Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Coolest. Gaming Set-up. Evar.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 2767373" data-attributes="member: 20741"><p>A 34"x 60" playing surface is a 69" diagonal image. (though at a standard 4:3 image perspective on that table size, your max image is a shade under 60"). </p><p></p><p>For the most part, you need to temper your expectations or get one of a handful of projectors out there with a short throw lens unit.</p><p></p><p>At a 5'6" measurement from ceiling to surface of the table - you are effectively getting a thow of about 4'8" to 5', depending on your projector's depth and mounting style. That's not a real happy number.</p><p></p><p>This is a touch less than average for tabletop gaming throw distance at a <em>sit down table</em>. There are real advantages to playing at coffee table height with a projector - and the extra 12"-18" of throw is the main advantage. (You can increase your throw distacne by using indirect projection through a mirror.)</p><p></p><p>But that's not the main point. My main point is simpler: </p><p></p><p>When you are playing with a projector, you have to remember that your tabletop map scrolls. When your whole map scrolls digitally in all directions, there generally is no need when depicting a dungeon or cave environment to be projecting beyond a 36"-44" diagonal surface as that is more than sufficient to show the areas of any practical interest to the party. Battle is generally not going to occur at distances greater than 2-3 feet in miniature terms. </p><p></p><p>Sometimes when fighting outside, you do want the extra space. With most projectors, you aren't going to get this. Please remember that for as often as this occurs (which is infrequently) the rest of your table didn't vanish. It's still there. If you play with a 1" square white grid presentation pad as a projection surface on top of anormal battlemat - you can still easily measure off areas outside the main "projected" zone if need be on the battlemat.</p><p></p><p>Apart from the technical issue of throw distance to the table (which can be a considerable problem with most projectors) the other issue is one of pixel density. Pixel density issues do not magically go away with a short throw lens. </p><p></p><p>The larger you make your image, pixel density decreases and the more blurry and less detailed your projected map gets. It also reduces the brightness of your image too. The result is that you start chasing your tail the bigger you make the projected image.</p><p></p><p>If you re-read the thread, you will see that Jody Johnson bought a Hitachi CP-S225WAT (another comparable option would be the Sony VPL-DS100).</p><p></p><p>The S225WAT is an older tech using a LCD and SVGA projection for 800x600 resolution. The contrast is low compared to a modern DLP - but it *does* produce a larger image in a short throw.</p><p></p><p>Jody's setup "damns the torpedoes" and goes for size over sharpness of picture. He also used a small mirror for indirect projection on to his gaming table. His pics are thumbnailed on page 9. His mirror setup is quite ingenious and it gets the job done.</p><p></p><p>The trade-off with this approach is that when pixel density drops, your image loses detail. For an old skool dungeon map like Jody is showing in his pics - this is not going to be much of an issue. For a NWN or NWN2 map - or one of the more glitzy maps from the new Dungeon Magazine - the image is most <em>definitely</em> not going to be all you want it to be when it's 60" on the diagonal.</p><p></p><p>That said, it still kicks the crap out of a battlemat or tact-tiles. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Steel_Wind, post: 2767373, member: 20741"] A 34"x 60" playing surface is a 69" diagonal image. (though at a standard 4:3 image perspective on that table size, your max image is a shade under 60"). For the most part, you need to temper your expectations or get one of a handful of projectors out there with a short throw lens unit. At a 5'6" measurement from ceiling to surface of the table - you are effectively getting a thow of about 4'8" to 5', depending on your projector's depth and mounting style. That's not a real happy number. This is a touch less than average for tabletop gaming throw distance at a [i]sit down table[/i]. There are real advantages to playing at coffee table height with a projector - and the extra 12"-18" of throw is the main advantage. (You can increase your throw distacne by using indirect projection through a mirror.) But that's not the main point. My main point is simpler: When you are playing with a projector, you have to remember that your tabletop map scrolls. When your whole map scrolls digitally in all directions, there generally is no need when depicting a dungeon or cave environment to be projecting beyond a 36"-44" diagonal surface as that is more than sufficient to show the areas of any practical interest to the party. Battle is generally not going to occur at distances greater than 2-3 feet in miniature terms. Sometimes when fighting outside, you do want the extra space. With most projectors, you aren't going to get this. Please remember that for as often as this occurs (which is infrequently) the rest of your table didn't vanish. It's still there. If you play with a 1" square white grid presentation pad as a projection surface on top of anormal battlemat - you can still easily measure off areas outside the main "projected" zone if need be on the battlemat. Apart from the technical issue of throw distance to the table (which can be a considerable problem with most projectors) the other issue is one of pixel density. Pixel density issues do not magically go away with a short throw lens. The larger you make your image, pixel density decreases and the more blurry and less detailed your projected map gets. It also reduces the brightness of your image too. The result is that you start chasing your tail the bigger you make the projected image. If you re-read the thread, you will see that Jody Johnson bought a Hitachi CP-S225WAT (another comparable option would be the Sony VPL-DS100). The S225WAT is an older tech using a LCD and SVGA projection for 800x600 resolution. The contrast is low compared to a modern DLP - but it *does* produce a larger image in a short throw. Jody's setup "damns the torpedoes" and goes for size over sharpness of picture. He also used a small mirror for indirect projection on to his gaming table. His pics are thumbnailed on page 9. His mirror setup is quite ingenious and it gets the job done. The trade-off with this approach is that when pixel density drops, your image loses detail. For an old skool dungeon map like Jody is showing in his pics - this is not going to be much of an issue. For a NWN or NWN2 map - or one of the more glitzy maps from the new Dungeon Magazine - the image is most [i]definitely[/i] not going to be all you want it to be when it's 60" on the diagonal. That said, it still kicks the crap out of a battlemat or tact-tiles. ;) [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Coolest. Gaming Set-up. Evar.
Top