Coolest. Gaming Set-up. Evar.

[Toscadero]

Steelwind,

You've hooked another convert. I ordered my laptop (which I was getting anyway) and the Dell 1100 yesterday. The $699 deal is still on for now. I guess it depends on which page you access it from.

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/proj?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

I will definately post pictures when I use this. The real job starts now since we game in our dining room. I have a high ceiling, but can't use one of the easy basement style rigs. Wife is ok with it as long as it comes down each time we finish and does not ruin her ceiling. Will post pictures of that as well.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Glad to hear it!

I just picked up another projector today off of ebay today. A TOSHIBA TLP-T60MU 1500 ANSI XGA LCD. Not the best going, but the price was right (480.00 USD). My sincere apologies to ebay bidder and probable ENWorlder "game-lab" who was clearly a PnP gamer from his history of purchases on ebay. All I can say is www.auctionsniper.com ...

I plan to use this one for home theatre and to have as a back up projector here. While I am on the subject, however, there did seem to be a projector very well suited to a gaming table on ebay today. It's a TOSHIBA TLP-261U which has a very short distance throw lens - short enough you could try beneath the table projection with this model.

The stats for the projector are here though, and the upshot on this 1500 ANSI 800x600 model is that you can get a 42" image in under 3 feet throw.

 

[azhrei_fje]

I know these people...

www.projectorcentral.com
Use Calculator Pro

Check to make sure your projector can focus at short range (ours is about 4' max, or 5' with a mirror). With a mirror we also are looking for a ceiling mount (vertical flip) and rear projection (horizontal flip).

It will also give image size at your target distance. Our target for selecting a projectors is 30"x40" at 5' (50" diagonal). This gives enough room for the party to see up to 12" (60') in all directions (darkvision range, lowlight w/30' light source).

Sorry I'm so late posting here. I wasn't aware of this thread, so I started on page one and it's taken me awhile to read to page 5!

I bought my projector from these folks. A friend of my wife's works at projectorpeople.com. (If you call, ask for Carmen; tell her Frank of "Frank and Beth" sent you! Maybe that'll save you money, maybe it'll cost you more. No guarantees from me!)

I bought a NEC LT240K. With the screen to project onto (I'm using it for movies and playstation, too) it cost me about $2k back in December '04. It was my Christmas present to myself, and I didn't get anything else.

I've got a pool table upstairs, so I've been moving the projector around each session, trying to figure out how I want to do this. Hanging it above the table would be tough because I put a ceiling fan there. But I'm going to look at putting a shorter drop-shaft on the fan and gaining another 4"-5". Maybe top projection would work after that? I also thought I might put some kind of reflective surface above the table instead of hanging the projector directly over the top, but that won't work without a honkin' big mirror because this projector has a pretty big image with a short throw distance.

I would recommend this projector, but compared to prices that Steel Wind has posted, I would want a better deal nowadays. Still, it has two VGA inputs, component, DVI, and S-video. And a USB port so that the remote that comes with the projector can be fed back to the laptop to control the mouse! This is *cool*! The projector's remote has a simple "paddle" on it that can be pressed in 8 directions and the projector sends mouse events to the laptop. Combined with the laser pointer built into the remote, that's about all we need.

I use Tabletop Mapper, as Steel Wind mentioned, but I've found it too slow for what I want to do. He didn't mention this (so far in the thread), but it has the ability to keep track of PCs locations and automatically do LoS calculations and expose pieces of the map that the characters can actually see (you put in sight distance for each character). However, it's written in VB and it's not fast enough on my Sony 1.6GHz PentM. I'm rewriting it in C++ and adding some other features. Since I don't really like Windoze, though, I'm writing it using the Qt3 framework so it'll compile everywhere (Qt is a free cross-platform GUI library). I'll post here when it's usable...

 

[Frostmarrow]

However, it's written in VB and it's not fast enough on my Sony 1.6GHz PentM. I'm rewriting it in C++ and adding some other features. Since I don't really like Windoze, though, I'm writing it using the Qt3 framework so it'll compile everywhere (Qt is a free cross-platform GUI library). I'll post here when it's usable...

Windows XP is not fast enough for me so I'm rewriting it in Java. Just kidding. It must be cool to be able to rewrite software you aren't completely satisfied with.

 

[azhrei_fje]

My TMapper implementation

Windows XP is not fast enough for me so I'm rewriting it in Java. Just kidding. It must be cool to be able to rewrite software you aren't completely satisfied with.

Heh-heh, yeah, right. The biggest issue is time! I'm using this as an exercise to learn Qt, too -- I teach corporate computer classes; stuff like Linux Device Drivers and Advanced C++.

So far, it will load the image, zoom it to a variety of levels and cache previous images so that the scaling process doesn't slow things down (with scrollbars and window resizing). There's an overlay grid which is created by drawing a rectangle on the map, but which also has text fields to allow fine-tuning the width and height of the grid (I still need to add an origin setting). I have square shapes that I can grab with the mouse and drag around on the screen.

I need to add fog-of-war facilities for it to be usable at the game table. I have plans to build into it a client-server mode and put an old 233MHz machine upstairs to run the projector. I want to add colored (and possibly animated) shapes to represent objects on the map: PCs, NPCs, monsters, etc. One thing I like about TMapper is the area-of-effect shapes for circles and rectangles -- it really helps to visualize how much of an area is occupied by a silence spell, for example. So that feature will find its way into my program as well.

When I get a little more done on it, I'll apply for space at sourceforge.net and post the source code there -- it will all be available under the GPL, of course.

 

[Ahrimon]

One thing you might want to add. TMapper's area of effect markers only center on squares. If i'm not mistaken a number of spells target the corners of a square. It's also limited with the coneshapes I beleive. You might want to look into that while you're designing it.

I wish I could do what your doing. I can do a lot, but when it comes to graphics, I'm lost. I would love to tweak the TMapper to fit what I want to do with it.


Ahrimon

 

[3d6+15]

It must be cool to be able to rewrite software you aren't completely satisfied with.

Cool?

It's a curse! Once you start down the path of software development you start being dissatisfied with a lot of software you would otherwise put up with.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Azhrei, you've hidden your e-mail address on your profile.

Could you please e-mail me at steelwind@dladventures.com or send me a private message here with your e-mail address? There is something I would like to ask you off thread, as it were.

 

[Melkor]

Cool?

It's a curse! Once you start down the path of software development you start being dissatisfied with a lot of software you would otherwise put up with.

It's the same with playing RPGs for years.

 

[Blakey]

Options Please?

Hi,

I read this thread for the first time yesterday, went home last night and measured up my Games Room. There is 64" from the ceiling height to the top of our games table.

Could you recommend a set of projectors which would be able to cope with this set up?

Basically, I'd like to build some sort of portable support system like shown in the first post of this thread, rather than strap the projector to the ceiling. So I'm guessing I'm going to have at most 4'6" or there abouts for throw distance. Are there any projectors which will throw a suitable "gaming board" sized display at that short a range? If so, could you recommend me a few?

Assume cost is not an issue, but perhaps list a few from expensive to as cheap as possible.

I'd rather not go to all the trouble of setting up a mirror and all that malarchy - would rather just have a portable system which allows me to swing the projector over the table and go from there.

I've a feeling I'm going to have to buy a lower Games Table as I cannot raise the ceiling of the room at all.

I have been over to that projector web page but can't find a comparison option to enable me to list projectors by throw distance (or any other features come to that). So if there is a place on there I can do that, feel free to point me at it and I can look all this up for myself.

Any help would be supremely appreciated!

Cheers
Blakey