DDI and IPAD

[Prism]

And if WotC doesn't make an iphone/ipad D&D app, they're leaving money just sitting on the table. AGAIN..

I'm not sure Wizards are interested in making money from selling a piece of software. You don't even make much money from iphone apps. All it really wants to to sell more DDI - and to do that you focus on the core market which is windows running on a PC. I don't think adding extra cost to DDI to support another platform is worthwhile sicne I doubt it would sell more DDI

They are probably very happy however for others to create cool tools like iplay4e. I'd like to see an ipad combat/initiative manager

 

[Plane Sailing]

Not to turn this into a technical talk, but all those files would be stored on the server or access via activex. I remember going to Microsoft for a big spiel about how awesome it would be to have .net apps that could be either desktop or web based. All you had to do was flip this little switch in the development tool and viola! A web app with nary any extra effort.

they had working demo's and everything.

I wasn't fooled then either.

It was a big waste of a perfectly good afternoon.

I wonder, they may have been talking about their WPF/E plans (WPF/Everywhere), which later metamorphosed into 'Silverlight' which was a long way short of WPF but there you go...

I could imagine writing a nice character builder application using .Net back end services and JQuery/Ajax for front end presentation. Character files would be exportable and importable from such an application, but it wouldn't be able to run disconnected, so it would miss one of the key features of the existing application.

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

They are probably very happy however for others to create cool tools like iplay4e. I'd like to see an ipad combat/initiative manager

I'm not sure about that - haven't they specifically prohibited anyone from writing 4e software?

 

[Prism]

From all reports, the iPad is really fast for a handheld device. People seem to be assuming it's slow, which is perhaps an unwise assumption.

Its mainly because its not really pitched as a traditional handheld device. The size and pricing pitch it against ereaders, netbooks and windows 7 tablets. Its going up against the intel atom processor which is considerably more powerful and is going to be compared to the full functionality they can offer

The reason multi tasking is taking so long to arrive is because of performance worries and battery drain. I don't think we will ever see something as functional as CB on the ipad. In general I'm unsure what D&D use the ipad will really offer

 

[filthgrinder]

In general I'm unsure what D&D use the ipad will really offer

As a player or as a DM?

Player: character sheet, e-book reader, Pages app for games notes.

DM: Compendium access, e-book reader, PDFs of maps, combat tracker.
Throw something like the "familiar" app or "dungeon manager" trackers on it, and it's beautiful.

 

[catsclaw227]

The .Net framework itself doesn't preclude web applications which are perfectly accessible on iPhone/iPad etc. Sadly, the CB is a windows application, so it can't work on iPad), I'm guessing that Adventure Tools is similar.

Just mentioned for a minor point of clarity.

Well, the main problem for the CB is that it uses WPF which Mono is not going to port any time soon.

Yes, I didn't mention it only because I didn't want to bog the discussion down into all the technical issues.

Hmmm... wasn't there supposed to be some layer in .net that made it easier to make your .net app a web app? Maybe it was a web app only for windows machines.

There are some ways to port your WPF app into a web app, but it requires some important design considerations in the beginning and good use of separation of UI from the db/application layer.

There are even 3rd party components that help you design your back-end in a way that will allow it to be utilized by Web, WPF or Silverlight UIs.

 

[Prism]

As a player or as a DM?

Player: character sheet, e-book reader, Pages app for games notes.

DM: Compendium access, e-book reader, PDFs of maps, combat tracker.
Throw something like the "familiar" app or "dungeon manager" trackers on it, and it's beautiful.

If only it could be used as an e-book reader it would be great - if d&d ebooks were available. The iplay4e app is certainly a decent enough tool. I like the idea of using it as a map reference

If a good tracker app came out then that might tempt me but I wouldn't buy something that price in the hope that it did. What I'm not convinced with is the choice I would get from a variety of apps that offer similar functionality

 

[catsclaw227]

I could imagine writing a nice character builder application using .Net back end services and JQuery/Ajax for front end presentation. Character files would be exportable and importable from such an application, but it wouldn't be able to run disconnected, so it would miss one of the key features of the existing application.

Dang... that's twice today I have been Ninja'd by PC.

There's something fishy about this.....

 

[Thanlis]

Its mainly because its not really pitched as a traditional handheld device. The size and pricing pitch it against ereaders, netbooks and windows 7 tablets. Its going up against the intel atom processor which is considerably more powerful and is going to be compared to the full functionality they can offer

Not to be rude, but how do you know how powerful the iPad processor is? It's developed in-house. It's certainly true that ARM processors as found in your typical mobile device are slower than the Atom processor found in a current netbook. It's also almost certainly true that the A4 is ARM-based.

On the other hand, it's not laboring under the need to run Windows. If you're comparing to a Windows 7 tablet, that matters. And so far, all the reviews say it's, well, fast. There's a nice one at PC World, with video, including Need for Speed running on the iPad and looking way better than any game I've ever run on my netbook. Heck, you can watch video on it. Let me tell you how choppy Hulu is on my netbook...

It's already got a functional word processor and spreadsheet application. Character Builder is not exactly a huge load of complexity. That said, I don't expect to see CB on it because I don't expect WotC to do the port -- but it seems a bit silly to write it off for performance reasons given what we know about it already.

Edit: and yeah, what you said about apps actually existing. I mean, as much as I'd love to get fully indexed D&D ebooks, I don't expect I will. I would not get one of these purely for D&D; if I do get one, the nice iPlay4e and Compendium functionality is just gravy.

 

[darjr]

What they showed worked. I'm not saying it didn't.

It was marketing, and the downsides and the caveats were left clear out.

I'd think that if WotC could have done a .net web app with functionality of the current character builder, they would have.