FANTASY GROUNDS Goes 3D With TABLETOP CONNECT

Fantasy Grounds, the officially licensed D&D virtual tabletop software, has just acquired Tabletop Connect, a 3D virtual tabletop which was successfully Kickstarted a couple of years ago. "Tabletop Connect is a system-neutral 3D virtual tabletop that lets you connect with your friends to play role-playing games just like you’re around a real table. You play in a true 3D environment—with miniatures, terrain tiles, physics simulated dice, character sheets, and handouts—you can almost feel the dice in your hands." Already one of the big two VTTs (the other being Roll20), this looks like it'll take online virtual tabletop gaming to a whole new level.

​

Here's the full press release:

I am pleased to announce that Tabletop Connect has been acquired by SmiteWorks USA, LLC, the developer of the industry leading Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop. As part of this acquisition I will be joining the SmiteWorks team to accelerate the port of Fantasy Grounds to the Unity platform. "

Doug Davison, President and Co-Owner of SmiteWorks added, "We have a distinct vision of what virtual tabletops can and should look like over the coming years and how Smiteworks can accomplish those things with Fantasy Grounds. For that reason, we began porting the core engine for Fantasy Grounds to Unity so that we could streamline and enhance the experience for players and GM's alike and distribute it more easily across all platforms. We've been following the progress of Tabletop Connect since it launched on Kickstarter and we've been very impressed with what Carl has been able to produce as a one-man operation. He shares the same vision we do on many areas and brings a unique level of talent, passion and creativity that is very hard to find. After some great one-on-one discussions, we believe that together we can do more than we could working separately. Work has been progressing on the Unity rebuild for the last year and I am genuinely excited about how the addition of Carl to the team will allow us to speed up the completion of this project and provide additional enhancements to the resulting product. "

During the development of Tabletop Connect your feedback and support have been invaluable. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to the next generation of virtual tabletops and to deliver the experience that you deserve.

As a backer of Tabletop Connect, you should soon receive the details of the realignment to Fantasy Grounds and your options during this transition.

Sincerely, thanks again for all of your support and I look forward to you joining me on this exciting new adventure!

​

Tabletop Connect is here. Fantasy Grounds is, of course, here.

​

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Honestly that sounds like marketing speak to me - "terabytes of data" for a 30x17.5 FOV low resolution panel is a stretch to say the least. I seriously doubt it pushes even as many pixels as the older Oculus Rift dev kits - it's not some sort of mysterious "holographic processor" (that's nonsense marketing speak). Even the consumer Rift only pushes a few HUNDRED MB/s, not GB/s and certainly not terabytes. Not even *close*.

If they do include any sort of CPU/GPU, it certainly wont' be more powerful than a PC gaming rig. That makes zero sense and defies basic physics.

In any case, I will say that Hololens pretty much won't do what you're after, and probably no AR device for the next 5+ years will, due to the associated physical limits on AR lenses, software problems that are nigh-unsolveable in real time with <10ms per frame etc.

Sigh. In other words, you're speaking from prejudice, not from knowledge.

In any case, there's no point in buying a specialized gaming PC to use with Hololens. It's complete overkill.

I am glad Smiteworks is looking into Hololens support, and I think it would be awesome in a VTT scenario.

 

[EthanSental]

As someone who has used tabletop connect in session, using a top down projector with the group around the table, I can say the game interaction was awesome. Carl was a click away for help if we ran into one. I'd like for those who haven't used tabletop connect to not sell it short until you've tried it, good stuff as it was another medium to tell a story.
Hey Brock, if you were active on the Google + for tabletop, this is Tim

 

[omnipsyence]

Has anyone had any good experiences with tablets or digital tables (physical) for their games?

 

[EthanSental]

Wowzers... that looks fantastic.
But how many years (?) of development before we see a 3D version of Fantasy Grounds?

IT was fantastic, especially once Carl implements the construction planes where we could build multi level dungeons on 1 map...great stuff and fun to work with. Gherrion, one of the users that would frequently blow my mind with what he was coming up with has maps and video links on the google+ site. He built the tomb of horrors all in 1 map which was amazing to see. I had 75% o the first level of Undermountain built as well, on 1 map. Seeing the minis move and their light source and what they could actually see as an active fog of war type thing was impressive.

 

[Barantor]

I've been using tabletop simulator for my games, but it runs things like card games and such too and isn't dependent on any type of subscription, just $20 and done. I don't put the time like something like this looks to be, but I do like the 3D dice rolling and the 'table' atmosphere it can provide.

When it gets too far from the experience of the real thing though is when I start to not like it. Sometimes when you get this involved it starts looking more like a tabletop wargame and less like an RPG.

 

[RedSiegfried]

1. You need to let people get wicked creative doing their own pre-rendered set pieces and environments.

2. It needs to allow fast, easy, on-the-fly modifications / drawing / content overlays that don't bog down the in-game presentation.


Those are two very difficult, and in some cases diametrically opposed use cases.

I've fiddled quite a bit with the Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 scenario builders, thinking that they would be a great way to make encounters more fun and interesting.

But it only meets use case #1; it utterly fails at use case #2. Trying to do anything "on the fly"---especially for indoor environments---is ridiculously hard.

As an NWN builder I can also attest to this. It's possible to modify things on the fly, but that "on the fly" actually requires a lot of scripting/modding in advance, so it's not as spontaneous as we wish for. I don't know when it's comes to a 3D environment like this if it will ever be entirely possible without massive computing power, but hey, I'm still really impressed with the work shown here so far.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Hey guys, just a quick note or two here. The interface for FG will continue to allow for 2d interfaces. Carl's first priorities are with helping us get fully moved over to Unity and then to help with the many different enhancements that have been asked for with 2D environments - tile mapping, layers, lighting, line of sight blocking, etc. The 3D stuff will be coming down the line shortly afterward (we hope) and will provide an additional option for DM's. For in-person games, we still often use a roll-out map and minis, sometimes we use tiles to lay out a map and every once in a while we roll out the Dwarven Forge 3d terrain. I could see some DM's almost exclusively using 3D assets and I could see other DM's using it for major or special scenarios but not for every encounter. Finally, there might be some who would never use it. The way we want to build things out should support all of those play style preferences.

I'm in!

I bet a dragon fight among swooping architecture is loaned something neat by 3d terrain, but the 2d mapping enhancements are what I'm most invested in as an active user.

 

[Curmudjinn]

Those are two very difficult, and in some cases diametrically opposed use cases.

When I read this, all I could think about is the Black Bear vs Brown Bear argument from The Office.


On topic, seeing a VTT in 3D like this doesn't do anything for me. I could just boot up Neverwinter Nights and slap together maps and have the party follow around my commands, dropping in things as necessary. Or Sword Coast Legends.

For me, actually seeing the characters and local maps ruins the imaginative premise of the tabletop experience.

 

[Banesfinger]

For me, one of the most exciting aspects of this is: Fantasy Grounds is licenced to produce VTT versions of Wizards of the Coast content. Their modules are almost word-for-word and map-for-map the same as the published (book) adventures. It would be thrilling if FG started making WotC adventures with 3D versions of all their maps!

 

[mlund]

I'm always glad to see new technology heading FG's way, but my biggest grief with my subscription is that when I can't use it it teleconference people into a home game because our host's apartment's internet connection refuses to play nice with their port-forwarding.