Coolest. Gaming Set-up. Evar.

[Kid Charlemagne]

Or would that be too close to the tabletop? Is that the reason you had to use a mirror?

The mirror is to get a longer "throw distance" - projectors have a minimum focal distance and getting too close to the surface you're projecting onto will result in a small image at best, and possibly a challenge in focusing (if its really too close). The further away you can get the projector, the better.

 

[DonTadow]

Wow, this is great!

I am glad to see that the game is actually being brought to a new level using electronic tools. Being a fellow gamer myself, I am always looking for better ways of making gaming better for the players and many of you have brought some very good ideas to surface here.

I am one of the team members over at rptools and I hope many of you have the opportunity to check out some of the tools we are making for the gaming community (and making for us too of course ). The tools that we develop are free and will remain free. We have tools that can help you keep track of initiative, roll dice, create monster/player tokens and my favorite - Maptool which allows you to do the very thing this thread is talking about and that is being able to play your games electronically across the world, project them, play on laptops or play on your High Def. television (like I do). Maptool is a virtual desktop application where you can load up your maps and play on them electronically.

Anyway, stop by and check us out! Tell us ways we can make the tools better for your gaming needs!

Dorpond
www.rptools.net

I know I've endorsed this product in an earlier post but it can't be said enough how good it is. Not only do I make Dundjinni maps and use them in the program, I can now buy the great PDF map products of O0nes and Skeleton Keys, use adobe to export out all the images and then use the images inside of maptools to make very creative looking maps out on the fly. I say this because a lot of peoples main deterrent about doing the projector is that they feel they will have to overly prepare for games or that they won't be able to do things on the fly.

Maptools has a great fog of war system, some really handy drawing tools and a click and drag interface which allows you to dragon maps, icons, and images onto different layers of the battlemap.

Here are some of the maps and encounters I've made completely on the fly in less than five minutes. I'm working on getting some clear in game images.

deleted to make page fit right. got to resize pics

 

[BladeSmith]

More cool technology

For those of you who have some money to spend. Ok, probably not, but it's fun to contemplate the idea anyway. Check out this computerized table. It's a gigantic touch screen table.

http://www.touchtable.com/site/

 

[dorpond]

Glad you love Maptool Dontadow! yeah, I really love the way you use the tool. I find there are so many way to approach making maps or encounters in Maptool - your method here is awesome for people who don't have the time to draw out maps or are in need a really quick encounter on the spot during game. Thanks for showing us the light!

Maptool tip: If you go into the properties of your floor stamps Dontadow and change the "shape" setting to "Top Down", the yellow facing arrows will go away. Oh Yeah!

 

[GreatLemur]

The mirror is to get a longer "throw distance" - projectors have a minimum focal distance and getting too close to the surface you're projecting onto will result in a small image at best, and possibly a challenge in focusing (if its really too close). The further away you can get the projector, the better.

Ah, dang; that's what I was afraid of. I imagine the problem could be fixed with some kind of (expensive) specialty lens, if only these rigs actually used modular lenses. Hm. So it's back to ceiling hooks, stands, and mirrors. Ah, well. I ain't got the room for this kind of thing--or a serious enough gaming group--anyway.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Ah, dang; that's what I was afraid of. I imagine the problem could be fixed with some kind of (expensive) specialty lens, if only these rigs actually used modular lenses.

You can often buy wide angle lenses - but beware, they are quite a bit more expensive than regular lenses. I've got an Epson wide-angle lens for one of the projectors here at work that runs $2700 list. That probably won't help you much...

BTW, DonTadow - not sure what resolution you're running, but your pics (while nice) are causing about 25% of the page to run off the right hand side of the screen here. Can you resize them?

 

[sozin]

A little googling turned this up:
http://www.airdesks.com/projectorstand.asp

At 7' tall, I ought to be able to place this away from the seating, angle this thing almost straight down, get plently of throw distance to a floor (or coffee table) target, and still have less keystoning to correct than a wall mounted setup. Has anyone else tried something this?

short answer -- no. it only supports a 45 degree downwards tilt. you probably want 80-85 degree tilt.

sozin

 

[JDragon]

Ok, well I have joined the ranks at last, only waited for 3 or so years.

My great wife & parents got me a Optoma DS303 DLP Projector for X-Mas.

So now I'm working on how to mount it in my living room.

Anybody heard anything on these? Good / Bad?

I'm sure I'll be back soon with lots of questions on maps and such.

Thanks

JD

 

[Steel_Wind]

Ok, well I have joined the ranks at last, only waited for 3 or so years.

My great wife & parents got me a Optoma DS303 DLP Projector for X-Mas.

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!

 

[Steel_Wind]

A little googling turned this up:
http://www.airdesks.com/projectorstand.asp

At 7' tall, I ought to be able to place this away from the seating, angle this thing almost straight down, get plently of throw distance to a floor (or coffee table) target, and still have less keystoning to correct than a wall mounted setup. Has anyone else tried something this?

short answer -- no. it only supports a 45 degree downwards tilt. you probably want 80-85 degree tilt.

True - this will not work unmodified as it does not have a proper ceiling style mount for the projector. It has a tray with some velcro - not what you want holding your projector on a 85 degree angle or so

But the stand itself is cool and should work well when a new ceiling mount style connector is attached to the rod that can support the weight at that angle.