Is a 32" display large enough for digital battlemap?

[MNblockhead]

I'm going to be placing an order from Collabrewate for a portable TV case for tabletop games and digital maps.

Basically, the display is horizontal and connected to a laptop so you can display digital battlemaps using RealmWorks, Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, or just zooming a PDF to the appropriate scale.

I'm leaning towards a 32" display for portability and storage between games. The case comes with a handle so you can grab and go, making it easy to take to a friend's home, a FLGS, or a convention hall. Larger diplays seem like they would be too cumbersome. Also, I want to have plenty of space for players to spread out. I don't want the entire table taken over by the display.

That said, MOST of the time, I'm playing at my house. I worry that 32" may be too small for many battlemaps locations. I think for most indoor locations, it would be fine. I could also shrink to a smaller scale and use digital tokens that scale with the map or smaller physical items when I need to scale the map smaller than 28mm scale.

A 32" screen's usable dimensions are generally 27.9" (70.9 cm) by 15.7" (39.9 cm), giving a playable 27 by 15 one-inch sqares. The D&D Aventure Grid, by comparison, is 25.5 x 22, but the actual playable area (full grid squares) is 25 by 21.

So, I stepped away from writing this post to draw out the playable areas of (1) the D&D Adventure Grid [green line], (2) a 32" monitor [red line], and (3) a 40" monitor [blue line]. After seeing it physically on the table, it became clear to me that a 32" inch monitor would be inadequate and a 40" would still be plenty portable.



But this still isn't based on actual play.

For those of you who game using horizontal displays as digital battlemaps, using actual minis on top of the screen, what size monitor(s) do you use? Have you felt hampered by too small a screen? Do you find your screen to be too large and cumbersome?

 

[MNblockhead]

Also, I have a high-definition display on my laptop (Dell XPS). Does it make sense to get a 1080p display for digital battlemaps or is 720p sufficient?

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Will be following this with interest

 

[MNblockhead]

I'm going forward with 40 or 42 inches and I'll probably spend more on a 1080p screen. In a thread on the RealmWorks forum, one of the recommendations is that refresh rate is more important than how high the definition is. There is a viewable difference between a 120mhz and 60mhz. But many battlemaps are optimized for online VTTs and are not going to be above 720p resolution.

That said, I do have some very high-definition battlemap images and with 4k TVs now being pushed the price jump from 720 to 1080 is not that extreme.

 

[ProphetSword]

My group uses a table with a 40" display built into it. For reference, here is what it looks like. You can see the miniatures (which are standard one inch) on the grid, which should give you an indication of how much battle space it gives you. We haven't had any issues with that size...



Here's another image of the same table from before we put the whiteboard on it for size reference. In this case, the party was on the first floor of a temple, and we were able to fit the whole map with ease and room to spare on the screen at the proper size:

 

[MNblockhead]

Thanks [MENTION=79912]ProphetSword[/MENTION] that is a very nice setup and helpful to understand the size. What kind of display is it (brand, resolution, refresh rate)? Do you have any issues with parallax (looks like the miniatures are hovering over the display or outside the grid square when looking at it from the side)? Are you happy with the resolution?

 

[ProphetSword]

Resolution is 1920x1080. Not sure of the brand offhand, but we don’t have much of an issue with parallax, but that could be because the display sits slightly lower than the table surface, insuring that you are always slightly above it. There is a plexiglass cover over the screen, so it is even deeper than it appears by about 1/8”.

Hope that helps. I have more pics from various angles, including up close if you want more indication of battle space.