Coolest. Gaming Set-up. Evar.

[Frostmarrow]

I've been toying around with the Tabletop Mapper, mentioned previously, for a couple of days - and it's great fun!

Seriously, I'm running out of maps.

I've also rigged a projector up at work to test the idea and it's seems to work smoothly. My next step is to try the same in our gaming den. This might actually work!

 

[Drommon]

Mirror Setup

I really like the projector idea myself and I am considering installing one for game use. I am not mechanically or contruction inclined and was wondering if anyone could give me or point me to some instructions or how-to on making a projector and mirror setup. I understand that for the projector all I need is a place to put it. How do I manage mounting a mirror? What size of mirror do I need? The reason I need a mirror is that if I hang the projector from a boom the throw distance is very short.

Thanks for any help,

Drommon

 

[Conaill]

I am not mechanically or contruction inclined and was wondering if anyone could give me or point me to some instructions or how-to on making a projector and mirror setup. I understand that for the projector all I need is a place to put it. How do I manage mounting a mirror? What size of mirror do I need?

The mirror should be about 1/2 the size of the area projected onto the table. You can probably find a cheapo mirror of the right size at your local hardware store. Make sure you get one which has some sort of frame or backing, so you're not just dealing with a thin sheet of glass - both for safety, and to avoid distortion due to sagging of the mirror. Even so, some cheap mirros are just attached with a few dabs of glue to their frame or backing - I wouldn't want to rely on those little dabs of glue when you're hanging the mirror upside-down from the ceiling! It wouldn't be a bad idea to loop some rope or bungee cord around the corners of the mirror just in case.

As to how you want to attach the mirror to the ceiling, that would depend on a number of issues, mainly (1) are you going for a (semi-)permanent setup, or one that will be completely torn down after each game, and (2) what material is your ceiling made of?

 

[Steel_Wind]

I really like the projector idea myself and I am considering installing one for game use. I am not mechanically or contruction inclined and was wondering if anyone could give me or point me to some instructions or how-to on making a projector and mirror setup. I understand that for the projector all I need is a place to put it. How do I manage mounting a mirror? What size of mirror do I need? The reason I need a mirror is that if I hang the projector from a boom the throw distance is very short.

Thanks for any help,

Drommon

I don't know and I have not tried it. I would be very reticent in recommending technical specs on something I have not tried of confirmed through others actually works.

Have you actually tried a setup like that Conail, or are you just throwing opinions out there? Given that glass mirrors are relatively heavy - and DLP projectors are damnably light at about 3lbs - it seemed to me that perhaps you have not tried to build a system like the one you describe. Forgive me if I am wrong.

Boneman says he's done it - but in a flash he's gone again. Hopefully he'll post again.

 

[Conaill]

Have you actually tried a setup like that Conail, or are you just throwing opinions out there? Given that glass mirrors are relatively heavy - and DLP projectors are damnably light at about 3lbs - it seemed to me that perhaps you have not tried to build a system like the one you describe.

You're right, I haven't actually made one yet. Doesn't stop the engineer in me from designing one though!

If you really have a 3 lb projector with that short a throw range to play with, good for you! But I bet it's going to cost you quite a bit more than a 5-10 lb model with a much longer throw range but higher light output, and you should be able to find mirrors lighter than that at least.

As I said, it all depends on how you plan to use it. In a semi-permanent setup, I'd much rather plunk my multi-purpose projector on the table, rather than having to buy a relatively high-end portable model and having to unscrew it from the ceiling each time you want to use it for something else.

 

[Bobitron]

Thanks a bunch for keeping such a close eye on this thread, Steel Wind. I'm looking forward to that Projection Guide. New house coming later this year that has this setup written all over it...

 

[thalmin]

Frippity froopin' low ceiling. Looks like I'm going to need to go the mirror route as well. But since I'm looking at a more or less permanent setup, I plan to fix the projector only 18-24 inches from the mirror, thus reducing the size of mirror needed (I hope.)

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

snip mirror on the ceiling ideas

This just screams disaster waiting to happen. Someone could lose an arm.

Heck, if you have to consider this at all, it means your ceiling is so low that someone could stand up into it. Broken mirror, shards of glass in proximity to head and neck...

I got squeamish just looking at the pictures of that mirror under the table. I couldn't sit under a mirror stuck on the ceiling; I wouldn't reach under a mirror stuck under the ceiling... no way, no how.

Professionally installed, maybe. Bought at the Cheap-O Depot and jerry-rigged up there by my schmuck gamer buddy or, worse yet, ME?

Nooooooooooooooooooo thank you.

Wulf

 

[Steel_Wind]

This just screams disaster waiting to happen. Someone could lose an arm.

Heck, if you have to consider this at all, it means your ceiling is so low that someone could stand up into it. Broken mirror, shards of glass in proximity to head and neck...

I got squeamish just looking at the pictures of that mirror under the table. I couldn't sit under a mirror stuck on the ceiling; I wouldn't reach under a mirror stuck under the ceiling... no way, no how.

I have a lot of concerns about mirrors as well and for the same reason as you do as well as a few others.

Whenever you interpose a reflective surface between your projected light image and the image you ultimately look at - you get light loss and your image contrast can flatten and optically distort. We are not talking about controlled optics - we are talking about spit and kleenex construction here. So...it concerns me.

But, depending on the set-up and projected image, light loss can be more theoretical than real to the eye.

While a heavy glass mirror seems an epic disaster waiting to happen Wulf (and I am in total agreement with you on this point), there is more than one way to skin that cat. Mylar is the most reflective surface known to man. And it is exceedingly thin, non-breakable (in the bad-luck, catastrophic to health sense) and - above all - low in weight. [Hydroponic grow-shop as gaming supply store: who knew?]

There may well be a way to incorporate mirrors that make sense, aid a set-up and address a real and pressing need in digital map projection. Show me pics and after battle reports of a great mirror set-up and I am very interested in listening to the whys and hows.

I tend to be skeptical about adding needless complexity to things, however, and over-engineering is iconically geeky. To add a mirror to genuinely improve matters is fine; to add one just to add one or make a tolerably large image a wee bigger is less convincing to me.

Speak oh mirror users! Shows us the path to true enlightenment

 

[rom90125]

Ok,
As promised, here is the promised NWN Fog of War script for the toolset. You can get it here. It's very tiny - about 11k in size.

Steel_Wind, thanks for taking the time to put this together. I regret I have not had any success with implementation. I followed the ReadMe and when I loaded the *.sav file into the toolset, there were entries for each plane placeable, but, they were not working. I could still 'see' the underlying layout. I examined the properties for the placeable, and everything appeared to be in order. I then attempted to use this placeable directly from within the toolset but it still did not work (it was as if the placeable did not have any appearance, especially not a large black square). I think there may be an issue between the entries in the 2da file and the names provided by the script ???
The only issue I had with the files I downloaded from your site was that I had to cut/paste the two 'black plane' entries into my *.2da file (when I copied the file you supplied to the 'override' directory, the NWN app blew up).
I am going to continue digging deeper into the 2da file, and the properties of the placeables and see if I can get this 'very cool' feature to work.
If you have any suggestions....

Thanks.