room I have to keep it low profile and removable. I'm actually going to mount the projector on the wall just below the ceiling off to one side of the table. With the way the image travels up from the lense and the keystone correction it looks like I will be able to get a straight image at almost 40" by 53" or so image.

We did a proof of concept test with me on a ladder holding it in the proposed mount postion, projecting down on to our gaming board. The few guys from my game that had gotten their early for the test were impressed with the size and brightness of the image we are going to get. As was I.

Now all I need to do is build my mount and get the projectio surface ready. Still think I want to try painting the plywood we use white and gridding it. But I'm also looking at making a large sheet of graph paper down at kinko's with the oversize copier since my image will be to big for a single sheet of the 1" graph paper that can be purchased.

Quick ? - I have a standard monitor input & S-Video connections on the projector and my laptop, which am I going to get a better image from or will it matter for game useage? Just trying to figure out which kinda cable I should get since I'll need longer ones.

Thanks

JD

 

[jodyjohnson]

The VGA 15-pin connector will give a better image.